Sharon Thompson: "Our Cameras, Our Lives: Lesbian Home Movies," c. 1935 – 1999
2009 Summer Film Symposium: Ways Of Watching -- July 24-25, 2009: Bucksport, Maine
Drawing on three newly discovered lesbian home movie collections filmed primarily in New England and including Maine material, this presentation begins an exploration of home movies and tapes made by lesbians to record fragments of their lives and the lives of friends, lovers, and families.
The collections are The Ruth Storm Collection (mid-1930s-1960s); The Caren McCourtney Collection (c. 1970-1990); and The Shira Collection (c. 1990-2000).
It's extraordinary material: funny, moving, and surprising. And while these films were once watched for the personal memories they evoked, today they shed an important light on the history of lesbians in Maine. In addition to clips, the presentation draws on histories gathered from participants in the films as well as from their friends, relations, and acquaintances. Archival research amplifies the histories.
About the Presenter
Thompson is the author of Going All the Way: Teenage Girls' Tales of Sex, Romance, and Pregnancy (Hill & Wang/Farrar Straus Giroux).
About the Symposium
2009 Summer Film Symposium: Ways Of Watching -- July 24-25, 2009: Bucksport, Maine
The 2009 Northeast Historic Film Summer Symposium focuses on an investigation of how, where and why we watch amateur and noncommercial films in both the past and the present. The NHF Summer Symposium is a multi-disciplinary gathering devoted to the history, theory, and preservation of moving images. NHF is located in Bucksport, Maine, a town of 5,000 on the coast of the state. Typically, presentations are 30 minutes, followed by 30 minutes of discussion. The symposium is open to archivists, artists and scholars from all disciplines.
Website: http://oldfilm.org/symp_2009
