UGA to Celebrate National Home Movie Day on Saturday, October 19th

By Ruta Abolins

National Home Movie Day 2013 will be celebrated locally on Oct. 19 from 2 -4 p.m. at the Richard B. Russell Building Special Collections Libraries on the University of Georgia campus. The UGA Libraries’ Walter J. Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection will sponsor the event.

National Home Movie Day is a worldwide celebration of amateur films and filmmaking, held annually in October. The event provides an opportunity for attendees to bring in their home movies, learn more about their own family films, how to care for films and videotapes and the event will explore how home movies have helped capture personal history.

Home Movie Day is open to the public, for free. There will be screenings of home movies from the media archives’ holdings, including from the earliest home movies made in Georgia from 1917, as well as other home movies from around Athens, Georgia and the Southeast.

Attendees are highly encouraged to bring films, videotapes and DVDs for inspection and screening when possible. Archivists will be in attendance to answer questions.

“If you have home movies on film or videotape that you are concerned about preserving, bring them to Home Movie Day,” said Ruta Abolins, director of the media archives. “We will screen 16mm, regular 8mm, and Super 8mm films, VHS videotapes and DVDs. Too many people see their home movies as just documenting their family; they don’t realize that home movies provide insight into family custom, lifestyle, landscape and history.”

The exhibit galleries for the Walter J. Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection, the Russell Library for Political Research and Study and the Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript will open for viewing. Parking is available in the Hull Street parking deck adjacent to the building.

For more information about Home Movie Day in Athens, contact Ruta Abolins at 706-542-4757. For more information about National Home Movie Day, click here.