Karen Ponzio Photos
The Creature descends on Best Video.
The Giant Behemoth and a creature from beneath the sea stood side by side with Betty Boop, Jimmy Stewart, and a New Jersey couple celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary as Best Video Film and Cultural Center hosted a screening of 8‑millimeter films projected and presented by Quinnipiac University’s Women in Films president Julia Schnarr.
Sunday evening saw an intimate gathering of enthusiastic film professors, students, and fans at the Whitney Avenue movie lover’s mecca taking in seven short films, six from Schnarr’s own collection and one belonging to Best Video.
Two of the films.
Schnarr getting the film all set.
Schnarr, a senior in the film, television, and media arts program at QU, is a student member and frequent visitor to Best Video. She screened a few 8‑mm films last year at a classroom on campus, but thought screening them at Best would be fun. She credits Julie Smith with being “supportive” and providing “such enrichment.”
“It’s my favorite place,” she added. “I’m always here.”
Schnarr noted that she watched over 50 DVDs from Best on her school break. A lifelong film fan, especially of old films from the 1930s and 1940s, she was gifted the projector that she was using on Sunday evening from her uncle a few Christmases back.
“It’s been my favorite item ever since,” she said with a smile.
Julie Buck, assistant professor in Quinnipiac’s graduate program in cinematic production management, was also present for the screenings. A former film archivist who said she owns “a lot of weird film equipment,” she brought her editing machine with her to assist Schnarr with rewinding the films when they were over.
Buck being kind and rewinding.
Schnarr began by welcoming everyone and thanking Best Video, adding that she was “super excited to do this here.” She also explained how the films would not have any sound — no dialogue or music would be heard.
The first film, The Giant Behemoth, focused on a large dinosaur-type creature, while the second film, Revenge of the Creature, focused on a water dweller. Both had the classic look of the 1950s monster movie, but in a grainier style due to the 8‑mm film. According to Buck, filmmakers would make these 10-minute reels from the full-length features that people could buy and watch at home as a predecessor to videotapes and DVDs, which is why each one only showed a portion of the film, not the story in its entirety. They showed enough to give the audience a few chuckles at the stop-motion behemoth tipping over a ferry, and concern over the humans’ treatment of the creature, who just wanted his freedom to get back to the open water.
Schnarr explained that the next reel would show four different pieces of film all on one reel, the first and last being ones from her personal family collection that would also be in color. Between them would be a cartoon featuring Betty Boop, as well as a western starring Jimmy Stewart and Shelly Winters titled Guns of the West. The Betty Boop film initially brought much laughter to the room until the ending, which took a turn in which many expressed their disappointment. This led to a discussion after the films were over about what the filmmaker may have been trying to say (or had not expressed very well), and whether or not it was a satire or merely a remnant of a more misogynistic time.
The films from Schnarr’s family seemed to charm the group the most. Her great aunt’s graduation party featured many couples dancing, with Schnarr pointing out her family members as they appeared on screen.
“I wished people still danced like this,” said Buck. Many in the room agreed, and were also taken by the familial scenes, which Schnarr said were from either the late 1950s or early 1960s.
Her great-grandparents’ 25th wedding anniversary party was also well received and quite touching. As they opened their gifts — many of them silver as tradition would have dictated — many in the room asked Schnarr questions about her family. She noted that her family loved movies, her great-grandmother even naming her daughter after a silent film star. She also said her grandfather was the one filming the event and was probably around 19 at the time. When she also noted that her grandparents still had the silver tea set from the film, someone said “that’s so cute” and “awws” were also heard.
Schnarr's family film.
The final film, called Circus Spellbinders, featured a variety of acts with titles like “exquisite equilibrium” to describe a woman who was walking and then climbing a ladder balancing another woman on her head. “Death-defying daredevils” and “astounding somersaulting acrobats” also appeared, as did different acts that included an elephant, a horse, a lion, and two chimpanzees. The laughter, expressions of amazement, and cheers throughout made Schnarr dub that film “a fan favorite.”
Buck talked about how films would be shot on 16-mm and then sent to a lab, where they would splice them down the middle and glue them together to make 8 mm films. Schnarr added commentary about the look of the film itself, the direction and editing. Another attendee commented on the “campiness” of the first film — a solid point when it comes to films that have no sound and the actors must be way more emotive with their facial expression and gestures than in a film with sound. But the lack of sound did not detract from the impact of the films. Rather, it left space for everyone to settle into them, to really give them their focus, and feel the power of each other’s laughs, those sighs, and the more shocking moments.
Discussion time.
It was also another example of what Best Video does so well. It makes space for an event that highlights a specific facet of the arts and invites in others who may not be as familiar, welcoming them in as part of the community.
The event also reminded this reporter of her own family’s 8‑mm films that we watched so often as children and then as adults at my grandmother’s and aunt’s houses. They captured a slice of history so unlike anything we capture on a phone nowadays, so pure in their one-shot undertaking without possibility of deleting and retaking. Little did we know all these years later we would be still reaching back to them, a true almost lost art.
