Just as the Seattle International Film Festival announces their roster of films for the 2003 festival (oooo), I have catalogued my entire 16mm Film Collection so we can start viewings at CS HQ.

My prizes, of course, are the feature length films, of which I have seven beautiful classic prints (ok, one’s a hokey western, but cooly kitch). That, and a few odd Woody Allen TV appearances and some great ’70s television commercials. Also an early documentary (which was often staged, and extremely condescending) by Luis Buñuel, copies of the first motion pictures ever by Louis Lumière. More local to the northwest, I have movies about the explosion and aftermath of Mt. St. Helens, including one 16mm home movie recording of an ascent of the volcano as it was bulging, days before it exploded. And dozens of documentaries and educational films.

1. I love 16mm because it’s clunky and beautiful. The actual light passing through celluloid, projected on a screen.. there’s no digital presentation that comes close to that kind of sensational image.
2. The colors.
3. You’re watching a real movie.
4. It’s low-tech. You can get a projector for < $25 on ebay.
5. Blockbuster has nothing like it.

1. You can’t fall asleep on the couch while watching movies (you have to get up to change reels every 45 minutes, and it’s a rude awakening when you let the film run to the end of the reel).
2. They eventually wear out, fade, turn to vinegar.
3. Of course there’s the noise. The constanst ch-ch-ch-ch of the frames chattering by is nauseating without a soundbox (which I have none), but you eventually learn to love it.
4. You can’t get much after the early 1980’s.
5. As my good friend CV says, “It’s extremely addictive. Worse than heroin.”