Tuesday, August 13, 2024 at 7:30pm
From the Collection of Skip Elsheimer
361 Stagg Street, Suite 407, Brooklyn
With over 36,000 reels filling his former two-story home in Raleigh, North Carolina, Skip Elsheimer is one of the world’s premiere collectors of 16mm ephemeral films. He’s spent more than three decades amassing otherwise neglected and forgotten short subjects—classroom films, amateur movies, newsreels, government films, and virtually anything else that was distributed on the small-gauge format. Under the banner of A/V Geeks, Elsheimer has digitized and shared thousands of such films for the Internet Archive, toured the country with in-person screenings, and helped organize the Bastard Film Encounter in Raleigh, an annual celebration of orphan films that are “ill-conceived or received; embarrassing or beyond the bounds of acceptability; poor in conception or execution; undesirable to those who should be caring for them; proof of something that should have never happened.”
For tonight's evening at Light Industry, Elsheimer will be on hand to present a very personal selection from the A/V Geeks horde.
“In 1992, my roommates and I began collecting discarded 16mm films, primarily educational ones shown in schools. Our archive quickly grew to include a wide variety of subjects, many featuring the corny charm of the 1950s and 60s. But I found myself especially drawn to the films from the 1970s that featured children—they seemed to capture the essence of my own childhood experiences growing up in suburban Dayton, Ohio, and later rural North Carolina. These films were created to help children process what they saw and relate it to their own lives. Many depict the difficult decisions and terrifying experiences young kids face. Collecting and screening these films became like a form of therapy for me, offering a way to revisit and understand those moments.
I’ve chosen six films from my collection that have resonated the most with me, including one that brings up some particularly traumatic memories.”
- SE
Me Too? (Steve Wax/Encyclopedia Britannica, 1969, 16mm, 3 mins): An angst-ridden kid runs on the beach, destroying things.
Bag 5 (Yvonne Andersen/Yellow Ball Workshop, 1966, 16mm, 7 mins): This film demonstrates the creativity and skill of children ages 9 to 13, as seen in their planning and production of five short, animated films using various techniques. It reminded me of my childhood interest in filmmaking, sparked by summer film workshops at our local library.
I Dare You (Agency for Instructional Technology, 1973, 16mm, 15 mins): Clarissa faces a tough decision: should she accept a potentially dangerous dare? This film almost feels like a suburban Lord of the Flies and captures what it was like to be a kid in the early 1970s—the joys and the incredibly dangerous shenanigans.
Countdown to Survival: Tornado (US Defense Civil Preparedness Agency, 1976, 16mm, 15 mins): Teaches what a tornado is and what to do when one is sighted. Growing up in Ohio, I had a mortal fear of tornadoes, especially after one leveled a town, Xenia, near my house.
The Late Great Planet Earth (Robert Amram/Rolf Forsberg, 1978, 16mm, reel 1, ~ 30 mins): The single most terrifying film of my life. It was so frightening that I ran out of the theater in tears, had to sleep in my parents' room the first night, and was haunted by nightmares for a couple of months afterward.
Stuiter (Marble) (Jan Oonk, 1971, 16mm, 10 mins): A young boy finds a marble that takes him on an outrageous fantasy throughout the Netherlands. This film beautifully captures a child's imagination and how it overcomes everything the adult world throws at him.
Tickets - Pay what you can ($10 suggested donation), available at door.
Please note: seating is limited. First-come, first-served. Box office opens at 7pm. No entry 10 minutes after start of show.