News
New Year, Old Film and Getting Here from There
The year is winding down, and so is my work on the WCVB/CLIR collection grant that includes broadcasts during the late 1970s, & 1980s and early & 1990s. There is still quite a bit to digitize and abstract, but we at NHF are close to reaching our grant-funded goals. The project’s work is complicated, and my part is small at the end of the process — abstracting, or preparing a brief summary for each segment, episode or broadcast. Tape of various sizes and formatting needs to be cleaned and repaired first, and then sometimes reformatted before tagging for presentation and digitizing. By the time Isee a segment for me to abstract, it has experienced quite a bit of care with the expressed intent of maintaining content, unaltered. Each abstract, as I write it, for a news segment or show episode broadcast by WCVB Channel 5 in Boston, is immediately uploaded to our publicly available database for searching and viewing, and I am in awe each day of the work that others around meat NHF do in order to get these video nuggets online.
My job of summarizing, and capturing the essence of the broadcast so that researchers can quickly identify subject matter, is the final phase of the project work, but it is for me an old-is-new experience every day. I lived the years I am seeing again in each segment, and even remember some of the commercials that occasionally part of the broadcast captured. The bulk of the programming contained in the collection on this grant cycle is news, more specifically WCVB Channel 5; Chronicle series, often with hosts Peter Mehegan and Mary Richardson.In addition are programs like Good Day with its hot-topic guests, and Main Streets
and Back Roads reporting on the everyday life of New Englanders. Members of the regular reporting team include Andria Hall, Ted Reinstein, Chet Curtis and Natalie Jacobson, with spotlights on Chuck Kraemer, Eileen Prose, Susan Wornick, and Paula Lyons. Their familiar faces are found in so many of the programs and series that I have begun to notice their aging, marriages, family
growth and professional explorations.
The news concerns in this late 20th century are as familiar as this morning’s headlines: violence that kills, on the city streets and rural towns, across national borders in the Middle East, and in in the Balkins; mysterious, contagious illnesses that kill without regard for class or prominence — AIDS in the time period I am reviewing, but oddly familiar in the era of COVID-19; the distress of taxes rising, services diving, so many schools poor performances, workers unemployed, the aged who are suffering neglect; the joys and burdens of managing a household. The jokes and embarrassments that are part of this collection remain current today.
Proud regionalism, and our accent, are noticeable in the programming decisions for the Boston-centered sitcom Park Street Under and the drawing instruction of Capt.Bob. And the series Made in New England enthusiastically features Yankee ingenuity in all its quirkiness from shipping to farming, and back to the homemade foods that delight visitors every day, found across the region.
The list of program topics seems to have been organized today, but the reporters, daytime hosts, and comedy show actors are dressed in big hair and broad lapels. Can it be I have simply outlived my news cycle, or is it true that the more things change the more they stay the same?
My mother died this year; deciding she had lived long enough, she simply refused any more medical care. She was tired, she said. And I can understand that, as I watch the news and televised entertainment of my former years, now, and how exhausting
it is to see the same worries again and again, with no permanent solution in sight. Some of us thought the fight for equal rights was on the road to won, the science for fighting disease was at hand if not 100% successful, and that peace in the world,
without mass destruction, was imminent. The reports from the 1980s seem soberly present, and the battles far from won. No wonder fatigue sets in and weariness seems heavier as the days grow shorter.
If the past is prologue, and history explains the present, then viewing the broadcasts of the previous century may be, in fact, the best weapon against fatalism. The reports of expected catastrophes then were overblown, and so, perhaps, the
experiences of today can be surmounted with preparation from past failures. As the new year approaches, and new abstracting challenges await, I hope for solace in knowing our past, and I say thanks, again, to all those around me who make this
reflection possible.
–Shannon Martin, intern, December 2023
Computers, A look at the future from 1982
Mid-January weather in Maine brought the usual opportunities for working at home, and I found myself sliding into a series of late 1982 WCVB Chronicles to abstract that included Acc. 2716.2023, December 6, 1982. It is a look at the new development of the personal computer and what this tool can do for the individual
The Old As New
The WCVB Chronicles’ Main Streets and Back Roads series transported me this year to the northern most corner of Aroostook County during potato harvest season and taught me something about forest management there while I reviewed the 1980s and 90s tapes we are preparing for uploading in the archive. I also learned about boat building,
2021/2022
Everything is back to normal-ish! Thanks to many generous people, and a lot of furious grant writing, Northeast Historic Film is doing business as usual and everything is just the same, only different. Let me explain. First of all, the staff is all still here. Despite the difficulties, getting furloughed and all that, everyone stayed
Amateur Movie Making
Edited by Martha J. McNamara and Karan Sheldon A compelling regional and historical study that transforms our understanding of film history, Amateur Movie Making demonstrates how amateur films and home movies stand as testaments to the creative lives of ordinary people, enriching our experience of art and the everyday. Here we encounter the lyrical and visually expressive
Discovering What is Hidden in the WCVB Collection
Outside the lupin was blooming, and inside NHF the inventory for the WCVB Collection, the subject of our new CLIR (Council on Library and Information Resources) grant, grew to more than 4,700 items, up from early estimations of about 2,400 when the grant was written. During the inventory each item of this new acquisition was
The Alamo is Opening Friday, July 2, 2021
The Alamo Theatre is Re-Opening on Friday, July 2, 2021. We will continue to follow the guidance of the Maine CDC and the Governor. If you aren’t fully vaccinated, we suggest you wear a face covering and will provide one if you don’t have one. (Being aware that you are vulnerable if you are eating.)
The Business is Open but the Building is Closed
In an attempt to keep the public and our staff as safe as possible; the Alamo Theatre has closed until further notice and the Summer Symposium for 2020 has been cancelled. The archive is up and operating, although our hours are somewhat variable, so if you are picking up or dropping off it is best
2019 Symposium
Northeast Historic Film 19th Annual Summer Symposium A is for Amateur July 18-20, 2019 Register Online Now! Download this as a PDF SCHEDULE OF PRESENTATIONS Thursday, July 18: 6:00 pm Alamo Lobby Social Mixer / Reception 6:30 pm – Presentation of the 2018 OFarrell Fellowship winner: Martin Johnson (UNC) Exhibitors! Stop Being the Goat! The
2018 Symposium
Northeast Historic Film 19th Annual Summer Symposium The Political / The Personal The Global and Local Function of Regional Media July 19-21, 2018 Register Online Now! Download this as a PDF SCHEDULE OF PRESENTATIONS Thursday, July 19th: Opening Reception and Special Presentations 6:00 pm – Alamo Lobby Social Mixer / Reception 6:30 pm –