Cinema remembers years past with 4th IU Home Movie Day

The amateur films of Home Movie Day go beyond the personal history contained within that moment.

People at the IU Cinema for the international Home Movie Day celebration Sunday became engaged and immersed in the history of old film reels dug out from closets.
This is the ninth year Home Movie Day has been celebrated nationwide, and this year marks the fourth at IU.

As one elderly woman showed footage from the 1940s of her and her twin sister as babies, the audience members voiced their curiosity with questions, smiles
and chuckles.

“How long did your parents keep dressing you identically?” one person asked as a Christmas morning memory played on the big screen.

“Seventeen,” the woman said with a laugh.

David Derkacy, who showed a film shot at a Little 500 race and an Indianapolis drag race from the late 1960s, said he connected strongly with the images of the twin baby girls.

“The one woman’s home movie, you can almost say, ‘Well, that’s us as little kids.’ We can all identify as little kids,” Derkacy said. “These people dig deep in their closets to bring out where all these histories are.”

Some, such as Amanda Fleming, were even faced with tearful memories at the sight of loved ones past.

“It took my breath away really more than anything,” Fleming said. “My grandmother’s been dead for 10 years. She was a very special person to me. So to see her brothers and sisters on the edited family reunion in 1965 — there’s just no words.”

Derkacy said she feels Home Movie Day is a good opportunity to share those memories with others.

“You always remember when you were there and what you were doing,” Derkacy said. “It’s very nice to share this in a group situation.”

IU Home Movie Day Coordinator James Paasche said the day was a success.
“It was really cool to figure out how much Indiana cares about its own history,”

Paasche said. “To see that on the screen is an amazing thing to be able to do, and I was really happy we were able to do that on the big screen.”

For Fleming, the IU Cinema and Home Movie Day proved to be the perfect place to share these memories.

“It’s just such a great place to have people bring together memories, whether they are their own or someone that was close to them,” Fleming said. “It’s just a really
special day.”