by Stacy Billingsley
“Kodachrome
You give us those nice bright colours
Your give us the greens of summers
Makes you think all the world’s a sunny day, oh yeah!”
-Paul Simon, “Kodachrome”
I have long been a fan of that undeniably catchy tune by Paul Simon, but despite this ever present enjoyment, for a number of years, I wasn’t entirely sure what the song was about. Experiencing my formative years in the 90s, the relevance of Kodachrome, a type of film stock for Super 8mm cameras, was essentially lost on my younger self. This lack of knowledge was to be expected, since the popularity of 8mm films had dwindled by the early 1980s. Technological innovation coupled with the generation gap reduced 8mm films to a relic of the past, associated with things like The Wonder Years and the Kennedy assassination. It seemed that 8mm film was destined to live only in the words of that Paul Simon classic.
Except, that wasn’t the case last Thursday night in Winnipeg. For one night only, the glory of Super 8mm films came alive once again to a raucous crowd of nostalgia hungry spectators. On this magical evening, 8mm film took center stage once again, and was appreciated for the unique qualities only it can possess.
From the One Take Super 8 Event Blog:
The One Take Super 8 Event (OTS8) began in 2000, with 20 filmmakers each shooting a single reel of Super 8 film, which then premiered to an audience without the filmmakers seeing their work beforehand. All the films were shown as shot. No cuts. No splices. The popularity of this non-competitive festival has allowed it to return each year with more filmmakers participating. To date over 750 films have been created for the One Take Super 8 Event!
As a person who has been fascinated with films in one form or another for much of my life, the OTS8 has become a special time of year for me. As an attendee for the last 5 years, I have yet to experience anything quite like an OTS8 screening. The wonders I have seen accomplished by past filmmakers using this “obsolete” medium have redefined for me, the limits and boundaries of modern cinema – it’s food for the imagination. There is always a point, around the middle of the screening, where it feels like a dream, since the diversity of film ideas, visuals, and soundtracks consistently encourage a suspension of reality – which is always a fantastic pursuit!
This year’s screening had plenty of imagination-inducing gems. Osborne Village became the setting for a funk infused space journey in Delf Gravert’s The Astronaut Dream Vessel, Manitoba was given its own mythological being to combat our most consistent natural disaster in Danielle Stark’s The Flood Fairy, and Dave Barber told one heck of a great story in Will the real Dave Barber please stand up?. Kelly Duke’s The Wonderful World of Colour gave a renewed appreciation for the simple beauty that resides outside our doors, while Aaron Zeghers weaved a similar beauty out of dark corners and flickering parking lot lights in Everything Turns, Everything Revolves. But perhaps the biggest crowd pleaser of the night was found in Alan MacPherson’s The Reunion Concert, which starred a cast of notoriously debaucherous N*Sync marionettes.
Indeed, there was something for everyone at the Gas Station Theatre last Thursday night, as is the case every year when the OTS8 event comes to town. And even though the films aren’t shot on Kodachrome stock anymore, since Kodak halted its production in 2005, I think Paul Simon would have felt at right at home in those nice bright colours of Winnipeg’s scenic prairie vistas.