HOME MOVIE DAY 2007 IS APPROACHING!

Home Movie Day's fifth anniversary is just about a month away, and will be celebrated at events around the globe on Saturday, August 11th, 2007. This year promises to be bigger and better than ever, with new American cities being added each week, first time events in Argentina, Germany, and the Netherlands, and a record 11 different sites in Japan.

Last year, the Center for Home Movies targeted New Orleans, LA as the 2006 Home Movie Day highlight city. A curated screening and special community events brought attention to local collections of historic footage, and shed light on the many moving images that were already at risk from the hot and humid local climate before the disastrous impact of Hurricane Katrina. Dwight Core, Sr. and George Ingmire's "Think of Me First as a Person," a father's home movie portrait of his developmentally disabled son, was first shown at the New Orleans Home Movie Day event. The film was subsequently named to the Library of Congress's 2006 National Film Registry.

This year, Home Movie Day's highlight city is Dallas, TX, where The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza will host that city's first event. The Sixth Floor Museum is home to recently discovered footage of President John F. Kennedy's motorcade, the George Jeffries film.

Take a look at the list of cities on the HMD Locations page (http://www.homemovieday.com/locations.html) and plan on attending, or better yet, contact the local representative and offer to volunteer.

The Center for Home Movies is proud to announce the forthcoming release of the DVD "Living Room Cinema: Films From Home Movie Day, Vol. 1."

The Living Room Cinema DVD features 22 films that span nearly a century of social, personal, and filmmaking history. All films were originally screened at Home Movie Day events in 2003 and 2004. Contributors to the DVD include Robbins Barstow, whose 1936 amateur Tarzan narrative is now part of the motion picture collection at the Library of Congress; experimental filmmaker Jeanne Liotta; and New York general store proprietor Kenny Shopsin. The films cover a range of subjects, and even familiar events present surprises: At a wedding reception in 1945, guests dance while communicating in sign language; a family celebrates their daughter's first birthday by burying her placenta; and former Dead Boys guitarist Cheetah Chrome makes an appearance in a New Haven teenager's footage of high school kids in 1980.

In his introductory essay, film archivist and historian Rick Prelinger notes "This DVD is a reference point and a beginning, the first intentional compilation of distinguished, exemplary, surreal and funny home movies. It exposes the best of Home Movie Day to a broader world." The DVD will officially be released on August 11th (Home Movie Day), but HMD mailing list subscribers can order the disc now through August 10th at a special pre-release price at http://www.filmbaby.com/films/1894.