JEWISH HOMEGROWN HISTORY AT THE SKIRBALL CULTURAL CENTER : WHY HOMEMADE MOVIES BECOME A PART OF CULTURAL HISTORY

Back in the spring I attended an exhibit at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles called JEWISH HOMEGROWN HISTORY. The USC Casden Institute for the study of the Jewish role in American Life and the USC School of Cinematic Arts were behind the presentation and panel discussion.

A gallery of the center was used to project a series of home movies. taken by families of families and covering various rites of passage as well as everyday life. Most of us have had the experience of being asked to watch a home movie (or maybe one that was taken of a wedding or other family event by a professional) and feeling a little bored with it, especially when it's something that's been shown more than once. The quality of home movies varies, and in the early days of home movies, the stars did a lot of waving to the camera. These home movies are related to the reality TV shows of today though and I think are more interesting the more time has passed.

That's because Home Movies are time capsules. We get to know a lot about the stars - the family - by observing their clothing, hairstyles, and the places they lived and held ceremonies and celebrations. We can tell something about what they thought to be important, what they spent money on film and developing on. We can see them alive and moving, rather than posing for a picture.

HOME MOVIES can be an important preservation of family history, and whatever your family ethnic or religious culture, part of preserving memories of that culture.

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ANDY KUBRIN TELLS ABOUT INTERVIEWING RELATIVES

I think Interviewing is one of the Research Skills we should become good at, because it brings the human being and thus story into family history research. So I'm linking to Andy Kubrin's blog. I never met Andy but I met his mom at Skirball, where I went to see and participate in the WOMEN HOLD UP HALF THE SKY EXHIBIT. It was a moving exhibit and afterwards I met this very intelligent woman, a great conversationalist, and we quickly got to genealogy research and history. She told me about her son; Andy is writing family memoirs as well as doing genealogy in Canada and he blogs.

Today I know research methods that would have gotten me to the information I needed. But years ago when I didn't know so much, it was the testimonials of a couple relatives that gave me the spark and encouragement and lead me to my research breaks. Today I also know that some of what these people remembered was incorrect, but then again some of it was to be proven. The way I write the story today is to first tell what I was told and then what I found out.