Enjoy Home Movie Day at home this year with a selection of home and amateur movies from one of Yale's first filmmakers.
The S.W. Childs, Jr. Collection at the Yale Film Archive is the archive's largest collection of home and amateur films, made up of more than 400 reels of film shot by pioneering Yale filmmaker S. Winston "Winkie" Childs, Jr., over a forty-year period. Donated by his family in 2017, the collection includes original elements of his award-winning short film I'd Be Delighted To! (1932) and its follow-up, Seductio Ad Absurdum (1940), directed by his wife Cynthia Childs, pictured here. To celebrate Home Movie Day 2021, the Yale Film Archive presents a compilation of unique material from the Childs Collection, including those two complete films as well as selections from the first student film ever made at Yale, a 1927 adaptation of Henry Fielding's Tom Jones, and other short films produced by Childs' filmmaking troupe, The Purity Players. Also included are a selection of home movies capturing a range of subjects, from life in Norfolk, Connecticut, in the 1930s, to trips to Cuba and Japan, all captured on 16mm film. Enjoy an exclusive look inside this fascinating collection, along with a 2020 interview with collection donor Hope Childs.
Watch the Films (108 mins)
Watch the Hope Childs Interview (37 mins)
What is Home Movie Day?
Home Movie Day is a celebration of amateur film and filmmaking held annually at many local venues worldwide. Home Movie Day events provide opportunities for individuals and families to see and share their own movies, to watch films made by neighbors in their communities, and to learn how to best care for these films.