NHF Summer Symposium: Technology, Invention, Tinkerers, and Gadgets 

When

July 27-29, 2023
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Where

Northeast Historic Film
85 Main St
Bucksport, ME 04416  
(Located in the 1916 Alamo Theatre)
 
Driving Directions 

Contact

Andrea Foster 
Northeast Historic Film 
207-469-0924 ext. 103 
andrea@oldfilm.org

Come celebrate the spirit of invention!

Three days of screenings, gadget demos, presentations, panels, chats, meals (lobster and otherwise), and camaraderie. And it all happens in an historic theatre/archive in the heart of beautiful Bucksport, Maine.

Film tinkerers, yes...and all of the gadgetry and material around that obsession. But also films ABOUT and research on tinkerers and inventors. The topic is EXTREMELY open. Let’s make the symposium heavy with screenings and the many filmy gadgets and oddball devices we have all acquired over the years. The archive is also home to the Alan Kattelle collection, so lots of material inspiration!

Topics might include:  patent research; inventor biographies; hands-on live gadget demos; bizarre film technologies; weird color or sound experiments; early moving image devices; slow motion; time lapse; stop-motion; early computer graphics; William Castle-style exhibition gimmicks, alternative processing methods; spy equipment; surveillance and security technologies; Hollywood and off-Hollywood “hacks;” video formats; 3D; Cinerama; widescreen formats; drive-in sound technologies; microscopic and telescopic technologies; theatre and home theatre sound; films about inventors; DIY “versions” of Hollywood titles; home movie editing rigs; cameraless films; accidental and deliberate double exposures; etc., etc., etc….

 

Northeast Historic Film, (NHF) an independent nonprofit organization, was founded in 1986 to preserve and make available moving images of interest to the people of northern New England (Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Massachusetts). We hold well over ten million feet of film in 8mm, Super 8mm, 9.5mm, 16mm, 28mm, and 35mm and 8,000 analog and digital video recordings that do not duplicate the film holdings. NHF is located in a 1916 cinema building with purpose-built cold storage and a study center in Bucksport, a town of 5,000 on the coast of Maine (for more info on NHF, please visit: http://www.oldfilm.org). In the Alamo Theatre on Main Street, NHF houses a 125-seat cinema with DCP, and 2K Blu-ray /DVD projection.

The Summer Symposium Program Committee is: Devin Orgeron, Professor Emeritus, North Carolina State University; Liz Czach, University of Alberta; Dino Everett, University of Southern California; Mark Neumann, Northern Arizona University; Brian Real, University of Kentucky; Kimberly Tarr, NYU Libraries; and Travis Wagner, University of South Carolina. 

 

*Please note that we will Not be serving breakfast or lunch this year.  We encourage you to explore our local eateries.  (Coffee and tea will be available in the Alamo lobby.)  We will serve apps at the opening reception.  And the "lobster" dinner will look different.  It will be on Friday night so that everyone can get to know one another.  We have reserved the beautiful Verona Wine & Design right next door.  You can order off the menu and will pay for your own.  They just need to know ahead how many lobsters to get.