In every period of amateur moviemaking, from the advent of 16 mm in 1923 through smaller cameras and formats across the 20th century, Southern Arizonans and borderlands residents turned their cameras on their families, neighbors, and communities to commemorate rituals and milestones. Birthdays, first days of school, local parades, babies in the bath, family parties— nothing escaped the home moviemaker. Sixty and seventy years later, these midcentury films offer a glimpse into real life in the Southern Arizona borderlands. In these films, the foreground action tells one story, while the background and margins of the frame offer us a time capsule of landscape, architecture, fashion, lifeways, foodways and so much more that is the texture of our community. In this conversation, we’ll look at a compilation of local home movie footage and talk about the ways in which this midcentury hobby has become a valuable document of folklife in our community.

Jennifer Jenkins is the director of the University of Arizona Southwest Center. She has a diverse background in American literatures, moving image and visual cultures, and information science. She holds advanced degrees in these fields and has made contributions to various aspects of film history, cultural preservation, and curatorial work. Her expertise centers around the non-theatrical moving image, particularly in the context of the Southwest United States and Mexico, and mainstream US, French, and Mexican cinema. (https://profiles.arizona.edu/person/jenkinsj)