9/16/2010

Collecting - Gathering Family Stories

Family Album - Ellouise Schoettler from Ellouise Schoettler on Vimeo.

I made this video in 2003 for a Gallery 10 exhibition with Lucy Blankstein in which we combined family pictures and video to tell visual stories. To tell the truth I had forgotten about this little gem. It shows with a few glitches because its not a perfect size conversion for bringing onto the blog. Today I am still amazed that I made it all - story words, images, movie, adding sound - the whole bit - myself on my old computer. So its a prize to me.

Lucy and I also showed the works in the exhibition at the 2004 Washington DC Artomatic - a huge exhibition of more than 500 artists. People would stop and listen through the films - pulled in by the family stories.

I am posting this for the members of my family who check out the blog and have never seen the film. The stories are from my mother. I spent many wonderful hours interviewing Mama when I was working on the family Genealogy. I especially liked her telling me about her grandmother. She did truly love Grandma.

When I made it I loved how the moving words felt like someone "telling" the story. I still think that works effectively.

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