Louis Trott, one of the founders of the Tennessee Archive of the Moving Image, will show and discuss Fee and other home movies from the TAMIS Walther Barth Collection at the 11th Orphan Film Symposium. Seven of the 101 reels of 16mm film have been scanned by BB Optics and NYU’s MIAP Program for the event, which runs April 11-14.
Seeing Fee
Notes by Erica Lopez
What was life like in pre-Nazi Germany era? Home movies show us peoples’ experiences that might have been forgotten or lost forever, had someone not rescued these film records often buried in a hallway closet or attic. The Walther Barth home movie known as Fee was filmed in Zschornewitz, Germany in June 1929. The 16mm film apparatus captures images of smoky industrial buildings in the background. The town’s power plant, Wikipedia tells us, was once the largest brown-coal-fired power station in the world. In contrast, we encounter a young Walther Barth and his unidentified girlfriend in grassy open field.
The movie begins with a young Barth adjusting his trench coat. It cuts to his girlfriend, dressed in a flapper-esque white dress and cloth coat, as Barth approaches her. At one moment, Barth is looking directly to the camera, with the power station behind. He pulls her in the frame. He directs her attention to the camera, and she points back. The woman’s fascination with the camera is nothing but charming. She reminds viewers in the 21st century how the apparatus of a mechanical movie camera once captured people’s curiosity, whereas today we routinely spot multiple people taking video selfies. Our interest and curiosity with the apparatus simply cannot compare with what amateur filmmakers and their subjects experienced in 1929.
The majority of the shots in Fee show the couple being playful with each other. As they sit in this grassy field, the viewer is captivated by their playfulness. It is difficult not to be charmed.
The couple also engage the camera’s view of the smoke stacks Barth chose for his composition. The young woman stares at the camera, then turns around and points at the industrial infrastructure. An empty field, a smoky power station, and the couple’s mesmerizing looks at the camera give Fee an artful look not commonly found in home movies.
His skilled amateur cinematography makes sense when we know that Dr. Barth worked for film manufacturer Agfa, first in Germany and later in Binghamton, New York. Tennessee Archive of Moving Images and Sound is the steward of Barth’s 16mm films, dating from 1927 through the early 1960s. The later home movies, like so many, show life’s intimate moments. The content varies, from scenes in European cities to footage of Barth’s young child. In later years, his son William moved to Tennessee, where Barth followed. The later rolls show life after Germany — in Binghamton, Knoxville, and the Great Smoky Mountains.
Information taken from the Tennessee Archive of Moving Images and Sound website and Vimeo page.
The film is viewable via the Center for Home Movie’s Registry site.
Full program and registration info for the NYU Orphan Film Symposium is here.