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Home Movie Day celebrates amateur filmmaking
An event on Aug. 16 encourages preservation of home movies
EUGENE, Ore. -- (Aug. 5, 2008) -- The University of Oregon Libraries staff is asking everyone to please not throw away old 8mm, Super 8 and 16mm home movies. Instead, bring them to the UO's Knight Library, 1501 Kincaid St., on Home Movie Day, Saturday, Aug. 16, from noon to 4 p.m.
At Home Movie Day, visitors will have an opportunity to share home movies with other amateur film enthusiasts and learn about the best ways to preserve and protect the films from damage. 
"Home movies allow us to revisit the past through film," said Elizabeth Peterson, one of several staff members from the UO Libraries organizing the local event. "Anyone who has a fondness for home movies is encouraged to attend this celebration of the art and craft of home-movie making."
Sponsored by the UO Libraries' Special Collections and University Archives, Home Movie Day is intended to help the public learn about, enjoy and rescue films now considered obsolete because of digital home video. Film experts and archivists from the UO Libraries will assess the physical condition of the film before projecting movies for viewing.
Home Movie Day is a nationwide event with the goal of celebrating and preserving amateur film. At the previous Home Movie Day in Eugene, hundreds of participants turned out to celebrate amateur filmmaking, making it one of the most successful Home Movie Day events in the nation.
As Ken Burns notes on the national Home Movie Day Web site, "Home movies are, like snapshots, the DNA of our collective memory, the first inkling of history."
About the University of Oregon
The University of Oregon is a world-class teaching and research institution and Oregon's flagship public university. The UO is a member of the Association of American Universities (AAU), an organization made up of 62 of the leading public and private research institutions in the United States and Canada. Membership in the AAU is by invitation only. The University of Oregon is one of only two AAU members in the Pacific Northwest.
Contact: Julie Brown, director, media relations, 541-346-3185, julbrown@uoregon.edu
Sources: Elizabeth Peterson, Humanities/Literature librarian, 541-346-3047, emp@uoregon.edu
James Fox, head, Special Collections and University Archives, 541-346-1904, jdfox@uoregon.edu
Links: UO Libraries Home Movie Day, http://library.uoregon.edu/partners/homemovieday, National Home Movie Day, http://www.homemovieday.com/
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