This week, some great shots of huge turtles, a snoozing alligator, Mt. Rushmore, and vistas of the Grand Canyon. All from our contributor Ashima, who adds this:

My mama had a hard time remembering the year, but she thinks it is 1977. I do clearly remembering waking up that alligator in my little brown suit. I didn’t want to get mud on it! We took this trip from Chicago to California and these were some stops along the way. I think the trading post at the end of the video is the Hubbell Trading Post, a national historic site. Honestly, I have no idea where the turtle and alligator were located. I asked my mama and she cannot remember either. BUT, doesn’t that guy look like Steve Irwin only skinnier? I doubt it was him…

The Hubbell Trading Post is the oldest operating trading post in the Navajo Nation of the U.S., located in Northeastern Arizona.

For high-resolution footage of this film and more, click the “MPEG-2″ link above to access the Internet Archive.

More from Ashima’s collection of home movies this week. Here, we feature a visit to India in 1969, with lush, detailed images of the spectacular architecture there. Ashima offers a little more detail on the locations:

This must have been 1969 and taken at two places, Red Fort in Delhi and Jama Masjid. The snake charmer was at Red Fort. This must have been just before we left for Europe.

The Red Fort is a tremendous fortress palace and Jama Masjid a historic mosque, both constructed by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in the mid-1600s. See a satellite view of the Red Fort here and Jama Masjid here.

Click the “MPEG-2″ link above for high-resolution footage of this gorgeous film and more at the Internet Archive.

The story behind the images is too vast and complex to present here; instead, click here, here, and here for accounts that better explain and document the historical significance of this event.

See also this photo slideshow with accompanying map for a better sense of the geography of these locations.

Thanks to Tony P. for sending this all the way from France to us in Michigan for inclusion on this site.

Click the “MPEG-2″ link above for a high-resolution version of the film, downloadable via the Internet Archive.

Our short hiatus ended up being a bit longer than anticipated, but Lost in Light is back in action. In this second year of the project, we are striving to present films in their original form as much possible, so we’ve decided to present silent films as silent, without our editorial addition of music, and with minimal editing on our part. We return with this wonderful film from the early 1950s U.S. Gulf Coast.Susan S., one of the children in the film, provides this background:

My parents were living around the Gulf Coast area-Galveston, Texas City, Sabine. I think that the sawfish is on the beach in Galveston. I remember my Dad telling us about the things that the fishing boats would drag up that was caught in their nets. Anytime it was something big , a crowd would be gathered around taking pictures. Once it was a huge whale that had beached itself. I am the topless brunette so it’s about 1951. Mother is the beauty getting into the car. About New Orleans, Mother doesn’t remember but I think there are some things in the film that you can’t see in New Orleans anymore – will need to do a little research!

If you have observations about parts of New Orleans depicted in this film that don’t exist anymore, please leave them in the comments. Certainly the city has changed overwhelmingly since this film was taken – makes me appreciate films like this all the more.

Interestingly, sawfish are now an endangered species and international trade is banned.

As always, a complete, high-resolution version of this film is available for download at the Internet Archive. Click “MPEG-2″ above for the link.

This week’s film comes from my aunt and uncle, University of Texas alumni, visiting the campus and attending the big game versus Southern Methodist University on November 2, 1968. Texas went on to win and finished ranked #3 in the country. The game footage captures UT’s bovine mascot, Bevo, and SMU’s Shetland pony, Peruna.

Other scenes include a walk around the Littlefield Fountain and looking out over the city from UT’s Clock Tower observation deck. This was the first year the Tower was reopened following the infamous 1966 Charles Whitman shootings. It was later closed in the 1970′s due to a number of suicides and re-opened again under tighter safeguards in 1999. A portion of the film shows a POV from the water spouts that Whitman later fired from after authorities and citizens with hunting rifles began returning fire.

Music “Viertel nach Mitternacht” by Adhesion via Podsafe Music Network.

– Aaron Valdez

As a teenager, I bought my own Kodak Super-8 camera, and between 1967 and 1975, I shot dozens of rolls of film. Most of the 60′s films feature the daily lives of my childhood friends, and are located primarily around the Boston, Cambridge, the South Shore, Cape Cod, and New Hampshire. The 70′s films include scenes from my misspent college years, including Worcester Massachusetts’ first-ever gay pride march. This one, however, is a pride march in New York City. I peg the year at 1974, although I am not 100% sure. Look for Kate Millett and Boston’s “Lavender Rhino” float, as well as early (founding?) members of what would become PFLAG. Note that in those days, we marched from downtown up to Central Park, instead of vice versa.

Download high-res versions of this film and more from the Internet Archive, available through our File Directory. Music: “Prowlin” by the Whitefield Brothers

This was May of 2001. I had just fallen in love with a boy long distance and this was the first time we’d been together in about 3 months. The sad thing about it? He didn’t feel the same any more and broke up with me on the first day in Havana. 90 miles from the US and I was completely trapped with no communication back home, sharing a hotel room with this fucker. 18 days in hell is basically what it was. Fortunately, this was a college trip so I had some other folks around to drink amazing rum with and smoke the best cigars on earth. Someday I hope to get back to Cuba and enjoy it with new eyes.

As always, visit our File Directory for a link to a high resolution file at the Internet Archive of this footage and more from Ryanne’s trip to Cuba.

My Dad, Capt. Frank Dobronte, was stationed aboard the USS Tarawa in the Atlantic out of Rhode Island during the late 50’s. The ship has been decommissioned but it was quite an incredible experience to be on board. – Dad was one of the dentists aboard this aircraft carrier and we were guests in the Officers dining room and film room sometimes.

The first USS Tarawa (CV-40) was one of the Navy’s potent new 27,000 ton aircraft carriers and sister of the Essex, Shangri-La, and Princeton. The first Navy ship so named, Tarawa was built at the Norfolk Navy Yard in Portsmouth, Virginia, and launched in the Elizabeth River on May 12, 1945. [ed. note: this information comes from the official Navy website of the USS Tarawa; see more fascinating history of this ship and its successors at http://www.tarawa.navy.mil/]

My Dad loved to take film of the planes taking off and landing but this clip is of destroyers coming along side during some rough seas. These are Buckley Class destroyers: DE-702 USS Earl V. Johnson and DE-669 USS Pavlic (APD 70).

They practiced various maneuvers on a regular basis and in this one they actually transfer someone along a rip cord from destroyer to carrier. Quite amazing considering how rough it is and even more amazing that my Dad caught it on film because the joke was that my Dad suffered from terrible sea sickness.

For more information about the USS Tarawa (CV-40), see the Wikipedia entry, Navy photographs, and the USS Tarawa Veterans’ Association website.

See our File Directory for a link to the full resolution film, which can be downloaded from the Internet Archive.

Contributor Diane Dobronte from California adds some detail:

Part of the Dobronte Family at the Sugar Cane Fields on Oahu, Hawaii in the early 1950′s…

My father, Dr. Frank Dobronte, shot this when we were invited to the factory to watch the process and tour. We lived in Hawaii from about 1951 – early 1955.

I don’t know if they still burn the fields now but the whole process started by a dramatic controlled burning of the fields prior to harvest. Then the cane was collected, washed and squeezed by heavy presses to extract the sugar cane juice – the juice went through a series of dryings… they gave us little cotton bags about 4in x 4in of the pure raw cane sugar. it was so delicious… I can still taste it. Not like the white sugar we are used to.

My Dad is filming and I’m with my Mom in the clip – don’t know where my other sisters are but there are 4 of us, and then 5 when my brother was born – in fact my Mom is probably pregnant in this film. In the clip is my Mom, Mary Dobronte, and myself, Diane. Great memory and I can still smell the wonderful sweet smell of the whole experience………..so glad to have found this!

As always, see our File Directory for a link to twenty five minutes of high quality footage of the Dobrontes’ experiences in Hawaii, available at the Internet Archive.

America, reduced to the serenity of a local girl singing the national anthem, the throttling of beaten engines, and the collective anticipation the moment before impact. The demolition derby is a beautiful symphony ending in a mist of radiator steam, smoke, and heavy night air that gently guides you from fairground field parking back home again. All of this so perfectly captured though sight in sound in Mr. Sherman’s little super 8 film.
– Aaron Valdez

Richie Sherman is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Film, Video and Media Studies at Pennsylvania State University in University Park, PA. He has an extensive background in various forms of filmmaking. He has recently received rave reviews for cinematography on the indie feature The Guatemalan Handshake. Demolition 7 is available on DVD through The Journal of Short Film (#2).