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.

In the mid 80′s, when the Super8 format was on the way out, all the Photo Supply stores were discounting the last of the Super8 gear. I bought a kit with the camera and a Eumig projector for about $250. The 64 XL had a very sharp zoom lens, and I made about a dozen films with it, and a few sound films before Super8 Sound film became unavailable. At the time, you could buy Super8 film by mail that came with processing. You mailed the exposed film in a postage-paid envelope to Kodak; they mailed the processed film back to you.

By 1995, when I shot this film, everyone was using video cameras, so whenever I shot with my Eumig, people would get a puzzled look and ask me what kind of camera it was.

A few things to notice in the film:
- In the third shot, you can see St. Michael’s Russian Orthodox Cathedral. Sitka was once the center of the Russian American Company’s fur trade. Russian dances are performed daily for the tourists, most of whom are visiting for the day from cruise ships.

- What appears to be a very boring shot of a brick is actually part of a memorial downtown for fishermen who have died at sea. The brick in the shot is my Uncle Ron’s.

- I was lucky to catch two Red Snapper which you see being gutted in the film. To me they seemed huge – they ended up being our dinner – but nobody else was impressed; it seems Sitkans are only impressed by salmon.

- Late in the film, there are several shots of the salmon heading up the mouth of the river to spawn.

*I know, I know, whales are mammals! Music: “Krakatoa” by Clouseaux, courtesy of the Podsafe Music Network.