I love the way this film is shot – meandering, exploring, unafraid. This film offers attention to the interesting details of these scenes: kelp rolling on the surface of the water, kites and seagulls overhead, playful interactions with friends. It’s an unusual kind of home movie in which the filmmaker directly participates in the film’s making, rather than simply observing and documenting. I’m sure it made a difference that these films were shot by Janet in her teens and early 20s – there’s a youthful eye behind this camera.

–Jen

Find high-resolution extended versions of this film on the Internet Archive through our File Directory.

Music: “Baby That’s Me” by The Cake

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.

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.