Time Travel with Pathé Baby: The Small-Gauge Film Collection as Historical Archive

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Bibliographic Details
Authors and Corporations: Schneider, Alexandra
In: Film History, 19, 2007, 4, p. 353-360
published:
Indiana University Press and John Libbey Publishing
Media Type: Article, E-Article

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further information
Physical Description: 353-360
ISSN: 0892-2160
1553-3905
published in: Film History
Language: English
Collection: sid-55-col-jstorfilm
sid-55-col-jstoras5
JSTOR Film and Performing Arts
JSTOR Arts & Sciences V Archive
Table of Contents

<p>Even before Pathé launched its 9.5mm 'Pathé Baby' films in 1923 and Eastman Kodak its 16mm 'cinegraphs' in 1927, collectors were purchasing and acquiring small-gauge film prints to project in their homes. Focusing on European collectors of the 1930s, this essay argues that historians must consider the private film collection's status as an archive and a source for film historiography. Individuals and families viewed reduction prints of theatrical motion pictures in 'living room cinemas', programmed alongside the original amateur productions called 'home movies'. Surviving private film collections bear traces of nontheatrical viewing practices, which remains a gap in the knowledge of film history.</p>