This week we are featuring a home movie that shows a cruise ship from 1960 that visits the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. In this day and age of cruise liners and ships of vast magnitude that sail the seven seas as great floating cities, we look back at the time of a growing industry through the eyes of the people who participated in such vacation packages.
You can read a blog about cruising that MIRC staff member Cherrie Redd Brown has authored to accompany this film here: http://library.sc.edu/blogs/mirc/
In honor of World Dance Day, April 29th, our featured film of the day is of a folklife tradition from Bermuda. This film from 1934 features men performing the Gombey, a traditional art form and symbol of Bermuda, and shows the men dancing in costume.
April 22nd, is Earth day, and our feature video is of an Earth Day celebration held earlier at USC - over 40 years earlier.
On April 14th at the Nickelodeon Theatre, as a part of the Civil Rights Sundays, there will be a screening of the ETV program about Modjeska Simpkins. To complement that screening MIRC would like to present the outtakes of a newspiece about Modjeska Simpkins from the WIS collection, filmed in 1980.
This week we feature a film from the Lever-Karst Collection, featuring a camp that now lies underneath a body of water, Camp Jocassee for Girls was located in Jocassee Valley on the banks of the Whitewater River from 1921 until 1970, when the Jocassee Valley was flooded and this film is one of the few remaining known films of the camp. Read more about this film and the camp in our blog, written by a member of the family who owned the camp in its heyday: http://library.sc.edu/blogs/mirc/
On March 2, 1961 young African American students unwilling to accept Jim Crow era segregation laws gathered from across the state to march peacefully on the grounds of the South Carolina State House. When their march was complete, over 180 students were arrested and taken to jail. Their arrests and convictions lead to a landmark Supreme Court decision in 1963 affirming the right of peaceful assembly and protest. We celebrate the 50th anniversary of their bravery and their commitment to democracy by featuring the only known moving images to survive from that day’s march.
Its Valentine’s Day this week and MIRC wants to celebrate the joys of our friend cupid, who can even manage to coax a gritty young newsreel cameraman to fall in love. Ninety-six years ago Harry Birch wed his sweetheart, Lucille Horton. This film shows us the beginning of their life-long partnership.
This week our feature video has been picked by MIRC scanning technician Brittany Braddock who has been intrigued with the mystery of the home movie film from the set of a Hollywood film. Watch the film and see what you think and then read the blog for more information. Who, what, where and how can be found here in the MIRC blog: http://library.sc.edu/blogs/mirc/
In honor of MLK day, named a federal holiday marking the birthday of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. which takes place each year on the third Monday in January, we feature this wonderful film which was recently preserved. This film, shot by a local television station, features Dr. King's visit to Charleston in 1967 and a speech in which he talks about the struggles and his response using nonviolence.
The National Film Registry was established in 1989 to highlight the need to preserve U.S. film heritage. Under the National Film Preservation Act, the Librarian of Congress names 25 films yearly that are “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.” This year Scott Nixon’s The Augustas has been added to that list. The film provides a window onto everyday life in small towns and on the road in mid-twentieth-century America.
