9.5 mm Family: 2006

Monday, November 6, 2006

Best wishes from Brest

We flew to Nantes on Wednesday, 1st of November and walked around Pornichet next day. We visited an ancient fort in Pornichet, Parc des Dryades in La Baule and Le Pouliquen. It was interesting to walk through the same places the persons in the films have walked 75 years earlier. An ancient fort by the sea wasn´t, unfortunately, in as good a condition as in the old pictures. If we liked to find the house in which the family members lived in Pornichet, it would demand perhaps a week long stay in Pornichet. And you don't know, if it was a house of their own or only temporarily rented. Summarizing the visit in Pornichet, we got new information about the places mentioned here but not about the family. Happily, this is not all.

After visiting Pornichet we were in Brest participating the meeting of European Association of Inedits. I gave my presentations on two subjects, Children as amateur filmmakers and Searching for a 9.5mm family, so - about this project, which provoked interested thoughts when it comes to copyrights. We would have needed more time to discuss this subject! However, the question of copyrights will come up for discussion at the AEI meeting in Hilversum, the Netherlands in October 2007.

There is a paradox as far as copyrights are concerned. Is it allowed to present for example this kind of material publicly in internet? You have two possibilities: if you want to find the right owners of the films, you have to show the pictures of the persons and the places publicly or you can leave the films to your cupboard.

It has happened to me and it happens sometimes for genealogists that they are "too late". Perhaps you have waited too long and the person who would know something has passed away some years ago. You have to make your research now. There are thousands of old anonymous photo portraits. They seem to be of no value, because their value is tied to the information "around the photo". That's why you can find such old photos from second-hand shops. Time is not for genealogists. If you could find out the person in the picture it may have some value for somebody.

We donated the films to Cinémathèque de Bretagne. It doesn't mean that our search ends now. On the contrary, now we have better possibilities to find the family.

In front of an ancient fortress in Pornichet.

Friday, October 27, 2006

Summary 27.10.2006

Or what has been discovered so far

The house in Amiéns

The house in Amiéns has been recognized. It is situated on Rue Lisbonne. The owners of the house have been traced back to the 1940s but it is very likely that they are not the same persons as those seen on the films. However, I think that it has been Grandfather and Grandmother who have been living in Amiéns in the house so hopefully we can find out who they were!

The school in Saint Omer

The school in Saint Omer has been recognized as well: it is Lycée Alexandre Ribot. The event that is going on at the school yard is called ”Les Landis”. It has been a kind of sports competition or a sportive fete organized at the end of the school year. Correct me if I am wrong!

We think that it has been the family (mother, father and son Crap) which has lived in Saint Omer. The father may have been one of the teachers at Lycée Ribot. Pornichet, La Baule and Le Pouliguen have been places for holidays and the family has also visited friends in Guéméné and Camon.

Our journey to France

Our journey to Pornichet and Brest is getting closer; we will leave on Wednesday, the 1st November. Our journey goes from Nantes via Pornichet, LaBaule and LePouliguen to Brest where I will have an amateur film meeting.

I will donate the original films to some French film archive, perhaps to Cinémathèque de Bretagne if they are willing to take them to their collections. In the case I can find the original owners the films are already in France and thus it is possible to discuss their final place.

At this point, I wish to thank all of my assistants and informants but especially five of them: Mireille, Angélique and David and the two Marie-France. They have been of great help! (And sorry if I have forgotten someone... I thank you, too!) I hope you still have energy to continue our shared adventure!

Thursday, October 5, 2006

Courses de Pornichet, Août 1931

Original picture here, 1.8 MB.

Here is a "movie panorama" from Pornichet, "Courses de Pornichet, Août 1931". It's quality is poor but you get a nice feeling of space. No new news about the films but our date of departure comes closer and closer ;-)

Saturday, September 23, 2006

Some extra pictures

There are seven extra pictures below. The house seen on the first four pictures may be the one in Pornichet. The last picture is from Amiens – the same landscape you can see in the older part of the blog. Only now with more surroundings visible.

Unfortunately, we haven´t been able to watch nor transfer five of the films because we missed them while transfering other films and now we don´t have a 9.5 mm projector anymore...

There are some extra clips here in realmedia (46.2 MB) and windowsmedia (47 MB) format. There is perhaps nothing special in them, mostly people.

Original 9.5 mm Pathé format has good quality. If I don't find the descendants, I'll donate the films to a french archive and perhaps then it's possible to have good digital copies.

These two pictures up are from the film "Crap a Pornichet - dans le jardin."

Tuesday, September 5, 2006

A house in Amiens and "lycée" in St Omer have been recognised

I got a message with nice pictures of the house which can be seen in the beginning of the film Sortie rue Lisbonne. Carpentier. Yvette. Hiver 1931-32. Thank you, Marie-France!

In Google Maps

Here is another film shot in Amiens: Amiens_Camon
(Windowsmedia)
I'm not 100% sure, if all the shots are from Amiens. For example that Cathedral in the end can be from somewhere else.

The school on the films is Lycée mixte Ribot.

* * *

Pictures from Amiens and Pt Noyelles:

Crap au Jardin Camon, Pentecote 1931

Bd Pt Noyelles, Hiver 1931-32

Sunday, August 27, 2006

The text on the Blackboard?

In one of the films there is a blackboard and some words on it. Marie-Aude suggests in her comment (see "comments"-link below) that Fafase and Gegene (Gegeve?) are abbreviations for the names Françoise and Eugène. Thanks!

The title on the reel is something like "Delwault", "Dilivaille", "Dilivault"...

Click to zoom.

Thursday, August 10, 2006

The story of a 9.5 mm family

In 1931, a small French family from Pornichet (or St Omer?) used a 9.5 mm Pathé camera. During the spring and summer of that year and also during the next winter, mother and father filmed their son, their large family and all the places they visited. The collection consists of 43 reels and approximately 45 minutes of film material.

They travelled around northwestern and northern France to places including Camon (in Amiens?), Noyelles, Amiens and Guéméné. All the places and dates have been well documented.

It is not known what happened to the family or the films after the winter of 1931-32. In 2003, these small Pathé reels were sold on ebay.

Who were they? Do they have descendants or are some of the children seen on the films still alive? Could it perhaps have been a Jewish family? How have the films ended up on ebay?

My husband and I will travel to Pornichet on 1st of November 2006. We are also hoping to find some relatives of the family in the films. There appears to be four different surnames within the reel titles: Morin, Morel, Lecomte and Carpentier.

If you know anything about the origin of these films or about the people in them, please write to me:

Here are some video clips in RealMedia, WindowsMedia and QuickTime format. It is better to download them to hard disk and then watch them from drive. To watch them you need Realplayer, Windows MediaPlayer or Quicktime player. The quality of transferring is very poor. Original films are much better.

VIDEO CLIPS:

1. Le Pouliguen. Aout 1931?
(Windowsmedia)
2. Parc des Dryades. Aout 1931.
(Windowsmedia, Quicktime)
3. 1. Raymond operant + 2. Morin. Jardin de Pornichet. (Film de Raymond!) . Aout 1931.
(Windowsmedia, Quicktime)
4. Sur la plage. Pornichet. Aout 1931.
(Windowsmedia, Quicktime)
5. Jardin de St. Omer. 12 juillet 1931.
(Windowsmedia)
6. 2e Lycée St Omer. Lycée sports. Juillet 1931?
(Windowsmedia, Quicktime)
7. Les dames Lecomte. Amiens. Juin 1931.
(Windowsmedia)
8. Les petits Morel. 1931.
(Windowsmedia)
9. Sortie rue Lisbonne. Carpentier. Yvette. Hiver 1931-32.
(Windowsmedia)
10. Grand-Père et Enfants. Pornichet. Paques 1931.
(Windowsmedia)
11. Dans le train. Juillet 1931.
(Windowsmedia)