Moving image material digitized at MIPoPS is available for artistic use! While their work is primarily about preserving the fragments of history held by fragile magnetic media, some of the owning organizations also extend an open invitation to artists of all stripes to find creative applications for their archival output.

July’s showcases compile a suite of digitally re-edited 8mm and 16mm home movies scored and/or edited by NWFF and MIPoPS staff – broadly themed around July being National Park and Recreation Month – with some direct-to-Betacam and VHS content for variety. The highlight of this Sunday’s program is a portrait of Seattle’s “Parks, Pleasant Occasions, and Happiness” (1977), re-scored using new music from NWFF Technical Director Brenan Chambers and his Plant Lab bandmate Owen Whitcomb.

The Fine Print: All moving image materials digitized at MIPoPS are owned by and housed at participating local archives (mentioned above as Participating Institutions), not MIPoPS. For any recording you find in MIPoPS’s Internet Archive collection that you’re interested in using, please review the rules regarding permission to use and licensing fees (if applicable). If you have any questions about a particular institution’s regulations, please contact them directly; licensing and contact information is included at the bottom of each record description on Internet Archive.

Generally, the only citation info you’ll need to use Participating Institutions’ material can be found on each individual video’s listing, whether on MIPoPS’s Internet Archive page or the Seattle Municipal Archives site. Share what you make with them or ask clarifying questions at info at mipops dot org!

Music by Chris Day
Editing by Paul Siple

An 8mm record of Ed and Edith Thompson’s experience attending the Century 21 Exposition at Seattle Center. Monorail rides, Space Needle views, water-skiing, amusement park and cable car rides – the works! The film ends with nighttime scenes with prominent neon signs and views from the cable car ride of the fairgrounds at night. Originally aired in MIPoPS’s Oct. 25, 2020 livestream.

Material from two sources in University of Washington Libraries’ Special Collections:

• Jack Shawcroft Multimedia Collection
  Original format: 1963, 8mm, color, silent
  PH2018-037, VC759
• Edwin C. Thompson Home Movies
  Original format: 1962, 8mm, color, silent

Music by Chris Day
Editing by Paul Siple

KING-TV newsmen set up and shoot around hydroplane races, a parade, a dam, and their own family picnics. Look out for the footage of a gigantic excavation in a residential neighborhood, and let us know if you can tell what the devil is going on there! Originally aired in MIPoPS’s Oct. 25, 2020 livestream.

Original format: 16mm, color, silent

Music and editing by Paul Siple

Iwao Matsushita (b. 1/10/1892) and his wife Hanaye Tamura (b. 3/9/1898) emigrated to Seattle in 1919 for Matsushita to pursue educational opportunities. Academia temporarily landed on the back burner for Matsushita, however, and he spent several years working as a cook, a hotel manager, and then in various positions for Mitsui and Company, a major Tokyo-based trading firm, which allowed him and Hanaye leisure time (as shown here). Featuring handwritten and typewritten titles throughout, often in both English and Japanese. Originally aired in MIPoPS’s Oct. 25, 2020 livestream.

Material from University of Washington Libraries’ Special Collections:

• Iwao Matsushita Films
  Original formats: c. 1933, 8mm, color and B&W, silent

Music and editing by Paul Siple

Using some Betacam SP B-roll of Seattle’s lush Seward and Frink Parks, stacked with a many-hued wash of video feedback, Paul created this video for his song “Lake Alice.”

Material from Seattle Municipal Archives’ Seattle Channel Collection:

• Seward Park – Old Growth
  Original format: 2003, Betacam SP
• Seward Park/Frink Park
  Original format: 2003, Betacam SP

2nd & 4th Sundays, 4:30–5:30pm PT

MIPoPS is a nonprofit whose mission is to assist archives, libraries, and other organizations with the conversion of analog video recordings to digital formats according to archival best practices.

In order to adhere to social distancing best practices, MIPoPS is proud to partner with the Northwest Film Forum to bring you a weekly series of archival videotape documenting a diverse history in Seattle. Featuring a variety of material and topics, this series will curate a set of clips each second and fourth Sunday of the month to provide comic relief, local histories, music, poetry, and stage performance recordings, and much more.

MIPoPS hopes this series will educate and entertain viewers during this time of uncertainty and isolation.

Find out more about MIPoPS at mipops.org
Watch past screenings on their YouTube Channel
Browse hundreds of videos they’ve digitized on their Internet Archive collection

Connect with MIPoPS on social media:
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