A compilation of literally dozens ~ perhaps 60 or more ~ very old and brittle reels of 8mm and 16mm film, mis-sorted into the mailing boxes that were used when sending the undeveloped film to the processing facilities.
I did what I could to cross-reference the movie clips to some notes that mom had made in the 1980s & 1990s.
Unfortunately, her notes referenced the mailer boxes, and I did mention “mis-sorted” above, right? Just to add insult to injury, many of the reels of film had been viewed, and put into the film boxes without having been rewound. If you’ve ever worked with a movie projector, you can understand the frustration of having to first rewind a reel, then flip it and set it up to play (project) correctly.
Many of these films were shot in the 30s, 40s, and 50s. That’s a long time ago, and they have been moved across the country several times. The condition of the film was delicate, at best. Surprisingly, very few films were beyond being able to salvage at least a good portion of the movie.
Most of these were made before I was born, so I have no recollection of the people, places & events in the clip. I did the best I could — guessing sometimes at the subject matter based on mom’s notes, other movie clips, and good ol’ intuition.