The Joy of Home Movies

8mm was our family’s medium of choice when I was a kid, low-quality, jerky, soundless images that moved a little too fast, making everything seem like slapstick. We used to roll on the floor with laughter watching our older siblings in 70s-era clothes, aunts and uncles in black-rimmed glasses, and grandparents that still had their hair color. Then we upgraded to camcorders and suddenly, we could hear what everyone was saying. Somehow these were less funny and more embarrassing because now they were about us and the camera captured the things we hoped other people didn’t see. Or maybe we were just growing up and getting more self-conscious in the process.

Well, the video camera persists today on phones and digital cameras. I still hate seeing myself on video, but I have found a subject I never tire of: my kids. I will film them for great lengths of time just playing, wrestling, dancing, or otherwise making merry. We can watch those images again and again and find pleasure in them. I think I understand now why my parents made so many recordings of us. The video is a moment in time captured forever as they grow up and their young-child innocence is covered up by the veil of adulthood, a way to preserve those little kids we gave so much for.

So keep the cameras rolling, everyone. There is joy to be found in home movies.