Homesick for Aged Home Movies: Why Do We Shoot Contemporary Family Videos in Old-Fashioned Ways?

Abstract

As the most important studies in the field have pointed out (see, for example, Bourdieu, 1965; Sontag, 1978; Chalfen, 1987; Odin, 1995; Zimmermann, 1995; Moran, 2002; Cati, 2009), the practice of home movie making has always been linked to technical and technological change. Indeed, the evolution of family video equipment, from Super 8 to digital, has allowed individuals to express themselves according to their social and cultural status. I reject the position that the symbolic effects of family images are connected consequentially to the technologies employed to realise them. However, I think that the material dimension of home movies cannot be neglected, because it is this that ultimately provides so much satisfaction to people wishing to pass on their memories.