Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Parkington '51

For your consideration: an experimental film from 1984, shot in black-and-white Super-8, and hand developed. A rare document of a 1950s 'one-stop shopping center' in its senile years, the film features beautifully detached scenes of blank sentimentality, whatever that means... it also digresses into other stuff, ostensibly for context, seeming to serve some purpose. Either way, the tone of the piece is sharp. The voice: clear.

Unfortunately, there is a dearth of information about this peculiar lost landmark; not even a nod from the various websites devoted to the history of Arlingon, Virginia. The time has come, and so Parkington Shopping Center will be examined further in a future post. The public needs to know. For now, take a look at the film. More to come, including the reassembled sequel.

Super-8 stills: © Michael Horsley, 1984.

1 comment:

KinoRama said...

Dear Mr. Mannix,

We appreciate your kind attention to our humble efforts. Naturally, we were shocked to find that your research uncovered certain processing errors in the transfer of our films. As you can see here: (http://americannationalstandard.blogspot.com/2009/06/we-are-stunned-today-to-learn-that-our.html) we take all reports seriously, and have put the reprocessing of these films as a high priority in our production queue.

Dr. Ed Porter,
Managing Supervisor
Kinorama Films
Lee Hiway Production Division
American National Standard Industries
(a Beatrice Company)