Grandparents found 16mm film in basement titled "Lindbergh's flight to Paris", what should we do with it?

by [deleted]

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vatakarnic33

I'm a film preservationist. There are a couple things that you should do initially. First, smell it. Does it smell like vinegar, or mothballs, or nothing terribly strong? Is it a hockey puck? In other words, is it all stuck together? Vinegar or mothball smells indicate decay, and should be treated immediately by a lab specializing in film preservation if you want the film to survive. If it smells specifically like vinegar, however, keep it in a plastic bag within a metal film can (EDITED), and away from any other films you might have, because vinegar syndrome, as it's called, can actually infect other films.

Also it could be brittle, so try to treat it with the utmost respect, don't go projecting it or unrolling it willy nilly. It would be better to have someone diagnose it a bit, repair it, etc, before anything is done with it. It may even need to be printed onto a new negative, and/or scanned to a digital file in order to be viewed safely.

I work with film from that era all the time. Sometimes it's just shrunken, and other times it literally crumbles apart in your hands. I actually just finished working on a feature documentary about a very rich family who owned a pretty significant US business (I can't go into specifics), and most of the footage we were working with was from the 20's and 30's, and was in pretty good condition. However, it did require that we print new negatives in order to preserved it properly.

caffarelli

Any chance at pictures? 16 mm film was produced and sold for the home and educational market, I'm doubting this is consumer-shot film but you never know... I'm not finding film by that title in the usual places, but this might be what you have? A few pictures and I can probably circa date the film for you, I'm not a film archivist but I do have to work with it on occasion.

If the film is not brittle or sticky or stinking of vinegar feel free to unroll it a little to see what the images are. Wear some cotton gloves if you have them, if not, wash your hands and ONLY touch the edges. If you have goodish vision you can make out what's on film with the bare eye.

If you're near a larger university, most places have film libraries and film librarians who would be willing to take a look at this.

Khnagar

The Smithsonian has a film in their collection, listed on this page, called Lindbergh's Flight to Paris 1927.

Given the popularity and immense commercial appeal anything Lindbergh had it's possible your movie was sold to the home and/or educational market. There were also newsreel tour movies about Lindberghs flight that were shown to audiences.

/u/vatakarnic33 gives sound advice so I have nothing to add really. Get it looked it by someone professional! :)