So Filmoteca is asking Andalucians to search their attics, wardrobes, storerooms, garages (and presumably their parents', too); find those cardboard boxes hidden under piles of unwanted clothes and books, where family photo albums are stacked, and unearth the recordings which are also hidden away in a dark, dusty spot. Send them to Filmoteca, and their technicians will convert them into a digital format which can be used in today's devices.
"They are films made by normal citizens recording their lives", explained Filmoteca director, Pablo García Casado in an interview with El Diario. "They are an important film heritage which tells us about Andalucian life in the 1960s and 1970s."
The first films have now been converted in this historic fly-on-the-wall project. Each week, La Filmoteca will upload to its YouTube channel short fragments of the films. You can see family beach holidays at Salobreña (Granada), a visit to the wineries in Montilla (Córdoba), family parties, the night of the Reyes Magos (Three Kings, 5 January) at home, and games in the swimming pool. Scenes of daily life - people riding a donkey - a common form of transport back then.
"Anyone who has a Super-8 reel at home can send it to us or email us at [email protected], so that these memories don't get lost," says García Casado.
In the film clips you can see in the video above, it is fascinating to note how Andalucia's towns and cities, the region's coastline and beaches, countryside and roads, looked in those bygone days. It's also fun to see everything from the cars to clothes and hairstyles of the period. These films are equally entertaining for the next generation of children, to see how their parents' generation spent their summer vacations, as they are for those who experienced them.