“As I have said probably too many times in these posts our guests include people I have met personally and those whom I have never met not really only the artworks that are their creations in the widest sense of both art and creation.

I knew Skip Elsheimer because he was a man that traveled with 16 millimeter cans of ephemeral type movies to do live shows of such material. Back in the early 00s I attended some of midnight shows in Boston and a whole history of filmmaking was opened up to me.

Thanks to Skip this was really my first time seeing these type of movies in so concentrated and certainly curated fashion. Like a lot of us, of course some of these films had seen as a child in schools since educational films are a large portion of these films. But it encompasses much more: movies made by churches and religious groups, educational television and movies made by manufacturing corporations, NASA, government agencies even bureaucratic safety files.

Skip is one of the experts on such material.

Not only does he collect them and share his treasures with the world, he does so in both the most articulate and engaging a fashion with an enthusiasm that is infectious as well as integrity and civility, these last two features in short supply these days in too much of our culture.

Much like my own definition of art itself - which aims to call into question the boundaries between works made for mere utility, or entertainment as well as those made for the most idiosyncratic and self expressive of reasons - Skip's project gets us to look at the films he has collected in a genuinely original way, in an historical and, I would add, aesthetic way.

When we see one of these films from 1972 or 1952 we are seeing aspects of our history. Some of this material is best described as dubious, especially political, business and corporate and government propaganda. Other material has legitimate artistic value. Still other material is interesting as an historical aesthetic document of how people lived appeared and even dressed in a particular moment. To me all of it is most interesting but I am also aware that not everybody might get as excited as do I by these films.

Whether you are a fan or not of this incredibly large part of film history, Skip is among its most eloquent and informed spokespeople and as such it was a joy for me to have him as guest on our show.

During this episode Skip and I have discussion of one film in particular: Malakapalakadoo, Skip Two.

Like its title, which I can't seem to pronounce, it is to me anyway the strangest thing ever committed to film or video, though that is one man's opinion.

It was made for children evidently and by Encyclopedia Britannica, no less. Skip's wife dislikes it; I love it.

But that is in the nature of artistic evaluation."

Links to Skip's beautiful work:

Website: https://avgeeks.com

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCV78nuSmJxTtHaD4wnzPJkA

Twitter: https://twitter.com/AVGeeks?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MV_mrBMLxKQ&t=214s