Historic Movies of Martha’s Vineyard, an award-winning project of the Vineyard Gazette, will present a selection of film clips, some dating to the 1920s, next Wednesday at the MV Film Center.
The event will be led by Vineyard author Tom Dunlop and film producer John Wilson, creators of the project, which locates, preserves and edits for public display important moving images from the Vineyard’s past.
Clips shown at the Film Center will include early footage of the Gay Head Cliffs and of downtown Edgartown, and will feature dramatic scenes of hurricanes in the 1950s, footage of Island steamers and ferries from the 1940s and images of offshore swordfishing expeditions in the 1930s. Among the earliest clips are of bathers on Vineyard beaches dating back to the mid 1920s. A number of the clips have never before been seen publicly.
Launched in 2013, the historic movies project works with individuals and the Martha’s Vineyard Museum to identify and preserve film shot on the Island that captures important aspects of the Island’s history. In exchange for helping film owners research, restore and digitize old film footage, the Gazette retains non-exclusive rights to make the material available for public viewing. The project won the Innovator’s Award in 2015 from the New England Newspaper Publishers’ Association. The project is sponsored in part by Martha’s Vineyard Savings Bank.
A writer long associated with the Vineyard Gazette and Martha’s Vineyard Magazine, Mr. Dunlop is also the author or editor of five books on Island subjects, most of them published by Vineyard Stories of Edgartown. Mr. Wilson, a longtime sports television producer, co-produced a series of historic and contemporary vignettes of Island life that play before the previews at the Capawock and Strand theatres in Vineyard Haven and Oak Bluffs.
The event starts at 7:30 p.m. To purchase tickets, go to mvfilmsociety.com.
For more information about the Historic Movies of Martha’s Vineyard Project, go to vineyardgazette.com/historicmoviesofmarthasvineyard
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