Home Movie as Process: Developing a Reading of the Moving Image in the Home Mode

Abstract

The home movie remains an object of study far under-theorized and under-researched in the discipline of film and media studies, in part, because of the very nature of its unique qualities as a moving image produced and exhibited in the home mode. It is the goal of this thesis to develop a theoretical framework with which to appropriately approach a reading of the home movie in consideration of the contextual factors which surround, inform, and influence its interpretations. Specifically, it will be argued that the home movie should be read as a form of process. In developing this model, the thesis will initially proceed to define the notion of 'process' in terms of visual analysis, then apply this definition to the social practices of the home movie according Richard Chalfen's concept of the 'home mode' of image-making and image-viewing. Finally, interactions involved in the process of the home movie will be explored through relative notions of aesthetics and memory as they apply to the experience of the home mode.