The Family Album

An interesting 60 minute experiment. Berliner combines clips from home movies mostly bought at flea markets and other anonymous sources covering the 1920s through the 1950s. He combines these with home sound recordings, some of his own family, some strangers' tapes found at yard sales; oral; histories, kids goofing around with a recorder, recordings of weddings, birthdays and funerals. Berliner arranges these clips, sound and vision so they follow life from infancy to old age, the soundtrack tantalizingly close to fitting the images, but never quite fully matching up, since, in reality one had nothing to do with the other. It's a touching document of how families would like to present themselves, would like to be remembered (Berliner readily admits home movies are far from 'true' but represent idealized selves). I ultimately found the film affecting, if perhaps a bit repetitive.