I Found A Roll Of Undeveloped Film From 1964

I found a roll of undeveloped film from 1964 in my grandparents attic 54 years later I'm gonna try to develop it [Music] so here's where my involvement in the story starts in September of 2004 my grandmother passed away after she died my family and I were tasked with going through her belongings deciding what goes where at the bottom of one of the boxes I found an old 8 millimeter film camera nowadays more families than ever before are saving their good times in movies for those who are unfamili

ar with 8 millimeter cameras it was the camcorder before they were camcorders you'd shoot maybe 2 to 8 minutes on a roll of film then get it developed and play it back on a projector these weren't for Hollywood motion pictures they were for home movies the camera I found was a 1963 kodak funsaver my grandpa told me my grandmother won the camera at the 1964 World's Fair in Queens but he didn't recall ever seeing her use it he let me keep it and for the last 14 years it's just sat on my dresser co

llecting dust and I'm sure it would have continued collecting dust but a few months ago something happened the door of the camera popped off and I discovered inside was a roll of undeveloped film I figured if 40 plus years in a hot attic didn't ruin the film me exposing to the light surely would have done it but still I was interested to see if there was something that could have been done a quick google search revealed my options were incredibly limited there are very few places that develop 8

millimeter filmed and in my initial search I couldn't find anyone that develops expired 8 millimeter film the chemicals used today are different and film deteriorates over time especially in hot conditions like an attic if I wanted to develop the film I was gonna have to do it myself well coffee has some of these characteristics and molecules in them I read about a group of students that developed a development method involving coffee grounds it's since been dubbed Cathan all and I thought it mi

ght just work but it was coffee [Music] little bit of Drano on vitamin C doctor Scott Williams is an inorganic chemistry professor at Rochester Institute of Technology and he and his students first came up with Cathan all I've never developed film before in my life do you think this process is easy enough that I'll be able to do it oh yes simple enough that's the scary part is I'm risking losing this footage from nut from the early 1960s if I make a mistake I didn't want to risk permanently dest

roying this film so I decided to do a practice run they don't sell rolls of film that fit my grandma's Kodak funsaver but a friend of mine owns an old 8 millimeter camera that uses Kodak film that still sold in stores I borrowed his camera and I tried to develop the film myself I was just in the dark and I unspooled that 8 millimeter film and put it into this which is a photo canister it's meant for photo developing there are essentially three steps to developing the first step is a pre-wash whi

ch essentially just cleans off the film moves any sort of backing the second one is a developer which develops the image and the third step is a fixer which stops the development process the first step is going to be just hot water and borax and that will clean off and remove the backing of the film this should pour out and be like really black and I have to keep on rinsing it until it runs clear the second step is a mixture of vitamin C instant coffee and super washing soda oh man that smells t

hat stinks so let's do this for nine minutes so bad last step we are gonna pour in the fixer and it's gonna sit in there for about five minutes should be clear moment of truth [Music] oh there's definitely images what is it though holy that worked to my surprise it worked kind of however the results were far from perfect if I couldn't develop a new roll of film perfectly what would be the result of 54 year old Oh that's what I learned about film rescue International Film Rescue International is

a small operation run at a Saskatchewan Canada I jumped on a call with Greg the founder of film rescue International and he said he'd tried to develop it but he told me not to hold my breath an attic is a terrible place to keep film I'd be shocked if we'll be able to get an image to expose and with that I sent the film off to Saskatchewan [Music] the vault here which is a darkroom now and then once I loaded into this ancient machine here Jamison movie film processor hopefully with lovely results

but most likely thought was lovely results because this so we're gonna do her best with us don't know what's going to happen for sure my guess is we're not gonna get anything off it a few weeks later I received a call from Greg we got an image Greg warned me the image was far from perfect due to the age of the film and the chemicals he was using he was only able to develop a black-and-white image and because of the damage done from exposure and the heat in the Attic very little was visible but

still he got an image after 54 years this reel of film was finally developed and here it is the start of the film reel has the most damage so we don't really see much here but as we get further into the role images begin to appear the sound effects are added by me by the way most 8 millimeter film is silent this is the 1964 World's Fair my grandpa was right I assume he's the one filming because the woman you see in the shot is my grandma the kids around her are my mother my aunt and my uncle and

there they are in front of the Unisphere which is still there just a few minutes from where I live now I [Music] showed the footage to my grandpa mom aunt and the rest of the family shortly after receiving the footage back from Greg that's me with a pigtail there I am let's guys there you are oh yeah so glad that we actually have it I would never ever think that I'd ever see that again and I didn't it's 150 years old honestly to see my mother that yahoo and that beautiful it just makes me feel

like I just need to serve so much more but just to have that that's a blessing I can't help but be thankful the door to the camera popped off when it did if it happened years later perhaps the film would have been unsalvageable there might not have been a place around to develop it and I wouldn't be able to show it to the people that lived it [Music] [Music]