Super 8 Stories: The McKnight Family Christmas

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Details

Location

Holywood

Year

1960s

Date

21 December 2003 (first transmission)

Length

04min 20sec

Audio

sound

Format

Super 8

colour

Source

BBC NI

Courtesy

BBC NI, Doubleband Films, Gordon McKnight

Rights Holder

Doubleband Films, Gordon McKnight

It is illegal to download, copy, print or otherwise utilise in any other form this material, without written consent from the copyright holder.

Description

Gordon McKnight and his daughter, Deirdre McCloy, remember family Christmases during the 1960s with shots of Belfast shops and putting up decorations around the house, as well as opening the presents on Christmas Day. This clip appeared in Series 1, Programme 4 of Super 8 Stories.

Notes

Architect, Gordon McKnight was inspired to take up amateur film making with “the arrival of my second daughter in 1953”. Originally working with Standard 8mm and then moving onto Super 8 when it became available, Gordon had many cameras including the Eumig C3M, a Bolex H8, and a Leicina Super RT1. A member of both the YMCA Cine Club in Belfast and the Donaghadee Camera Club, Gordon was spurred on by the friendly competition of those around him and eventually won the prestigious UK Top 8 competition for a movie he shot on holiday in the Grand Canyon, USA. Gordon’s holiday journeys to destinations around the world acted as the inspiration for many of his films and his memories of viewing his movies include “showing my family and friends films of my latest travels and my children enjoying watching what they called ‘the old movies’”. Although he gave up recording moving images when video arrived on the scene to concentrate on stills photography and his painting Gordon still often enjoys watching his old movies today. “My films are probably my most treasured possessions – memories of my family, my travels, my accomplishments – great times”.

Shot List

Children playing in the snow. Children looking in Belfast shop windows decorated for Christmas. Salvation Army band on street corner and City Hall Christmas decorations. Family putting up Christmas decorations in house. Children waking up on Christmas day. Children opening presents. Family watching Queen's speech on TV.

Credits

Narrator - Maire Jones; Camera - Michael Quinn; Sound - Sion Kerr, Gregg Bailey; Music Consultants - Jim Meredith, Ralph McLean; Production Accountant - Anne Hegarty; Production Assistant - Tammy Moore; Graphic - Alan Perry; Dubbing - One Zero Zero; Online Editor - Johnathan Fetherstone; Researcher - Ronan Feely; Archivist - Evan Marshall; Assistant Producer - Jenny Waugh; Executive Producers - Deirdre Devlin, Michael Hewitt; Editors - Greg Darby, Henry Wood; Producer - Diarmuid Lavery; Director - Brian Henry Martin

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