Go Old School with A/V Geeks and TAMI: 16mm on the 16th

A/V Geeks and the Texas Archive of the Moving Image are teaming up for a showcase of vintage 16mm educational films at the Baker Center on Wednesday, September 16. It's a double-archive affair: TAMI is a homegrown Texas operation, and A/V Geeks is Skip Elsheimer's North Carolina-based collection, which holds more than 37,000 16mm films described as "educational, industrial, and ephemeral."

The subject matter covers a lot of ground, from homemaking tutorials to VD PSAs. The draw is the combination of retro aesthetics and moral hectoring, which is pretty much guaranteed to get a laugh, even if the production values are occasionally surprisingly good. It's the kind of thing that works best when you're watching it with other people—the shared recognition of how we used to be talked to in a classroom.

The venue adds its own layer to the evening. The Baker Center is a former elementary school, and there's something fitting about revisiting old educational films in a space that once held actual students. It turns the whole thing into a bit of a full-circle moment: watching the kind of films that might have played in a room just like the one you're sitting in.

If you're into film history, old-school instructional videos, or just the specific brand of earnestness that comes from a mid-century classroom, this is right up your alley. The showcase is at the Baker Center, 3908 Avenue B, on Wednesday, September 16.