H. Lee Waters Film collection, 1936-2005, bulk 1936-1942 51.5 Linear Feet 258 Reels
- Abstract Or Scope
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Born in Caroleen, North Carolina in 1902, studio photographer Herbert Lee Waters supplemented his income from 1936 to 1942 by traveling across North Carolina and parts of Virginia, Tennessee, and South Carolina to film the people of small communities. He collaborated with local movie theaters to screen his films, which he called Movies of Local People. It is estimated that Waters produced films across 118 communities, visiting some of them multiple times. The H. Lee Waters Film Collection dates from 1936 to 2005 and is comprised primarily of 16mm black-and-white and color reversal original motion picture films created by Waters during the filming of the Movies of Local People series. The collection, arranged alphabetically by town name, also includes various preservation and access elements created over the years from the original footage: 16mm internegatives, 16mm screening prints, 3/4-inch Umatic videotape, Betacam SP videotape, Digital Betacam videotape, VHS videotape, DVD discs, and high resolution digital files including 2K preservation video copies. The collection contains a small number of papers and physical objects related to Waters' film making, including: a photocopy of two log books (encompassed in one volume) maintained by Waters to record financial and business information during the filming of Movies of Local People; photocopied and original advertisements for screenings of Waters' films; photocopies of Waters' notes, receipts, and correspondence concerning film sales; related ephemera; copy of a 2005 master's thesis written on the films of H. Lee Waters; home movies made by Waters from the 1930s to the 1950s; and oral histories with Mary Waters Spaulding and Tom Waters, the children of H. Lee Waters.
- Collection Context
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