Arts & Culture

With social media platforms and smart phones, it is so easy to share funny or touching videos from our daily lives now. With a touch of a button, memorable moments are recorded. These days, with user-friendly technology and software, more videos are being created with neat visuals and sound effects.

I remember my late grandfather always recording important family moments with a camera or a camcorder. The footage brings back heartfelt moments of family gatherings and also gives a personal view of history. I am sure many families have home videos on tapes or film reels and sadly, some of them may be falling apart with time. Thankfully, there is a way to keep them!

Toronto Public Library is pleased to partner with Regent Park Film Festival on project Home Made Visible. The project aims to collect old home videos on videotapes or reels from indigenous and persons of diverse backgrounds for free digitization. With families' permission, a copy of the small segment of the home videos will be kept at York University Libraries.

The project has a second phase, in which three indigenous and three diverse Canadian filmmakers will make short media artworks to reflect on their own personal histories and Canada's archives. Their final pieces will visit different libraries in Canada. It is truly a thoughtful way to keep old memories alive and to reflect our diverse histories. Stay tuned for more details.

While we wait, check out TPL Stories, a collection of short stories that highlight what Toronto Public Library means to our users, staff and communities: