Palm Springs Plays Itself: A Vintage Home Movie Cocktail Hour with Deserted Films

Palm Springs as it is seldom seen! Home movies shot by locals and visitors during the golden age of amateur filmmaking! See legendary hotels, homes, clubs, people, shops, and restaurants captured on archival film!

Local home movie film archive, Deserted Films, will screen and provide entertaining context for a curated selection of amateur 16mm, 8mm and Super 8 films (some shown on actual, vintage mechanical equipment!), and enlighten the audience on the work of their unique nonprofit organization. Deserted Films.

Presentation begins at 4:00 PM but feel free to come early at 3:30 PM, purchase drinks at the pop-up CAMP café in advance, and enjoy sipping during the show.

Melissa Dollman and Devin Orgeron of Deserted Films are dedicated to collecting, caring for and making accessible films shot in the general Palm Springs area (and sometimes beyond) during that golden age of nontheatrical film from the 1920s-1980s, when 16mm, 8mm, Super 8 celluloid film and VHS camcorders (instead of our phones!) were the tools we used to preserve our memories. 

Disconnected from their makers, removed from their contexts, these films end up at estate sales, yard sales, auctions, thrift stores, and antique shops. Deserted? Perhaps.

Our mission, however, is to reunite these materials with the region they depict and to amass and make available a roster of films that present a fuller image of the area’s unique development, its particular beauty, and its perpetual appeal. The Deserted Films collection consists of over 500 films in 8mm, Super 8mm, and 16mm films, as well as a small collection of home movies transferred to, or originally shot, on VHS.

$25

Things To KnowAges 13 and older
This is an indoor activity
Wheelchair accessible
Parking and handicap parking available
Restrooms are available
No smoking or e-cigarettes

Important InformationModernism Week Theater is located at the south end of the hotel’s central atrium.
Ample free public parking is available.
Enter underground parking at Hyatt on Palm Canyon Drive or in the multi-level public garage across from the Palm Springs Art Museum.
The organizer of this event is Modernism Week CAMP Theater Activity.

Check-in LocationModernism Week Theater At CAMP
Hyatt Palm Springs
285 N Palm Canyon Dr
Palm Springs, CA 92262View Map

Photo Credits: Deserted Films {"locationAddressVisibility":"visible"}