Seeking film projector for viewing recently discovered movie reels?

June 29, 2009 12:43 PM

Is there anywhere within (or near) the city of Chicago to rent a 16mm film projector?

Long story short, we bought a house six years ago from a world traveler family who were also hoarders. We're finally cleaning out the WHOLE basement (yeah, there has been that much stuff in here). I found a box of 16 mm film canisters with the film in them labeled intriguing things like "Florida, #2, 12-5-1937", "Europe, Dec 14, 1942", "The folks about 1945", "Yellowstone June 1941", "Europe re-edited 11-29-1942, 360 feet" and "Athletes - Michigan, Florida, Ohio". There are 12-15 films in here I'd like to see.

I'm dying with curiosity here. Not only because there may be pictures of our house in here (which was pretty poorly muddled over three generations by these folks) but also Europe 1942? Come ON! That is so cool.

Most of the places I've found rent to commercial businesses only or are pretty expensive. Any mom and pop shops that rent this equipment to anyone's knowledge? I'm thinking of putting together a movie night for some friends who are interested in the history of this place.

posted by jeanmari to media & arts (7 comments total)

Why not have them transferred to DVD? Then you can use any LCD projector, and have the source material in a modern format.
posted by nomisxid at 1:07 PM on June 29

I would love to have them transferred, but don't have a spare $200 on hand. Though it would be cool....
posted by jeanmari at 1:09 PM on June 29

If you come over to pick it up I'll give you one, for free. I'm near Montrose and Damen.
posted by hydrophonic at 1:36 PM on June 29

I should add that I don't know how well it works, because I have the opposite problem (too many projectors, no film). So if other people have suggestions, don't hold back.
posted by hydrophonic at 1:58 PM on June 29

Helix used to have a superb rental arm, including out-of-date equipment for exactly your type of problem. (this was years ago, though, can't find rental info on their website). But, worth a call.
posted by nax at 3:45 PM on June 29

you can find a lot of 16mm projectors on ebay...
posted by HuronBob at 5:25 PM on June 29

I think they used to rent them at the public libraries, but I seem to remember that they maybe got rid of the films and projectors a few years back. It is worth a call, though.
posted by sulaine at 7:29 PM on June 29