Michael Holman Family Home Movie #17: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

This film is from a collection of home movies filmed by the family of Michael Holman, an important figure in the history of hip hop. It consists of a single reel of 8mm silent acetate film with color (a), an original plastic film reel (b).

The film begins with a shot taken from a bus of a man by the side of a road standing with a camel in an unidentified location in Israel or the West Bank. Next, a series of shots depict a market street with vendors wearing keffiyehs lined up along a road. One of the shots is from a very fast moving vehicle. This is followed by a shot of people gathered in front of the Church of The Nativity in Bethlehem and a shot looking out of an airplane window as it flies along an unidentified coastline. The next series of shots depict tourist sites, primarily the Altaria della Patria, and street life in Rome, Italy primarily taken from a bus. After this series are several shots overlooking Rome from high vantage point. The film concludes with several shots taken at the Piazzale Giuseppe Garibaldi.

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: ca. 1968
• Created by: Pauline Thompson Wood, American, born 1901
• Owned by: Michael Holman, American, born 1955
• Type: silent films
• Type: home movies
• Type: color films (visual works)
• Type: Super 8
• Medium: acetate film and plastic
• Dimensions: Duration: 3 Minutes
• Dimensions: Length (Film): 50 Feet
• Place depicted: Bethlehem, West Bank, Palestine, Asia
• Place depicted: Rome, Italy, Europe
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Families
• Topic: Film
• Topic: Travel
• Object number: 2016.31.3.17.1ab
• Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
• Data Source: National Museum of African American History and Culture

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of African American History and Culture through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed. The underlying object's rights statement is: © Michael Holman Permission required for use. Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.