Cinema Bomar Films

Collection

Identifier: 2024-025

Staff Only

Cinema Bomar Films was donated and curated by the 16mm film collective, Cinema Bomar, which highlights local Houstonian home movies, camera tests, as well as promotional and industrial films created for Pennzoil, the Houston Chronicle, Monsanto, and IBM 1800. Of special interest is the Kennedy Assassination – Chronicle, 1963, film created by August Galiano, an amateur filmmaker and father of collection donor, Elizabeth Nelson, which depicts Galiano’s day working at the Houston Chronicle when the news broke of President JFK’s assassination. Other items of interest are Shopping in Houston, MFAH at night, 1966-09-10, Smoggy Houston, 1966, and Chronicle Footage, which show historic buildings and sites of Houston’s past.

The collection consists of 53 16mm films, 2 Super 8mm films, and 5 quarter inch open reel audio tracks and predominantly consists of films related to the Houston Chronicle. Gaps in the numbering of split screen film rolls indicate that some films and audio tracks may be missing. Digitized versions of A Penzoil Day, Pennzoil in Perspective, and The Chocolate Bayou Story, can be found online at Texas Archive of the Moving Image.

Dates

1956-1978

Creator

Cinema Bomar (Organization)

Conditions Governing Access

Open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

Special Collections owns the physical items in our collections, but copyright normally belongs to the creator of the materials or their heirs. The researcher has full responsibility for determining copyright status, obtaining permission to publish from copyright holders, and abiding by current copyright laws when publishing or displaying copies of Special Collections material in print or electronic form. For more information, consult the appropriate librarian. Reproduction decisions will be made by Special Collections staff on a case-by-case basis.

Extent

60 Item

Additional Description

Historical Information

Partners, Elizabeth and Paul Nelson, began collecting ephemeral films in the 1980s after a friend handed off a rescued 16mm film to them. Shortly after, the Nelsons continued acquiring 16mm films that were in the process of being discarded at a local public school. Without any playback equipment, the Nelson’s had no way of watching or listening to their collection of films until Elizabeth attended an auction at UH’s Education Department and purchased a pallet of discarded A.V. equipment. In 1994, the Nelson’s moved to the Montrose area and purchased a house on Bomar Street where they began to project their films in their backyard.

Eventually, the name, Cinema Bomar, was coined and the collective began to screen their 16mm films in other venues such as the Domy Book Store and Aurora Picture Show among others. The screenings were done with the goal of providing Houstonians with an opportunity to experience watching vintage and rapidly deteriorating films in their original formats before they were gone forever. The screenings often included home movies, camera tests, educational, corporate, industrial, and promotional films spanning from the 1940s to the 1970s.