The Implosion of the Durham Hotel, 1975

THE IMPLOSION OF THE DURHAM HOTEL, 1975
The other film I made in high school film class in 1975, this one a collaboration with 3 other students/friends. I had the film transferred from its original Super8 film onto DVD at the same time I had the Mattel Place one done. The original Super8 footage was very sharp at the time we shot the film, and had degraded a lot over time...however in this case I think time's damage might have added to the film, giving it a soft haziness that somehow evokes the original feeling of the event even more.

For this film I added the credits at the beginning and end myself, along with the music, and a poem I had written in 1979 about the hotel's implosion.

The Durham Hotel was a landmark of downtown Durham...the day it came down was a tremendously sad one. It held a lot of wonderful memories for many people, including myself.

Turn your sound on, but the music doesn't start until the beginning credits are over, just so you know. The music, by Leonard Bernstein, is a mix I made from the achingly beautiful soundtrack of my favorite film of all time, "To Kill A Mockingbird".

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• implosion
• explosion
• demolition
• washington
• duke
• hotel
• billie
• mann
• fran
• worde
• durham
• jack
• tar
• 1975
• documentary
• experimental
• short
• film

[plaedbread]

wonderful,

thank you!

founded in your channel_

it makes me sad

still remember

....

[poohbearwms]

Wow! Very cool! :)

[TH1RDE5TATE]

So well done. Liked your poem alot. I would never have known. It's a shame that it's just an empty space.

[garycalgary]

i too compliment you on the music choice, sad and eloquent

never been to this place but with the amount of implosion videos i have watched there are tons of buildings which are very nice of historical value which are being lost

[mentalrectangle]

I'm still really pissed off that they tore this magnificent hotel down. The block it sat on remains empty to this day, another scar in Durham's downtown, which lost many buildings as corporations relocated to the suburbs and left the city center dead.

[randygupton2]

Your music selection is wonderful. The feel and quality of the Super 8 certainly transports you back in time to another era. I love history. It is a shame we don't cherish these historical sites instead of making way for "progress." A parking garage? How pathetic. Great job on the film.

[seriousmetalrs]

Great video--i guess that is to all of us that are from durham and understand

R.I.P. Hotel Durham

Dirty-D, D-bloc

[Davett53]

Wow ! Stunning. Like a great piece of cinema. Everything is working,

the fuzzy edges of the images creating that half forgotten memory

of a dream. The music selection was perfect, nostalgic, evocative.

The poetry helps paint the melancholic feel of the film.

It looked and felt like some of my own dream recollections. Nice.

[Sequoya]

This is a beautiful video