Bob and Toni's History
The "we" behind LittleFilm.org is Bob Brodsky and Toni Treadway. We have worked together since 1976 as Brodsky & Treadway and offer technical services in film. The website explaining our technical services is B&T's dot com. We are filmmakers and writers who may be best known as advocates of 8mm filmmaking, both for family and artist filmmakers.
If you are interested in all the books and articles we have written dating back to 1978, look at this list ofour publications.
To get a idea of what we have been doing on the road to "spread the word" (besides our technical work which earns our keep,) here's all the workshops we have ever given, worldwide.
We received some wonderful film festival honors and a few funny looking awards for our 1980 Super 8, sound on film, documentary "John Lindquist Photographer of the Dance." Our big award as a team came in recognition of quality technical services and our actions as advocates. Our 1988 INDY award was given by the Association of Independent Film and Video. It was AIVF's Eastman Kodak Award for Excellence "for setting internationally recognized standards for work in Super 8 film." As this was voted on by many filmmakers we had worked with in the first decade, we really like looking at our award bookends.
Ancient History: Bob Brodsky first made movies in 1944 with a Risden 16mm camera and war surplus film from gunsight cameras. A McCarthy-era detour lead him to another career but he got to New England and then by 1967 back to his first love photography and filmmaking as an independent producer. Making 16mm films and slide shows for many uses in a New England mill city, he embraced Fuji's Single 8mm, then Kodak's Super 8mm film as an accessible moving image tool for community films.
Toni Treadway joined Bob in film work and in 1976, we made 4 documentaries on the Bicentennial, one in 16mm, 3 in Super 8. This lead Toni to the "aha!" moment, saying, "this little film is important; it gives people the tools to record their lives. I think we ought to concentrate in helping them with it." We spent a lot of time in those years writing articles, and coaching people on the phone about filmmaking.
THE STUDIO
We launched Brodsky and Treadway, our film-to-tape transfer studio in 1980 because we were dissatisfied with available transfer services for the Lindquist film. Also industry prejudice towards Super 8 film was tiresome. Thankfully, after years of singing the merits of 8mm film, we find attitudes have changed.
We wrote a monthly column in Filmmakers magazine from 1978-1980 and went on to write from 1980-1991, ten years of monthly articles for The Independent. We criss-crossed the country giving workshops on small grants from the National Endowment for the Arts in the early 1980's as advocates for Super 8 film. This activity was at a time when 8mm, Super 8 and film itself were perceived as dead media because of the onslaught of home video and camcorders. We even succeeded in bringing 10 Super 8 filmmakers from overseas to tour the state with help from the Massachusetts Cultural Council.
THE BOOK
In 1983 we wrote a Super 8 filmmaking book of systems called "Super 8 in the Video Age" to answer frequently asked questions and address appropriate uses of Super 8. At present the book is excerpted in the website but we let it go out-of-print as much of the equipment mentioned in it was no longer available. It may re-appear in a revised edition here.
In 1983 when our studio was full of work we founded the non-profit organization IC8© The International Center for 8mm Film. IC8, through donations from readers, publishes the newsletter "B&T's Little Film Notebook" now on-line and offers the community website littlefilm.org. IC8 is a 501(c)3 organization, FEID # 042785437. Donations to the IC8 will help support the website. They are US tax deductible in most casesand can be sent to IC8, P.O. Box 335 Rowley MA 01969 USA
THE GOOD NEWS
Today, we see 8mm film still alive, Super 8 film more hearty than years ago, and the mediamaking scene more independent, open, tolerant and lively than ever. More artists, producers, archives and families have gotten the message about preserving the images and artworks on 8mm film. More film archives, librarians, researchers, producers and historians have begun to take the Little Film seriously.
To return to Brodsky and Treadway home page click here.
Please visit the rest of big website for more information and FAQs about filmmaking and preservation of 8mm and Super 8 films: LittleFilm.org
