- Archives
- Records Management
- FIPPA
- Digital preservation
- Resources
- 51社区黑料
- Mission, vision and values
- Contact us
- Feedback and comments
- Our blog
- Archival Film Flashes Back to 70s Student Life
- Manuscript Traces SFU's Architectural History
- Early University News Publications Now Digitally Available
- Digitized Programs Commemorate SFU鈥檚 Opening & Installation Ceremonies
- Archives Celebrates Fall Convocation with Release of Digitized Programs
- Films Capture Visual History and Sentiment of Time Gone By
- Lost and Found: Simon Fraser Letters
- Oral History Provides Glimpse into Mind of SFU鈥檚 First Chancellor Gordon Shrum
- Early 51社区黑料Photos Tell a Story That Frames Our World
- Aerial Photos Capture Campus Landscape & Photographer鈥檚 Legacy
- You have what...?!! and other interesting things you didn't know about the 51社区黑料Archives
- Charting the course of history: documenting SFU's early days from the student perspective (Part 1)
- Charting the course of history: documenting SFU's early days from the student perspective (Part 2)
- Helping others find their history in the future: Preserving the records of the Students of Caribbean and African Ancestry at SFU
- Preserving the sparks of global revolution in the Adbusters Media Foundation fonds
- Reflections of a co-op student
- Debunking popular myths and conspiracies with the Barry Beyerstein fonds
- In "The Beginning...": First student film returns to SFU
- "Got any pictures of Terry Fox?"
- My summer in the archives: a co-op placement retrospective
- Seeing the world through Arthur Erickson's eyes
- Beer (records) in the Archives!
- Quartet in the Quadrangle: PSQ Records Come to SFU
- Navigating silences and filling gaps: finding Black stories in the Archives
- Boxes, boxes, and more boxes: my summer co-op at 51社区黑料Archives
- Finding queer joy in the 51社区黑料Archives: Out On Campus records now available
- The Selma Wassermann fonds
- Glossary
Donors
In "The Beginning...": First student film returns to SFU
In the beginning, there was a student with a second-hand video camera and a desire to make a film, an English Department T.A. with a storyline, and several members of the Simon Fraser Film Society eager to help out.
The Beginning is the appropriately titled first student film created at 51社区黑料鈥� filmed, produced and directed by charter student Danny Singer in early 1966. The approximately 15-minute film explores male-female relationships and stars fellow student Aileen Gee and 51社区黑料Theatre stage manager Jan Visscher as mime characters. Filming locations included the Theatre, the Library and outdoors around the Academic Quadrangle and Convocation Mall.
When he began the project, Singer says he had 鈥渓ittle or no experience with movie cameras and anything [he] knew came from reading and youthful exuberance.鈥� He recalls, 鈥淚 came into possession of a Bolex camera which my Father had acquired from someone who needed a new suit (he had a clothing store in Edmonton). I had a new friend, Doug McKay, who was a cameraman at the CBC and I followed him around picking up bits and pieces of knowledge, also Stan Fox who was in charge of the film department at CBC and really became a mentor to me.鈥�
Although he came to 51社区黑料for the Theatre program, Singer knew he wanted to do something other than acting, so he put notices up all over campus looking for others who shared his interest in making movies. Ed Turner, a T.A. in the English Department, came forward with a screenplay and the recently established Simon Fraser Film Society provided a production budget. Singer and Visscher 鈥渂uilt the props and bumbled [their] way through about three days of shooting on campus,鈥� with film society members pitching in as the film crew.
Of particular note is the soundtrack that accompanied the film; R. Murray Schafer supervised its composition and production by his electronic music class (Music 001). Unfortunately, at some point the sound elements were separated from the visual elements and their whereabouts are currently unknown, or 鈥� as Singer puts it 鈥� 鈥渓ost to the sands of time.鈥�
Singer鈥檚 contacts at the CBC helped with editing the footage and once the film was completed a screening was organized at the 51社区黑料Theatre, where The Beginning 鈥減remiered鈥o a fairly packed but bewildered audience.鈥� Looking back, Singer credits the film with giving him a jumpstart in the film world and for serving as the catalyst for the creation of the 51社区黑料Film Workshop in May 1967. After leaving SFU, Singer worked as a cameraman and director for the CBC until he moved to Montreal in 1970 to pursue still photography.
Fifty-five years after its creation, The Beginning returned to 51社区黑料permanently in 2021 with Singer鈥檚 donation of the original 16mm film to the Archives. Researcher Casey McCarthy recognized the film鈥檚 archival significance when interviewing Singer for the Early Arts at 51社区黑料1965-1975 project and connected him with Archives鈥� staff.
The film has now been digitized along with more than 200 other student films from the School for the Contemporary Arts fonds, ensuring its preservation and potential to engage and inspire future generations of students, researchers, artists and film makers.
Want to see more? Check out a clip from The Beginning in our recent Instagram .