College days capers: Collegiate Experiences & Capers at UND during “the Revolution” of the Late 60s & Early 70s

Conservation & Capture

Original format: 8mm, silent

Digital format: Footage captured at standard definition resolution of 720 x 486

Length/feet or running time: Approx. 700ft

Circa: 1968-1971

Lab: The MediaPreserve

Status: Conservation and digital completed. Internet Archive upload coming soon.

Grantee/Filmmaker

Call me a mid-century modern, I grew up in rural McHenry County, a “Velva Hammer”, and attended college at University of North Dakota in Grand Forks during very turbulent times. Ah, the 60s!

I decamped to the Coast - first San Francisco and then Los Angeles - but eventually repatriated to North Dakota. Thus I have resided in Bismarck this entire century. I took this adage to heart: Anyone can love a mountain or a seashore, but it takes soul to love the prairies.

I never established a focused, professional career but kept that proverbial wolf-from-the-door and managed to stay solvent via a myriad of jobs and employ. Now admitting to “semi-retired” status, I work part-time at Bismarck’s lovely Capital Gallery, where the fine arts and creativity of regional artists merge with commerce, culture and conversation.

Ensconced on Bismarck’s Historic Sixth Street  in the equally historic Capitol Court Apartments, I enjoy the luxury of living alone. I hope to receive mail and erstwhile visitors here until the nephews move me to the old folks’ home. I manage my collections of gathered itemry, read voraciously and cook for myself. In winter I am an “ice queen crone”, donning skates and enjoying winter to the fullest extent. Ingen dårlig vær, bare dårlig klær!  Not bad weather, just bad clothes!

I will forever be a novice birder but oh, those things with wings, out on the prairies and in the potholes! On Tuesdays, I read and record for the Talking Books Program at the State Library.

A new mission within the last year involves research and preparation of presentations for Sons of Norway lodges:  Norsk Tinger I Nord Dakota (Norwegian Things in North Dakota). Public speaking gigs that combine history and my cultural heritage are fun and rewarding. Who knew PowerPoint could be so enlivening? My self-ascribed credential is A.G.E.D. which stands for Autodidact Gadfly Enthusiast  Dilettante.

Yes, if a picture is worth a thousand words, what do moving images merit?

~ Judith Hammer

The Collection

Somehow I took possession of an 8mm Movie Camera when I was a freshman at college. On occasion, for a few years, I enjoyed being the designated but sporadic cinematographer within my peer group.  Perhaps I was inspired by the foreign films shown in the Student Union Ballroom on weekends. Leaving home for college, making new friends that fostered camaraderie, discovering and experiencing cultural offerings and exposure to social movements beyond the ken of small towns and my farm background, this was heady stuff.

The footage captures earlier times during the genesis of the Counter Culture on the High Plains. Longing for relevancy and a nod of consideration from both Coasts, we pored over issues of the National Lampoon and Rolling Stone and faced the realities of the Viet Nam War era and subsequent percolating social unrest as best we could muster from our vantage point here, on the center of the continent.

~ Judith Hammer