# Old high quality color sound film of people just being themselves? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 26, 2017, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-high-quality-color-sound-film-of-people-just-being-themselves/787454 "2017-05-26T02:05:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![KellyCriterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b3f665/32.png) [@KellyCriterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KellyCriterion)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2017, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-high-quality-color-sound-film-of-people-just-being-themselves/787454/1 "2017-05-26T02:05:22Z")
[The Woodstock documentary](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066580/) features a lot of interviews and footage of the festival attendees just being themselves. The image and sound quality of the film (for its time) is very good in my opinion. The combination of the high quality recording, the unscripted nature of what’s being recorded, and the age of the recording adds a really special dimension for me. Seeing a bunch of teenagers and twenty-somethings with their whole lives ahead of them, yet at the same time knowing that what we are seeing was filmed almost 50 years ago. These people aren’t teenagers any more. They’re 70 years old now. I’m curious if there exists other documentary-style “high quality” color sound film recordings like this - of people just being themselves - that pre-dates the Woodstock documentary? ---
**Author:** ![KellyCriterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b3f665/32.png) [@KellyCriterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KellyCriterion)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2017, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-high-quality-color-sound-film-of-people-just-being-themselves/787454/2 "2017-05-26T03:19:53Z")
[7 Plus Seven](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066356/) (1970) is an example of the types of film I’m asking for. (This was filmed around the same time as the Woodstock doco). ---
**Author:** ![joema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a9adbd/32.png) [@joema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joema)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2017, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-high-quality-color-sound-film-of-people-just-being-themselves/787454/3 "2017-05-26T03:45:32Z")
It’s not color but Frederick Wiseman’s 1968 “High School” documentary is a good example: [https://vimeo.com/176401029](https://vimeo.com/176401029) [http://www.zipporah.com/films/21](http://www.zipporah.com/films/21) ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2017, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-high-quality-color-sound-film-of-people-just-being-themselves/787454/4 "2017-05-26T12:13:01Z")
Well if we use the “around the same time” vs. “pre-date” criterion then _[Gimme Shelter](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065780/)_ qualifies. One of the amateur cameramen was someone called George Lucas. He just showed up with his own camera and later sold footage to the filmmakers. Wondered whatever happened to the kid. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2017, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-high-quality-color-sound-film-of-people-just-being-themselves/787454/5 "2017-05-26T12:48:14Z")
[_The Endless Summer_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Endless_Summer) (1966) followed surfers around the world. It’s in color, but was probably shot silent and narration added. ---
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2017, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-high-quality-color-sound-film-of-people-just-being-themselves/787454/6 "2017-05-26T15:04:27Z")
[Photos, not film](https://www.unbelievable-facts.com/2016/02/100-years-old-color-photos-russia.html) - but still spectacular and something you might be interested in: Everyday scenes of average people in pre-WWI Russia, something which makes you overcome the instinctive feeling that eras of the past were “not real”. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2017, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-high-quality-color-sound-film-of-people-just-being-themselves/787454/7 "2017-05-26T19:06:02Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > Well if we use the “around the same time” vs. “pre-date” criterion then _[Gimme Shelter](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065780/)_ qualifies. > > One of the amateur cameramen was someone called George Lucas. He just showed up with his own camera and later sold footage to the filmmakers. Wondered whatever happened to the kid. You know that one of the editors (the editor?) of _Woodstock_ was someone called Martin Scorsese, right? ---
**Author:** ![TSBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/77aa72/32.png) [@TSBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TSBG)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2017, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-high-quality-color-sound-film-of-people-just-being-themselves/787454/8 "2017-05-26T19:37:38Z")
You can try film archives like WPA and others–they have many clips available to preview online, and you can usually restrict searches by time parameters. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2017, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-high-quality-color-sound-film-of-people-just-being-themselves/787454/9 "2017-05-26T22:01:08Z")
The OP’s treating Woodstock as ancient history is really making me feel old. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2017, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-high-quality-color-sound-film-of-people-just-being-themselves/787454/10 "2017-05-27T00:19:01Z")
[…what’s this count as?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLaMmEFm7Fo&t=3m13s) ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2017, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-high-quality-color-sound-film-of-people-just-being-themselves/787454/11 "2017-05-27T12:09:01Z")
not quite what the OP is looking for, but still worth checking out: There’s a fascinating site called [ww.shorpy.com](http://ww.shorpy.com) It’s a photo archive of old photos mostly from newspapers., (stills, not video, mostly in black and white, but some in color.) The are many photos with non-posed shots of people “just being themselves.”–and _way_ before the Woodstock era! Here’s [one example](http://www.shorpy.com/node?page=101) from 1943, of a group of random people, sitting around in a park. I found it interesting to see blacks and whites sitting side by side, casually sharing the same space. ---
**Author:** ![Pilgrim\_Shadow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Pilgrim\_Shadow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pilgrim_Shadow)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2017, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-high-quality-color-sound-film-of-people-just-being-themselves/787454/12 "2017-05-28T07:12:48Z")
> [@joema](#): > > It’s not color but Frederick Wiseman’s 1968 “High School” documentary is a good example: > > [https://vimeo.com/176401029](https://vimeo.com/176401029) > [Zipporah Films High School](http://www.zipporah.com/films/21) Yes, I recommend any of the Frederick Wiseman movies you can see. Ironically, the one that is most widely available now is “[Titicut Follies](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titicut_Follies),” which was banned for over 20 years. I remember seeing “High School” in the seventies. It took me a while to find on the Internet, and now I forgot where I saw it. ---
**Author:** ![KellyCriterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b3f665/32.png) [@KellyCriterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KellyCriterion)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2017, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-high-quality-color-sound-film-of-people-just-being-themselves/787454/13 "2017-06-07T03:20:41Z")
Thanks everyone.