The intrepid Bradley Reeves and Louisa Trott from the Tennessee Archive of Moving Image and Sound report a new 9.5mm discovery from the Knoxville Amateur Cinema Club.

One of the best existing Knoxville-based films they’ve ever found was one in the collection of the Thompson family. Shot mostly at and around the University of Tennessee in 1931, it was called “College Life.” It shows a snowball fight, students mugging for the camera, some track and field events, a parade with student-made floats. TAMIS showed it at one of their home-movie nights at the East Tennessee History Center.

Brad says the cinematography—not a word usually associated with home movies—suggests professional skill. It impressed him and Louisa so much they set out to find as much as they could about the guy that made the film. At first it wasn’t much. His name was Robert J. Clements, and he was a UT student. He’d attended Boyd Junior High, and Knoxville High, and lived in apparently modest rental accommodations on Saxton Street in East Knoxville.

Source: Knoxville Metropulse