Found Art- East 31st Street

“There’s no such thing as a bad home movie.”—John Waters.

The home movies screened at Normal’s Books & Records tonight include the expected clips of a 1950s-era Ocean City vacation and an Irish-Catholic wedding reception of the same vintage. There’s footage of a crammed 1983 East Baltimore rowhouse Christmas, a swinging sermon from a local black church, and shots of a sister and brother playing in their Rogders Forge backyard, which begins in rather pedestrian fashion until the boy dons a Fidel Castro-inspired beard and Cuban military-style cap, picks up a toy rifle and chases after his sister. Some of the footage screened is from professionally archived sources, others are found on eBay and the like, and some are courtesy of audience members who have brought along their own home movies.

“Hey, it was 1959,” the grown-up would be revolutionary explains from the back of the crowd amid raucous laughter. “Castro was a hero in the U.S.”