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(Bolex camera clicking)
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(relaxing piano music)
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(film reel flapping in wind)
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(birds chirping)
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Alyssa: I grew up with video cameras,
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always wanting to tell stories and make movies.
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But it wasn't until I was in film school
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that I touched actual film.
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(film reel flapping in wind)
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At the time I had no idea that there was a long,
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lost family legacy waiting to be uncovered,
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a treasure trove going all the way back
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to the early days of film.
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(upbeat piano music)
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It all started at my grandfather, Emil's memorial.
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(clock ticking)
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I never knew my grandfather well.
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He lived across the country from me
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and he had a strained relationship with my father.
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So when I went to his memorial,
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it was like I was getting to know him for the first time.
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(clock ticking)
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My grandfather, Emil was a bit of a pack rat.
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So after he died there was just an enormous amount
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to go through.
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(relaxing piano music)
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And that's when I discovered
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that he saved an entire archive of his father,
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my great-grandfather, Jacques,
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and Jacques was some kind of forgotten camera inventor.
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(playful upbeat music)
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I spent the weekend in the attic,
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reading some articles Jacques wrote about cameras
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of the future and camera automation.
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He seemed very ahead of his time.
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It was almost like he was envisioning the kind
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of technology that we all have today.
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(relaxing violin music)
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I had been going through cameras all weekend,
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but one was different from the others.
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It was wrapped up,
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kind of like a present.
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(paper rustling)
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I knew it was important
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but I didn't yet know how important the Bolex was.
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(upbeat guitar music)
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From iconic avant-garde filmmakers like Maya Deren
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in the 1940s,
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to artists like Andy Warhol.
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Just, you don't have to do anything.
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Alyssa: Or filmmakers like Steven Spielberg in the 1960s,
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or Peter Jackson and Spike Lee in the '80s.
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For maybe two generations of people who grew up
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in the '50, '60, '70s,
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the Bolex was the gateway
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and their dreams were attached to that camera.
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Bolex Reflex, it was like I died and went to heaven.
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We had to stop frame and wind the film back there,
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you could double expose on it.
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Basically, it was a box of tricks.
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(Bolex Paillard clicking)
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(upbeat instrumental music)
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They're nice and light and you can do a lot
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of camera moves with them.
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Barbara: This is a versatile little beast.
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As soon as I had it I realized I could be a filmmaker.
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(film reel rolling)
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Alyssa: Okay.
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I made my first movie when I was 12.
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(girls screaming hysterically)
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If you could even call it a movie.
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What did I ever do to you for you to treat me like this?
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(whistling zooming)
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Alyssa: Somewhere along the way it became my life.
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Wee.
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Again. Again.
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So I couldn't but wonder
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how I never knew the story of my great-grandfather,
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Jacques, and his Bolex invention.
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Was it because of the rift between my father
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and his father, Emil?
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He was very volatile
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and I think that the reason was tension.
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He was very, very tense.
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My dad was not a confider,
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just so many things he did that we knew nothing about
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and had to reconstruct.
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We've had to reconstruct because,
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partly 'cause he never told us,
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and partly because we rarely asked him stuff.
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He wasn't a person to talk about the past.
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Alyssa: Do you think that's one reason
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why he kept all of the stuff,
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but didn't look at it or tell anyone it was there?
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I think that's part of it,
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yeah, definitely.
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I think he was somebody who had demons
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and just didn't want to face them.
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(people chatting)
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Alyssa: Whatever the truth was,
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it was too late to ask Emil any questions.
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So it became my quest to uncover the truth
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about my family and the Bolex,
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using the artifacts my grandfather
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and great-grandfather left behind.
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(relaxing piano music)
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I had always thought I was the only filmmaker in the family,
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but we found reels and reels of films.
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I was thinking about the titles,
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that most of them were home movies.
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(film reel rolling)
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But the films were brittle and some were warped
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and a lot of them spelled a vinegar
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which meant they were rotting.
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(film projector clicking)
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I knew that Jacques invented the Bolex in Switzerland.
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So I contacted the Cinematheque Swiss
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and I told them about our discovery and they were ecstatic.
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Apparently Jacques was known
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as an early filmmaker in Switzerland,
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or even a film pioneer.
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And there were even lists of his lost films.
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So we shipped them off,
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not knowing if it was too late to save them.
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Jacques's films seemed like the closest I would ever get
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to actually meeting him.
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But now it was looking like maybe even
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those were lost to time.
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But I wasn't ready to give up.
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(upbeat playful instrumental music)
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I was consumed by the idea that maybe it wasn't too late
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to get to know Jacques.
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There were boxes of documents and photographs.
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Everything was a challenge because they were
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in several languages.
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Jacques went by three different last names.
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And a lot of the material was quite technical.
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And then there were the gaps,
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months and years missing.
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I knew that I had to get serious
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if I was going to uncover Jacques's story.
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So I quit my job and I moved into my mother's house.
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(Alyssa groaning)
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All my friends were climbing career ladders
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and getting married,
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and I was single, broke,
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and obsessed with the story of a man I never met.
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Hi.
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You spotted me and the Bolex.
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Hi.
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It's good to see you.
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(laughing)
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So we're gonna take a ferry.
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Roland Cosandey is a film historian
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who has been researching Jacques
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and his films for decades.
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I contacted him to let him know what we had found.
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(relaxing piano music)
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I think this is one of the most important gifts
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in the search about Boolsky.
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And this is really a treasure.
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People think an historian is somebody who brings answers.
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I'm convinced that an historian is somebody
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who brings questions.
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That means that you are working on something with gaps.
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You are trying to find out where,
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if one can fill up that those gaps.
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You have your questions.
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I have mine.
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But in a certain way we are confronted
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with the same difficulties.
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Alyssa: My great-grandfather had taken thousands
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of photographs and dozens of hours of films in his lifetime.
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So we started with where Jacques came from?
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My dad and his siblings were kids when Jacques died.
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They didn't know much,
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but they told me some basics.
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(relaxing instrumental music)
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Jacques was born in Kiev in 1895.
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His given name was Yakov Bogopolsky.
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He and his three brothers and one sister grew up
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in Astrakhan, Russia.
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His family were Jewish intellectuals with medical
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and engineering degrees.
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And his mother was a concert pianist.
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What we do know about the family is
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that they were all scientifically oriented.
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It tells you that the family must have put enormous value
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on that form of education.
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And the kind of twist with Jacov is that he started going
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off in his own tangent which was art.
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(relaxing instrumental music)
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Alyssa: Around 1910, when he was 15 years old,
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Jacques launched a photography business in his neighborhood.
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Roland: How old is he?
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Alyssa: There?
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Roland: Yes.
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Alyssa: To me he looks maybe 16.
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Roland: Boolsky hunting.
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(Alyssa chuckling)
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Here, as Nansen the Explorer.
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Photographs are lies,
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we know that but we can put up stories.
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Alyssa: Are films lies too?
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Roland: Of course.
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Alyssa: So if you can't find truth from images,
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films or documents,
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where do you find?
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Roland: In between, I don't know where
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that in between lays but there is an in between.
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(relaxing upbeat instrumental music)
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Alyssa: Jacques seemed very at ease
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in front of the camera.
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Even early on he seemed to explore himself
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through his own art,
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especially his own image.
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He even had an entire photo album of selfies.
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When it was time for Jacques to find a profession,
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he decided he wanted to be a doctor.
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But at the time,
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there were quotas in effect for Jews
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to study medicine in Russia.
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In 1913, when he was 17 years old,
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Jacques left his family behind to study medicine
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in Geneva, Switzerland.
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He enrolled in medical and art school
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and he supported himself by drawing portraits
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of his professors.
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He was intensely visual,
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whether it was science or optics or engineering.
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To him and made no,
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there was no differentiation.
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Alyssa: While in medical school,
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one of his professors
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was researching the peristaltic movements of the heart,
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which at the time was a medical mystery.
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The professor mentioned
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that he wished he could record those movements on film.
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And Jacques impulsively volunteered to build a movie camera
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to do just that.
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Six months later the camera was at success
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and they were on the road doing lectures
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about it at universities.
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And 10 years later he was inventing the Bolex.
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The model that I had found
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in the attic was almost a 100 years old,
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but it was a lot different than the early cameras
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I'd been learning about in film school.
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I wanted to know more about what he was trying to do
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and what kind of cameras he grew up with?
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Well, in the teens,
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most cameras that were being used
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were professional 35 millimeter movie cameras.
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The professional cameras you could buy for like 250 or $300
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which was a lot of money in those days.
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(cameras clicking)
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The difficulty with early amateur systems
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for making films is the film stock itself
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was extremely flammable, number one.
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The skills that you needed
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to get a good exposure were difficult.
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And the equipment itself was large and bulky.
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There definitely was a demand for films outside
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of the studio atmosphere.
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A lot of different companies saw an opportunity
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at that time.
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Alyssa: The Bolex must've been Jacques' solution
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to these problems.
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It was relatively lightweight
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and I'd read that it was user-friendly.
271
00:13:24,090 --> 00:13:27,190
But embarrassingly, I had never even loaded one before.
272
00:13:27,190 --> 00:13:28,020
(winding clicking)
273
00:13:28,020 --> 00:13:29,390
So I looked it up on YouTube.
274
00:13:30,400 --> 00:13:33,280
(plastic clicking)
275
00:13:33,280 --> 00:13:34,130
(birds chirping)
276
00:13:34,130 --> 00:13:36,120
The Bolex was designed to be portable,
277
00:13:36,120 --> 00:13:38,180
self-powered and quick to learn,
278
00:13:39,090 --> 00:13:41,280
and had a turret for multiple lenses.
279
00:13:41,280 --> 00:13:44,050
(upbeat guitar music)
280
00:13:44,050 --> 00:13:46,190
It could be loaded anywhere,
281
00:13:46,190 --> 00:13:47,380
even in the daylight.
282
00:13:48,560 --> 00:13:51,640
It was durable and it could withstand extreme conditions
283
00:13:51,640 --> 00:13:54,660
and temperatures that other cameras couldn't.
284
00:13:54,660 --> 00:13:55,810
Being hand powered,
285
00:13:55,810 --> 00:13:58,280
the Bolex could be taken anywhere around the world.
286
00:13:58,280 --> 00:13:59,790
(birds chirping)
287
00:13:59,790 --> 00:14:02,540
(camel grunting)
288
00:14:04,800 --> 00:14:07,550
(Bolex clicking)
289
00:14:11,410 --> 00:14:12,840
(Bolex squeaking)
290
00:14:12,840 --> 00:14:15,130
I teach filmmaking at the new school.
291
00:14:15,130 --> 00:14:17,100
I'll take the Bolex and put it down in front
292
00:14:17,100 --> 00:14:19,250
of my students and tell them,
293
00:14:19,250 --> 00:14:21,240
this is the Bolex.
294
00:14:21,240 --> 00:14:24,000
It's made in Switzerland and it's the camera
295
00:14:24,000 --> 00:14:26,050
that's just like the Swiss Army Knife.
296
00:14:26,050 --> 00:14:29,040
(Bolex clicking)
297
00:14:29,040 --> 00:14:31,730
Students now, they've grown up
298
00:14:31,730 --> 00:14:33,840
in a completely digital environment
299
00:14:33,840 --> 00:14:37,670
and there's a longing to have a medium
300
00:14:37,670 --> 00:14:40,390
that has a physical presence to it.
301
00:14:40,390 --> 00:14:44,230
Hopefully that means film will stick around.
302
00:14:44,230 --> 00:14:47,340
When you think of how many different cameras have come
303
00:14:47,340 --> 00:14:51,100
and gone and not endured as long.
304
00:14:51,100 --> 00:14:53,070
You had VHS,
305
00:14:53,070 --> 00:14:54,410
S-VHS,
306
00:14:54,410 --> 00:14:57,790
little VHS-C, regular eight millimeter video,
307
00:14:57,790 --> 00:14:59,160
then Hi8,
308
00:14:59,160 --> 00:15:00,300
Mini DV,
309
00:15:00,300 --> 00:15:04,690
now HD, it's probably going to go in the dustbin.
310
00:15:04,690 --> 00:15:05,970
And this Bolex,
311
00:15:05,970 --> 00:15:07,440
you put film in it
312
00:15:07,440 --> 00:15:11,540
and it is still giving you this beautiful image.
313
00:15:11,540 --> 00:15:13,200
(camera squeaking)
314
00:15:13,200 --> 00:15:15,480
So now I think I'm gonna try to get some shots trembling
315
00:15:15,480 --> 00:15:19,340
down the spiral staircase, double expose,
316
00:15:19,340 --> 00:15:21,280
and double exposed it again and double expose it again.
317
00:15:22,260 --> 00:15:25,510
(upbeat trumpet music)
318
00:15:32,150 --> 00:15:34,980
(camera clicking)
319
00:15:46,400 --> 00:15:49,560
The portability of the Bolex,
320
00:15:49,560 --> 00:15:53,050
even now at almost 76,
321
00:15:53,050 --> 00:15:57,550
I find this an exceedingly balanced camera.
322
00:15:59,690 --> 00:16:03,090
For the Bolex you don't need a permit to shoot anywhere
323
00:16:03,090 --> 00:16:05,780
because this was non-threatening.
324
00:16:05,780 --> 00:16:09,220
Your great-grandfather, when he invented this,
325
00:16:09,220 --> 00:16:11,530
he invented all the, quote,
326
00:16:11,530 --> 00:16:16,530
tricks that Melies used in the very birth of cinema.
327
00:16:17,720 --> 00:16:21,330
So I imagine that he was influenced by those films
328
00:16:21,330 --> 00:16:22,380
and that he saw them.
329
00:16:24,990 --> 00:16:27,390
When I began filmmaking I didn't have any money,
330
00:16:27,390 --> 00:16:31,050
so I would teach women filmmaking in my studios.
331
00:16:31,050 --> 00:16:35,100
And I would tell them that it's not only portable
332
00:16:35,100 --> 00:16:37,220
but once it's in your hands,
333
00:16:37,220 --> 00:16:40,100
you can use your body like a tripod.
334
00:16:40,100 --> 00:16:41,870
Because you have wide hips,
335
00:16:41,870 --> 00:16:44,820
so your center of balance is lower than men's
336
00:16:44,820 --> 00:16:46,220
and you can swivel.
337
00:16:46,220 --> 00:16:47,490
They could tilt.
338
00:16:47,490 --> 00:16:51,300
They could use their core strength.
339
00:16:51,300 --> 00:16:56,300
And I do not have to have my eye on the lens
340
00:16:56,450 --> 00:16:59,550
because I have a 10 millimeter on
341
00:16:59,550 --> 00:17:01,870
and everything is in focus.
342
00:17:01,870 --> 00:17:04,050
You can take her to bed.
343
00:17:04,050 --> 00:17:06,310
You can cradle her.
344
00:17:06,310 --> 00:17:08,730
You can take her to the mountains.
345
00:17:08,730 --> 00:17:09,560
(Bolex clicking)
346
00:17:09,560 --> 00:17:11,800
Talking about this makes you wanna make another film
347
00:17:11,800 --> 00:17:12,970
with the Bolex.
348
00:17:12,970 --> 00:17:16,740
(Barbara chuckling)
349
00:17:16,740 --> 00:17:19,420
So this is my film on the shelf.
350
00:17:19,420 --> 00:17:20,950
(film reel wheel clanging)
351
00:17:20,950 --> 00:17:23,330
Alyssa: Jonas Mekas has used the Bolex for decades
352
00:17:23,330 --> 00:17:25,520
and is often referred to as the godfather
353
00:17:25,520 --> 00:17:27,980
of American avant-garde cinema.
354
00:17:27,980 --> 00:17:29,610
See, and there is the screen.
355
00:17:30,620 --> 00:17:32,830
Alyssa: He helped define the way we use the movie camera
356
00:17:32,830 --> 00:17:34,720
with his diary films.
357
00:17:34,720 --> 00:17:38,260
(dramatic upbeat music)
358
00:17:38,260 --> 00:17:40,950
From Andy Warhol and "The Velvet Underground",
359
00:17:40,950 --> 00:17:43,330
to Lou Reed and John Lennon,
360
00:17:43,330 --> 00:17:45,350
Jonas has been in the heart of the art scene
361
00:17:45,350 --> 00:17:46,380
in New York City.
362
00:17:54,020 --> 00:17:55,180
(clapperboard clicking)
363
00:17:55,180 --> 00:17:57,660
Bolex is like a typewriter
364
00:17:57,660 --> 00:18:01,220
and the video camera is like a pen,
365
00:18:01,220 --> 00:18:02,820
like a pencil.
366
00:18:02,820 --> 00:18:06,350
And just listen to the noise it makes.
367
00:18:06,350 --> 00:18:07,960
(Bolex reel humming)
368
00:18:07,960 --> 00:18:10,160
And you can change the noise.
369
00:18:11,740 --> 00:18:12,730
(Bolex reel humming)
370
00:18:12,730 --> 00:18:14,770
Oh, that's what 64 frames.
371
00:18:14,770 --> 00:18:17,030
(dramatic music)
372
00:18:17,030 --> 00:18:20,620
Bolex can do all that things that I need it.
373
00:18:20,620 --> 00:18:24,340
That some cameras you can superimpose,
374
00:18:24,340 --> 00:18:25,730
you can slow down,
375
00:18:25,730 --> 00:18:26,560
but, for instance,
376
00:18:26,560 --> 00:18:28,400
they are not so precise.
377
00:18:28,400 --> 00:18:32,660
You cannot wind back exactly three frames,
378
00:18:32,660 --> 00:18:35,510
and again, hit it back where you started.
379
00:18:36,780 --> 00:18:41,530
I began filming in November, 1949.
380
00:18:41,530 --> 00:18:44,290
That's when I got my first Bolex.
381
00:18:44,290 --> 00:18:49,290
But I finished my first film only in '61.
382
00:18:49,820 --> 00:18:51,650
You see, filming is one thing
383
00:18:51,650 --> 00:18:54,750
and to make a film is another thing.
384
00:18:54,750 --> 00:18:57,290
I kept a film diary.
385
00:18:57,290 --> 00:19:00,870
(dramatic accordion music)
386
00:19:02,280 --> 00:19:06,210
I consider myself in a way like anthropologist,
387
00:19:06,210 --> 00:19:10,540
trying to catch essential moments of humanity,
388
00:19:10,540 --> 00:19:12,320
today, around me.
389
00:19:12,320 --> 00:19:15,900
(dramatic accordion music)
390
00:19:18,900 --> 00:19:20,940
No matter what film you watch,
391
00:19:20,940 --> 00:19:24,190
you get to know the filmmaker if you know
392
00:19:24,190 --> 00:19:25,580
how to read images.
393
00:19:27,250 --> 00:19:30,750
(Bolex camera clicking)
394
00:19:30,750 --> 00:19:32,880
Alyssa: The Bolex story is getting bigger
395
00:19:32,880 --> 00:19:33,780
and clearer to me.
396
00:19:34,920 --> 00:19:36,730
But Jacques remained elusive.
397
00:19:38,130 --> 00:19:39,150
Unexpectedly,
398
00:19:40,630 --> 00:19:42,720
a package arrived from the Cinematheque.
399
00:19:45,250 --> 00:19:47,390
Inside where the first batch of transfers
400
00:19:47,390 --> 00:19:48,680
of Jacques's films.
401
00:19:49,880 --> 00:19:52,450
And all of a sudden he went from a man
402
00:19:52,450 --> 00:19:53,560
in a picture frame,
403
00:19:54,700 --> 00:19:55,770
to motion.
404
00:19:55,770 --> 00:19:59,100
(Bolex camera clicking)
405
00:20:01,270 --> 00:20:04,680
(relaxing guitar music)
406
00:20:07,210 --> 00:20:09,860
These were home movies from the 1920s and '30s
407
00:20:09,860 --> 00:20:11,750
when Jacques was inventing the Bolex.
408
00:20:18,750 --> 00:20:19,720
There were all these people
409
00:20:19,720 --> 00:20:22,850
who I had no idea who they were or where he was filming.
410
00:20:27,660 --> 00:20:29,610
Were these camera tests with his camera
411
00:20:30,650 --> 00:20:33,360
or was he documenting his life like we do today?
412
00:20:40,240 --> 00:20:42,360
Jonas Mekas said you could get to know a filmmaker
413
00:20:42,360 --> 00:20:45,210
through their films if you know how to read their images.
414
00:20:46,950 --> 00:20:49,670
But I don't know what that would mean in Jacques' case.
415
00:20:58,720 --> 00:21:00,740
So I found my great-grandfather's films
416
00:21:00,740 --> 00:21:02,970
that he shot over 40 years,
417
00:21:02,970 --> 00:21:05,590
and I can't ask him any questions about it.
418
00:21:05,590 --> 00:21:09,290
So he's kind of telling the story through his own footage
419
00:21:09,290 --> 00:21:11,530
but it almost has to be my interpretation of it
420
00:21:11,530 --> 00:21:14,980
because I don't know the story behind those films.
421
00:21:15,890 --> 00:21:17,760
Maybe some of the facts you don't know,
422
00:21:17,760 --> 00:21:20,450
but there may be feelings in the images
423
00:21:20,450 --> 00:21:22,230
that speak to you,
424
00:21:22,230 --> 00:21:24,980
and I think to follow that as the most important thing.
425
00:21:26,210 --> 00:21:27,830
I think sometimes it's thought that you have
426
00:21:27,830 --> 00:21:30,520
to kind of be true to the subject and all that.
427
00:21:31,530 --> 00:21:32,620
That's a big weight,
428
00:21:33,470 --> 00:21:34,310
a big load,
429
00:21:34,310 --> 00:21:36,800
you're making a film about your great-grandfather.
430
00:21:37,900 --> 00:21:42,040
Any film that you make comes out of yourself, you know.
431
00:21:42,040 --> 00:21:45,890
But he'll probably speak to you through the film, some way.
432
00:21:47,220 --> 00:21:48,980
You'll have a conversation with him
433
00:21:50,510 --> 00:21:51,960
and that's a beautiful thing.
434
00:21:54,980 --> 00:21:58,320
(relaxing piano music)
435
00:22:04,100 --> 00:22:07,070
Alyssa: I wonder what it would be like to meet Jacques,
436
00:22:08,150 --> 00:22:10,100
I mean, like really meet him in person?
437
00:22:11,150 --> 00:22:14,950
(waves swishing gently)
438
00:22:14,950 --> 00:22:17,590
Was Jacques a filmmaker
439
00:22:17,590 --> 00:22:21,060
or was his interest just in making tools for others?
440
00:22:23,530 --> 00:22:25,180
Why would Emil save all of this,
441
00:22:25,180 --> 00:22:27,150
and yet, not talk about his father?
442
00:22:29,750 --> 00:22:30,980
Did my grandfather, Emil,
443
00:22:30,980 --> 00:22:33,700
secretly want his father's archive to be found?
444
00:22:40,590 --> 00:22:41,440
(suitcase clicking)
445
00:22:41,440 --> 00:22:42,920
I spent the week in the attic looking
446
00:22:42,920 --> 00:22:45,530
for anything I may have missed the first time.
447
00:22:45,530 --> 00:22:48,830
(clock ticking)
448
00:22:48,830 --> 00:22:51,530
And then there was the journal.
449
00:22:55,240 --> 00:22:58,490
(relaxing piano music)
450
00:22:59,880 --> 00:23:02,640
Pages and pages of Jacques's own thoughts.
451
00:23:03,820 --> 00:23:05,830
The journal was from his time in Switzerland,
452
00:23:05,830 --> 00:23:08,650
starting just months before he released the first Bolex.
453
00:23:10,310 --> 00:23:11,870
(Bolex camera clicking)
454
00:23:11,870 --> 00:23:14,430
[Jacques Voiceover] August, one,
455
00:23:14,430 --> 00:23:18,950
my journal allows me to stop in the daily cause of things
456
00:23:18,950 --> 00:23:22,320
to go down into myself and to verify things
457
00:23:23,300 --> 00:23:24,900
such as hopes,
458
00:23:24,900 --> 00:23:26,800
if there is progress
459
00:23:26,800 --> 00:23:30,920
and to correct as needed the goals of my existence.
460
00:23:32,010 --> 00:23:33,600
And from time to time it's good
461
00:23:33,600 --> 00:23:36,450
to see if the compass is working,
462
00:23:36,450 --> 00:23:40,840
if the ship is actually sailing toward the goal.
463
00:23:40,840 --> 00:23:44,240
(Bolex camera clicking)
464
00:23:44,240 --> 00:23:48,080
(relaxing instrumental music)
465
00:23:57,210 --> 00:24:01,190
Business, made a series of films on the Bolex.
466
00:24:01,190 --> 00:24:04,820
This one is a marvel of clarity and value.
467
00:24:04,820 --> 00:24:09,750
It is in fact the first impeccable film made with the Bolex.
468
00:24:15,850 --> 00:24:18,380
Alyssa: His journal was almost like a treasure map.
469
00:24:18,380 --> 00:24:21,420
He wrote about a precursor to the Bolex,
470
00:24:21,420 --> 00:24:23,890
a 35 millimeter movie camera he invented
471
00:24:23,890 --> 00:24:26,270
called the Cinegraph Bol.
472
00:24:26,270 --> 00:24:28,300
I found the manuals for it in one of the boxes
473
00:24:28,300 --> 00:24:29,800
but there was no camera there.
474
00:24:30,840 --> 00:24:32,830
For some reason he didn't save one,
475
00:24:32,830 --> 00:24:35,630
and he actually didn't save much from the 1920s
476
00:24:35,630 --> 00:24:36,780
while living in Geneva.
477
00:24:39,230 --> 00:24:40,860
I needed to walk the streets he walked
478
00:24:40,860 --> 00:24:42,590
and to trace his steps.
479
00:24:44,120 --> 00:24:45,620
I needed to go to Switzerland.
480
00:24:46,640 --> 00:24:49,640
(airplane rumbling)
481
00:24:51,240 --> 00:24:54,490
(relaxing piano music)
482
00:24:58,870 --> 00:25:02,210
(Bolex camera clicking)
483
00:25:04,460 --> 00:25:07,710
(bicycle bell ringing)
484
00:25:09,840 --> 00:25:12,690
(birds chirping)
485
00:25:12,690 --> 00:25:16,020
(Bolex camera clicking)
486
00:25:22,120 --> 00:25:25,620
(knocking on wooden door)
487
00:25:28,210 --> 00:25:30,170
Hi, (speaking in foreign language).
488
00:25:30,170 --> 00:25:31,440
Michel: You say Jacques?
489
00:25:31,440 --> 00:25:32,280
Alyssa: Jacques.
490
00:25:32,280 --> 00:25:33,110
You say, Jacques.
491
00:25:33,110 --> 00:25:34,110
Yeah, Jacques. Yes, okay.
492
00:25:34,110 --> 00:25:35,270
Alyssa: Do you call him Boolsky,
493
00:25:35,270 --> 00:25:36,500
Bosky or Bolsey?
494
00:25:36,500 --> 00:25:37,960
Well, I don't know.
495
00:25:39,190 --> 00:25:43,120
The first time I heard about him it was Bogopolsky.
496
00:25:43,120 --> 00:25:46,400
And then afterwards Bolsky and then Bolsey,
497
00:25:47,300 --> 00:25:48,600
or you say, Bolsey?
498
00:25:48,600 --> 00:25:49,960
Alyssa: I say, Bolsey.
499
00:25:49,960 --> 00:25:51,460
Wow.
500
00:25:51,460 --> 00:25:54,660
Michel and his wife created the Auer and Ory Collection
501
00:25:54,660 --> 00:25:56,500
which is one of the most important photography
502
00:25:56,500 --> 00:25:58,490
collections in Switzerland.
503
00:25:58,490 --> 00:26:01,090
And they even have an original Cinegraph Bol camera.
504
00:26:02,750 --> 00:26:05,540
The inventors are not enough known.
505
00:26:05,540 --> 00:26:09,100
I don't think he is as known as he should.
506
00:26:09,100 --> 00:26:10,710
And the Bolex cameras
507
00:26:10,710 --> 00:26:14,720
are the finest cinema cameras in Switzerland.
508
00:26:14,720 --> 00:26:18,990
(relaxing upbeat playful music)
509
00:26:18,990 --> 00:26:20,420
Alyssa: Wow.
510
00:26:20,420 --> 00:26:22,510
Michel: Let's be surprised.
511
00:26:22,510 --> 00:26:24,170
Alyssa: So when's the last time you used this?
512
00:26:24,170 --> 00:26:25,670
I don't know. Never?
513
00:26:25,670 --> 00:26:29,560
(Bolex camera clicking)
514
00:26:29,560 --> 00:26:31,860
It's the automatic--
515
00:26:32,730 --> 00:26:33,560
Cinegraph?
516
00:26:33,560 --> 00:26:36,310
Bol Cinegraph Automatic, yes.
517
00:26:36,310 --> 00:26:38,730
(Bolex camera clicking)
518
00:26:38,730 --> 00:26:41,570
Apparently it works but I don't know how to stop it.
519
00:26:43,220 --> 00:26:44,750
Alyssa: Jacques started developing the Cinegraph Bol
520
00:26:44,750 --> 00:26:46,470
in the 19-teens.
521
00:26:48,900 --> 00:26:51,660
So the first one was exactly the same as that
522
00:26:51,660 --> 00:26:53,110
but it was hand cranked.
523
00:26:53,110 --> 00:26:55,620
So you didn't have this motor,
524
00:26:55,620 --> 00:26:59,210
this mechanism and you would have the crank here
525
00:26:59,210 --> 00:27:01,110
and you would operate it like this.
526
00:27:01,980 --> 00:27:03,530
Alyssa: It was 35 millimeter,
527
00:27:03,530 --> 00:27:06,820
simple to use and included multiple functions.
528
00:27:06,820 --> 00:27:08,490
The camera had an exposure guide,
529
00:27:08,490 --> 00:27:11,040
shot both still and motion picture images,
530
00:27:11,040 --> 00:27:12,550
and projected the film,
531
00:27:12,550 --> 00:27:14,100
all within the same device.
532
00:27:15,170 --> 00:27:17,970
And then you would put the film like this.
533
00:27:17,970 --> 00:27:20,450
Who was using this camera?
534
00:27:20,450 --> 00:27:22,160
Well, it's an amateur camera.
535
00:27:23,660 --> 00:27:26,440
The publicity, the advertising would say,
536
00:27:28,000 --> 00:27:30,160
you get a cine camera for the price
537
00:27:30,160 --> 00:27:31,740
of a still camera.
538
00:27:33,410 --> 00:27:34,650
Alyssa: Jacques brought the Cinegraph Bol
539
00:27:34,650 --> 00:27:37,660
to market when 35 millimeter was the standard.
540
00:27:37,660 --> 00:27:39,160
But in 1923,
541
00:27:39,160 --> 00:27:41,510
Eastman Kodak released a new film format
542
00:27:41,510 --> 00:27:43,120
for amateur filmmakers,
543
00:27:44,440 --> 00:27:45,870
16 millimeter.
544
00:27:47,870 --> 00:27:50,020
Michel showed me the remnants of the Bol company
545
00:27:50,020 --> 00:27:51,000
that Jacques founded
546
00:27:51,000 --> 00:27:53,390
with his business partner, Charles Haccius.
547
00:27:55,700 --> 00:27:56,580
It's the Bol company.
548
00:27:56,580 --> 00:28:00,480
And that was the stock of 1,000 Swiss francs.
549
00:28:00,480 --> 00:28:01,600
Yeah.
550
00:28:01,600 --> 00:28:04,700
And there were the bonds for the dividends, you know,
551
00:28:04,700 --> 00:28:07,970
that they never cashed because there were never dividends
552
00:28:07,970 --> 00:28:10,460
and never money made.
553
00:28:10,460 --> 00:28:11,680
Alyssa: We know that for a fact?
554
00:28:11,680 --> 00:28:12,980
You know that, yes.
555
00:28:16,970 --> 00:28:19,990
I think he was too fast
556
00:28:19,990 --> 00:28:22,800
and he was inventing too many things.
557
00:28:22,800 --> 00:28:27,060
And as soon something was done,
558
00:28:27,060 --> 00:28:29,280
he was working on something else.
559
00:28:29,280 --> 00:28:32,440
(relaxing jazz music)
560
00:28:34,340 --> 00:28:36,170
(ship horn blowing)
561
00:28:36,170 --> 00:28:38,880
[Jacques Voiceover] In 1924, during my formal stay
562
00:28:38,880 --> 00:28:42,800
in the US I was invited by George Eastman to visit.
563
00:28:46,290 --> 00:28:50,060
In the 1920s Eastman Kodak was the dominant force
564
00:28:50,060 --> 00:28:53,060
in motion picture film stock production.
565
00:28:53,060 --> 00:28:54,380
And Kodak continued
566
00:28:54,380 --> 00:28:58,220
to dominate the motion picture film stock field all
567
00:28:58,220 --> 00:29:02,890
through that time period into the '20s and beyond.
568
00:29:02,890 --> 00:29:04,770
[Jacques Voiceover] At that time,
569
00:29:04,770 --> 00:29:07,150
Eastman had been obtaining direct positives
570
00:29:07,150 --> 00:29:08,330
of inferior quality.
571
00:29:09,270 --> 00:29:11,960
Incidentally, the same trouble was being experienced
572
00:29:11,960 --> 00:29:13,990
by European manufacturers.
573
00:29:13,990 --> 00:29:17,040
The film was brownish and milky.
574
00:29:17,040 --> 00:29:17,970
While my chemist,
575
00:29:17,970 --> 00:29:20,860
Mark (indistinct) and I had developed a process
576
00:29:20,860 --> 00:29:24,280
for using a high quality brilliant direct positive.
577
00:29:25,330 --> 00:29:27,480
Seeing the enthusiasm on the Eastman people,
578
00:29:27,480 --> 00:29:31,690
I disclosed to them on the spot my secret formula.
579
00:29:31,690 --> 00:29:33,160
The very next day,
580
00:29:33,160 --> 00:29:37,020
Dr. Melies brought me into a no entrance room
581
00:29:37,020 --> 00:29:40,860
and showed me the whole line of 16 millimeter cameras.
582
00:29:40,860 --> 00:29:43,830
I received all the information on the standards,
583
00:29:43,830 --> 00:29:46,390
dimensions and all other characteristics
584
00:29:46,390 --> 00:29:49,690
of the entire line as compensation for my gift
585
00:29:49,690 --> 00:29:51,850
of the reversal process.
586
00:29:51,850 --> 00:29:54,480
When I mentioned that I might become their competitor
587
00:29:54,480 --> 00:29:56,220
if they gave me all this data,
588
00:29:56,220 --> 00:29:58,460
they replied, you're welcome.
589
00:29:58,460 --> 00:29:59,550
(ship horn blowing)
590
00:29:59,550 --> 00:30:01,530
On the boat returning to Switzerland,
591
00:30:01,530 --> 00:30:03,380
I designed an automatic camera.
592
00:30:03,380 --> 00:30:06,780
We tooled up immediately after and came up
593
00:30:06,780 --> 00:30:11,240
with the first 16 millimeter fully automatic movie camera
594
00:30:11,240 --> 00:30:14,130
under the name Bolex Model A.
595
00:30:16,240 --> 00:30:19,960
It's compact, you can handhold it.
596
00:30:19,960 --> 00:30:21,910
Everything is built in.
597
00:30:21,910 --> 00:30:23,160
As you'll notice,
598
00:30:23,160 --> 00:30:24,710
there's nothing that sticks out.
599
00:30:24,710 --> 00:30:26,440
The finder doesn't stick out.
600
00:30:26,440 --> 00:30:28,120
You don't have filters on the front.
601
00:30:28,120 --> 00:30:31,310
You don't have all of this stuff.
602
00:30:31,310 --> 00:30:34,650
I think the expression that you could use today
603
00:30:34,650 --> 00:30:36,440
is it was user-friendly.
604
00:30:37,400 --> 00:30:39,660
So yes, it's quite extraordinary.
605
00:30:39,660 --> 00:30:41,570
It's also built like a tank,
606
00:30:41,570 --> 00:30:46,010
which is lovely in the day disposable things made
607
00:30:46,010 --> 00:30:47,070
out of plastic.
608
00:30:47,070 --> 00:30:49,100
(relaxing jazz music)
609
00:30:49,100 --> 00:30:52,140
[Jacques Voiceover] November 20, 1927.
610
00:30:52,140 --> 00:30:54,420
Business, first Bolex camera
611
00:30:54,420 --> 00:30:57,390
of the series as arrived a week ago.
612
00:30:57,390 --> 00:31:02,390
Perfect, wasn't expecting this result from the first camera.
613
00:31:02,600 --> 00:31:04,300
Much to do.
614
00:31:04,300 --> 00:31:05,970
Patents flood my desk.
615
00:31:06,900 --> 00:31:08,700
(water splashing)
616
00:31:08,700 --> 00:31:12,450
(relaxing upbeat jazz music)
617
00:31:17,130 --> 00:31:19,720
(dog barking)
618
00:31:22,360 --> 00:31:23,670
Alyssa: Around the same time,
619
00:31:23,670 --> 00:31:26,740
Jacques fell in love with his Swiss bookkeeper.
620
00:31:26,740 --> 00:31:29,780
(Bolex camera clicking)
621
00:31:29,780 --> 00:31:33,470
Her name is Maria but he called her Mariette.
622
00:31:33,470 --> 00:31:37,400
(relaxing piano music)
623
00:31:37,400 --> 00:31:38,590
She was young,
624
00:31:38,590 --> 00:31:40,440
11 years his junior,
625
00:31:40,440 --> 00:31:42,550
but they were madly in love.
626
00:31:47,170 --> 00:31:50,120
(birds chirping)
627
00:31:50,120 --> 00:31:53,040
[Jacques Voiceover] May 26, 1927,
628
00:31:54,820 --> 00:31:56,180
the day was good.
629
00:31:57,120 --> 00:31:59,350
Superb walk with Mariette in the afternoon.
630
00:32:07,060 --> 00:32:08,610
(water trickling)
631
00:32:08,610 --> 00:32:12,400
The rain was mixed with a bit of shy, indecisive sun.
632
00:32:13,580 --> 00:32:16,400
Mariette is sweet in her new flower dress,
633
00:32:17,370 --> 00:32:20,280
the color of a half crushed strawberry.
634
00:32:20,280 --> 00:32:23,700
(Bolex camera clicking)
635
00:32:27,630 --> 00:32:30,210
Alyssa: The problem was Jacques was still married
636
00:32:30,210 --> 00:32:32,470
at the time with two young sons.
637
00:32:33,440 --> 00:32:34,550
My grandfather, Emil,
638
00:32:34,550 --> 00:32:36,220
and his older brother, Raphael.
639
00:32:39,360 --> 00:32:41,950
Jacques was separated From his first wife, Sima,
640
00:32:41,950 --> 00:32:44,650
but the Swiss courts wouldn't grant him a divorce.
641
00:32:44,650 --> 00:32:48,570
And as he was getting ready to release the Bolex in 1927,
642
00:32:48,570 --> 00:32:51,190
he was in the middle of a nasty separation.
643
00:32:53,920 --> 00:32:56,050
Both of them were very young.
644
00:32:56,050 --> 00:32:58,930
He was probably not even 20.
645
00:32:59,870 --> 00:33:02,500
She was pregnant so they had to get married.
646
00:33:03,650 --> 00:33:07,460
And both of them were kind of alone in Geneva.
647
00:33:07,460 --> 00:33:09,760
They were separated from their families.
648
00:33:10,790 --> 00:33:15,070
He was very focused on what he was doing, his inventions.
649
00:33:15,070 --> 00:33:18,220
I mean, we know that he was inventing things
650
00:33:18,220 --> 00:33:21,790
at a very young age and never stopped.
651
00:33:21,790 --> 00:33:25,770
She was very quickly saddled with two small children.
652
00:33:25,770 --> 00:33:28,120
I think they were maybe 20 months apart,
653
00:33:28,120 --> 00:33:29,220
if that much.
654
00:33:30,590 --> 00:33:33,400
It was really a marriage kind of set up for failure.
655
00:33:35,160 --> 00:33:39,760
I know from a friend of family at the time that
656
00:33:39,760 --> 00:33:42,910
my grandmother, Sima would be in the apartment,
657
00:33:42,910 --> 00:33:45,930
standing on a chair yelling at the top of her lungs,
658
00:33:45,930 --> 00:33:47,610
and not at the kids,
659
00:33:47,610 --> 00:33:49,440
it would be a Jacques.
660
00:33:49,440 --> 00:33:51,280
With the kids she would be doting
661
00:33:51,280 --> 00:33:53,880
and just wonderful as she was with us later
662
00:33:53,880 --> 00:33:55,150
on as grandchildren.
663
00:33:56,730 --> 00:33:59,160
From the journal it appears that at times,
664
00:33:59,160 --> 00:34:00,660
for months at a time,
665
00:34:00,660 --> 00:34:03,660
that she would keep the kids from seeing their father.
666
00:34:05,450 --> 00:34:06,290
Alyssa: In his journal,
667
00:34:06,290 --> 00:34:08,530
Jacques didn't refer to Sima by name.
668
00:34:09,910 --> 00:34:10,750
He called her by the name
669
00:34:10,750 --> 00:34:13,650
of the street she lived on, Rue Verte.
670
00:34:17,450 --> 00:34:19,370
At one time it had been their home together
671
00:34:19,370 --> 00:34:22,780
but it had quickly become a bad word for him.
672
00:34:22,780 --> 00:34:24,440
I walked down that street
673
00:34:24,440 --> 00:34:27,510
to see my great-grandmother Sima's old apartment.
674
00:34:27,510 --> 00:34:30,980
(Bolex camera clicking)
675
00:34:30,980 --> 00:34:33,890
The street was oddly calm and quiet in contrast
676
00:34:33,890 --> 00:34:35,350
to their stormy relationship.
677
00:34:38,080 --> 00:34:38,920
All the buildings were
678
00:34:38,920 --> 00:34:42,310
in shadow except number seven Rue Verte.
679
00:34:42,310 --> 00:34:45,110
And a family of birds chirped happily on the railing.
680
00:34:46,840 --> 00:34:49,840
(Zeppelin rumbling)
681
00:34:52,920 --> 00:34:55,210
This is the only footage I found of my great-grandmother,
682
00:34:55,210 --> 00:34:57,440
Sima, in Jacques's home movies.
683
00:34:57,440 --> 00:35:00,440
(Zeppelin rumbling)
684
00:35:01,450 --> 00:35:04,090
It must've been lonely for her living in Geneva,
685
00:35:04,090 --> 00:35:07,520
watching her marriage crumble while raising two young sons,
686
00:35:07,520 --> 00:35:10,010
and separated from her own family in Russia.
687
00:35:10,870 --> 00:35:13,870
(Zeppelin rumbling)
688
00:35:20,630 --> 00:35:24,450
[Jacques Voiceover] July 21, 1927.
689
00:35:24,450 --> 00:35:28,180
Finally, a letter from father with a photo of the family.
690
00:35:29,260 --> 00:35:33,810
Mamma's still the same with her gentle intelligent eyes.
691
00:35:33,810 --> 00:35:36,580
Father, greatly aged.
692
00:35:38,390 --> 00:35:41,250
Alyssa: Since the Russian Revolution in 1917,
693
00:35:41,250 --> 00:35:44,410
Jacques was no longer a citizen of any country.
694
00:35:44,410 --> 00:35:47,960
He repeatedly applied for citizenship for himself
695
00:35:47,960 --> 00:35:49,960
and his Swiss-born children,
696
00:35:49,960 --> 00:35:51,500
but was continually denied.
697
00:35:53,150 --> 00:35:57,460
There is a Bolsky code in the history of the 20th Century.
698
00:35:58,610 --> 00:36:01,820
What does it mean to be an immigrant without paper
699
00:36:01,820 --> 00:36:04,540
and what is it to be a Jew?
700
00:36:04,540 --> 00:36:06,090
(motorbike humming by)
701
00:36:06,090 --> 00:36:09,740
The difficulties with passports crossing borders
702
00:36:10,790 --> 00:36:12,230
were manifest.
703
00:36:12,230 --> 00:36:15,390
(relaxing piano music)
704
00:36:15,390 --> 00:36:17,220
[Jacques Voiceover] Decided with the board of directors
705
00:36:17,220 --> 00:36:19,560
to lower the cost of Bol company,
706
00:36:19,560 --> 00:36:22,120
so we can continue to live within our means.
707
00:36:23,010 --> 00:36:26,550
Gaumont in England is interested in Bolex.
708
00:36:26,550 --> 00:36:28,780
Awaiting to hear from Agfa,
709
00:36:28,780 --> 00:36:29,990
late in responding.
710
00:36:31,010 --> 00:36:32,100
Not a good sign.
711
00:36:33,710 --> 00:36:35,060
Alyssa: Jacques and his financial partner,
712
00:36:35,060 --> 00:36:37,530
Charles Haccius wanted to see the Bolex reach people
713
00:36:37,530 --> 00:36:38,580
around the world.
714
00:36:38,580 --> 00:36:42,560
But the Bol company was too small to mass produce a camera.
715
00:36:42,560 --> 00:36:44,350
Similar to a tech startup today,
716
00:36:44,350 --> 00:36:46,690
they needed an infusion of capital
717
00:36:46,690 --> 00:36:49,990
and greater manufacturing capacity to scale their business.
718
00:36:49,990 --> 00:36:52,820
(dramatic music)
719
00:36:55,050 --> 00:36:56,590
Reporter: It was panic.
720
00:36:56,590 --> 00:37:01,310
16 and 1/2 million shares of stock sold in a single day,
721
00:37:01,310 --> 00:37:03,570
sold helpless, desperate,
722
00:37:03,570 --> 00:37:04,470
at any price.
723
00:37:05,420 --> 00:37:08,040
It was the forerunner of depression and crisis.
724
00:37:09,270 --> 00:37:10,390
Alyssa: The economic collapse
725
00:37:10,390 --> 00:37:12,850
following the stock market crash in 1929,
726
00:37:12,850 --> 00:37:14,740
left Jacques with limited options.
727
00:37:14,740 --> 00:37:16,870
(restless crowd shouting)
728
00:37:16,870 --> 00:37:18,220
[Jacques Voiceover] Yesterday, we felt
729
00:37:18,220 --> 00:37:19,880
the first bite of cold.
730
00:37:20,990 --> 00:37:23,540
Crisis clamps down on the world.
731
00:37:24,470 --> 00:37:27,720
(somber piano music)
732
00:37:27,720 --> 00:37:31,150
(protestors protesting)
733
00:37:31,150 --> 00:37:34,820
This huge downturn in the economy worldwide,
734
00:37:34,820 --> 00:37:36,250
that was a really tough time
735
00:37:36,250 --> 00:37:38,990
for even professional filmmaking.
736
00:37:38,990 --> 00:37:41,810
So with the amateur market,
737
00:37:41,810 --> 00:37:45,360
that was just like the end of the world.
738
00:37:46,690 --> 00:37:49,140
Alyssa: That year, Jacques met with a Swiss music box
739
00:37:49,140 --> 00:37:52,370
and gramophone company that was looking to diversify.
740
00:37:52,370 --> 00:37:54,740
They were intrigued by Jacques's movie camera.
741
00:37:56,350 --> 00:37:58,520
The company's name was Paillard.
742
00:38:01,340 --> 00:38:02,880
[Jacques Voiceover] October 4, 1930.
743
00:38:03,900 --> 00:38:06,670
Business, on the 1st of October
744
00:38:06,670 --> 00:38:08,710
we signed the contracts with Paillard.
745
00:38:09,770 --> 00:38:11,960
It is still very early.
746
00:38:11,960 --> 00:38:12,800
I hope that
747
00:38:12,800 --> 00:38:15,890
with them I can develop various inventions of cinema.
748
00:38:17,300 --> 00:38:19,720
It's hard to abandon my role as captain
749
00:38:19,720 --> 00:38:21,410
after great struggles,
750
00:38:21,410 --> 00:38:23,800
but I take consolation in being able
751
00:38:23,800 --> 00:38:25,910
to concentrate on my research.
752
00:38:25,910 --> 00:38:30,190
(train clickety-clacking on track)
753
00:38:30,190 --> 00:38:33,520
(relaxing piano music)
754
00:38:44,820 --> 00:38:48,150
(Bolex camera clicking)
755
00:38:52,760 --> 00:38:55,730
(birds chirping)
756
00:38:55,730 --> 00:39:00,050
(lady speaking in foreign language)
757
00:39:00,050 --> 00:39:03,210
(wind chimes jingling)
758
00:39:05,720 --> 00:39:07,040
Alyssa: The main Paillard factory was
759
00:39:07,040 --> 00:39:10,310
in a small village called Saint Croix in the Jura Mountains,
760
00:39:10,310 --> 00:39:13,300
famous for its music boxes and mechanical music.
761
00:39:13,300 --> 00:39:14,440
(music box chiming)
762
00:39:14,440 --> 00:39:16,900
(music box ticking)
763
00:39:16,900 --> 00:39:20,400
(music box bells pinging)
764
00:39:28,420 --> 00:39:32,340
(speaking in foreign language)
765
00:39:43,180 --> 00:39:46,430
(playful upbeat music)
766
00:40:05,510 --> 00:40:08,450
(film reels flapping)
767
00:40:08,450 --> 00:40:10,830
Alyssa: The movie camera industry was changing fast
768
00:40:10,830 --> 00:40:12,610
and the Bolex model needed updating
769
00:40:12,610 --> 00:40:14,680
to stay ahead of the competition.
770
00:40:14,680 --> 00:40:16,020
Paillard was upset
771
00:40:16,020 --> 00:40:19,140
that they couldn't mass produce the Bolex immediately.
772
00:40:19,140 --> 00:40:21,060
They blamed Jacques for the delay,
773
00:40:21,060 --> 00:40:24,090
accusing him of tricking them into buying the patents.
774
00:40:24,090 --> 00:40:26,920
(machine ticking)
775
00:40:29,410 --> 00:40:33,230
[Jacques Voiceover] December 25, 1930, Christmas day.
776
00:40:34,080 --> 00:40:35,990
This past week set off the bomb.
777
00:40:36,890 --> 00:40:39,090
Paillard are convinced today they were wrong
778
00:40:39,090 --> 00:40:40,760
about making the Bolex deal.
779
00:40:42,110 --> 00:40:45,220
I am outraged by the actions of these mountain men
780
00:40:45,220 --> 00:40:46,980
and affirm with all my heart
781
00:40:46,980 --> 00:40:49,550
that I never thought to trick them in any way.
782
00:40:50,400 --> 00:40:53,490
For a week I have been deeply depressed
783
00:40:53,490 --> 00:40:54,890
and I keep it hidden within.
784
00:40:56,290 --> 00:40:59,190
How to make them understand their vulgar mistake?
785
00:41:00,290 --> 00:41:01,920
Those beautiful dreams,
786
00:41:02,940 --> 00:41:04,700
have they all drowned?
787
00:41:04,700 --> 00:41:08,390
(somber piano music)
788
00:41:08,390 --> 00:41:09,910
Alyssa: Jacques was contracted to stay
789
00:41:09,910 --> 00:41:12,950
on as consulting engineer for five years.
790
00:41:12,950 --> 00:41:15,130
But the excitement was short-lived as tensions grew
791
00:41:15,130 --> 00:41:17,260
between Jacques and the Paillard company.
792
00:41:21,000 --> 00:41:24,400
Once he went in contact with the Paillard people,
793
00:41:24,400 --> 00:41:26,900
there are hints of antisemitism
794
00:41:26,900 --> 00:41:31,350
in the way they talk about him in private letters.
795
00:41:31,350 --> 00:41:33,210
That had to do
796
00:41:33,210 --> 00:41:36,710
with the idea that he was a crook
797
00:41:36,710 --> 00:41:40,080
because Jews are crooks, of course,
798
00:41:40,080 --> 00:41:43,040
as everybody knows at that time.
799
00:41:44,550 --> 00:41:46,800
Alyssa: During the years under contract with Paillard,
800
00:41:46,800 --> 00:41:49,500
Jacques rarely wrote anything positive in his journal.
801
00:41:50,360 --> 00:41:51,360
At the same time,
802
00:41:51,360 --> 00:41:53,650
he was filming up a storm.
803
00:41:53,650 --> 00:41:57,400
(relaxing percussion music)
804
00:41:59,550 --> 00:42:03,440
Jacques even cat films in the early 1930s.
805
00:42:03,440 --> 00:42:05,950
(water swishing)
806
00:42:05,950 --> 00:42:07,850
Despite the struggles he faced,
807
00:42:07,850 --> 00:42:10,500
he focused his camera on the good times.
808
00:42:10,500 --> 00:42:12,490
He recorded the moments he wanted to remember
809
00:42:12,490 --> 00:42:13,910
and wanted others to see.
810
00:42:18,370 --> 00:42:21,420
[Jacques Voiceover] Mariette, we love as we did
811
00:42:21,420 --> 00:42:23,220
from the first day.
812
00:42:23,220 --> 00:42:26,470
(relaxing jazz music)
813
00:42:29,900 --> 00:42:31,340
Alyssa: Around the same time,
814
00:42:31,340 --> 00:42:33,990
he started developing film clubs.
815
00:42:33,990 --> 00:42:36,740
(film reel flapping)
816
00:42:36,740 --> 00:42:39,260
And although he wasn't trying to make big movies,
817
00:42:39,260 --> 00:42:41,230
he seemed intrigued with Hollywood,
818
00:42:41,230 --> 00:42:44,160
as evidenced by an early short film with gunfights
819
00:42:44,160 --> 00:42:46,930
and cameos of himself and Mariette.
820
00:42:46,930 --> 00:42:50,770
(upbeat playful piano music)
821
00:42:54,940 --> 00:42:56,950
Jacques seemed restless to create.
822
00:42:58,110 --> 00:43:00,810
I wonder if the film clubs came out of that,
823
00:43:00,810 --> 00:43:03,160
a desire for community,
824
00:43:03,160 --> 00:43:06,120
or maybe as a way to rekindle his passion for cinema?
825
00:43:07,140 --> 00:43:10,980
(relaxing instrumental music)
826
00:43:12,290 --> 00:43:14,280
We found a behind-the-scenes film
827
00:43:14,280 --> 00:43:16,240
of Jacques directing in the 1930s.
828
00:43:22,330 --> 00:43:24,710
His focus expanded to making educational films.
829
00:43:31,680 --> 00:43:35,090
(tires skiing)
830
00:43:35,090 --> 00:43:36,460
(swooping slip)
831
00:43:36,460 --> 00:43:37,660
(man groaning)
832
00:43:37,660 --> 00:43:39,540
But his films weren't for everyone.
833
00:43:39,540 --> 00:43:40,410
(rock clanging)
834
00:43:40,410 --> 00:43:41,870
The film about the writing
835
00:43:41,870 --> 00:43:45,350
through ages is the more boring thing I had ever seen
836
00:43:45,350 --> 00:43:47,960
since a long time when I came across.
837
00:43:47,960 --> 00:43:49,290
And there are many, horses,
838
00:43:49,290 --> 00:43:50,960
the film with horses, horse care.
839
00:43:50,960 --> 00:43:52,780
It's also very boring.
840
00:43:54,320 --> 00:43:56,460
Educational films are boring,
841
00:43:56,460 --> 00:43:58,040
no, don't you think?
842
00:44:00,070 --> 00:44:02,400
Alyssa: Jacques also experimented with animation
843
00:44:02,400 --> 00:44:05,250
and made one of the first Swiss animation films ever.
844
00:44:05,250 --> 00:44:06,080
(birds chirping)
845
00:44:06,080 --> 00:44:07,020
(wings swishing)
846
00:44:07,020 --> 00:44:08,750
It was a classic fable,
847
00:44:08,750 --> 00:44:10,740
"The Cicada and the Ant".
848
00:44:12,220 --> 00:44:15,580
It was about planning for the future and hard work.
849
00:44:15,580 --> 00:44:19,890
(relaxing upbeat instrumental music)
850
00:44:19,890 --> 00:44:22,640
(smooching kiss)
851
00:44:25,110 --> 00:44:28,610
(upbeat classical music)
852
00:44:36,210 --> 00:44:37,840
Narrator: When you go to your neighborhood theater
853
00:44:37,840 --> 00:44:39,490
and see a good movie,
854
00:44:39,490 --> 00:44:40,750
do you wish you could make movies
855
00:44:40,750 --> 00:44:43,710
with that professional Hollywood touch of quality?
856
00:44:43,710 --> 00:44:45,630
Well, here's good news.
857
00:44:45,630 --> 00:44:47,640
With top grade home movie equipment
858
00:44:47,640 --> 00:44:49,770
and some basic camera techniques,
859
00:44:49,770 --> 00:44:52,320
your own movies can share the Hollywood excellence.
860
00:44:53,310 --> 00:44:54,590
(waves swishing)
861
00:44:54,590 --> 00:44:58,340
The Bolex was so deliciously versatile.
862
00:44:58,340 --> 00:45:01,130
There had never been anything like this before.
863
00:45:01,130 --> 00:45:02,960
Man: Boy, that Bolex film sure is great,
864
00:45:02,960 --> 00:45:05,340
Bob, as clear as movies in a theater.
865
00:45:05,340 --> 00:45:07,490
Man: Wait till you take a gander at this next one.
866
00:45:07,490 --> 00:45:08,610
(racecourse bell ringing)
867
00:45:08,610 --> 00:45:10,650
It was relatively inexpensive,
868
00:45:10,650 --> 00:45:11,640
easy to use,
869
00:45:11,640 --> 00:45:15,300
had enough features that you couldn't say,
870
00:45:15,300 --> 00:45:18,890
we can't do that because the camera won't do it.
871
00:45:18,890 --> 00:45:20,730
The camera would do it.
872
00:45:20,730 --> 00:45:23,620
Narrator: Never before has there been a home movie camera
873
00:45:23,620 --> 00:45:25,500
that even the beginner could use
874
00:45:25,500 --> 00:45:28,280
to create professional movies.
875
00:45:28,280 --> 00:45:30,200
You could do anything that you wanted to do
876
00:45:30,200 --> 00:45:31,460
with a film camera,
877
00:45:31,460 --> 00:45:36,410
with the Bolex and it was high quality, great lenses,
878
00:45:36,410 --> 00:45:38,750
just the perfect package.
879
00:45:38,750 --> 00:45:41,750
(upbeat jive music)
880
00:45:46,310 --> 00:45:49,230
The Bolex had a great image stability.
881
00:45:49,230 --> 00:45:51,720
It was a very democratic instrument
882
00:45:51,720 --> 00:45:55,240
and the Bolex was a beautiful object
883
00:45:55,240 --> 00:45:57,540
with the shiny chrome metal things.
884
00:45:57,540 --> 00:46:00,170
And especially the ring of these three lenses.
885
00:46:01,060 --> 00:46:02,900
That was filmmaking.
886
00:46:02,900 --> 00:46:05,080
That camera in itself embodied it.
887
00:46:05,080 --> 00:46:07,480
And I think I'm not the only one.
888
00:46:07,480 --> 00:46:09,060
Do you wanna see the camera now?
889
00:46:09,060 --> 00:46:10,060
Well, you mean,
890
00:46:10,060 --> 00:46:11,650
watch the watcher? Oh yeah,
891
00:46:11,650 --> 00:46:12,500
it's just terrific. You watch it
892
00:46:12,500 --> 00:46:13,800
and it watches you.
893
00:46:13,800 --> 00:46:17,000
(Susan chuckling)
894
00:46:17,000 --> 00:46:19,510
Andy wanted to transform himself
895
00:46:19,510 --> 00:46:22,710
from just being someone who was painting on canvas
896
00:46:22,710 --> 00:46:24,040
or silk screening on canvas.
897
00:46:24,040 --> 00:46:25,350
But not too much.
898
00:46:25,350 --> 00:46:26,980
Gerard: Film made him feel liberated.
899
00:46:26,980 --> 00:46:29,330
You could walk into a camera store
900
00:46:29,330 --> 00:46:31,430
and you could get a Bolex movie camera.
901
00:46:31,430 --> 00:46:32,890
It was readily available.
902
00:46:34,100 --> 00:46:36,270
And it was a terrific camera to work with.
903
00:46:36,270 --> 00:46:38,800
(Bolex camera clicking)
904
00:46:38,800 --> 00:46:41,810
How come your camera doesn't make any noise?
905
00:46:41,810 --> 00:46:43,260
The silent movies had a certain kind
906
00:46:43,260 --> 00:46:46,130
of conceptual look to them that was very handy,
907
00:46:46,130 --> 00:46:51,000
freewheeling, timid, anti-stylistic.
908
00:46:51,000 --> 00:46:53,060
Little subtleties would happen in a film
909
00:46:53,060 --> 00:46:54,670
that looked very static.
910
00:46:56,670 --> 00:46:59,030
Any Buchanan, she was a girlfriend of mine,
911
00:46:59,030 --> 00:47:02,400
and we put her in front of the camera and all of a sudden,
912
00:47:02,400 --> 00:47:03,680
because of the lights,
913
00:47:03,680 --> 00:47:05,140
it made her start tearing.
914
00:47:05,140 --> 00:47:09,360
Her eyes, they looked like little jewels, surrealist jewels.
915
00:47:11,860 --> 00:47:14,690
I thought maybe we could do a lot more
916
00:47:14,690 --> 00:47:17,020
of these portraits with other people even.
917
00:47:17,020 --> 00:47:19,820
And that's how the idea of the screen chest came about.
918
00:47:19,820 --> 00:47:22,990
(relaxing rock music)
919
00:47:25,100 --> 00:47:27,300
(upbeat playful music)
920
00:47:27,300 --> 00:47:30,270
The Bolex has always been the filmmaker's friend.
921
00:47:30,270 --> 00:47:33,240
It will help you interpret your ideas.
922
00:47:33,240 --> 00:47:34,710
You can do stop frame.
923
00:47:34,710 --> 00:47:35,790
Wind the film back there.
924
00:47:35,790 --> 00:47:37,290
You could double expose on it.
925
00:47:38,490 --> 00:47:40,820
If a cinematographer is a magician that's, yeah,
926
00:47:40,820 --> 00:47:43,780
Bolex is the best box of tricks ever.
927
00:47:43,780 --> 00:47:47,720
(shaker beans rustling)
928
00:47:47,720 --> 00:47:49,230
There's a magic with cameras I found
929
00:47:49,230 --> 00:47:50,860
that you could actually bring things to life,
930
00:47:50,860 --> 00:47:53,280
and it was something that I discovered quite early on
931
00:47:53,280 --> 00:47:55,980
in the great tradition of the Georges Melias.
932
00:47:55,980 --> 00:47:57,830
What happens if I stop this and start it
933
00:47:57,830 --> 00:47:59,150
and I just start experimented with it?
934
00:47:59,150 --> 00:48:01,260
And I think the first film I made
935
00:48:01,260 --> 00:48:03,920
was actually animating my action men,
936
00:48:03,920 --> 00:48:07,170
articulating soldiers, perfect for animation,
937
00:48:07,170 --> 00:48:09,870
bringing inanimate objects to life.
938
00:48:09,870 --> 00:48:12,850
(Bolex camera clicking)
939
00:48:12,850 --> 00:48:14,660
The camera that did everything.
940
00:48:14,660 --> 00:48:19,160
(relaxing upbeat instrumental music)
941
00:48:22,100 --> 00:48:24,810
I always got the feeling that it was actually invented by
942
00:48:24,810 --> 00:48:27,880
or designed by a filmmaker for filmmakers.
943
00:48:27,880 --> 00:48:31,210
(Bolex camera clicking)
944
00:48:33,120 --> 00:48:35,360
Narrator: What is making it all possible?
945
00:48:35,360 --> 00:48:39,080
Back to the Paillard plant for more answers.
946
00:48:41,930 --> 00:48:44,190
Alyssa: The Bolex Model H was released just months
947
00:48:44,190 --> 00:48:47,940
before Jacques's contract with Paillard was set to expire.
948
00:48:47,940 --> 00:48:49,480
(relaxing piano music)
949
00:48:49,480 --> 00:48:51,930
[Jacques Voiceover] Complete change of attitude.
950
00:48:51,930 --> 00:48:55,060
Paillard asked me to become a consulting engineer
951
00:48:55,060 --> 00:48:56,890
in all their branches.
952
00:48:56,890 --> 00:48:59,460
The success of the new camera is the reason
953
00:48:59,460 --> 00:49:01,840
for this change in attitude.
954
00:49:01,840 --> 00:49:03,510
The Bolex
955
00:49:03,510 --> 00:49:05,280
is a great success.
956
00:49:05,280 --> 00:49:07,900
(papers flapping)
957
00:49:07,900 --> 00:49:08,860
I am free.
958
00:49:09,770 --> 00:49:11,370
My contract is up.
959
00:49:11,370 --> 00:49:13,750
I feel unimpeded,
960
00:49:13,750 --> 00:49:15,510
lighter of heart.
961
00:49:15,510 --> 00:49:16,880
Paillard calls me,
962
00:49:16,880 --> 00:49:19,770
asking to continue working together.
963
00:49:19,770 --> 00:49:23,020
(relaxing piano music)
964
00:49:23,020 --> 00:49:25,120
Alyssa: But he chose to go his own way.
965
00:49:29,290 --> 00:49:31,960
(city ambience)
966
00:49:34,140 --> 00:49:36,060
I went to Jacques's old apartment that he
967
00:49:36,060 --> 00:49:38,420
and Mariette were living in in the 1930s.
968
00:49:39,700 --> 00:49:43,030
(relaxing piano music)
969
00:49:44,500 --> 00:49:46,610
I couldn't believe that Jacques never benefited
970
00:49:46,610 --> 00:49:49,300
from the success of the Bolex.
971
00:49:49,300 --> 00:49:51,910
It was like he planted a seed and walked away
972
00:49:51,910 --> 00:49:54,850
while Paillard watered it and helped it grow.
973
00:49:54,850 --> 00:49:58,270
(Bolex camera clicking)
974
00:49:59,940 --> 00:50:02,690
I thought creating a camera like the Bolex was his goal
975
00:50:07,830 --> 00:50:10,480
but now I'm not so sure what Jacques was looking for.
976
00:50:12,430 --> 00:50:16,260
(relaxing somber piano music)
977
00:50:19,240 --> 00:50:22,910
(relaxing upbeat instrumental music)
978
00:50:22,910 --> 00:50:25,500
As the Bolex was beginning to expand around the world,
979
00:50:25,500 --> 00:50:29,540
Jacques was working on flurry of new inventions.
980
00:50:29,540 --> 00:50:31,740
[Jacques Voiceover] Cine-Fader, finished the first
981
00:50:31,740 --> 00:50:33,320
series of 500.
982
00:50:36,260 --> 00:50:39,260
Splicer, Monopod,
983
00:50:39,260 --> 00:50:42,950
Room Projector, still waiting for the optical elements
984
00:50:42,950 --> 00:50:44,820
to complete the model.
985
00:50:44,820 --> 00:50:45,660
In the meantime,
986
00:50:45,660 --> 00:50:48,980
trying to establish the manufacturer of a cigarette case,
987
00:50:48,980 --> 00:50:50,680
lighter, pocket flashlight.
988
00:50:52,930 --> 00:50:54,930
It turns out when you look at the letters
989
00:50:54,930 --> 00:50:58,500
that his advisors were his two sons.
990
00:50:58,500 --> 00:51:01,240
This was true even when they were teenagers.
991
00:51:01,240 --> 00:51:04,420
He would write in a letter all the social stuff,
992
00:51:04,420 --> 00:51:05,260
you know, hi,
993
00:51:05,260 --> 00:51:06,930
how are you doing and so and so forth
994
00:51:06,930 --> 00:51:08,460
and he would lay out a problem,
995
00:51:08,460 --> 00:51:10,650
some technical problem.
996
00:51:10,650 --> 00:51:12,460
So who did he turn to?
997
00:51:12,460 --> 00:51:14,410
He turned to his teenage sons.
998
00:51:15,250 --> 00:51:18,090
They were really a dynamic duo together.
999
00:51:18,090 --> 00:51:19,940
One of them would answer on behalf of the two of them
1000
00:51:19,940 --> 00:51:21,370
and they would say, hi dad,
1001
00:51:21,370 --> 00:51:22,510
how are you doing?
1002
00:51:22,510 --> 00:51:24,250
I hope everything's okay.
1003
00:51:24,250 --> 00:51:26,900
Now, as to your problem with the shutter,
1004
00:51:26,900 --> 00:51:29,150
here's why we think this is happening.
1005
00:51:29,150 --> 00:51:30,830
Just because they always did thought experiments.
1006
00:51:30,830 --> 00:51:33,570
My dad was brilliant at this and his brother was too.
1007
00:51:33,570 --> 00:51:35,880
They could visualize stuff,
1008
00:51:35,880 --> 00:51:40,390
like a musician that can visualize a symphony
1009
00:51:40,390 --> 00:51:44,210
in his or her head and doesn't need to write it down.
1010
00:51:44,210 --> 00:51:45,510
And then it would just be,
1011
00:51:47,810 --> 00:51:48,770
there it was.
1012
00:51:48,770 --> 00:51:50,920
There was a solution and in the next letter says,
1013
00:51:50,920 --> 00:51:51,760
oh yeah, thanks.
1014
00:51:51,760 --> 00:51:54,230
I tried that and that seems to have worked quite well.
1015
00:51:54,230 --> 00:51:57,660
So there was always that kind of synergy.
1016
00:51:59,550 --> 00:52:04,130
(dramatic ominous instrumental music)
1017
00:52:05,610 --> 00:52:07,340
Narrator: 20 years ago ago, firing ceased.
1018
00:52:07,340 --> 00:52:09,880
20 years ago a rejoicing world saw then end
1019
00:52:09,880 --> 00:52:11,700
of its most terrible carnage.
1020
00:52:11,700 --> 00:52:14,310
Today, people are again plagued by unsound theories,
1021
00:52:14,310 --> 00:52:16,060
the desire for conquest.
1022
00:52:16,060 --> 00:52:18,560
Again, the world is offered the false idea
1023
00:52:18,560 --> 00:52:20,490
that might makes right.
1024
00:52:20,490 --> 00:52:23,660
(dramatic drum music)
1025
00:52:25,010 --> 00:52:26,200
Alyssa: From his journal,
1026
00:52:26,200 --> 00:52:27,920
it became clear that Jacques was worried
1027
00:52:27,920 --> 00:52:30,120
about the possibility of a Second World War.
1028
00:52:31,390 --> 00:52:34,570
[Jacques Voiceover] April 4, 1938,
1029
00:52:34,570 --> 00:52:37,900
gas mask, Cine Machine Gun,
1030
00:52:37,900 --> 00:52:39,760
got the first shots.
1031
00:52:39,760 --> 00:52:42,660
Great cinematic results on the first try.
1032
00:52:44,430 --> 00:52:47,620
Alyssa: Jacques began making films for war preparedness.
1033
00:52:47,620 --> 00:52:48,460
One film was,
1034
00:52:48,460 --> 00:52:51,750
"What To Do In Case of an Aerial Attack".
1035
00:52:51,750 --> 00:52:56,330
(dramatic ominous instrumental music)
1036
00:53:02,560 --> 00:53:06,050
You find a filmmaker who is not only interested
1037
00:53:06,050 --> 00:53:10,340
because he's commissioned to do films about aerial defense,
1038
00:53:10,340 --> 00:53:13,950
but who probably is afraid of what may happen
1039
00:53:13,950 --> 00:53:16,790
in the '30s because it was clear to many people.
1040
00:53:16,790 --> 00:53:20,280
(dramatic ominous music)
1041
00:53:20,280 --> 00:53:21,460
(soldier boots clomping in tandem)
1042
00:53:21,460 --> 00:53:22,570
Narrator: The responsibility lies
1043
00:53:22,570 --> 00:53:24,030
on the shoulders of one man.
1044
00:53:24,030 --> 00:53:26,180
By his latest act of naked aggression,
1045
00:53:26,180 --> 00:53:28,740
Hitler has committed a crime not only against Poland,
1046
00:53:28,740 --> 00:53:31,110
but against the whole human race.
1047
00:53:31,110 --> 00:53:33,330
[Jacques Voiceover] War and mobilization
1048
00:53:33,330 --> 00:53:35,130
have upset everything
1049
00:53:35,130 --> 00:53:36,030
(airplanes rumbling)
1050
00:53:36,030 --> 00:53:39,200
just when everything appeared to be going better.
1051
00:53:39,200 --> 00:53:42,670
(airplanes rumbling)
1052
00:53:42,670 --> 00:53:46,090
February 27, 1939.
1053
00:53:46,090 --> 00:53:49,840
Parents, no news for months.
1054
00:53:49,840 --> 00:53:51,910
It is said that those who receive letters
1055
00:53:51,910 --> 00:53:54,200
from abroad are suspected.
1056
00:53:54,200 --> 00:53:56,450
Don't dare write to them.
1057
00:53:56,450 --> 00:53:57,630
(dramatic droning humming)
1058
00:53:57,630 --> 00:54:00,780
September 20, 1939.
1059
00:54:00,780 --> 00:54:04,330
Parents, no news for weeks.
1060
00:54:04,330 --> 00:54:06,000
Soon it will be months.
1061
00:54:07,310 --> 00:54:09,150
Assume that the sensor does not allow
1062
00:54:09,150 --> 00:54:10,520
for any correspondents.
1063
00:54:12,000 --> 00:54:14,080
What has become of them?
1064
00:54:15,460 --> 00:54:17,410
What becomes of my brothers in the war?
1065
00:54:18,710 --> 00:54:21,880
(somber piano music)
1066
00:54:23,760 --> 00:54:27,090
My immediate goal is naturalization for the boys
1067
00:54:27,980 --> 00:54:28,820
and for me.
1068
00:54:33,010 --> 00:54:35,350
Alyssa: After over 20 years living in Switzerland,
1069
00:54:35,350 --> 00:54:38,400
Jacques was still a citizen of no country,
1070
00:54:38,400 --> 00:54:39,450
as were his children.
1071
00:54:40,410 --> 00:54:43,580
(somber piano music)
1072
00:54:48,830 --> 00:54:50,660
[Jacques Voiceover] The government has finally deigned
1073
00:54:50,660 --> 00:54:51,990
to notice my existence.
1074
00:54:53,360 --> 00:54:56,270
They refuse my residency permit as if I were one
1075
00:54:56,270 --> 00:54:57,650
who has broken the law
1076
00:54:59,080 --> 00:55:00,550
like a common criminal.
1077
00:55:05,300 --> 00:55:07,990
Alyssa: World War II changed everything.
1078
00:55:07,990 --> 00:55:11,110
His sons who were military age were finally made citizens.
1079
00:55:14,460 --> 00:55:16,310
And then they were drafted into the military
1080
00:55:16,310 --> 00:55:17,780
that same month.
1081
00:55:17,780 --> 00:55:22,780
(dramatic somber instrumental music)
1082
00:55:22,840 --> 00:55:25,230
But Jacques was still a citizen of no country.
1083
00:55:31,360 --> 00:55:34,030
So he decided to leave Switzerland behind
1084
00:55:34,030 --> 00:55:35,470
and find a new home.
1085
00:55:38,040 --> 00:55:41,640
[Jacques Voiceover] July 16, 1939.
1086
00:55:41,640 --> 00:55:44,520
Just received a visa for the United States.
1087
00:55:46,170 --> 00:55:48,660
Again, I'll find some roots in a soil.
1088
00:55:52,190 --> 00:55:54,430
Narrator: This is a free land
1089
00:55:54,430 --> 00:55:56,950
in which we have a right to work anywhere,
1090
00:55:56,950 --> 00:55:59,750
earn our living in the job we can do best.
1091
00:55:59,750 --> 00:56:02,680
We call it freedom of opportunity.
1092
00:56:02,680 --> 00:56:06,430
(upbeat instrumental music)
1093
00:56:10,270 --> 00:56:11,680
It's clear from his writing,
1094
00:56:11,680 --> 00:56:15,440
he put off leaving Switzerland to the last possible minute.
1095
00:56:15,440 --> 00:56:18,430
He gets one of the last transports going out of Europe
1096
00:56:18,430 --> 00:56:20,230
to before the war breaks out,
1097
00:56:20,230 --> 00:56:24,090
ends up in New York Harbor and he was essentially a refugee
1098
00:56:24,090 --> 00:56:26,000
and he didn't have a lot of money.
1099
00:56:26,920 --> 00:56:29,290
I mean, here's a guy who doesn't speak English.
1100
00:56:29,290 --> 00:56:33,220
And in two or three years he's got a company
1101
00:56:33,220 --> 00:56:36,200
that's producing photographic equipment
1102
00:56:36,200 --> 00:56:39,220
for the US Military that's being installed
1103
00:56:39,220 --> 00:56:42,580
on airplanes and being used in the war.
1104
00:56:42,580 --> 00:56:44,520
(rapid Gatling gun fire)
1105
00:56:44,520 --> 00:56:46,090
(airplane rumbling)
1106
00:56:46,090 --> 00:56:48,510
(airplane exploding)
1107
00:56:48,510 --> 00:56:51,930
(rapid Gatling gun fire)
1108
00:56:56,580 --> 00:56:58,420
Alyssa: Soon, he was inventing line after line
1109
00:56:58,420 --> 00:57:00,340
of cameras for the war effort
1110
00:57:00,340 --> 00:57:02,620
and was granted us citizenship.
1111
00:57:03,910 --> 00:57:06,510
After 20 years as a man without a country,
1112
00:57:06,510 --> 00:57:07,940
he finally had a home,
1113
00:57:09,390 --> 00:57:10,430
but he was alone.
1114
00:57:11,560 --> 00:57:13,090
For almost 15 years,
1115
00:57:13,090 --> 00:57:15,210
Jacques and Mariette had been lovers,
1116
00:57:15,210 --> 00:57:17,120
while Jacques struggled with the Swiss courts
1117
00:57:17,120 --> 00:57:19,420
to obtain a divorce from his first wife, Sima.
1118
00:57:20,580 --> 00:57:21,940
Mariette, a Catholic,
1119
00:57:21,940 --> 00:57:24,460
and in no immediate danger was supposed to join him
1120
00:57:24,460 --> 00:57:26,930
in the US a few months later.
1121
00:57:26,930 --> 00:57:28,290
But the war escalated.
1122
00:57:31,200 --> 00:57:33,240
For the duration of world war II,
1123
00:57:33,240 --> 00:57:35,370
Jacques was separated from Mariette
1124
00:57:35,370 --> 00:57:36,920
and his sons in Switzerland.
1125
00:57:40,560 --> 00:57:42,160
During his seven years alone,
1126
00:57:42,160 --> 00:57:45,340
Jacques's memories were only recorded in still image.
1127
00:57:45,340 --> 00:57:47,080
And even those were rare,
1128
00:57:47,080 --> 00:57:48,530
as he spent his time designing
1129
00:57:48,530 --> 00:57:50,870
and manufacturing countless cameras.
1130
00:57:53,600 --> 00:57:55,010
At first, I thought it was strange
1131
00:57:55,010 --> 00:57:57,320
that he didn't make films during the war.
1132
00:57:57,320 --> 00:57:59,930
Business was booming and he had a home in America.
1133
00:58:00,890 --> 00:58:03,310
But then it started to make sense to me.
1134
00:58:03,310 --> 00:58:04,160
When he was at home
1135
00:58:04,160 --> 00:58:06,550
and he could bring the camera up to his eye,
1136
00:58:06,550 --> 00:58:07,700
who could he record?
1137
00:58:09,590 --> 00:58:13,110
[Jacques Voiceover] March 21, 1947.
1138
00:58:13,110 --> 00:58:16,320
New York, more than seven years
1139
00:58:16,320 --> 00:58:19,700
have passed since the last page of my diary.
1140
00:58:19,700 --> 00:58:23,890
These seven years are perhaps the most volatile in my life.
1141
00:58:23,890 --> 00:58:25,440
Three companies formed,
1142
00:58:25,440 --> 00:58:29,240
one after another here, hard work,
1143
00:58:29,240 --> 00:58:31,820
hopes and disillusionments,
1144
00:58:31,820 --> 00:58:34,900
war and separation from my family.
1145
00:58:36,140 --> 00:58:40,740
Parents, two years ago I learned of my parents
1146
00:58:40,740 --> 00:58:43,630
and sister's tragic death at the hands
1147
00:58:43,630 --> 00:58:44,930
of the brutal Germans.
1148
00:58:47,430 --> 00:58:49,460
My brother has also disappeared.
1149
00:58:52,020 --> 00:58:54,950
It is very hard to get used to the idea
1150
00:58:54,950 --> 00:58:57,760
of the tragic departure of my loved ones.
1151
00:58:58,620 --> 00:59:01,780
(somber piano music)
1152
00:59:10,390 --> 00:59:13,240
Boys, Raphael married.
1153
00:59:14,270 --> 00:59:16,920
Emil, about to get married too.
1154
00:59:20,210 --> 00:59:22,220
(paper rustling)
1155
00:59:22,220 --> 00:59:25,170
Alyssa: After that, he never wrote in his journal again.
1156
00:59:28,870 --> 00:59:31,310
Since we've just recently learned
1157
00:59:31,310 --> 00:59:34,020
what he knew about his family
1158
00:59:34,020 --> 00:59:36,090
having been killed by the Nazis,
1159
00:59:37,110 --> 00:59:39,670
now I see him differently.
1160
00:59:39,670 --> 00:59:43,240
I think that maybe he was racing through life.
1161
00:59:43,240 --> 00:59:45,160
He was trying to get so many things in.
1162
00:59:45,160 --> 00:59:47,860
He was maybe trying to not think about it.
1163
00:59:48,940 --> 00:59:51,450
I had no idea that these things had happened
1164
00:59:51,450 --> 00:59:54,690
and I certainly had no idea that he knew about them,
1165
00:59:54,690 --> 00:59:58,380
but he did and I don't think he told anybody in the family.
1166
00:59:58,380 --> 01:00:01,550
(somber piano music)
1167
01:00:04,570 --> 01:00:06,980
Alyssa: I couldn't help reading Jacques's last journal
1168
01:00:06,980 --> 01:00:09,230
entry again and again,
1169
01:00:09,230 --> 01:00:11,330
hoping it would end differently.
1170
01:00:18,140 --> 01:00:20,680
As he counted the years of separation from his parents
1171
01:00:20,680 --> 01:00:21,930
and siblings in Russia,
1172
01:00:23,090 --> 01:00:25,100
I imagined his future reunion with them.
1173
01:00:26,590 --> 01:00:29,760
(somber piano music)
1174
01:00:50,270 --> 01:00:52,310
Even though I've been working on this for 12 years,
1175
01:00:52,310 --> 01:00:53,910
or whatever the reality is,
1176
01:00:53,910 --> 01:00:54,750
I think it's like
1177
01:00:54,750 --> 01:00:55,580
11 and a 1/2. Most of your adult life.
1178
01:00:55,580 --> 01:00:56,710
Most of my adult life.
1179
01:00:56,710 --> 01:00:58,180
(chuckling)
1180
01:00:58,180 --> 01:00:59,790
He had never come to me in my dreams,
1181
01:00:59,790 --> 01:01:00,630
or at least,
1182
01:01:00,630 --> 01:01:04,130
I'd never had a dream about Jacques until a month ago.
1183
01:01:04,130 --> 01:01:08,420
So what happened in the dream was I was going
1184
01:01:08,420 --> 01:01:12,930
up an elevator in a high-rise for a job interview.
1185
01:01:12,930 --> 01:01:14,430
I'm nervous, I don't really even know
1186
01:01:14,430 --> 01:01:17,370
what the job is in my mind at the moment.
1187
01:01:17,370 --> 01:01:22,370
And I go and I sit in the reception and they call me in.
1188
01:01:23,540 --> 01:01:25,850
And so I walk in the door and there's a man standing
1189
01:01:25,850 --> 01:01:26,820
in front of me.
1190
01:01:26,820 --> 01:01:29,650
(Alyssa sniffing)
1191
01:01:30,930 --> 01:01:32,630
And he turns around and it's JB
1192
01:01:34,730 --> 01:01:36,240
and he's interviewing me.
1193
01:01:38,770 --> 01:01:39,610
I'm sorry.
1194
01:01:41,010 --> 01:01:42,880
I don't even know why I'm emotional.
1195
01:01:43,850 --> 01:01:46,520
It kind of hits you by surprise, doesn't it?
1196
01:01:46,520 --> 01:01:47,650
I can see that.
1197
01:01:48,780 --> 01:01:49,980
Yeah, so anyways,
1198
01:01:52,040 --> 01:01:56,360
he's interviewing me for a job and I think it's, like,
1199
01:02:01,800 --> 01:02:03,000
to make the documentary.
1200
01:02:09,890 --> 01:02:12,400
And I don't feel confident at all,
1201
01:02:13,540 --> 01:02:15,550
total self-doubt.
1202
01:02:15,550 --> 01:02:17,540
He gave me some advice.
1203
01:02:17,540 --> 01:02:18,380
He said something about,
1204
01:02:18,380 --> 01:02:21,130
(Alyssa sighing)
1205
01:02:21,130 --> 01:02:22,050
it's not about the place,
1206
01:02:22,050 --> 01:02:23,080
it's the context.
1207
01:02:24,080 --> 01:02:25,270
Wow.
1208
01:02:25,270 --> 01:02:27,590
And then I kind of walked out,
1209
01:02:27,590 --> 01:02:29,900
shook his hand and I said,
1210
01:02:29,900 --> 01:02:31,300
even if I don't get the job,
1211
01:02:32,180 --> 01:02:33,040
this isn't even sad,
1212
01:02:33,040 --> 01:02:34,200
I don't know I'm crying.
1213
01:02:34,200 --> 01:02:35,820
I said, even if I don't get the job,
1214
01:02:35,820 --> 01:02:36,700
can we go get dinner,
1215
01:02:36,700 --> 01:02:38,110
I have some questions for you?
1216
01:02:38,110 --> 01:02:40,490
(laughing)
1217
01:02:40,490 --> 01:02:42,390
And he's like, sure.
1218
01:02:42,390 --> 01:02:43,530
And I woke up. Wow.
1219
01:02:43,530 --> 01:02:45,630
And I still don't know if I got the job.
1220
01:02:45,630 --> 01:02:49,500
(relaxing piano music)
1221
01:02:49,500 --> 01:02:52,520
After the war Jacques flew to Switzerland
1222
01:02:52,520 --> 01:02:54,690
to finally reunite with Mariette
1223
01:02:54,690 --> 01:02:56,270
and bring her back to the US.
1224
01:03:00,040 --> 01:03:03,070
Starting in December of 1947,
1225
01:03:03,070 --> 01:03:04,210
he filmed again.
1226
01:03:07,780 --> 01:03:10,340
This is where my great aunt Carole enters his story.
1227
01:03:12,070 --> 01:03:16,320
(relaxing upbeat classical music)
1228
01:03:41,710 --> 01:03:45,790
Carole: Finally, after 22 years of elicit love,
1229
01:03:45,790 --> 01:03:46,860
they were elicit,
1230
01:03:46,860 --> 01:03:48,050
they were Americans.
1231
01:03:48,050 --> 01:03:49,290
They became citizens.
1232
01:03:50,150 --> 01:03:54,400
(relaxing upbeat classical music)
1233
01:04:11,720 --> 01:04:15,010
My father was very patriotic about America.
1234
01:04:15,980 --> 01:04:18,420
What he most cherished in America, I think,
1235
01:04:19,280 --> 01:04:22,290
was a sense of possibility,
1236
01:04:22,290 --> 01:04:24,160
that everything was possible.
1237
01:04:25,470 --> 01:04:29,440
Being Jewish had cost so much over so many years
1238
01:04:29,440 --> 01:04:31,900
and been such a factor in Europe.
1239
01:04:31,900 --> 01:04:35,750
And now he was breathing what he thought as the free air
1240
01:04:35,750 --> 01:04:38,080
of a new world and he just said,
1241
01:04:38,080 --> 01:04:40,280
I'm not gonna mess this up.
1242
01:04:40,280 --> 01:04:43,520
I'm not gonna bring in the old hatreds
1243
01:04:43,520 --> 01:04:46,130
that was part of the air that you breathed in Europe.
1244
01:04:46,130 --> 01:04:47,940
I'm gonna do this a new way.
1245
01:04:51,620 --> 01:04:52,940
Alyssa: He wanted his sons to be part
1246
01:04:52,940 --> 01:04:54,410
of his new life in America.
1247
01:04:55,820 --> 01:04:57,120
A year later, his son,
1248
01:04:57,120 --> 01:04:59,630
my grandfather, Emil came to New York.
1249
01:05:02,100 --> 01:05:04,760
But Raphael stayed in Switzerland with his wife, Lillian,
1250
01:05:04,760 --> 01:05:06,560
to help watch over his mother, Sima.
1251
01:05:08,340 --> 01:05:11,100
Soon, Emil and Margo started a family of their own.
1252
01:05:12,050 --> 01:05:13,060
First Michel.
1253
01:05:14,310 --> 01:05:15,880
Then my father, Robin.
1254
01:05:17,150 --> 01:05:18,610
And finally, Laureen.
1255
01:05:23,890 --> 01:05:26,890
(upbeat jive music)
1256
01:05:30,040 --> 01:05:32,090
Jacques and Emil worked together closely.
1257
01:05:33,240 --> 01:05:34,510
They created new lines
1258
01:05:34,510 --> 01:05:37,230
of still 35 millimeter civilian cameras based
1259
01:05:37,230 --> 01:05:39,510
on his military inventions.
1260
01:05:39,510 --> 01:05:42,510
(upbeat jive music)
1261
01:05:48,930 --> 01:05:53,770
There was a huge post-war boom in the early '50s.
1262
01:05:53,770 --> 01:05:55,750
There was plenty of money around
1263
01:05:55,750 --> 01:05:57,200
and one of the things that you did
1264
01:05:57,200 --> 01:05:59,770
with it was you bought consumer goods.
1265
01:05:59,770 --> 01:06:03,890
And now cameras were seen as consumer goods.
1266
01:06:05,180 --> 01:06:06,640
When the war ended,
1267
01:06:06,640 --> 01:06:09,690
that company was in fact a big player.
1268
01:06:10,580 --> 01:06:11,860
But more importantly, I think,
1269
01:06:11,860 --> 01:06:16,350
for him, he's developing the market for his ideas.
1270
01:06:16,350 --> 01:06:17,430
And it looks like things,
1271
01:06:17,430 --> 01:06:18,560
it's gonna be smooth sailing.
1272
01:06:18,560 --> 01:06:19,950
This is like a launchpad.
1273
01:06:20,810 --> 01:06:21,960
You have to assume that it was kind
1274
01:06:21,960 --> 01:06:23,710
of an immigrant's stream come true.
1275
01:06:25,940 --> 01:06:28,110
Introducer: Here is Edward R. Murrow.
1276
01:06:28,110 --> 01:06:29,870
Edward: "This, I believe."
1277
01:06:29,870 --> 01:06:31,620
Jacques Bolsey heads one
1278
01:06:31,620 --> 01:06:33,980
of America's leading photographic companies.
1279
01:06:33,980 --> 01:06:37,140
He mass produced the first amateur motion picture camera.
1280
01:06:37,140 --> 01:06:38,620
During World War II,
1281
01:06:38,620 --> 01:06:41,560
his research and development talents were pressed
1282
01:06:41,560 --> 01:06:44,110
into service by our armed forces.
1283
01:06:44,110 --> 01:06:45,950
This is Jacques Bolsey's creed.
1284
01:06:47,190 --> 01:06:49,170
[Jacques Voiceover] I applied for the citizenship
1285
01:06:49,170 --> 01:06:52,830
the day I arrived in the United States in 1939.
1286
01:06:53,690 --> 01:06:55,880
I wanted to become an American
1287
01:06:55,880 --> 01:06:59,170
because I believed this country is a living example
1288
01:06:59,170 --> 01:07:01,730
of the benefits available to all,
1289
01:07:01,730 --> 01:07:05,610
of democratic ideas and freedom which we want to preserve
1290
01:07:05,610 --> 01:07:08,940
and which we are ready to defend for our own good
1291
01:07:08,940 --> 01:07:10,810
and for the good of the world,
1292
01:07:11,760 --> 01:07:15,030
any color race or creed.
1293
01:07:15,030 --> 01:07:19,760
(relaxing upbeat classical music)
1294
01:07:19,760 --> 01:07:24,490
My grandfather, when the company was doing very well,
1295
01:07:24,490 --> 01:07:26,680
purchased a castle in Tarrytown
1296
01:07:27,670 --> 01:07:30,810
and he had huge plans for it.
1297
01:07:30,810 --> 01:07:33,870
He felt really strongly that it was the job
1298
01:07:33,870 --> 01:07:35,330
of private companies
1299
01:07:35,330 --> 01:07:40,040
to give their employees very generous benefits of all kinds,
1300
01:07:40,040 --> 01:07:42,720
that it was just a duty to provide services,
1301
01:07:42,720 --> 01:07:43,830
to provide education,
1302
01:07:43,830 --> 01:07:45,390
to improve their lives.
1303
01:07:45,390 --> 01:07:47,140
And one of the reasons he bought the castle was
1304
01:07:47,140 --> 01:07:50,480
because he was gonna create there a kind of
1305
01:07:52,100 --> 01:07:52,940
community,
1306
01:07:53,860 --> 01:07:54,700
a kind of
1307
01:07:55,870 --> 01:07:58,570
socialist, although he didn't use the word,
1308
01:07:58,570 --> 01:08:00,820
fortunately, he would've been kicked out,
1309
01:08:00,820 --> 01:08:04,060
a kind of a socialist environment in the sense
1310
01:08:04,060 --> 01:08:06,980
that he wanted his workers to have a full stake
1311
01:08:06,980 --> 01:08:08,900
in the company, emotionally,
1312
01:08:08,900 --> 01:08:10,880
as well as in every other way.
1313
01:08:10,880 --> 01:08:14,200
He wanted them to feel like the company was theirs.
1314
01:08:16,460 --> 01:08:17,960
For him, success wasn't money.
1315
01:08:17,960 --> 01:08:20,370
He didn't show any real interest
1316
01:08:20,370 --> 01:08:23,440
in amassing huge quantities of money.
1317
01:08:23,440 --> 01:08:25,440
Because anything that he brought in,
1318
01:08:25,440 --> 01:08:27,110
aside from what he needed to live
1319
01:08:27,110 --> 01:08:29,210
and have a normal middle-class life,
1320
01:08:29,210 --> 01:08:31,080
went right back into the company,
1321
01:08:31,080 --> 01:08:33,490
right back into new ideas.
1322
01:08:34,810 --> 01:08:37,560
But he was also trying to build this city for employees.
1323
01:08:37,560 --> 01:08:40,280
He would be building all these different projects
1324
01:08:40,280 --> 01:08:43,950
and they would get around in electric cars in the community.
1325
01:08:45,920 --> 01:08:49,200
I think that my father was looking ahead
1326
01:08:49,200 --> 01:08:51,660
to a time when business
1327
01:08:51,660 --> 01:08:55,830
and progress would give everyone a chance at happiness.
1328
01:08:57,480 --> 01:09:00,880
Alyssa: Jacques continue to innovate new consumer cameras
1329
01:09:00,880 --> 01:09:03,740
but the competition proved to be fierce.
1330
01:09:03,740 --> 01:09:06,580
(camera clicking)
1331
01:09:07,580 --> 01:09:10,830
(relaxing piano music)
1332
01:09:14,440 --> 01:09:17,180
The 35 millimeter still camera market
1333
01:09:17,180 --> 01:09:19,360
was really a difficult,
1334
01:09:19,360 --> 01:09:20,900
cutthroat market to be in
1335
01:09:20,900 --> 01:09:24,980
because there were a tremendous number of manufacturers.
1336
01:09:24,980 --> 01:09:27,680
And suddenly my grandfather discovered there was no money.
1337
01:09:28,870 --> 01:09:30,050
That's according to my dad, anyway.
1338
01:09:30,050 --> 01:09:32,320
My dad described it to me in kind of sketchy details,
1339
01:09:32,320 --> 01:09:34,490
but he went from being a wealthy man, essentially,
1340
01:09:34,490 --> 01:09:35,670
to a man with nothing.
1341
01:09:37,270 --> 01:09:39,750
The whole thing just literally falls apart.
1342
01:09:39,750 --> 01:09:43,760
I mean, it goes from we're taking off to the moon
1343
01:09:43,760 --> 01:09:45,910
to, oh no, we're crashing,
1344
01:09:45,910 --> 01:09:47,420
we're crashing back to earth.
1345
01:09:50,140 --> 01:09:54,040
My mother said American business changed him.
1346
01:09:54,040 --> 01:09:56,500
American business was so driven,
1347
01:09:56,500 --> 01:09:58,580
so tough, so go, go, go
1348
01:10:00,310 --> 01:10:02,230
that she said it changed him completely.
1349
01:10:02,230 --> 01:10:06,090
He no longer had the ease in the sense
1350
01:10:06,090 --> 01:10:09,060
that he had time to do anything except work.
1351
01:10:09,060 --> 01:10:10,710
And that's what I remember.
1352
01:10:12,940 --> 01:10:16,440
I saw my father's mood darken and darken and darken.
1353
01:10:16,440 --> 01:10:19,960
Again, there wasn't any laughter.
1354
01:10:22,770 --> 01:10:26,760
Inventors also are very often pretty self-absorbed
1355
01:10:26,760 --> 01:10:29,450
because their minds are so active.
1356
01:10:29,450 --> 01:10:34,450
Everything is devoted to this hopeful creative process
1357
01:10:34,820 --> 01:10:37,070
that the inventor is engaged in.
1358
01:10:37,970 --> 01:10:39,760
They're not paying that much attention
1359
01:10:39,760 --> 01:10:41,440
to the people around them.
1360
01:10:41,440 --> 01:10:44,690
(relaxing piano music)
1361
01:10:51,120 --> 01:10:53,140
Alyssa: I've always looked up to my dad.
1362
01:10:53,140 --> 01:10:55,070
He's been the inventor in my life.
1363
01:10:56,190 --> 01:10:58,850
He designs, builds and runs hot water drills
1364
01:10:58,850 --> 01:11:00,550
for scientific research.
1365
01:11:00,550 --> 01:11:02,020
(snowy mountain ambience)
1366
01:11:02,020 --> 01:11:03,270
Ever since my eighth birthday,
1367
01:11:03,270 --> 01:11:06,380
he would leave her Antarctica for a few months.
1368
01:11:06,380 --> 01:11:08,790
I made him a scarf to keep him warm
1369
01:11:08,790 --> 01:11:10,160
which he wore every year.
1370
01:11:12,410 --> 01:11:13,970
When I dove into researching Jacques,
1371
01:11:13,970 --> 01:11:15,320
he was right there with me.
1372
01:11:16,490 --> 01:11:19,330
One day, I asked if he'd ever shot with the Bolex?
1373
01:11:19,330 --> 01:11:20,190
And he said, no.
1374
01:11:21,450 --> 01:11:24,820
The next field season he brought the camera with him.
1375
01:11:24,820 --> 01:11:27,200
(camera clicking)
1376
01:11:27,200 --> 01:11:29,790
(wind howling)
1377
01:11:33,940 --> 01:11:37,510
(relaxing piano music)
1378
01:11:37,510 --> 01:11:40,100
In the late '50s Jacques returned to Switzerland
1379
01:11:40,100 --> 01:11:41,520
with my grandfather, Emil.
1380
01:11:42,430 --> 01:11:43,550
Together with Raphael,
1381
01:11:43,550 --> 01:11:44,820
they visited the place where he
1382
01:11:44,820 --> 01:11:47,750
had designed the Bolex 30 years earlier.
1383
01:11:47,750 --> 01:11:50,030
But they were now outsiders looking in.
1384
01:11:52,680 --> 01:11:54,810
The smiling and the laughing I see
1385
01:11:54,810 --> 01:11:57,610
in the '30s in the movies,
1386
01:11:57,610 --> 01:12:01,660
that may have been lost by the time the '50s rolled by.
1387
01:12:01,660 --> 01:12:05,190
All the things that happened with Paillard,
1388
01:12:05,190 --> 01:12:07,900
the struggles that came in the '50s after that,
1389
01:12:07,900 --> 01:12:09,900
these visions, he knows he can do these things,
1390
01:12:09,900 --> 01:12:12,570
but he keeps getting held back.
1391
01:12:12,570 --> 01:12:15,660
(somber piano music)
1392
01:12:23,900 --> 01:12:25,300
Alyssa: While Jacques could only reminisce about
1393
01:12:25,300 --> 01:12:27,130
what had been in the past,
1394
01:12:27,130 --> 01:12:30,480
the Bolex camera continued to cement its legacy.
1395
01:12:30,480 --> 01:12:33,480
(upbeat jive music)
1396
01:12:37,040 --> 01:12:37,920
(horse hooves stomping)
1397
01:12:37,920 --> 01:12:39,990
(car engine revving)
1398
01:12:39,990 --> 01:12:42,820
(camera clicking)
1399
01:12:47,010 --> 01:12:47,870
(crowd cheering)
1400
01:12:47,870 --> 01:12:49,200
(jet firing)
1401
01:12:49,200 --> 01:12:52,730
(crackers banging)
1402
01:12:52,730 --> 01:12:55,190
We went up to Tuttle Cameras in Long Beach
1403
01:12:55,190 --> 01:12:57,350
and bought this Bolex Reflex,
1404
01:12:57,350 --> 01:13:00,280
which was like I died and went to heaven.
1405
01:13:00,280 --> 01:13:03,140
And then got on a plane with five of my friends,
1406
01:13:03,140 --> 01:13:05,490
with a book on how to make movies,
1407
01:13:05,490 --> 01:13:07,450
and that was the beginning of it.
1408
01:13:07,450 --> 01:13:10,830
(relaxing guitar music)
1409
01:13:10,830 --> 01:13:14,320
"The Endless Summer" was about two young guys traveling
1410
01:13:14,320 --> 01:13:15,160
around the world,
1411
01:13:15,160 --> 01:13:18,940
following the summer and exploring for surf.
1412
01:13:18,940 --> 01:13:20,000
Simple as that.
1413
01:13:25,580 --> 01:13:27,760
It was kind of like a glorified home movie.
1414
01:13:29,250 --> 01:13:32,000
When it became sort of mainstream,
1415
01:13:32,000 --> 01:13:33,360
movie critics go, well,
1416
01:13:33,360 --> 01:13:34,650
who is the producer?
1417
01:13:34,650 --> 01:13:36,440
Well, me, I guess.
1418
01:13:36,440 --> 01:13:37,840
Well, who is the director?
1419
01:13:37,840 --> 01:13:39,770
Well, me.
1420
01:13:39,770 --> 01:13:40,880
Well, who is a photographer?
1421
01:13:40,880 --> 01:13:41,820
Well.
1422
01:13:41,820 --> 01:13:43,360
Who's the editor?
1423
01:13:43,360 --> 01:13:45,130
And well, you know,
1424
01:13:45,130 --> 01:13:46,030
just, that's how we did it.
1425
01:13:46,030 --> 01:13:47,500
You just did everything.
1426
01:13:47,500 --> 01:13:50,720
(upbeat percussion music)
1427
01:13:50,720 --> 01:13:51,890
We didn't have much equipment.
1428
01:13:51,890 --> 01:13:54,830
I had a Bolex in a case with a hundred foot loads
1429
01:13:54,830 --> 01:13:57,530
of film and a black bag and some lenses,
1430
01:13:58,370 --> 01:13:59,670
just what you could carry.
1431
01:14:00,670 --> 01:14:03,190
Part of the deal then was exploring for new surf spots,
1432
01:14:03,190 --> 01:14:06,490
West Africa and a lot of places nobody had ever been
1433
01:14:06,490 --> 01:14:08,410
to looking for surf.
1434
01:14:08,410 --> 01:14:09,440
Senegal, Ghana,
1435
01:14:09,440 --> 01:14:11,780
Nigeria, South Africa,
1436
01:14:11,780 --> 01:14:13,350
India, Tahiti,
1437
01:14:13,350 --> 01:14:15,100
Australia, New Zealand.
1438
01:14:15,100 --> 01:14:18,420
We basically went around the world.
1439
01:14:18,420 --> 01:14:21,000
I used the same camera for all my films.
1440
01:14:21,000 --> 01:14:22,380
(surf swishing)
1441
01:14:22,380 --> 01:14:25,390
I got real good at winding it up real quick.
1442
01:14:25,390 --> 01:14:26,340
'Cause with surfing,
1443
01:14:26,340 --> 01:14:28,810
you already shot a wave and here comes another one.
1444
01:14:28,810 --> 01:14:30,120
(imitating winding zoom)
1445
01:14:30,120 --> 01:14:33,150
I got really good at cranking it over really quick.
1446
01:14:33,150 --> 01:14:36,400
(ominous upbeat music)
1447
01:14:42,190 --> 01:14:46,020
I was a 22-year-old aspiring painter,
1448
01:14:46,020 --> 01:14:47,280
1967.
1449
01:14:48,210 --> 01:14:51,140
In that year I saw a retrospective called,
1450
01:14:51,140 --> 01:14:52,870
"New American Underground",
1451
01:14:52,870 --> 01:14:56,090
and that was lots of non-narrative movies
1452
01:14:56,090 --> 01:14:57,720
by American painters.
1453
01:14:58,630 --> 01:15:00,270
That impressed me a lot.
1454
01:15:01,650 --> 01:15:05,060
And I realized that maybe filmmaking was some sort
1455
01:15:05,060 --> 01:15:07,860
of continuation of painting with other means.
1456
01:15:07,860 --> 01:15:09,390
And I loved the idea.
1457
01:15:10,490 --> 01:15:15,490
And I thought the only way you can do this is by doing it.
1458
01:15:15,740 --> 01:15:18,810
And you could only do it if you have a camera.
1459
01:15:21,300 --> 01:15:24,590
I made the first film of mine called "Schauplatze",
1460
01:15:24,590 --> 01:15:26,200
which got lost.
1461
01:15:26,200 --> 01:15:29,170
"Silver City" and "Same Player Shoots Again".
1462
01:15:29,170 --> 01:15:31,460
I made a number of films on it.
1463
01:15:31,460 --> 01:15:34,550
And you could do so much with it because it was lightweight.
1464
01:15:35,380 --> 01:15:37,950
You could shoot in any situation.
1465
01:15:37,950 --> 01:15:41,660
I liked it when the image slowly appeared out of colors.
1466
01:15:41,660 --> 01:15:44,910
And I also shot it till the very last frame so it
1467
01:15:44,910 --> 01:15:48,380
also then goes out into strange colors.
1468
01:15:48,380 --> 01:15:50,650
And I liked the ins and outs of these films.
1469
01:15:52,300 --> 01:15:56,030
It was the ideal tool to learn the craft of filmmaking.
1470
01:15:56,030 --> 01:15:59,530
(dial tone beeping music)
1471
01:16:04,400 --> 01:16:07,090
I made a film called "Dyketactics"
1472
01:16:08,270 --> 01:16:12,990
because I was heterosexual and I made love with a woman
1473
01:16:12,990 --> 01:16:14,320
for the first time.
1474
01:16:14,320 --> 01:16:15,210
And when I did,
1475
01:16:15,210 --> 01:16:16,380
it changed my life.
1476
01:16:17,530 --> 01:16:20,850
The connection between touch and sight
1477
01:16:20,850 --> 01:16:25,850
became my aesthetic to bring a sense of touch to the cinema.
1478
01:16:27,660 --> 01:16:30,320
It turned into a lesbian commercial.
1479
01:16:30,320 --> 01:16:34,290
(dramatic choir music)
1480
01:16:34,290 --> 01:16:36,830
I call my cinema, active cinema.
1481
01:16:36,830 --> 01:16:39,630
And now I project around the room.
1482
01:16:39,630 --> 01:16:40,930
I get off the screen.
1483
01:16:40,930 --> 01:16:43,320
I make people move to see the film.
1484
01:16:44,650 --> 01:16:48,210
I figured that if we could make the audience active,
1485
01:16:48,210 --> 01:16:50,790
that they, the blood flowing to their brain,
1486
01:16:50,790 --> 01:16:52,570
not just to their body,
1487
01:16:52,570 --> 01:16:54,630
would make them think and consider more
1488
01:16:54,630 --> 01:16:58,230
when they went into the world or the polling place.
1489
01:16:58,230 --> 01:17:01,650
(dramatic ominous music)
1490
01:17:07,690 --> 01:17:09,110
Alyssa: One day I received a call
1491
01:17:09,110 --> 01:17:10,830
from the Sunshine Coast in Canada
1492
01:17:10,830 --> 01:17:13,470
about two Canadian explorers who had used the Bolex
1493
01:17:13,470 --> 01:17:16,040
from the 1930s through 1970s,
1494
01:17:16,040 --> 01:17:18,430
Colin Hanney and John Kaasa.
1495
01:17:19,520 --> 01:17:21,910
I was invited to meet with Colin's widow, Shendra,
1496
01:17:21,910 --> 01:17:23,270
and John's son, Maynard.
1497
01:17:27,200 --> 01:17:28,710
Colin, wherever he went,
1498
01:17:28,710 --> 01:17:29,920
he took his cameras.
1499
01:17:29,920 --> 01:17:34,920
And in 1960 he decided to go down to Chiapas in Mexico
1500
01:17:35,190 --> 01:17:38,340
where he had heard that a group of Maya Indians
1501
01:17:38,340 --> 01:17:42,040
who had not been conquered by the Spanish ever,
1502
01:17:42,040 --> 01:17:44,860
because they disappeared into the forest,
1503
01:17:44,860 --> 01:17:47,390
and so he wanted to find these people.
1504
01:17:47,390 --> 01:17:48,450
(cicadas chirping)
1505
01:17:48,450 --> 01:17:50,840
They began the jungle trek for seven days,
1506
01:17:50,840 --> 01:17:53,660
macheteing their way up ravines and valleys
1507
01:17:53,660 --> 01:17:55,150
and exquisite scenes.
1508
01:17:56,720 --> 01:18:00,250
They finally arrived at Naha, the lake,
1509
01:18:00,250 --> 01:18:03,260
and ghosting out of the lake into the shore
1510
01:18:03,260 --> 01:18:05,540
were these Lacandona Maya with their long,
1511
01:18:05,540 --> 01:18:08,460
blue-black hair and the white cotton tunics.
1512
01:18:09,700 --> 01:18:12,330
It was like going to another planet.
1513
01:18:12,330 --> 01:18:16,230
And finding there are peoples who lived so well together,
1514
01:18:16,230 --> 01:18:19,930
it was just a really pure, simple lifestyle.
1515
01:18:21,190 --> 01:18:22,770
For Colin at the time,
1516
01:18:22,770 --> 01:18:25,570
it was such a magical experience.
1517
01:18:25,570 --> 01:18:28,460
It was part of him all his life.
1518
01:18:28,460 --> 01:18:30,240
(birds chirping)
1519
01:18:30,240 --> 01:18:31,900
(water swishing)
1520
01:18:31,900 --> 01:18:32,990
Well, my dad,
1521
01:18:32,990 --> 01:18:34,990
he loved the outdoors.
1522
01:18:34,990 --> 01:18:39,210
He spent a considerable time in the bush and a lot
1523
01:18:39,210 --> 01:18:43,320
of it was just for the purpose of taking pictures.
1524
01:18:43,320 --> 01:18:44,440
(fire crackling)
1525
01:18:44,440 --> 01:18:46,120
Nothing really stopped him.
1526
01:18:46,120 --> 01:18:47,050
(raft engine humming)
1527
01:18:47,050 --> 01:18:49,930
In the early spring when the water was very high
1528
01:18:49,930 --> 01:18:51,930
in the McLeod River in Alberta,
1529
01:18:51,930 --> 01:18:55,320
he made a raft and started down the river.
1530
01:18:55,320 --> 01:18:59,290
That's where he lost this camera and much of his luggage.
1531
01:19:01,170 --> 01:19:02,300
He got out,
1532
01:19:02,300 --> 01:19:05,520
went to shore and he just marked the trees on both sides
1533
01:19:05,520 --> 01:19:06,880
of the river.
1534
01:19:06,880 --> 01:19:09,660
Then about four months later,
1535
01:19:09,660 --> 01:19:13,130
when the river had subsided,
1536
01:19:13,130 --> 01:19:14,530
he went back to that spot.
1537
01:19:14,530 --> 01:19:16,840
He waded back and forth across the river
1538
01:19:16,840 --> 01:19:19,530
and he found his camera.
1539
01:19:19,530 --> 01:19:21,450
Picked it up. Took it home.
1540
01:19:21,450 --> 01:19:23,210
Took it apart and cleaned it.
1541
01:19:23,210 --> 01:19:25,070
Kept right on making pictures with it.
1542
01:19:25,070 --> 01:19:25,910
(river gushing)
1543
01:19:25,910 --> 01:19:28,680
He never even bothered looking for new cameras.
1544
01:19:28,680 --> 01:19:31,420
He was satisfied with this type.
1545
01:19:37,970 --> 01:19:40,620
Alyssa: As an attempt to revitalize the Bolsey company,
1546
01:19:40,620 --> 01:19:43,340
Jacques held a press conference for his new invention,
1547
01:19:43,340 --> 01:19:45,490
the Single 8 Pocket Camera.
1548
01:19:46,810 --> 01:19:50,120
[Jacques Voiceover] In 1958, we finally came out
1549
01:19:50,120 --> 01:19:54,560
with the Bolsey 8 millimeter Miniature Movie Camera,
1550
01:19:54,560 --> 01:19:57,230
the smallest camera in the world.
1551
01:19:58,480 --> 01:20:00,150
It is a very simple camera.
1552
01:20:01,720 --> 01:20:04,210
I tried to take such a camera out
1553
01:20:04,210 --> 01:20:06,600
of the class of photographic item
1554
01:20:06,600 --> 01:20:10,950
and bring it into the class of appliances,
1555
01:20:10,950 --> 01:20:14,720
most specifically, of pocket appliances.
1556
01:20:14,720 --> 01:20:18,350
The main idea being that such a camera should be used
1557
01:20:18,350 --> 01:20:22,480
by people who knew absolutely nothing about photography,
1558
01:20:22,480 --> 01:20:25,100
and can be instructed in practical,
1559
01:20:25,100 --> 01:20:28,720
good picture taking within a minute or so.
1560
01:20:28,720 --> 01:20:31,840
Such a pocket appliance should be as easy
1561
01:20:31,840 --> 01:20:35,420
to use as a pencil or pen.
1562
01:20:35,420 --> 01:20:39,610
I am sure that such a pocket appliance-type camera
1563
01:20:39,610 --> 01:20:41,710
will be like everything in life,
1564
01:20:42,570 --> 01:20:46,900
just another beginning and another step
1565
01:20:46,900 --> 01:20:48,130
forward.
1566
01:20:48,130 --> 01:20:51,460
(Bolex camera clicking)
1567
01:20:53,130 --> 01:20:55,220
Alyssa: In January of 1962,
1568
01:20:55,220 --> 01:20:57,980
Jacques died of a sudden heart attack.
1569
01:20:57,980 --> 01:20:59,550
He had just turned 66.
1570
01:21:03,640 --> 01:21:07,690
The day my father died was a sleety,
1571
01:21:07,690 --> 01:21:09,460
freezing,
1572
01:21:09,460 --> 01:21:10,610
wet day.
1573
01:21:11,780 --> 01:21:15,470
They told us that my father had been brought in
1574
01:21:15,470 --> 01:21:18,200
to the White Plains Hospital right away.
1575
01:21:18,200 --> 01:21:20,340
We raced over to the hospital
1576
01:21:20,340 --> 01:21:23,700
which was only a few blocks from where we were at the time.
1577
01:21:23,700 --> 01:21:26,090
The doctor, Dr. Silverstein arrived.
1578
01:21:26,090 --> 01:21:28,040
He was the family doctor.
1579
01:21:28,040 --> 01:21:32,160
He went in and a few minutes later he came out
1580
01:21:32,160 --> 01:21:34,120
and looked at my mother and said,
1581
01:21:37,530 --> 01:21:38,880
I think he said, he's gone.
1582
01:21:40,330 --> 01:21:44,170
And my mother was completely flabbergasted.
1583
01:21:44,170 --> 01:21:46,460
She sat up and then she stood up
1584
01:21:47,410 --> 01:21:49,240
and then she burst into tears.
1585
01:21:52,550 --> 01:21:55,550
(somber eery music)
1586
01:21:57,600 --> 01:21:59,140
Alyssa: We found a letter that Jacques had written
1587
01:21:59,140 --> 01:22:01,490
to himself three weeks before he died.
1588
01:22:02,960 --> 01:22:05,770
[Jacques Voiceover] December 18, 1961.
1589
01:22:07,590 --> 01:22:08,980
I am not afraid to die.
1590
01:22:10,760 --> 01:22:12,160
I am not afraid of death.
1591
01:22:13,810 --> 01:22:16,840
I just think of the amount of experience,
1592
01:22:16,840 --> 01:22:20,230
know-how and certain knowledge I have accumulated
1593
01:22:20,230 --> 01:22:24,240
during my over 50 years of activities and hard work.
1594
01:22:25,220 --> 01:22:27,390
There are still so many things to be finalized
1595
01:22:27,390 --> 01:22:31,360
but I am afraid I have not the time to finish.
1596
01:22:31,360 --> 01:22:34,810
I believe that these things are beneficial not only
1597
01:22:34,810 --> 01:22:38,270
to my family and interesting to me as a challenge,
1598
01:22:38,270 --> 01:22:40,690
but they are also possibly beneficial
1599
01:22:40,690 --> 01:22:42,890
to some of the humanity at large.
1600
01:22:44,300 --> 01:22:47,520
I am afraid I may die before I have time to finalize them,
1601
01:22:50,270 --> 01:22:53,500
another disturbing thought that does not help my work.
1602
01:22:53,500 --> 01:22:57,780
Many new ideas keep coming all the time, incessantly.
1603
01:22:57,780 --> 01:23:00,670
That means I have to live even longer
1604
01:23:00,670 --> 01:23:03,100
to fulfill the task I assigned myself.
1605
01:23:05,280 --> 01:23:06,240
Methuselah,
1606
01:23:07,710 --> 01:23:10,680
why didn't you leave me your secret to longevity?
1607
01:23:14,530 --> 01:23:16,300
I just don't know what my dad thought,
1608
01:23:16,300 --> 01:23:18,200
it's just too hard to fathom
1609
01:23:18,200 --> 01:23:20,070
what he would think, reading this.
1610
01:23:21,430 --> 01:23:24,630
His whole life was always in the shadow of his father.
1611
01:23:24,630 --> 01:23:26,570
His whole world was crashing down around him.
1612
01:23:26,570 --> 01:23:30,300
Everything his father had left him was crashing down
1613
01:23:30,300 --> 01:23:33,320
and it had started crashing down before his father died.
1614
01:23:33,320 --> 01:23:37,330
All the dreams kind of were built upon this one foundation
1615
01:23:37,330 --> 01:23:38,920
at that point in time.
1616
01:23:39,830 --> 01:23:42,050
The B8 was gonna carry things forward.
1617
01:23:43,740 --> 01:23:46,360
Super 8 happened at just the wrong moment.
1618
01:23:47,810 --> 01:23:50,200
There was no way for Emil
1619
01:23:50,200 --> 01:23:52,720
or Mariette to be able to fix the situation
1620
01:23:52,720 --> 01:23:55,520
because neither of them had the tools.
1621
01:23:55,520 --> 01:23:57,340
And when he died,
1622
01:23:57,340 --> 01:23:58,670
that wasn't there anymore.
1623
01:23:58,670 --> 01:23:59,510
And
1624
01:24:01,900 --> 01:24:03,770
what happened after that was basically what happens
1625
01:24:03,770 --> 01:24:05,750
to every company when they become under-capitalized
1626
01:24:05,750 --> 01:24:07,120
and they have problems,
1627
01:24:07,120 --> 01:24:08,590
they just kind of crumbled.
1628
01:24:09,910 --> 01:24:12,120
(somber piano music)
1629
01:24:12,120 --> 01:24:13,890
The company was Jacques.
1630
01:24:13,890 --> 01:24:15,370
I mean, that's what it came down to,
1631
01:24:15,370 --> 01:24:16,240
it was Jacques,
1632
01:24:16,240 --> 01:24:19,880
it was the embodiment of him.
1633
01:24:23,560 --> 01:24:25,560
My dad used to use the word, pipe dream.
1634
01:24:28,050 --> 01:24:31,590
Sometimes he would tell me I needed fewer pipe dreams.
1635
01:24:33,920 --> 01:24:37,590
I think that is a reflection of what he thought about
1636
01:24:37,590 --> 01:24:38,590
what his father had.
1637
01:24:41,620 --> 01:24:44,110
Not because he didn't understand the great things
1638
01:24:44,110 --> 01:24:44,960
that he had done,
1639
01:24:46,570 --> 01:24:50,580
but he saw it all come to that end which was
1640
01:24:52,750 --> 01:24:54,410
hard to fathom.
1641
01:24:54,410 --> 01:24:57,490
(somber piano music)
1642
01:25:08,810 --> 01:25:10,250
Alyssa: From what I understand,
1643
01:25:10,250 --> 01:25:11,930
Emil was the one who tried, well,
1644
01:25:11,930 --> 01:25:13,160
one, along with your mother,
1645
01:25:13,160 --> 01:25:14,620
tried to save the business.
1646
01:25:14,620 --> 01:25:15,660
Oh yes. After he died.
1647
01:25:15,660 --> 01:25:16,840
Oh yes. I wonder if
1648
01:25:16,840 --> 01:25:19,240
he felt like he failed his father in a way
1649
01:25:19,240 --> 01:25:23,190
and that he kind of didn't wanna revisit after that.
1650
01:25:23,190 --> 01:25:25,380
Carole: That's perfectly possible
1651
01:25:25,380 --> 01:25:28,170
that the whole experience was very painful
1652
01:25:28,170 --> 01:25:29,810
and very difficult for him,
1653
01:25:29,810 --> 01:25:31,000
ending in defeat.
1654
01:25:32,110 --> 01:25:33,210
I wouldn't be a bit hat surprised.
1655
01:25:33,210 --> 01:25:34,620
Listen, to tell you the truth,
1656
01:25:34,620 --> 01:25:37,160
I've been unable to account for why I
1657
01:25:37,160 --> 01:25:39,130
have stayed away from it.
1658
01:25:39,130 --> 01:25:40,850
I've never understood that.
1659
01:25:40,850 --> 01:25:44,100
(relaxing piano music)
1660
01:25:45,890 --> 01:25:47,370
Alyssa: Maybe the reason my grandfather,
1661
01:25:47,370 --> 01:25:50,060
Emil, didn't talk about the past was
1662
01:25:50,060 --> 01:25:52,910
because he was afraid we would chase our own pipe dreams.
1663
01:25:53,900 --> 01:25:54,740
In his own way,
1664
01:25:54,740 --> 01:25:57,100
Emil must have been trying to protect the family
1665
01:25:57,100 --> 01:25:59,080
from facing the same hardships that he
1666
01:25:59,080 --> 01:26:00,480
and his father went through.
1667
01:26:04,040 --> 01:26:05,440
But looking at it now,
1668
01:26:05,440 --> 01:26:08,560
Jacques' dreams are the reason my family is here today.
1669
01:26:09,690 --> 01:26:10,530
In a sense,
1670
01:26:10,530 --> 01:26:12,200
his dream saved our family.
1671
01:26:13,840 --> 01:26:15,190
I think deep down,
1672
01:26:16,410 --> 01:26:17,260
Emil knew it too.
1673
01:26:21,680 --> 01:26:23,510
(relaxing upbeat piano music)
1674
01:26:23,510 --> 01:26:26,850
(Bolex camera clicking)
1675
01:26:31,410 --> 01:26:32,560
It's been over 90 years
1676
01:26:32,560 --> 01:26:35,500
since Jacques penciled his first drawings of the Bolex
1677
01:26:35,500 --> 01:26:37,950
and the camera is still being made.
1678
01:26:37,950 --> 01:26:40,900
Paillard is gone and now the owners are Bolex International
1679
01:26:40,900 --> 01:26:43,030
in Yverdon, Switzerland.
1680
01:26:43,030 --> 01:26:44,910
Even though the building looks big,
1681
01:26:44,910 --> 01:26:47,510
the Bolex International offices are now just a couple
1682
01:26:47,510 --> 01:26:48,550
of rooms where, Marc,
1683
01:26:48,550 --> 01:26:50,160
the office manager and, Otello,
1684
01:26:50,160 --> 01:26:53,260
the technician work every day to keep the Bolex going.
1685
01:26:53,260 --> 01:26:56,180
(buttons clicking)
1686
01:26:58,220 --> 01:26:59,890
Welcome, this is the reception,
1687
01:26:59,890 --> 01:27:01,930
Bolex International in Switzerland.
1688
01:27:01,930 --> 01:27:05,120
This is the place where I answer the phone,
1689
01:27:05,120 --> 01:27:07,160
where I reply to emails,
1690
01:27:07,160 --> 01:27:09,390
where I make all my invoices.
1691
01:27:09,390 --> 01:27:12,260
This is the place where the technician works,
1692
01:27:12,260 --> 01:27:14,620
where he assembles 16 millimeter
1693
01:27:14,620 --> 01:27:16,320
and super 16 film cameras.
1694
01:27:17,400 --> 01:27:21,660
Today, we still produce cameras in 16 millimeter
1695
01:27:21,660 --> 01:27:24,950
and super 16 for passionate people who still want
1696
01:27:24,950 --> 01:27:28,910
to shoot with such reliable,
1697
01:27:28,910 --> 01:27:30,370
old-style cameras.
1698
01:27:30,370 --> 01:27:32,100
And many people are wondering
1699
01:27:32,100 --> 01:27:34,380
why we keep so many spare parts in stock?
1700
01:27:34,380 --> 01:27:38,200
We have about 80,000 different spare parts,
1701
01:27:38,200 --> 01:27:42,150
so many people can still use this technology from the past.
1702
01:27:42,990 --> 01:27:45,140
Alyssa: How many do you make a year would you say?
1703
01:27:45,140 --> 01:27:46,120
It depends on the year,
1704
01:27:46,120 --> 01:27:48,120
about 20 every year,
1705
01:27:48,120 --> 01:27:48,960
more or less.
1706
01:27:48,960 --> 01:27:51,990
Today, because in the past we produced thousands
1707
01:27:51,990 --> 01:27:55,610
of cameras but the technology has changed,
1708
01:27:55,610 --> 01:27:59,090
but we have still very passionate clients,
1709
01:27:59,090 --> 01:28:00,590
customers who want to film,
1710
01:28:00,590 --> 01:28:03,380
to shoot with 16 millimeter and super 16 cameras.
1711
01:28:05,890 --> 01:28:09,030
Most of our customers today are young people
1712
01:28:09,030 --> 01:28:11,500
between 18 and 30 years old.
1713
01:28:13,460 --> 01:28:16,130
(skateboard wheels rumbling on tar)
1714
01:28:16,130 --> 01:28:18,010
(skateboard banging on tar)
1715
01:28:18,010 --> 01:28:21,680
(upbeat instrumental music)
1716
01:29:16,580 --> 01:29:18,060
Alyssa: To me, success,
1717
01:29:18,060 --> 01:29:21,020
Jacques' success wasn't in accomplishing everything
1718
01:29:21,020 --> 01:29:24,960
he wanted to do because there was always a new idea,
1719
01:29:24,960 --> 01:29:28,630
but he planted seeds and he never stopped.
1720
01:29:28,630 --> 01:29:29,810
He just kept going.
1721
01:29:30,760 --> 01:29:32,550
It's almost like the Bolex.
1722
01:29:32,550 --> 01:29:33,770
It just keeps going.
1723
01:29:34,660 --> 01:29:36,700
And the number of lives Jacques has touched,
1724
01:29:36,700 --> 01:29:38,390
the people his camera brings together,
1725
01:29:38,390 --> 01:29:40,090
the stories they have told,
1726
01:29:40,090 --> 01:29:41,590
the memories they have shared,
1727
01:29:42,770 --> 01:29:46,110
even now, during the transition from film to digital,
1728
01:29:46,110 --> 01:29:48,950
his vision continues to play out.
1729
01:29:48,950 --> 01:29:51,910
The footprints of the Bolex are everywhere.
1730
01:29:51,910 --> 01:29:55,230
And with the collaboration and the imagination of thousands,
1731
01:29:55,230 --> 01:29:58,670
his seed of an idea continues to grow.
1732
01:29:58,670 --> 01:30:02,250
(relaxing classical music)
1733
01:30:25,390 --> 01:30:28,850
Introducer: And now, "This, I believe".
1734
01:30:28,850 --> 01:30:30,800
Edward: "This, I believe."
1735
01:30:30,800 --> 01:30:32,680
This is Jacques Bolsey's creed.
1736
01:30:33,540 --> 01:30:34,700
[Jacques Voiceover] Be straight as an arrow
1737
01:30:34,700 --> 01:30:36,740
in your dealings with man.
1738
01:30:36,740 --> 01:30:38,630
Always look forward and up.
1739
01:30:38,630 --> 01:30:42,520
Never despair, as long as the sun shines there's hope.
1740
01:30:43,370 --> 01:30:47,820
I believe that so long as I follow this guide post,
1741
01:30:47,820 --> 01:30:50,250
I will prosper and be happy,
1742
01:30:50,250 --> 01:30:52,580
this I believe.
122648
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