The Film Renaissance
By Maeve Merrick, Wisteria Magazine
In this day and age, nostalgia seems to hold all aspects of media production, with remakes, reboots, and revivals prevalent in film and tv. This sentiment is true of social media as well, with throwback fashion trends regularly being promoted on timelines. Production companies think modern-day audiences desire a story they already know, something comfortable, something simple. While this might be partially true, while people crave things of the past, it might not be for the reasons corporations think.
Over the past five years, a renaissance has occurred.. Not with art or new ideas, as those have been reproducing for decades, but with something else: film photography. For decades, shooting on film was commonplace, as it was the only option for capturing stills.
In the early 2000s, major film companies closed production plants and stopped producing many of their analog cameras and film due to the introduction of digital cameras and their simplicity. This shift was earth-shaking, and media experts declared film photography as good as dead. However, observing current photography trends, those experts might want to reconsider. The demand for film rolls is higher than ever, with film shops developing double the number of rolls and big film brands bulking back up for the increase. In early October, Kodak announced it had hired more than 300 people in the past 18 months and was looking to recruit more, with the vice president, Nagraj Bokinkere, stating, “We literally cannot keep up with demand.” A few days later, Leica announced that it would bring back the M6, a 35mm film camera it stopped producing 20 years ago.
The interest in film isn’t just for amateur photography either. The second season of the Emmy award-winning show, Euphoria, was shot entirely on Ektachrome film. In fact, the show’s creator, Sam Levinson, contacted Kodak to help source enough 35mm for the series, and Kodak reopened part of their factory to help create a sufficient amount of film for the show. So, for many reasons, it’s pretty easy to deduce that film is not dead. However, this conclusion does raise another question: Why? Why are younger people attracted to this old medium?
To answer this query, I sent a questionnaire to Big Camera Shop, a local business in Charlotte, North Carolina, that deals in all things photography, including film. My questions were answered by Brant, the social media manager and sales associate at Biggs. When I asked Brant about the revival of film, he agreed there has been a “huge increase in the demand for film” and that many of his co-workers believed “it was going to be a fad or die out after the first year.” When I asked why so many people are drawn to film, he responded, “I am part of the Generation Z crowd and I think what gravitates many of us and younger people is the whole process of shooting film. In a world that is so instant, film makes you slow down. The whole analog process was missed by many of us younger people since we have grown up in the digital world.”
I agree with this statement. I’m not even eighteen yet, but I adore shooting on film. I own my camera (a Canon Rebel 2000) and regularly develop rolls. I love everything about it, from the weight of the camera in my hands to lining up the perfect shot to the delight of getting my photos back. All that’s to say, I love the intention behind film photography. As Brant stated, my generation has known nothing but the digital age and a cell phone camera’s quick, easy accessibility. While this convenience is admittedly nice, the abundance of a digital camera can cheapen the photos themselves. The option of taking hundreds of pictures of one thing lessens the magic of a photograph and that special feeling that’s placed on a subject. With film, the limited number of photos per roll and the complicated process of development reignites the intention behind photography, creating a feeling that many younger people might never have felt in their lives.
While the revival of film falls into the nostalgia trap of modern-day media, it’s not due to a want for simplicity or familiarity. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Young people love film for its excitement, uncertainty, and imperfection. Developing a roll of film is much more complicated than clicking a button on a phone. Yet, vintage camera sales continue to skyrocket, and there’s more demand than ever for 35mm film. Will this revival continue for years to come until film and digital coexist in the modern world, or is this simply a fad that will fade, as film did before? Only time will tell. However, it’s certain that for the foreseeable future, young people will continue to keep this beautiful format alive.
