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Sid N. Laverents Oral History

Sid N. Laverents Oral History
The following interview was conducted in the home of Sidney & Charlotte Laverents in Bonita, California on March 29, 2006. Sid was interviewed by UCLA film preservationist Ross Lipman, with coordination by Amy Sloper and audio & video recording by Michelle Weis, both students in UCLA's Moving Image Archive Studies Program at the time of the interview.

Transcription of the interview is available as a PDF file: Laverents Interview

Sid Laverents, a retired Convair engineer, has long been a legend in the amateur film community, but remained virtually unknown to the larger filmgoing public until his film Multiple SIDosis (1970) was chosen for the National Film Registry in 2000. With a background in vaudeville, a stint as a one-man-band, and a career in rocket science, Sid started his amateur film hobby in the 1950s - when he was well into his 50s himself - and continued to make films until his death at the age of 100 in 2009. Made largely in obscurity - and often starring himself, his wife, and his friends - Sid shared his films with his cohorts in the San Diego Amateur Movie Club until it disbanded in the early 2000s. Not only are his films charming, funny, and sweet, but they are also technically precise marvels of amateur filmmaking, made largely in a time without computers or digital effects. The films and papers of Sid Laverents reside at the UCLA Film & Television Archive in Los Angeles, CA, where preservation work has already been done on four of his 16mm titles.

For more information on the life and work of Sid Laverents view the following links:
2004 New York Times profile on Sid
Filmography in Rocktober
New York Times obituary
Los Angeles Times obituary

The Small Gauge and Amateur Film Committee and all of those who are admirers of Sid Laverents and his films are very appreciative of the work of Ross Lipman, Amy Sloper, and Michelle Weis. Thanks to the UCLA Film and Television Archive and the UCLA Moving Image Archive Studies program. In fondest memorial to Sid Laverents.