Forthcoming Events!
[PLEASE NOTE: Due to a fire at the Palm Springs Cultural Center on Saturday, June 27th, we have to postpone the screening of Nashville that was meant to screen July 2nd. Stay tuned for the new date.] We are excited to announce the forthcoming “Where Were You In 1976? A Look Back at Bicentennial Cinema” film series at the Palm Springs Cultural Center (three of them during XOXO) June 11th – July 2nd! Co-hosted with Palm Springs Public Library and PSCC in celebration of America’s Semiquincentennial! Tickets here!
Huge thank you to Steve Sumrall from NBC for interviewing us about “Where Were You In 1976? A Look Back at Bicentennial Cinema” series June 10th during The Roggin Report!
Past Events in 2026
We are honored to say that a University of North Carolina Wilmington senior (now grad) Holley Anne Brabble interviewed us for a featurette called “Finding the Deserted, Screening the Forgotten: An Interview with Deserted Films” in Film Matters, issue 16.2, Fall 2025. It came out online in January, but we just received our hard copy a couple of weeks ago. If you are so inclined, please enjoy reading via PDF!
On April 27th at the Palm Springs Cultural Center, co-founder Devin Orgeron introduced The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, 2014) as part of the Palm Springs Cultural Center’s CINEVISTA: A CINEMATIC TOUR OF ICONIC HOTELS series.
On April 22nd at the Palm Springs Cultural Center we presented as a Lesbian Visibility Week program “Looking for Lesbians: Queer Female Identity in Alternate Film Histories,” that featured unique materials from our own collection and from archives around the country that provide a glimpse of queer female identity outside of mainstream Hollywood. The event also included a fantastic short documentary film, Joani: Queen of the Paradiddle (Tina Gordon, 2015) about Joani Hannan, one of the women LVW organizers were honoring this year. It was co-sponsored by The LGBTQ Community Center of the Desert, LGBTQ+ History and Archives of the Desert, Greater Palm Springs Pride, and others. It was such a lovely and rewarding experience — we got a very warm reception!
On Wednesday, March 25th, we presented some behind-the-scenes home movie footage of Diane Keaton before a free screening of The First Wives Club at Festival Theaters, co-sponsored by Palm Springs International Film Society and Palm Springs Women In Film and TV (PSWIFT). This clip played (with contextual language added) before screenings of Something’s Gotta Give, (March 27–April 2).
Back in November 2025, we had an information table at the Coachella Valley Filipino Festival, and in February 2026 at the Black History Committee Town Fair, to help folks think through personal archiving needs — home movies, photographs, slides, and otherwise. On March 28th, we did the same at the ONE-PS’s annual picnic and had a super fun time (despite being ungodly hot!)
On March 3rd, we participated again in this year’s CV Giving Day on March 3rd! Big thanks to our donors!
On February 28, 2026, at the Black History Committee Town Fair, we hosted an information booth to help members of the public figure out how to preserve their home movies and other topics related to personal archiving.
February 13 – March 1, 2026, National Date Festival & Riverside County Fair: Back in May, Pickering Events, the company that runs the above, approached us to create a short film showcasing footage of the National Date Festival from our home movie collection — luckily, we have a fair amount! The 15-minute film called looped in a little midcentury living room set-up they put together for us in their new National Date Festival Museum in the Sands of Time Pavilion. It was subtitled in Spanish. We were there in person February 16th and February 26th to present the film to the public. If you’ve never been to the fair, come, chill out, and eat some dates next year!
On February 17th and 21st, 2026, during Modernism Week, it was once again our pleasure to treat locals and attendees from out of town to a new show called “Home Movie Jukebox with Deserted Films”! In previous years, we’ve brought audiences along for a guided tour of the Coachella Valley and a border-to-border trip across the state of California. This year, the guard rails were off!
On January 18th, we presented to a large Seven Lakes Country Club audience about what we do and showed an abridged version of our “Palm Springs Plays Itself.” When Louis Trepel initially invited to present around a year prior, we did not have footage of their development. However, during the intervening months we did indeed acquire a 1970 home movie that includes Seven Lakes as shot from above on Southridge Road in the Rimcrest neighborhood. See the .gif made from the footage on the right. A sharp eye will catch a big white square complex off in the distance: that was Gene Autry’s Melody Ranch Hotel (now The Parker).
Past Events in 2025
On December 18th we returned for a fourth year to the Palm Springs Cultural Center for another installment of our yearly holiday show! Holiday Oddities 4 (The 2025 “Who needs a drink?” edition.) Palm Springs Life (page 12), The Palm Springs Post, and Visit Palm Springs listed our event in their holiday guides!
Steve Sumrall from NBC Palm Springs interviewed us for a The Roggin Report‘s “Desert in a Minute” segment. It aired December 17, 2025.
On December 10th, 6pm, Palm Spring Public Library/Mizell Center: We were delighted to bring a fun holiday program to the Palm Springs Public Library for a third year in a row! Because of the big library renovations, the show was at the Mizell Center this year — which presented an opportunity to entertain folks who have routinely come to our shows at the library, and those who frequent the Center but may not be familiar with Deserted Films. A two-fer and free as usual!
On November 22nd (the date this event moved to because of weather) we had an information booth — our first time doing this at local civic events — to help members of the public figure out how to preserve their home movies and other topics related to personal archiving. We started with the Coachella Valley Filipino Festival (organized by our buddies Lauren Wolfer and Michael Milan) and intend to do more of these sorts of events in the future. It was free of course! Our only regret… not having a Betamax tape on hand!
September 2025: We now have a donate “button” (the word “Donate” in our footer). Big thanks to board member Sean Savage for helping us find an option we don’t have to pay for!
Also in September… Last summer our intern, Janeth Delgado, helped up populate and update the database of our holdings. We placed the searchable database originally at the bottom of our “About” page, but moved it this month to its own page on this site, and it’s always accessible via a button at the bottom of each page. It replaces the search bar that is no longer comparable with our needs.
August 5, 2025: We’re so honored to announce that three films in our Deserted Films collection — all made by amateur filmmaker Betty Stefenel — will be preserved by the National Film Preservation Foundation (NFPF)! Congrats to all the awardees this year!
We are excited and honored to finally mention that clips from a few home movies in our collection are included in the “Section 14: The Untold Story” exhibit at Agua Caliente Cultural Museum, which opened June 14, 2025. One of our clips is on the wall, and it and two others are included in the 16-min. captivating film on the topic. See photos below.
From the Museum’s exhibition page on the film: “Section 14 The Untold Story unfolds around a central theater in the Museum’s Changing Gallery. In the newly-released 16-minute film at the center of the exhibition, Tribal Elders recall life on Section 14 and the struggles their families and their community endured. Around this powerful record, the exhibition presents documentary evidence, the facts of the matter drawn from local, state, and national archives: How private interests worked to take our land and deny our rights. How we fought to regain those rights and hold firmly onto our land and our culture.”
In celebration of Pride Month, on June 1, 2025, we collaborated with The LGBTQ+ History & Archives of the Desert (Archives) and the Palm Springs Cultural Center (PSCC) to present a day focused on LGBTQ home movies! In the afternoon, the public was invited to bring their home movies for assessment and recommendations for storage and digitization. Free of course!
In the evening we screened family-friendly (13+), rarely and never-before-seen LGBTQ+ footage from our collections. PLUS in collaboration with the UCLA Library Film & Television Archive, we also treated audiences to LGBTQ+ works from UCLA’s collection by Pat Rocco featuring Palm Springs and Los Angeles, as well as other home movies of Hollywood stars at home, at work, and at play! A reception followed.
“These films are a glimpse into the lives of LGBTQ people with their friends, and families, on vacation, and in their homes, it is important to show that their lives are part of the bigger story of society”, said David Gray Co-Founder, Co-Director of the Archives. “We celebrate Pride month by presenting this event with our partners to tell our stories and build good will and to nurture empathy and compassion with the end goal of a more inclusive world and a realization that our lives are not all that different from each other. Our shared experiences are the key to creating a society that embraces equality and justice and continues to evolve to meet the needs of the community.”
On March 12th at 6pm, we presented “Deserted Films Presents: Made by a Woman” at Palm Springs Public Library! We had a great crowd for an evening of woman-made shorts, amateur films and home movies, animation, and television. It’s film/TV history, but female focused! This event was in conjunction with International Amateur Movie Day (March 13)!
The audience allowed us to take then on a gentle, guided video tour through the work of well known (Ida Lupino for example) and lesser-known women directors and media makers (including local photographer, now filmmaker Joyce Lee!) And, because it’s Deserted Films, it was jam-packed with surprises, weird stuff, and things you will want to see again. Women have been a part of film and media history from the start… and their influence expands exponentially if we look beyond Hollywood… beyond “The Industry.” Info.
We are tried something new this year to help offset the cost of digitizing our archive for public access benefiting researchers, students, collaborations with other nonprofits, and public programming. On March 4th, we participated in the 24-hour CV Giving Day! CV Giving Day brings the Coachella Valley together as one community, raising money and awareness for our local nonprofits during a 24-hour online giving challenge. We inspire people to give generously to nonprofits making our desert region stronger, creating a thriving community for all. We received $1,525 in donations. A big thank you to our donors!
On February 26th, we presented a screening of some of our CV films at Maleza in the Drift Hotel here in Palm Springs.
February 2025: We returned to Modernism Week’s CAMP! On February 17th and 22nd and presented a new show: “Everyone in the Car!”–California Roadside Amusements and A Vintage Home Movie Cocktail Hour with Deserted Films”; and on February 19th, we did an encore presentation of “Palm Springs Plays Itself: A Vintage Home Movie Cocktail Hour With Deserted Films”! Fun mention of our show by president of the Palm Springs Historical Society, Tracy Conrad, in The Desert Sun. Our shows are mentioned here as well.
January 7, 2025: We presented to the Rotary Club of Indio at Fantasy Springs Event Center, Indio, CA, and it was delightful.
Past Events & News 2024
On December 22, 2024, we returned to the Palm Springs Cultural Center with our oddly popular “Holiday Oddities 3” screening! We got a great crowd!
On December 18, 2024, we hosted a fun holiday screening at the Palm Springs Public Library: “Celebrity Holiday Special Showcase: The Judy Garland Christmas Show (1963) + Some Treasures from the Deserted Films Archive.” More information here.
First week of December 5, 2024: We presented “A Nonprofit Archive Primer: Show and Tell with Deserted Films” at the Association of Moving Image Archivists’ (AMIA) annual conference in Milwaukee, WI.
On November 13, 2024, archivist/filmmaker/photographer Gabz Norte and we presented “Native American Home Movie Archives: Collections Care, Access, and Ethics” at the annual International Conference of Indigenous Archives, Libraries, and Museums held here in Palm Springs.
Amazing Summer Intern (2024), Janeth Delgado
On August 30th we had to say goodbye to our amazing summer intern Janeth Delgado! A recent graduate from San Jose State’s Master of Library and Information Science program, she had previously interned for American Film Institute’s (AFI) archive in LA, writing descriptions for audiovisual recordings created by AFI Conservatory. We can’t say enough about just how incredibly helpful Janeth has been! First, she transcribed Melissa’s handwritten notes for over half of the films in the collection, added them to our new database (coming soon!), and wrote descriptions for 90% of films on our site that we hadn’t gotten to yet. She even wrote a guest post on Instagram for us. Praise Janeth! The Association of Moving Image Archivists’ (AMIA) Pathways program paid her salary — a huge load off.
We are excited to announce that Palm Springs Life included a piece on us in their August 2024 issue. You can read it here online and see the full magazine version here!
Hey folks! We don’t know who nominated us to be interviewed for Bold Journey magazine, but thanks! Here’s a lovely little back and forth with us on the topic of generosity.
This summer we hosted ENCORE: A SUMMER CONCERT FILM SERIES at the Historic Camelot Theatre at the Palm Springs Cultural Center.
On June 1st, we and LGBTQ+ History & Archives of the Desert partnered on a Community Archiving Workshop (CAW) at the Palm Springs Public Library. 25 volunteers digitized, captured metadata, and rehoused a complete run of The Gay & Lesbian Times: The Desert’s Newsmagazine, and inventoried about 40 VHS tapes; and with us they inspected and inventoried a new collection — the Sczempka family — and cleaned and rehoused more of the Betty Stefenel collection (see more about her in past events below). California Revealed is the local organizing hub for CAW events, which is funded in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Association of Moving Image Archivists, Institute of Museum and Library Services, and other funders. A big thank you to CAW and California Revealed for sponsoring this event. (All photos below by Pamela Jean Vadakan, Julie Warren, and Emily Lentz.)
On April 18th, we presented “(A) Home (Full of) Movies: In the Living Room with Deserted Films” at Salon for the Parched!
At this event, we led Parchies on a guided tour of our nonprofit home movie archive and journey through our region, via vintage 8mm, Super 8, and 16mm films. We also debuted some newly digitized material and discuss the many ways these films can help us better understand our local history.
On April 10th, 6-7:30pm, we presented “Ask a librarian: The Role of the Library in Film and Media” at the Palm Springs Public Library in celebration of National Library Week!
Libraries (i.e. public, university, corporate, K-12 schools) figure prominently in film and television. Melissa and Devin (of Deserted Films) have assembled a fun and informative clip-tour through some memorable library moments and will offer up some fun archival surprises as well! You know…because they are Deserted Films! A hiding place? The key to one’s identity? The solution to a mystery? A crime scene? A site of empowerment and enlightenment? An impenetrable fortress? A personal sanctuary? Libraries are shorthand for all of these ideas and many more. Let’s get a sense of what libraries have come to mean in film and media. The history might surprise you!
NEWS! We are very excited to announce that the Association of Moving Image Archivists is providing us with the opportunity to host a remote intern this summer! Read about it here and pass the application along to any budding moving image archivist who may fit the bill and who identifies as coming from an underrepresented group. Applications accepted through April 26, 2024. The intern will receive a $6,900 stipend for 300 hours work at $23/hr.
March 6, 2024. We are finally up for air after a very eventful holiday season and February! That means we have time now to tell folks about the wonderful UCLA Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS) grad students Jackie Forsyte, Gabrielle/Gabz Norte, and Daniella D’Acquisto, who inspected, cleaned, and digitized a selection of films by amateur filmmaker Betty Stefenel (Jan. 2, 1913 – Aug. 1980). From San Mateo, Morgan Hill, San Jose, and other cities in the peninsular part of the Bay Area. Stefenel picked up a “Bolex L-8”, “Cine-Kodak Mode E Sixteen” and other cameras to shoot small gauge films — starting in her mid-30s — from the late 1940s until at least the 1960s. She was a charter member and eventually program director of Peninsula Home Movies Unlimited (PHMU) club, a regional chapter of the Amateur Cinema League. She was also a delegate from her group to the Northern California Council of Amateur Movie Clubs, served the Council as editor of its Filming For Fun Quarterly, and screened her work publicly during the short-lived “Filming for Fun” festival held in San Francisco during the late 1950s. (“Closeups — What Filmers Are Doing,” Movie Makers, June 1951, p204.) We have acquired a great many of her amateur films and home movies which, often in narrative form, cover domestic scenes and self-portraiture, club meetings and activities, her husband Anthony at work at a rock and gem shop, her friends and family, the circus, and very enthusiastically experimented with handmade titles with little asides, illustrations, stock footage, and even some unusual film stocks such as Dynacolor and 8mm film onto which she added magnetic striping for soundtracks. This was years before, for example, Kodak released Super 8mm film with magnetic soundtracks and made the practice more common. At least one of her films (Tik Tok Said the Clock) won an Peninsula Home Movies Unlimited award in the uncut/unedited 16mm category in 1950, and she produced at least four films which were distributed to other club members: This is Christmas, Dissolves, What! No Dessert?, Tik Tok Said the Clock (being digitized by California Revealed in 2025) and Closeups v. Chatter (which has been digitized). Since acquiring more of her films, to that list we add the titles Pie and Cake (both of which are being digitized by California Revealed in 2025.) You can watch the students’ fine work on our “A Longer Drive” page:
- BS#3. [Memories of Eden Movie Makers Picnic, 1951.] 8mm. Color. Silent.
- BS#2. [Pictures of Me I Wouldn’t Show to A Dog, ca. 1950s.] 8mm. Color. Silent.
- BS#5. [Closeups v Chatter, January 1951.] 8mm. Color. Silent.
- BS#8. [Our Circle of Friends, 1947-1949.] 8mm. B/W & Color. Silent.
- BS#6. [“PHMU Club News Reel 1949 to Oct. 1950.”] 8mm. B/W and Color. Silent.
- BS#7. [“Album ‘59-60,” “(2nd Filming for Fun) Fiesta Script,” and Outtakes from 1953 and Otherwise.] 8mm. Color. Silent.
Gabz’s, Jackie’s, and Daniella’s group independent study project culminated in six beautifully digitized films and a final report with data regarding their preservation needs. They even co-authored and made a zine! We are so very thankful for their professionalism, how easy they were to work with, and their enthusiasm about the Betty Stefenel collection. We know they will continue to rock the world as archivists and creators themselves long after graduation! Lastly, we’d also like to thank UCLA professor Dr. Shawn VanCour and the Center for Preservation of Audiovisual Heritage for introducing us to such wonderful students this past Fall, and Fall 2022 (see below).
On February 28th, we presented “Black History / Black Media – Celebrating Black History Month Through Film,” a Black History Month celebration at the Palm Springs Public Library! It included home movies from our collection.
“Celebrate Black History Month at the Palm Springs Public Library with a thoughtfully curated and narrated video tour through black production and representation in film and television.”Celebrate Black History Month at the Palm Springs Public Library with a thoughtfully curated and narrated video tour through black production and representation in film and television.”
CINEMA ON ICE: A FROSTY Film Series at the Historic Camelot Theatre. January and February 2024
“The Summer Heat Film Series was so much fun we thought we’d follow it up with some more weather-inspired cinematic cheer. Get ready for the Cinema on Ice, with Deserted Films! Post holiday blues? Does the chill in the air make you miss shoveling your driveway? Come get cozy at The Palm Springs Cultural Center’s Historic Camelot Theatre with a series of films set against a wintry backdrop. We know how funny it is to our snowbird friends when the denizens of Palm Springs pout about the cold! So let’s celebrate it instead! We are told that a selection of warm and/or boozy beverages will be available to help take the edge (!) off. Screenings will feature live introductions and thematic film ephemera provided by Melissa Dollman and Devin Orgeron of Deserted Films.” See The Thing (1982); Groundhog Day (1993); McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971); Snowpiercer (2013); and Dr. Zhivago (1965).
Palm Springs Plays Itself: A Vintage Home Movie Cocktail Hour with Deserted Films on February 21, 2024, at CAMP during Modernism Week!
“Palm Springs as it is seldom seen! Home movies shot by locals and visitors during the golden age of amateur filmmaking! See legendary hotels, homes, clubs, people, shops, and restaurants captured on archival film!
Local home movie film archive, Deserted Films, will screen and provide entertaining context for a curated selection of amateur 16mm, 8mm and Super 8 films (some shown on actual, vintage mechanical equipment!), and enlighten the audience on the work of their unique nonprofit organization Deserted Films.”
On February 10, 2024, air personality Bonnie G. (AKA Bonnie Gilgallon) of The Desert Scene podcast interviewed Deserted Films’ own Devin Orgeron on what we do and the Cinema on Ice series at the Palm Springs Cultural Center. See more about the series below!
2023
In December 2023, we had the pleasure of being interviewed by local Singer/Writer/Actor/On-Air Personality Bonnie G. (AKA Bonnie Gilgallon) on The Desert Scene podcast over the weekend. What a treat! To hear us talk about Deserted Films and our Holiday Oddities 2 show on Dec. 20th Palm Springs Cultural Center see episode #28 here.
We are honored and excited to announce that in November 2023 we were awarded a Digitization and Preservation grant from California Revealed! This digitization project is supported by California Revealed and administered in California by the State Librarian. The program is made possible by funding from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act. We will post all the videos as they roll in!
On December 13, 6pm, at Palm Springs Public Library hosted our fun TV-related screening called “A (Not Just) Christmas TV Time Machine”!
“Deserted Films has been rummaging around the PSPL stacks looking for goodies — just in time for Christmas! A spectacular and nostalgic collection of highlights from television’s best (and strangest) holiday specials from the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s complete with holiday-themed commercials from the era. Memorable musical performances…tearful and cheerful Christmas “lessons”… CLAYMATION! Your favorite shows all in one handy and thoughtfully contextualized package. Lovingly curated and presented by Deserted Films.”
On December 20th, the Palm Springs Cultural Center hosted “Holiday Oddities 2”, our holiday screening of festive home movies from our collection as well as shorts, commercials, and more.
On Thursday, November 16, 2023, during the Association of Moving Image Archivists’ annual conference in Tulsa, OK, one of our home movies was included in a Archival Screening Night montage curated by the Center for Home Movies in honor of Home Movie Day’s 20th anniversary!
On July 27, Melissa of Deserted Films presented on the David Root home movies at the Northeast Historic Film Summer Symposium (an event programmed by Devin!)
During summer, Deserted Films curated a “Summer Heat” film series for the Camelot Theatre at the Palm Springs Cultural Center that ran from July 2 (our official birthday!) through September 17, 2023. Before each screening we showed home movies from our collection!
On April 11, 2023, 7pm, Deserted Films returned to the Palm Springs Cultural Center for another screening of fun educational/sponsored shorts and home movies. Come on out for “From the Archives: Art, Design, and the Look of Optimism”!
On February 25, 2023, we collaborated again with Modernism Week and the Palm Springs Public Library for Home Movie Day, a grassroots, worldwide effort to educate the public about home movies that invites the public to bring their films where we inspect, repair, and screen them.
On February 22, 2023, Melissa and Devin, as Deserted Films, gave a talk at the Palm Springs Public Library called “Thanks for the Memories-The Importance of Home Movies.”
2022
On December 20, 2022 at the Palm Springs Cultural Center, we hosted a “Holiday Oddities” program of ephemeral films from our collection and films we borrowed from archivist friends.
During the Association of Moving Image Archivists’ annual conference (December 6-9, 2022 in Pittsburgh) one of our home movies was included in the Archival Screening Night show!
This (Fall 2022) term, Master of Library and Information Science students at UCLA (Janet Ceja’s “IS289-3 “Special Issues in Information Studies: Motion Picture Film Preservation” course) learned all about film preservation using home movies from our collection we had yet to view. Here’s a bit about their efforts. In teams, the students digitized ten of our films using a 4K Kinetta scanner in the university’s Media Preservation Lab. Their contributions can be found on the “A Longer Drive,” “A Flight Away,” and “Holidays, Special Events, Parties, & Weird Stuff” pages. Notes for each film are in part derived from the descriptions they provided as part of their class projects. We wish to thank Felicity Flesher, Jeremy Hendrickson, Michaela Telfer, Christina Scholze, Daniella D’acquisto, Kylie Marie Harris, Marisa Rae Pimentel, Eunice Hong, Karl Theopold, Emily Gudmundson, Grace Lauren, Sidney Garcia, Tatiana Hernandez, Dr. Janet Ceja, Dr. Shawn VanCour, and Chloe Reyes in the Lab for their hard work and coordination. You can also watch team “Splice Girls’” final project video here (we have their permission to link out to it.)
2021
We also participated in our first international screening as Deserted Films in an event called “Christmas Home Movie Day” in 2021 which was organized by Italian archive, Superottimisti. Superottimisti screened our home movies among others on Christmas Day at the Museo Nazionale del Cinema di Torino and near the Venaria Reale Palace in Torino, Italy, as well as online.
We received our first film donation back in summer 2021! Some of the films we lent the UCLA students (see above) to study and digitize came from donor Beth Campbell, daughter of the filmmaker. She mentioned in an email to us, passed along to the students: “My dad’s name was Donald Ramsay Lawson, but was always known as Ramsay. He attended Redlands University and then Stanford for his MBA. His big joke was that he never would have gotten into Stanford if it wasn’t for the war (WWII), because his grades weren’t great. He was rejected from serving because he was a diabetic. So a professor at Redlands recommended he apply to Stanford and was accepted because they needed men! He was a CPA in Pasadena, with a firm that his father started, Lawson and Co, which later became Guill, Blankenbaker and Lawson. I think it closed in the 1980’s. He was an amateur photographer, a hobbyist.” To watch Lawson’s films, see # 343 and #344 on “A Longer Drive.”