How and why an underdog 16mm camera has united generations for a century.

From her first shorts made as a young girl, to her time as a film student, and on through her stint at CAA becoming immersed in some of the inner workings of the film industry, Alyssa Bolsey has had a passion for storytelling. "Beyond the Bolex”, her first feature-length documentary film, made its World Premiere as an Official Selection at DOC NYC to strong reviews and has gained recognition at numerous film festivals in the US and abroad. The film has continued to receive accolades, including in The New Yorker and on CBS. Honors and awards have included the "Emerging Filmmaker Award" at the Newport Beach Film Festival, "Best Feature Documentary" at Dallas VideoFest, and being named by the American Library Association in 2021 as one of its top 12 recommended films. A partial list of special screenings includes the National Gallery of Art, USC, AARP, and for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Science and Technology Council. Beyond the Bolex continues to screen around the world.

David Bendiksen is a professor and photochemical filmmaker who believes in the expressive use of equipment, ideas, materials, and processes. In an era of ever-increasing digital dominance, his creative work emphasizes the rich chemical, optical, and mechanical aspects of analog film. His dissertation, Technological Truths: Media and Materiality in French New Wave Cinema and International Pictorialism, bridges cinematography and photography in its study of avant-garde imagemaking technologies. As a Banff International Literary Translation Centre fellow his writing projects include translations of Cahiers du Cinéma. David is dedicated to building communities of current scholars, practitioners, and archivists across the globe and is an active member of the AgX Filmmaking Collective, programming analog festivals and workshops. Current research includes an NSF-funded grant for studying sustainable and ecologically-minded photochemistry. As an interdisciplinary scholar, David has taught over a dozen different film-related courses across Film Studies, Comparative Literature, and French at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Emerson College, and Mount Holyoke College.

Richard Jura was born to be a camera technician, having been fascinated since childhood with disassembling, then reassembling everything from his toys to motorcycles. From this foundation, he progressed to repairing plastic injection molding machines, and then to working on repairs and maintenance for about 8 years at Helix Camera and Video, a photography shop that stocks high-end cameras and gear. After a stint working on movie sets, Rich spent more than 30 years in the Columbia College Chicago film department working as a camera technician. While there, he taught himself the inner workings of Bolex cameras, ultimately becoming the largest Bolex parts buyer in the U.S. Breathing new life into these iconic cameras, Rich's expertise has allowed both experienced and new filmmakers to tell their stories through the timeless art of 16mm filmmaking.