All Things Bakelite

The Age of Plastic

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All Things Bakelite selected for a Remi Award

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50th Annual WorldFest Houston Film Festival

April 21-30, 2017
All Things Bakelite team are honored to be selected for a Remi Award
Please join us for our

ATB SCREENING
All Things Bakelite

Sunday April 23rd, 3:00pm
The AMC Studio 30 – Theater #23
Westheimer at Dunvale
2949 Dunvale Rd, Houston, TX 77063
 

Filed Under: Screenings

Yonkers Film Fest Features Bakelite Inventor

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lohud - All Things Bakelite featured in Film FestivalKaren Roberts, lohud, The Journal News, October 14, 2016
Visit Lohud, for complete article and photos >

Documentary examines the life and work of Bakelite inventor Leo Baekeland, the father of modern plastics.

Leo H. Baekeland
Leo Hendrik Baekeland may be the most important inventor you’ve never heard of. Baekeland, who discovered the first synthetic plastic, is the subject of a new documentary, “All Things Bakelite,” featured at the Yonkers Film Festival, on Oct. 22.

The film festival, known as YoFi, runs Oct. 16-23.

Baekeland, who was born in Belgium in 1863, invented Bakelite in 1907 in a lab in Yonkers.

 

The substance, named after its inventor, was one of the earliest synthetic materials made from phenol and formaldehyde. At the time, it transformed modern life, being used in everything from electronics to automobiles, cookware to jewelry, even billiard balls and toothbrushes were made of Bakelite.

The film introduces the man and his work in both a playful and serious manner.

“He’s an unsung hero to modern chemistry and to modern history; he’s up there with the Henry Fords and Thomas Edisons, but never got the recognition he deserved,” said Hugh Karraker, 68, Baekeland’s great-grandson and the documentary’s producer.
The film, directed by John Maher, includes rare archival footage, photos, first-person accounts plus interviews with scientists, historians, and artists; actors re-enact parts of the Belgium-American scientist’s life. Much of the material was supplied by Karraker, including information from Baekeland’s 62 diaries.

Baekeland’s lab was in his barn at Snug Rock, his riverfront mansion in the Harmony Park section of Yonkers. According to Karraker, the lab was built in the barn in 1899; it burned along with the house in a suspicious fire in 1957.

Before Bakelite, his first big invention was Velox, a paper for printing photographs that Baekeland sold to Kodak founder George Eastman for $750,000 in 1899. He eventually sold his interest in Bakelite to the Union Carbide Co. for $16.5 million in the mid 1920s. He died in Beacon in 1943. Today, items made from Bakelite are considered collector’s items.

“The jewelry is a selling point, but very few people know about the history,” Karraker said.

The film has been eight years in the making, Karraker said. Initially, his mother planned on writing the story but Karraker took over the project with the blessing of his family in order to illuminate the story of Bakelite.

I made the film to celebrate the life and work of my great-grandfather,” said Karraker, a retired actor. “I also made the film to celebrate Bakelite, described by Time Magazine and advertised by the Bakelite Corporation as ‘the material of a thousand uses’.”

The film screening is free. Maher and Karraker are hoping it gains entry in the Sundance or Tribeca film festivals later in the season.

“We wanted to produce an educational and entertaining film,” said Karraker. “We were banking on the novelty of telling a story about the first plastic that would make people who are fed up with plastic know that it has a history.”

He hopes moviegoers gain some insight about the product and the man behind the invention.

“I don’t have any theories on why he wasn’t recognized, but he was not a boastful man and kept a low profile most of his life,” his great-grandson said.

He said his great-grandfather was an inspiration to him and his mother because of his contribution to science and the world; something he hopes people who see the film will acknowledge.

“They’ll have a greater appreciation for plastic,” said Karraker. “They’ll understand where it comes from and what it provides for our comfortable way of life.”

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Interviews, Reviews, Screenings

Flanders House private screening in NYC

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The All Things Bakelite film crew would like to acknowledge Flanders House, Flanders Investment & Trade, and everyone that helped make our private screening a success.  Thank you to everyone for attending!

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The Baekeland Family members were thrilled to see their great patriarch honored in such a bold and beautiful way. Plastics industry people were impressed and continue to show support, artists and educators talked about the powerful impact the film will have on people around the globe.  The energy in the room was truly exhilarating, and coincidentally, it happened to be Hugh Karraker’s birthday!

We look forward to continuing our mission. Please contact us at info@allthingsbakelite.com, if you have any questions or would like to know more about our endeavor.

#FlandersintheUS, #Flanders, #Flemish, #BakeliteTheFilm, #LHBaekeland, #Bakelite, #BakeliteMuseum, #LHBaekelandProject

Filed Under: Screenings Tagged With: All Things Bakelite, Bakelite the Film, Flanders House, Flanders Investment and Trade, Hugh Karraker, JEM Films, LH Baekeland Project LLC.

All Things Bakelite screening at Pratt Institute

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All Things Bakelite Team at Pratt Institute with Professor Katarina Posch   image

The All Things Bakelite team would like to thank Professor Cindie Kehlet and everyone at Pratt Institute for helping to make our private screening a success.

Special Thanks

Special thanks to Professor Katarina Posch, for being an integral part of our film. She is an inspiration. Preceding the film, there was a wonderful PowerPoint presentation about her. The kind words shared by Katarina’s colleagues were truly heartfelt.

#bakelitethefilm #PrattInstitute #allthingsbakelite

Filed Under: Screenings Tagged With: documentary, Pratt Institute, Professor Katarina Posch

The Prospector Theater screening in Ridgefield

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Private Screening Audience Reactions

All Things Bakelite private screening at The Prospector Theater in Ridgefield, CT on Saturday, March 19th, 2016. This video shows the audience reaction to the film.

Filed Under: Screenings

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