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The Tech Archived · VIDEO ESSAY

What Happened to Kodachrome? Why the World's Most Famous Film Disappeared

Kodachrome, the world’s first commercially successful colour film, did not die simply because of digital cameras; its colour was never in the film at all, and that single design choice decided its fate decades before the end. For seventy-five years Kodachrome defined National Geographic, family slide shows and home movies, yet by 2009 it was a fraction of one percent of Kodak’s film sales and the last machine on earth able to develop it sat in a small family lab in Parsons, Kansas. This documentary traces the whole story, from the two musicians nicknamed God and Man who invented it, through the complex K-14 process, the 1954 antitrust consent decree, the rise of Ektachrome, E-6 and Fujichrome Velvia, Kodak’s lab closures and its collapsing film revenue, to Steve McCurry’s final roll and the last days at Dwayne’s Photo in December 2010.

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Kodachrome, the world’s first commercially successful colour film, did not die simply because of digital cameras; its colour was never in the film at all, and that single design choice decided its fate decades before the end. For seventy-five years Kodachrome defined National Geographic, family slide shows and home movies, yet by 2009 it was a fraction of one percent of Kodak’s film sales and the last machine on earth able to develop it sat in a small family lab in Parsons, Kansas. This documentary traces the whole story, from the two musicians nicknamed God and Man who invented it, through the complex K-14 process, the 1954 antitrust consent decree, the rise of Ektachrome, E-6 and Fujichrome Velvia, Kodak’s lab closures and its collapsing film revenue, to Steve McCurry’s final roll and the last days at Dwayne’s Photo in December 2010.

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VIDEO DESCRIPTION

Kodachrome, the world’s first commercially successful colour film, did not die simply because of digital cameras; its colour was never in the film at all, and that single design choice decided its fate decades before the end. For seventy-five years Kodachrome defined National Geographic, family slide shows and home movies, yet by 2009 it was a fraction of one percent of Kodak’s film sales and the last machine on earth able to develop it sat in a small family lab in Parsons, Kansas. This documentary traces the whole story, from the two musicians nicknamed God and Man who invented it, through the complex K-14 process, the 1954 antitrust consent decree, the rise of Ektachrome, E-6 and Fujichrome Velvia, Kodak’s lab closures and its collapsing film revenue, to Steve McCurry’s final roll and the last days at Dwayne’s Photo in December 2010.

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