What a sweet find on reddit/SW - with quality imagination and clever work for one of the first known fan films of Star Wars…

Star Wars (1977) - by Lucas Balistreri - 8mm collage stop-motion animation transfer

www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWVwC0p37PI - a 27 second video from the Bryan Young youtube channel.

The blurb: 'This student animated film was found in a batch of 8mm footage. It was in a Super8 cartridge loader labeled Fall 1977 - Animation Reel 2.

The film was made by Lucas Balistreri.

This being completed in Fall of 1977 marks it as one of the earliest Star Wars fan films.

(Doing some detective work, I believe this was completed in Mr. Moorhead’s 8th grade film class at what was then Markham Jr. High School in San Jose, CA – any other information about it or the filmmakers would be greatly appreciated)

Found and digitized by Bryan Young - October 27, 2026’

^ also: https://old.reddit.com/r/StarWars/comments/1xh6oq2/i_found_a_fanfilm_from_1977_in_a_batch_of_old_8mm