Francois Arseneault spends a lot of time living the past.

The Vernon historian and videographer has amassed a significant number of vintage films which offer a fascinating look at bygone days.

Arseneault posts the grainy black and white films, that he converts to video, on his Youtube page, Reel Life.

“I have found these films quite literally all over the world,” he said. “I feel very passionate about preserving and protecting our history, if for nothing else for our future, for younger people to see what it was like back in the '50s, '60s and '70s. And for that matter, what it was like in the '20s and '30s.”

Arseneault has uncovered some of the films in the Okanagan, while others have come from as far away as Europe and America.

And Arseneault, who also curates the museum at the Vernon Cadet Training Centre, is always looking for more film and right now he has his sights set on the 'Holy Grail' of vintage footage.

“A particular set of films that we are looking for, and I know they exist, is footage shot back in the 1930s at the Vernon military camp of BCDs (British Columbia Dragoons) while they were still on horseback,” said Arseneault. “I know it exists because I saw it briefly in a documentary about 20 years ago and it would be absolutely exciting to be able to see that film footage. Of course, it is something the museum would love to see and I think people in the Okanagan would really be quite excited to see that given the amount of traffic we have had on some of the local films.”

Vintage footage from Arseneault can be seen not only on his Youtube page, but on Castanet every Saturday morning.

If anyone has old video, Arseneault would like to hear from them.

He can be reached by email at [email protected].