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Institute of Amateur Cinematographers

01 November 2011

By EAFA

The Institute of Amateur Cinematographers’ film library is eclectic and unique. It is truly international embracing films from all continents. Many films have won awards in prestigious national and international amateur film competitions.

Almost all the established film genres are represented – animation, film noir, experimental, historical dramas, musicals and Westerns and many others. The amateur film-makers were confident enough to step back and gently satirise the medium and several films in the collection explore the process and pitfalls of amateur film-making in a wry and instructive vein. Subjects range from the epic travelogue to the most domestic and intimate of home movies.

Covering every decade from the 1920s to the 1980s the films give a singular sense of Britain’s history – from family life in pre-war Britain, to wartime patriotism, through industries, communities and crafts long gone to the youth culture and introspection of the 1960s.

Some of the film-makers went on to have careers in the industry while established actors and actresses made their first appearances in front of these cameras. It is hoped that these highlights of films from the IAC will intrigue, inform and entertain.

The amateur film-makers were confident enough to step back and gently satirise the medium and several films in the collection explore the process and pitfalls of amateur film-making in a wry and instructive vein.

highlights

  • 1934 Cat no. 3163

    Cement

    1934, Newport (Isle of Wight)

    A very good example of the value of film as historical document – a record of the pre-war industrial process and of particular value as the West Medina Cement Works closed shortly after the film was made.

    Cat no. 3163

    0:14:07

    Black and White, silent

  • 1948 Cat no. 2633

    1938 - The Last Year Of Peace

    1948, Staffordshire & Switzerland (Other)

    A film by Laurie and Stuart Day providing an excellent record of the pre-occupations of an upper-middle class family just before the Second World War (the film was shot 1938 and completed in 1947). This was a family who had foreign holidays, servants, and ready access to orchards. The film shows what they knew they had to lose when war broke out.

    Cat no. 2633

    0:32:26

    Colour and Black and White, sound

  • 1949 Cat no. 2670

    Marionettes

    1949

    Perhaps the best film by Ace Movies. An unsettling and self-assured avant garde film about human marionettes that display emotions. The style owes something to German Expressionist silent horror film. The story is a version of the ballet `Petrushka’.

    Cat no. 2670

    0:21:15

    Black and White, sound

  • 1960 Cat no. 3350

    Frankie And Johnny

    1960

    A stylish and witty musical rendition of the American folk ballad. Bryn Waters and the Dolphins, a local Coventry backbeat band, perform the song off-screen and their rendition is memorable.

    Cat no. 3350

    0:05:06

    colour, sound

  • 1933 Cat no. 3610

    Memmortigo

    1933, Spain (Other)

    A rare, absurdist film investigating the nature of pessimism. Made by avant-garde Catalonian film-maker Delmiro de Carolt just before the Spanish Civil War, it is influenced by the surrealism of Luis Bunuel and Dali. The film’s title ‘Memmortigo’ is Esperanto for ‘suicide’.

    Cat no. 3610

    0:15:53

    Black and White, silent

  • 1957 Cat no. 3293

    England May Be Home

    1957, Bedford (Bedfordshire)

    An interesting use of the drama-documentary technique and a touching and insightful account of Italian immigrants and their families who came to Bedford to work in the brick factories.

    Cat no. 3293

    0:17:56

    colour, sound

  • 1964 Cat no. 3153

    Buskn

    1964, London (County)

    Documentary about the buskers `The Happy Wanderers’ who performed for many years in and around London’s Soho streets. The band members offer their thoughts on life and their ambitions – “I would have liked to be a mortician, prettying the bodies up’. A valuable record of street life, community and a dying entertainment.

    Cat no. 3153

    0:15:19

    Black and White, sound

  • 1935 Cat no. 3004

    A Day In The Life Of The Young Martins

    1935

    An intimate and endearing home movie depicting the daily routines of film-maker John Martin’s young family. Instructive too for what it shows of the décor and furnishings in the home of a middle-class family. A follow-up film, SANTA PASSES OUT (1937), films the same family on Christmas Day.

    Cat no. 3004

    0:17:27

    Black and White, silent

  • 1931 - 1933 Cat no. 3284

    Egypt And Back With Imperial Airways

    1931 - 1933, Cairo, Egypt (Other)

    A promotional film for Imperial Airways which carried airmail and passengers from Croydon to Cairo and back again. The film also serves as 16-year old Ruth Stuart’s record of her family’s holiday in Cairo. Ruth is seen in several shots with a cine camera in her hand filmed by her father. The first film to be taken into the IAC library.

    Cat no. 3284

    0:17:49

    Black and White, silent

  • 1973 Cat no. 3011

    A Field Of Honor

    1973

    An award-winning student film by Robert Zemeckis about a fragile and nervous ex-serviceman who is released from a psychiatric hospital. The film came to the attention of Steven Spielberg – ‘…I thought it was spectacular, with police cars and a riot all dubbed to Elmer Bernstein’s score for THE GREAT ESCAPE’. Zemeckis went on to be a professional director and producer making WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT? (1988).

    Cat no. 3011

    0:14:26

    colour, sound