Amateur Cinema : The Rise of North American Moviemaking, 1923-1960 / Charles Tepperman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Tepperman, Charles, Author.

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource (376 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Berkeley, CA : University of California Press, [2014]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

From the very beginning of cinema, there have been amateur filmmakers at work. It wasn’t until Kodak introduced 16mm film in 1923, however, that amateur moviemaking became a widespread reality, and by the 1950s, over a million Americans had amateur movie cameras. In Amateur Cinema, Charles Tepperman explores the meaning of the "amateur" in film history and modern visual culture. In the middle decades of the twentieth century—the period that saw Hollywood’s rise to dominance in the global film industry—a movement of amateur filmmakers created an alternative world of small-scale movie production and circulation. Organized amateur moviemaking was a significant phenomenon that gave rise to dozens of clubs and thousands of participants producing experimental, nonfiction, or short-subject narratives. Rooted in an examination of surviving films, this book traces the contexts of "advanced" amateur cinema and articulates the broad aesthetic and stylistic tendencies of amateur films.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Introduction

PART I Contexts of Amateur Cinema

1. Ciné-Prophecy

2 Ciné-Community

3 Ciné-Engagement

4 Ciné-Technology

5 Ciné-Sincerity

PART II Modes of Amateur Cinema

6 “Communicating a New Form of Knowledge”

7 “The Amateur Takes Leadership”

8 Mechanical Craftsmanship

9 Photoplaying Themselves

Conclusion

APPENDIX 1 Amateur Filmography

APPENDIX 2 A Preliminary Directory of Movie Clubs (by location)

Notes

Selected Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 23. Jan 2025)