1962-1967
Female
For Service with a Smile (1962): Four Stars in the Amateur Cine World Ten Best Competition, 1962.
For The Stray (1966): Winner at the Amateur Cine World Ten Best Competition, 1966.
For Steam-A-Fair (1967): Winner of a Gold Star at the Movie Maker Ten Best Competition, 1968.
Secretary
Marjorie Martin served as club secretary for the High Wycombe Film Society (HWFS) after joining in 1962 and directed several films across the 1960s. Her family were also closely involved in amateur film: her husband was a filmmaker and HWFS member; her two children appeared in another Ten Best film, A Quiet Afternoon (1964); while the lead female role in The Stray (1966) was played by Marjorie’s sister (‘Ten Best Amateur Films’, 1966: 489).
Martin’s early interest in reality-based filmmaking resulted in the films Service with a Smile (1962), a documentary about a local Meals on Wheels service, and Folk Like Us (c.1964), a sponsored production for a voluntary hospital association. A growing interest in creating believable characters within fictional worlds led her to resurrect a short story she had written which had been rejected by a popular magazine several years before (Martin, 1966a). High Wycombe Film Society felt so strongly about the resulting film, The Stray, that they translated and added French dialogue to a new print of the film in order to enter it into the Cannes Amateur Film Festival.
Marjorie also contributed articles to Amateur Cine World at a time when the voices of women were not often found within the publication. These articles on the production of The Stray focused on the importance of good writing and careful editing, the problems that had arisen during filming, and the film’s possible shortcomings.
Amateur Cine World. 1966. ‘Club Newsreel Special.’v.12 n.19 (November 10), p.664.
Amateur Cine World. 1966. ‘The Ten Best Amateur Films of 1965/66.’ v.11, n.15 (April 14), pp. 486-492.
Martin, Marjorie. 1966a. ‘Cut it tight for tension.’ Amateur Cine World. v.12, n.15 (October 13), pp. 504-505.
Martin, Marjorie. 1966b. ‘How to Create a Character.’ Amateur Cine World. v.12, n.18 (November 3), pp.630-631.
Rose, Tony. 1968. ‘Other Peoples Pictures.’ Movie Maker. v.2 n.7 (July), p. 435.
University of East Anglia (2023). ‘Marjorie Martin.' Accessed 24 January 2023. https://www.uea.ac.uk/web/groups-and-centres/projects/women-in-focus
Amateur Cinema