"Among the Ten Best, Another Day, by Leslie Thatcher, ACL, is a splendid example of the relatively simple avant garde film, so popular among European amateurs but so seldom attempted by even the advanced workers of the American continent. Set against the background of Toronto, Another Day portrays in semi abstract fashion the dramatic changes which overtake the life and tempo of a great city as Saturday crosses the noontime deadline from work to play. Mr. Thatcher's conception of this theme is clean cut, his execution suave and technically brilliant. Dissolves, wipeoffs and double exposure are blended intelligently with matchless straight photography to enhance the beauty of striking angles and compositions. With the subject matter of such films ready to the hand of every amateur cameraman, it is a strange phenomenon that to date they are not attempted more often." Movie Makers, Dec. 1934, 513, 534.
Visual poem, synchronized to the Arabesques of Claude Debussy, that reflects on the home as a space of cinematic creativity for the amateur. It is the only film from the period directly credited to a female amateur filmmaker.
"Arena (Sand, 1986), a soft, grainy projection in which Mexican artist Silvia Gruner, naked, on a beach, climbs a dune, sits, rubs sand and red pigment over her body, and then somersaults all the way down. The video loops, and Gruner repeats her uphill trek again and again. Sisyphean, certainly, and yet her only burden was herself and that looked like freedom" (Brown, 2017)
“Samim Kocagöz’ün “Teneke” adlı eserinden uyarlanmıştır. İşgüzar bir bekçinin uzun ve yorucu bir kovalamacanın ardından, yoksulluğunun gerçek yüzüyle karşılaşmasının öyküsüdür.” Sinematek.tv: http://sinematek.tv/asayis-berkemal-1967-2/ (15 Oct 2019).
“Adapted from Samim Kocagöz’s short story, “Teneke.” It tells the story of a meddlesome watchman/night guard, who faces the reality of poverty after a long and tiring chase.” Sinematek.tv: http://sinematek.tv/asayis-berkemal-1967-2/ (15 Oct 2019).
"Ballerina is easily the most unusual film to be entered in the Competition in many years. Alise Ziverts the maker, has scratched the images on a piece of opaque 16mm film. Though the technique is not new, her masterful effort of depicting a man and a woman dancer with no more than a sharp needle is little less than amazing. With a screen time of one minute at 16 frames per second, this amounts to approximately 1000 separate drawings Miss Ziverts was required to make on the small frame area" PSA Journal, Sept. 1966, 35.
An avant-garde city symphony film set in the Bronx, New York.
"Button Ballet is a nifty little piece of animation. A number of buttons do a ballet set to Brahms music in one of the most masterfully executed animation films ever seen in this competition" PSA Journal, Aug. 1967, 36.
"A successful man living in a great metropolis is increasing awareness of the unjust social reality that lives in the absurdity. This immerses him in a uneasiness that sinks into alcoholism and depression. In his wandering through the streets viewer gets to be the unfortunate suicide of another victim of the meaninglessness of life, which will produce a series of dreamlike hallucinations bordering on the madness. In a stroke of consciousness of his misfortune, he does run aimlessly without course. Devastated, to the dawn, with the light of the dawn he sees to be reborn the hope personified in an innocent girl who stretches the hand donating bread" Internet Archive.
"The Annual Fancy Dress Ball at Glasgow School of Art: 'Something New Under the Sun'. Includes two ballets, 'Hungarian' and 'Machine Age' and animated sequences." National Library of Scotland Moving Image Archive.
"An experimental abstraction of dancing patterns of a kaleidoscope. The colors, patterns, and designs change to the tempo of accompanying music. The mechanics of the kaleidoscope patterns appear to come from a triangular tunnel formed by three mirrors, with the camera at one end and the subject material at the other. At one point there appears either a glass rod or a bottle neck which adds to the fantasy of designs" PSA Journal, Oct. 1962, 34-35.
Total Pages: 16
Amateur Cinema