"“The Air Evac Story, or: Better You Should Walk?” is a humorous amateur film that spoofs the United States Air Force’s medical evacuation services. Starring members of the 14th Aeromedical Transport Squadron, the film begins at squadron headquarters at Brooks Air Force Base in San Antonio. It then follows crew members on their daily mission to transport patients, making stops in El Paso and Brackettville. While the voiceover narration commends the squadron for their professionalism, their comedic actions throughout the film tell a different story. Of particular note is a cameo by none other than John Wayne. Charles F. Curtis, a cinematography engineer with the Air Force, made the spoof with his crew around the same time that Wayne was in Brackettville shooting The Alamo (1960). Curtis helped design a working camera track system for the blockbuster film, and Wayne agreed to make a brief appearance in the Air Evac Story as thanks" Texas Archive of the Moving Image.
“The question ‘How was the mentü ship Steered’ bears two meanings: as inference in the sense of ‘faith,’ as well as the relation between the notions of ‘imagery, logos, and action.’ The answer is ‘divine love,’ regardless of the form of the question: the Amentü ship is navigated by the love of God. ” Zeynep Gemuhluoglu, tsa.org: https://www.tsa.org.tr/en/yazi/yazidetay/67/%EF%BF%BD%EF%BF%BDmentu-gemisi-nasil-yurudu (16 Oct 2019).
"Una cinta cargada de referencias a Jean-Luc Godard (Los Carabineros, 1963) pero sobre todo concentrada en la crítica mordaz al radicalismo de izquierda. Una vez más Marco Antonio Madrid hace el papel de protagonista, un joven de pelo largo, pantalón de mezclilla y saco, que se dedica a ligar en los cafés de la Zona Rosa adoctrinando a las mujeres. Lee a Marx después de hacer el amor, y se junta con sus amigos para brindar por "la muerte de la intelectualidad burguesa". Montero utiliza intertítulos como recurso irónico, una suerte de narrador externo que interpela la historia: "¿Qué es la intelectualidad burguesa?". La lucha revolucionaria del joven y sus amigos está teñida de sentido del humor. En una secuencia que recuerda mucho a Los Carabineros, suben al techo de una fábrica para iniciar la lucha armada (...) Por último un cartel proporciona una última burla: "Y si el sol es burgués detendremos al sol" " (Vázquez Mantecón, 2012).
"A film loaded with references to Jean-Luc Godard (The Carabineers, 1963), but above all focused on biting criticism to the radical left. Once again Marco Antonio Madrid plays the role of the lead character, a young man with long hair, jeans and coat, that dedicates his time to hook up in the coffee shops of the Zona Rosa indoctrinating women. He reads Marx after making love and he gets together with his friends to toast for the "death of the bourgeois intellectuality". Montero uses intertitles as a resource for irony, a sort of outside narrator that interpellates the story: "What is bourgeois intellectuality?". The revolutionary fight of the young man and his friends is filled with a sense of humor. In a sequence that reminds us of The Carabineers, they go to the rooftop of a factory to begin the armed fight. (...) Finally a sign shows one last derision "And if the sun is bourgeois, we will stop the sun" " (Vázquez Mantecón, 2012).
"Members of the National Film Society of Canada (Vancouver Branch) parody the early experimental works of American avant-garde filmmaker Maya Deren [to whom the film is dedicated]." (BC Archives)
The film is subtitled: "A conflict between two philosophies of time and space."
The film was shot in an area of sand dunes on Sea Island in Richmond, BC, near the location of Vancouver International Airport.
"A parody of William Shakespeare's "Hamlet," produced and directed by James Blue while he was an undergraduate student at the University of Oregon." Knight Library.
"A colonial scene in the U.S. An old lady sits astride a bell while a man in blackface, wig, and livery pulls the bell rope. From an upper door emerges an old man, dressed as a dandy, who tips his hat to the woman as he walks down stairs grinning. Others leave the same door and walk down the same stairs: a shabby man, a cop, and, several times, the same dandy. The man in blackface hangs himself; the dandy continues to smile. A bell tolls, a grave beckons. In the dark, the dandy plays the piano. Is he Death?" IMDb.
Orson Welles' filmmaking debut, which was co-directed by William Vance. An amateur production, Welles later described the film as a parody of surrealist cinema and the films of Jean Cocteau and Luis Buñuel.
"Hearts Of The Golden West, 1200 ft., 16mm., filmed and directed by Theodore Huff and enacted entirely by youngsters under thirteen, is a delightful and whimsical burlesque of the Griffith melodrama of the days when titles were long and plots of villainy and intrigue laid in the great open places swept grandly to a moral conclusion in which "true hearts were united." In those days, producers did not hesitate to use a cyclorama or to place painted canvas scenery on an outdoor location. Mr. Huff revives all of the old technique, even to the dance hall set, with its inevitable balcony, and the fight to the finish at the edge of the cliff. Under his direction, the children act their parts with complete seriousness and, in some cases, with mimetic ability that would have given their prototypes pause." Movie Makers, Dec. 1931, 658.
"The story is a burlesque of the anti social activities of a vice ring. The film contains some excellent interior lighting and is remarkably well edited." Movie Makers, April 1931, 224.
"An amateur anti-smoking film produced by Helen and Sidney Mortiz that mocks cigarette advertisements of its day. Shot in the late 1960s or early 1970s and distributed by the Society of Amateur Cinematographers (SAC)." Chicago Film Archives
"In Little Geezer, running 400 feet, Theodore Huff, ACL, has produced one of the most able and amusing burlesque film stories of the amateur year, repeating his success of that earlier satiric classic, Hearts of the West. Again he has used, with amazing directorial facility, the neighborhood youngsters as his only actors. Again he has aped, with his own peculiar genius, the threadbare cliches of professional drama, poking fun in his filming as well as his titling. Little Geezer offers fine examples of real cinema, is the sort of thing amateurs can do as well or better than professionals and is delightfully amusing in the process." Movie Makers, Dec. 1932, 561.
"Theodore Huff, ACL, has done it again! That lone wolf producer of Hearts Of The West has paralleled the gorgeous fun of his earlier panning of the purple plains as he takes the gangsters for a ride in Little Geezer. The Big Shot, his lieutenant, Greta Garbage (" — more to be pitied than sniffed at") and Scarface Macaroni are all there, played by the neighborhood kids, no one of them over eleven years old. Through their naively serious acting and his own genius at direction and editing. Mr. Huff has riddled with bursts of laughter the machine gun monarchy of professional filmdom." Movie Makers, Sept. 1932, 398.
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Amateur Cinema