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Amigo Enemigo [Friend Enemy]

Date produced:

Filmmaker(s):

Eloy González Gavilán

Description:

Una mujer camina por el paisaje entre ruidos. Hace fuego para calentarse un poco de comida pero un sonido la invade. Se encuentra con un soldado muerto dentro del bosque.

A woman walks through a landscape while noises are heard. She makes a fire to warm some food but a sound overcomes her. She finds a dead soldier inside the woods.


And How!

Date produced: 1927

Filmmaker(s):

Russell T. Ervin

Description:

"This proved to be an unusual serio-comedy, telling of a restless young husband and how he was cured. It was very well acted by Alfred Fontana as the husband, Margaret Ervin as the vamp, Anne Howe, and Beatrice Traendly as the wife. The directon of Russell T. Ervin Jr. was remarkably good, revealing an unusual facility for telling a story concisely and quickly. Then too, he understood how to cover any histrionic imperfections of his cast. 'And How!' is a suprisingly neat amateur film" Photoplay, June. 1928, 66


As Ye Sow

Date produced: 1944

Filmmaker(s):

Walter Bergmann

Description:

"In As Ye Sow, Walter Bergmann has made a record of a Victory garden around the plot of the conscientious worker as contrasted to the indolent one. Mr. Shirker in his wishful thinking, through a dream sequence, takes the local prize for vegetables before the digging even begins. As the season progresses, Mr. Worker grows a fine garden, while his opponent achieves a harvest of weeds in spite of his bribes to helpers to produce his garden for him while he goes fishing. The players are well chosen and directed, and there is an amusing and well acted climax in which Mr. Shirker gets his inevitable just deserts." Movie Makers, Dec. 1944, 495.


Conscience, The

Date produced: 1967

Filmmaker(s):

E. Van Herpen

Description:

"The Conscience is one of those psychological studies without being too psychological in its treatment and approach. A hit and run driver decides no one will know his crime, but he finds it hard to live with his conscience. Everywhere he looks he sees himself as judge and as prosecutor, finding himself guilty as he pleads for mercy. Photography is not the best, but the story is quite powerful" PSA Journal, Aug. 1967, 37.


Elysium

Date produced: 1944

Filmmaker(s):

W. R. C. Corson

Description:

"W. R. C. Corson, close friend of the late Hiram Percy Maxim, FACL, Founder of the Amateur Cinema League, and for several years an invalid, demonstrates his loyalty to the cause of personal filming and his determination to achieve in that field by a revision of travel footage made in a more active period. As its name might indicate. Elysium is a remembrance of happier days, containing sequences chosen for their beauty or evocation of delightful times, and haphazardly geographical. Scenes filmed from the air are interspersed with records of faraway places as Mr. and Mrs. Corson are seen wandering here and there. Here is the gallant and intrepid accomplishment of a pioneer movie maker who is still "in the game."" Movie Makers, Dec. 1944. 496.


Enamorado fantástico del plástico [Plastic Fantastic Lover]

Date produced: 1972

Filmmaker(s):

Rafael Montero

Description:

"La cinta hacía un recuento de imágenes oníricas, en los que una mujer (Paloma Woolrich) sale de su casa para recorrer diversos espacios que en realidad parecen determinados por su imaginación: desciende los escalones de una calle en una zona peatonal, se muestra aprisionada por una roca gigantesca, aparece catatónica en una azotea con un bebé de plástico, lucha con un hombre contrahecho, apalea a un hombre amarrado, duerme con su pareja y su bebé de plástico en un cementerio, aparece desgreñada en una construcción en ruinas en medio del campo, donde es burdamente pintada por otra mujer" (Vázquez Mantecón, 2012)

"The film made a recount of dreamlike images, in which a woman (Paloma Woolrich, goes out of her house to go through several spaces that actually seem determined by her imagination: she goes down the steps of a street in a pedestrian area, then she is imprisoned by a gigantic rock, she appears catatonic on a roof top with a plastic baby, she struggles with a crooked man, she beats a tied man, she sleeps with her couple and her plastic baby in a graveyard, she appears disheveled in a construction site in ruins in the middle of the country where she is roughly painted by another woman" (Vázquez Mantecón, 2012).


Encounter on the River

Date produced: 1955

Filmmaker(s):

Massimo Sani

Ezio Pecora

Description:

"The combined efforts of Massimo Sani-photography and Ezio Pecora-directing. A slowly paced, sensitive portrayal of adolescent emotions. While in many amateur films the acting is such that we can never forget it is a movie and that the actors are aware of the camera, in "Encounter on the River", the acting is natural, making this tender, almost too subtle story most enjoyable. The best directed amateur film seen in years." PSA Journal, Dec. 1955, 36.


Her Second Birthday

Date produced: 1932

Filmmaker(s):

John Thubron

Agnes Thubron

Description:

"A record of the second birthday of June Thubron. The spontaneous actions of a little girl on finding her birthday presents. A record of her actions without any adult direction. The little girl plays with her birthday presents on the lawn and also waters flowers in the garden before falling asleep. In a stop-frame animated sequence subtitled 'Dreamland' towards the end of the film, her new toys come alive." East Anglian Film Archive.


Indecisive

Date produced: 1965

Filmmaker(s):

Lou Lefort

Description:

"Indecisive tells the story of a girl who is rather mixed up and can't decide if it is worth while to go on living. The treatment is unlike most amateur efforts and because of its novel approach the film maintains interest to the end" PSA Journal, Sept. 1965, 50.


Introspection

Date produced: 1958

Filmmaker(s):

William Messner

Description:

"Bill Messner has turned to religion and nature for his soul-searching film. His leading man, Sam, has a fine home, family and job and is too busy for extra activities such as church assignments. His personal relations suffer from his self imposed confinement. Something persuades Sam to make a retreat to a religious camp. There are the usual at camp activities, plus the opportunity for devotion and contemplation; the relation of ones soul; the atmosphere to reflect purpose and accomplishment. Introspection is the keystone of the picture and well done it is" PSA Journal, Nov. 1958, 48.


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