"Terry Manos takes his family and his audience to the country and shows us what Farm Frolics are for those who live rurally and what fun city children can get from participating in them. Against a background of farm life that is shown largely by indirection, the children romp and play little tricks on each other, while the understanding adults take a good humored part in the proceedings. Mr. Manos's camera work is imaginative, making the most of the abundant material at hand. His greatest achievement is the creation of a fine family film that, because of its lively farm background, also holds audience interest." Movie Makers, Dec. 1947, 537.
"We visit Niagara Falls, Niagara River, cable car across the whirlpool rapids, Maid of the Mist, and beneath the falls. The panorama changes as the sun moves west, climaxing an orange to pink flow upon the falls. As the sun fades, color lights play upon this water spectacle. As the seasons advance, the changing foliage forecasts the approaching winter when most of the water becomes white ice and frozen spray. Soon, the onset of spring covers the landscape with many blooms and the falls are again full, to beckon visitors with fascination" PSA Journal, Oct. 1962, 35.
"This charming amateur film begins with shots of grand Felixstowe houses. Men are racing model yachts of various sizes on the pond in front of an attentive crowd. The victors are presented with their winnings. The film progresses to Constable Country where on the idyllic river Stour a man boats near a family of swans. Two more men boat downstream. Atop a wooden bridge a few people take in the serenity of their surroundings. At Flatford Mill seven young women in deckchairs paint. Still shot of Willy Lott’s Cottage in Flatford follows. Back at Felixstowe more people race their model yachts. An amphibious plane is in the water. The pilot carefully climbs onto its wings. Girls in togas and garlands perform a dance routine. Behind them the 'grim reaper' walks scythe in hand, followed by two ladies dressed in mourning attire; one carrying a placard which reads “FELIXSTOWE IS SO SHOCKING". The fancy dress procession continues with the king and queen. Boys and men in the pond race through an assault course which includes passing through lifebuoys, inflating balloons and diving under netting. In the sea a speed boat propels between obstacles. Back in the pond men straddling a wooden pole attempt to unseat each other with sacks. Decorated floats pass through the town’s streets containing people in fancy dress. The film concludes with more model boating on the pond" (EAFA Database).
"In Festival Michigan, Cornelius Vanden Broek undertook to record all of the fairs and community festivals that occur in the State of Michigan throughout the year. He was prompted to make this record for the benefit of many friends who were not able to attend them and thus to provide them with a vicarious participation. The usual parades, crowning a queen of this or that, live stock, home preserves, midway attractions and various contests for young folks are all here, done with pleasantly brief sequencing. A lively commentary accompanies the film. On the whole, this rather formidable undertaking results in a pleasant and completely honest endeavor. Mr. Vanden Broek achieved his goal with fine spirit." Movie Makers, Dec. 1953, 334.
"Ralph W. Luce has made a record film of a day's outing by a group of cameramen, in which he proves that imaginative planning and concise cutting can make an interesting movie of what might otherwise be dull material. The continuity scheme used in Field Trip shows a waterfront scene being shot, its process through the darkroom and its final exhibition to win top prize among the group's endeavors. Flanking this theme are creative compositions that various cameramen might have recorded, as well as inserts of the workers choosing their viewpoints and setting their lenses. The lead and end titles are particularly stimulating. Mr. Luce has achieved pace in a film that might have been plodding. The result is marred only by the graininess of its monochrome emulsion." Movie Makers, Dec. 1950, 467.
"Film Editing, an exposition of this topic, is a single subject in the series, You Can Make Good Movies, produced by the Harmon Foundation of New York and photographed by Kenneth F. Space. This film presents the successful use of a medium to explain its own working and is divided into two parts — first, the mechanical operations involved in editing and splicing and, second, the methods used to present simple cinematic ideas through cutting. The clear and well ordered presentation of this subject is noteworthy. The first part of the film is characterized by a number of excellent, unusually large closeups showing the operations of scraping the film, applying cement, splicing, etc. In one or two of these closeups, however, the significant action was partially obscured, as in the case of closeups showing the application of cement to a splice, where the cork at the end of the brush got in the way. In general, however, the presentation was very clear and well photographed. Other methods than those shown could have been employed to produce the same results, but, in an instructional film of this nature, it is taken for granted that only one method can be presented without confusion." Movie Makers, Dec. 1939, 636.
"The most stylistically experimental film among Kaneko’s works but also one of the most self-reflexive Japanese films of the interwar period. In this film, Kaneko featured the process of 9.5mm filmmaking by means of visual experiments and abstraction. By constructing the film in a way to trace the process of shooting, self-developing, editing, and projecting a film, he manipulated montage and multiple exposures as well as the use of light and shadow, while he elaborated the use of close-up shots that captured film devices and the filmmaker (presumably Kaneko himself) at work... Many advanced amateurs considered the process of filmmaking as an essential part of defining the idea of amateurishness. Unlike commercial productions that involved many casts and crews, amateur productions had the privilege of creating a work individually by going through the entire process of filmmaking, which allows the filmmaker to make every decision on his or her own. Kaneko’s Film Study 9 1/2 visualized this process by reflecting his artistic sensibilities." - Noriko Morisue, "Filming the Everyday: History, Theory, and Aesthetics of Amateur Cinema in Interwar and Wartime Japan" (Yale University: PhD Dissertation, 2020): 111.
"Short wide screen amateur film made by George Ives, a Chicago Metro Movie Club member, and edited by Kenosha Cine Club member Ron Doerring." Chicago Film Archives
"Una historia sobre el acoso sufrido por la juventud por parte del mundo de los adultos. La posición alternativa del grupo [de realizadores] se hacía explícita desde las primeras tomas, en donde los créditos aparecían escritos en las paredes de una casa en ruinas, omitiendo los apellidos y dejando solo los nombres de pila de quienes participaron" (Vázquez Mantecón, 2012).
"A story about the harassment suffered by the youth from the adult world. The alternative position of the group [of filmmakers] was made evident from the first shots, where credits appeared written on the walls of a house in ruins, omitting last names and leaving only the first names of the participants" (Vázquez Mantecón, 2012).
Total Pages: 203
Amateur Cinema