Amateur Movie Making Aesthetics of the Everyday in New England Film, 1915-1960
McNamara, Karan Sheldon, Alice T. Friedman, Dino Everett, Libby Bischof, Justin Wolff, Whit Stillman, Karen Gracy, Charles Tepperman, Jennifer Neptune.
These reflections reanimate the original private contexts of the home movies before they were recast as objects of study and artifacts of public history. A compelling regional and historical study that transforms our understanding of film history, Amateur Movie Making demonstrates how amateur films and home movies stand as testaments to the creative lives of ordinary people, enriching our experience of art and the everyday. Here we encounter the lyrical and visually expressive qualities of films produced in New England between 1915 and 1960 and held in the collections of Northeast Historic Film, a moving image repository and study center that was established to collect, preserve, and interpret the audiovisual record of northern New England.
Contributors from diverse backgrounds examine the visual aesthetics of these films while placing them in their social, political, and historical contexts. Each discussion is enhanced by technical notes and the analyses are also juxtaposed with personal reflections by artists who have close connections to particular amateur filmmakers. McNamara is Director of the New England Arts and Architecture Program in the Department of Art at Wellesley College.
Karan Sheldon is cofounder of northern New England's moving image archive, Northeast Historic Film. She has curated screenings including You Work, We'll Watch and Exceptional Amateur Films and given annual lectures in Regional and Nontraditional Moving Image Archiving for the L. Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation, Rochester, NY. Accessing Moving Images Foreword / Alice T. Friedman Acknowledgments Introduction / Martha McNamara and Karan Sheldon Part 1: Locating Contexts: Archive, Material, History, Place 1. A Place for Moving Images: Thirty Years of Northeast Historic Film / Karan Sheldon 2. The Technologies of Home Movies and Amateur Film / Dino Everett 3. A Strange Familiarity: Alexander Forbes and the Aesthetics of Amateur Film / Justin WolffPart 2: Creative Choices: Recovering Value in Amateur Film Reflection 1. The Task at Hand: The Films of Ernest Stillman / Whit Stillman 5. Midway Between Secular and Sacred: Consecrating the Home Movie as a Cultural Heritage Object / Karen Gracy 6. "All the Wonderful Possibilities of Motion Pictures": Hiram Percy Maxim and the Aesthetics of Amateur Filmmaking / Charles Tepperman 7. Comedic Counterpoise: Landscape and Laughs in the Films of Sidney N. McNamara Part 3: Everyday Lives: Home and Work in Amateur Film Reflection 2. Perspectives on the Home Movies of Charles Norman Shay, Penobscot Elder / Jennifer Neptune 8.Not-at-Home Movies / Christopher Castiglia and Christopher Reed 9. The Boss's Film: Expert Amateurs and Industrial Culture / Brian JacobsonPart 4: Families: Private and Public Reflection 3. "The Ring of Time" in the E. White Home Movies / Martha White 10. Opening the Can: Home Movies In the Public Sphere / Melissa Dollman 11.
Layers of Vision in Amateur Film / Mark Neumann and Janna Jones Selected Bibliography Index. Amateur Movie Making is Visual History at its best.But readers would be remiss to dismiss such a delightful and expansive volume that resonates far beyond the realm of amateur film. One of Amateur Movie Making's greatest strengths is its addition of materials that animate the films in surprising ways. Journal of Cinema and Media Studies An invaluable contribution to the study of previously overlooked nontheatrical films, Amateur Movie Making is a welcome addition to the overall field of media studies. Its focus on the everyday aspects of the material culture of the past along with its highly accessible and engaging writing will appeal to experts and non-experts alike. Society for Cinema and Media Studies Best Edited Collection Award Committee.
(2018 award winner) [I]t is the love of cinema that shines through in these essays and the films themselves, making this book a must read for all of us. UCLA Film & Television Archive. Winner, SCMS Best Edited Book Award. [and an] important contribution to the scholarship of amateur film, documentary, [and] regional history. Zimmermann, author of Reel Families: A Social History of Amateur Film.
Place of Publication Bloomington, IN. Country of Publication United States. Short Title Amateur Movie Making. Illustrations 64 Illustrations, black and white. At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it.