The Amateur Cine Club: the Community Mode 79
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Visual Histories Amateur Film in New Zealand c.1923-1970 Jane Paul A thesis submitted for the degree of Master of Arts in History at Victoria University of Wellington 2013 ii Abstract Many ordinary New Zealanders made amateur films between c.1923-1970. This thesis explores the types of films they made; home movies, community films and films made by members of amateur cine clubs. The discussion focuses on the making, showing and viewing of each of these types of films. Some were shown in private home or club situations, while other films were shown publicly. As a group of films and film practises they offer a valuable source of information on social and cultural history. Their construction differs from orthodox professional film and offers important alternate views of New Zealand society. The sub-genre of amateur film are numerous. Films discussed include newsreels and scripted narrative drama made by amateur cine club members either working alone or in groups. Others under discussion are local films, political films, mountaineering films, educational, instructional and promotional film. The influences on amateur filmmaking are considered: camera company marketing and amateur film manuals, the international amateur film movement and the competition focused cine club culture. The thesis uses four main collections to discuss aspects of amateur filmmaking. These are the films of James Osler of Wairoa, Frederick Thorn of Waiuta, Amos James Smith of Rangiora and Nancy Cameron of Whanganui, all held at the New Zealand Film Archive, Wellington. iii Table of Contents Abstract ii Table of Contents iii Acknowledgements iv List of Abbreviations v List of Figures and Tables vi Introduction 1 Chapter One ‘It Mirrors the World in your home’ 19 Home Movies and the Home Mode Chapter Two The Community Film in the Community Mode 51 Chapter Three The Amateur Cine Club: The Community Mode 79 Conclusion 115 Bibliography 121 iv Acknowledgements Firstly, I gratefully acknowledge the guidance of my supervisors Charlotte Macdonald and Simone Gigliotti for their help and support. Particular thanks to Charlotte for her time in discussion and critique recently. I am also grateful to my workplace, the New Zealand Film Archive for their support. I gratefully acknowledge a Faculty Research Grant which funded a visit to Australia. This allowed me to research the Australasian Photo-Review held by the National Library of Australia. This thesis could not have been written without generous support from many amateur filmmakers and their families. In particular I acknowledge the late Graham Osler. Graham was influential in saving his grandfather James Mitchell Osler’s films and glass plates. His enthusiasm and knowledge about his grandfather sparked my interest in the collection. Special thanks to the late Leicester Smith who I met first in 1996, when I collected his father’s films from him. Leicester and Sylvia were always enormously welcoming and supportive of my research. Thanks also to other members of the Osler family for their generous assistance. In particular Dorothy Montgomery, Colin and Judy Whyte and John and Angus Gemmell. Other people who helped my Osler research are the late Cliff Owen, John and Margaret Swan, Malcolm MacKay, John Tamati, Raey Paku, Te Waara Hamlin and Jim Samson. Helen Bayliss, daughter of Nancy Cameron provided a great deal of information. Similarly Rudy and Pat Sunde assisted greatly. Frances Thorn was generous in her assistance. Other people I’m grateful to are Auckland 8 Club members, Kevin Bragg, Betty Birch, John and Pat Campbell; members or relatives of members from Wanganui Amateur Cine Society - Tyrell, Bruce and Warren Ruscoe and Roger Brassell; Maurice Hayward and Andrew Wylie from Otago Cine Video Club. Other people who have assisted are: Robyn Larsen, Alan Collison, Bruce Reynolds, Evelyn Robins, Clive Sowry, Tim White, Simon Nathan, Michael Fletcher and the late writer and thinker regarding amateur film, Kathy Dudding. Thanks to staff at Wairoa Museum, Whanganui Museum, Alexander Turnbull and National Library of Wellington, National Library of Australia, Ian Matheson Archive in Palmerston North and Wanganui Library Archives. Thanks to all my workmates at The Film Archive, my friends and family in particular Hester, Billy, Susan, Georgia, Tom and Tara who have been patiently waiting for this thesis to end. Lastly huge thanks to my partner Alex for his good humour and for cooking lots of meals. v Abbreviations ACL Amateur Cinema League ACW Amateur Cine World BFI British Film Institute FONZACS The Federation of New Zealand Amateur Cine Societies NFSA National Film & Sound Archive NZFA New Zealand Film Archive vi Figures and Tables (1) Table: NZFA Catalogue Information of Subjects in Personal Record films 1920-1970 9 (2) Cine-Kodak advertisement, Auckland Star, 31 May 1930, p.13 Papers Past, courtesy of National Library of New Zealand 20 (3) Cine-Kodak advertisement. Auckland Star, 15 January 1931, p.22, Papers Past, courtesy of National Library of New Zealand 24 (4) Personal Record Amos James Smith Three Attempts to Get To Lake Sumner 1930-1932, inter-title, NZFA. 32 (5) Osler family outside the bakery. Leaning on the car from left to right are Isobel, Agnes, Alice and James Osler. c.1935 Osler collection, NZFA. 36 (6) Wedding of Louie Thorn and Tom O’Flaherty c.1925, Josef Divis photographic collection BW-pl-440a 1/2-233353-G, courtesy of Alexander Turnbull Library 43 (7) NZFA Accessioning notes for Osler collection (sample from Comp. 4) 53 (8) Osler’s Bakery, Wairoa c.1931 Osler collection, NZFA 54 (9) Personal Record Tainui Robins Cars to Carrington 1938/39/40 NZFA 74 (10) The Lady Gets Left, 1930 (inter-title) NZFA 84 (11) Wanganui Amateur Cine Society members 1957 at Tyrell Ruscoe’s house. Ruscoe collection, NZFA 100 (12) Bill Meets Bertie 1953 One of Nancy Cameron’s animated inter-titles, NZFA 108 (13) Nancy Cameron receiving a Wanganui Amateur Cine Society award c.1953, Bayliss collection, NZFA 109 1 Introduction Amateur filmmaking was a popular leisure activity for many New Zealanders from the 1920s to the 1970s, yet little has been written on the subject. This thesis explores the large and diverse amateur film genre through three types of film: home movies, community films, and films made by amateur cine club members. These films form a part of the scope of this thesis that concerns amateur filmmakers, exhibition and spectatorship. This multi faceted approach is intended to provide a fuller understanding of amateur film practices, and reveal their significance and place in New Zealand’s social and cultural history. Amateur films first came to my attention through working on the New Zealand Film Archive’s Last Film Search project, 1992-1999. Subsequently and currently they form an important part of film programmes I curate for exhibition around the country. Because of my work background this thesis is slanted towards archives and the activity of filmmaking and viewing rather than reception studies or analysis. The time frame of this thesis begins in 1923, as this was the year the standardised 16mm amateur cine camera was released onto the world market. For the first time ordinary New Zealanders could record on film their families, interests, communities and fictional narratives; either working alone or as members of amateur cine societies, or clubs. The period most closely examined in this thesis is 1926-1955, and the majority of the films examined and discussed fit within this time frame. These years witness growth in the number of people making movies and the evolution and expansion of amateur cine clubs. From 1955–1970 amateur filmmaking continued to flourish, however cine clubs, partly because of the impact of television on leisure time, ceased to grow apace in the 1960s and their membership plateaued before their decline in the 1980s. The period c.1923-1970 frames the most popular period of amateur cine club and community filmmaking. Home movie making, conversely, did not decline c.1970. The activity was revitalized by the super 8 camera’s introduction in the mid 1960s. However amateur film theorists regard the populist point and shoot camera, as significantly changing the form of the earlier and more 2 complex home movie. Super 8 is aligned to the equivalent of a photographic snapshot: repetitive, short, happy movies of the nuclear family. Therefore c.1970 is an obvious place to conclude this research. The thesis questions central to this investigation are: what are these films, how do we define them, who made them, where and why were they made, what is significant about their content and style, what are their influences and how did different time periods effect their composition. Other questions relate to amateur film exhibition and spectatorship: how, where and to whom were these films shown, and what is known of their audience reception and memories of these occasions? A central argument of this thesis is that amateur films provide a valuable source of visual evidence on social and cultural history in New Zealand, evidence not captured in the orthodox history of filmmaking and film exhibition in New Zealand. This thesis positions amateur film as offering an alternate view to films made for commercial or government purposes. In New Zealand most professional film made between 1920-1970 were produced by the government and document New Zealand’s official history. From the 1920s, through to the early 1930s Government Publicity Office films were made to promote New Zealand industries and tourism for international distribution. In 1941 the Labour Government established the National Film Unit (NFU) to produce newsreels supporting the war effort. Post war NFU newsreels and documentaries chart government initiatives, official occasions, and Maori culture for tourism purposes. These newsreels played weekly in New Zealand picture theatres until 1972. In contrast to government production, commercial film company output was tiny.