Shand , Ryan John (2007) Amateur Cinema: History, Theory and Genre (1930-80)
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Shand , Ryan John (2007) Amateur cinema: history, theory and genre (1930-80). PhD thesis. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/4923/ Copyright and moral rights for this thesis are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Glasgow Theses Service http://theses.gla.ac.uk/ [email protected] Amateur Cinema: History, Theory, and Genre (1930-80) by Ryan John Shand, B.A, M.Phil Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Theatre Film and Television Studies F acuIty of Arts University of Glasgow May 2007 © Ryan Shand 2007 Abstract This thesis, Amateur Cinema: History, Theory, and Genre (1930-1980), draws largely on primary material from the Scottish Screen Archive and related museum sources. The project establishes a critical dialogue between university-based Film Studies and the archive sector, via a series of case studies of influential groups, individuals, and movements. Prefaced by a chapter entitled 'Theorising Amateur Film: Limitations and Possibilities' detailing the domination of amateur cinema studies by discussion of the 'home mode', I suggest that work to date has obscured an understanding of films made by cine-clubs within the highly organised film culture of the British amateur cine movement. The main body of the thesis consists of four chapters exploring the most popular generic practices of 'institutionalised' amateur filmmakers, focusing on: art cinema, the 'film play', community filmmaking, and the amateur heritage picture. I argue that these production strands were formed by discourses circulating within amateur film journals, 'how to do it' manuals and amateur film festivals. Amateur cinema was viewed throughout as a parallel cine movement existing alongside professional practices, enjoying an ambivalent relationship to inherited professional standards. The final chapter, 'Amateur Film Re-Located', proposed a fresh theorisation of 'local' amateur production within a national film culture, marked by distinctly cosmopolitan connections. 2 Table of Contents Introduction- 5-20 Chapter 1- Theorising Amateur Film: Limitations and Possibilities- 21-45 Aspirational Models: Towards or Beyond Professional Modes Chapter 2- The Amateur Art Cinema: From Norman McLaren to Enrico Cocozza- 46-93 (2: 1) Amateur Discourse on Artistry- 46-49 (2:2) Amateur Animation: Cine-Clubs and Lone Workers- 50-65 (2:3) At the Edge ofthe Amateur Sector: The Films of Enrico Cocozza- 65-86 (2:4) Academic Discourse on Artistry- 86-93 Chapter 3- The Amateur Entertainment Cinema: Aspects of Childhood in the 'Film Play'- 94-140 (3: 1) Amateur Discourse on Child Actors- 94-100 (3:2) Comedies: The Films of Frank Marshall- 100-115 (3:3) Action Films: Group 5-115-131 (3:4) Academic Discourse on Child Actors- 131-140 3 Uniquely Amateur Modes and Wilful Separation Chapter 4- Amateur Cinema and Visions of Community- 141-184 (4:1) Amateur Discourse on Community- 141-147 (4:2) Club Films: The Edinburgh Cine Society- 147-163 (4:3) Amateur Newsreels: The Dawn Cine Group- 163-178 (4:4) Academic Discourse on Community- 178-184 Chapter 5- The Amateur Heritage Picture: Making Movies For Remembering- 185-228 (5:1) Amateur Discourse on Heritage- 185-191 (5:2) Posterity Productions- 192-206 (5:3) Re-makes: The Wick Society- 206-221 (5:4) Academic Discourse on Heritage- 222-228 Chapter 6- Amateur Film Relocated: Localism in Fact and Fiction- 229-249 Conclusion- 250-257 Bibliography- 258-273 Acknowledgements- 274 4 Introduction 'The cultivated amateur, who touches life on many sides, perceives that the professional is apt to approach life from one side only.' (Perry 1904: 24) 'Virtually every general history of cinema awards hegemony to the commercial narrative feature film.' (Camper 1986: 9) Despite its popularity over time, amateur cinema has been marginalized by most conventional film histories. What preliminary sketches have appeared of the movement tend to work away from specifically filmic concerns, towards the contextual. Standardised narratives explaining the 'rise and fall' of amateur film-making in relation to its major technological developments abound. As Laraine Cookson has noted, 'Unlike commercially-produced narrative and documentary films, or the work of independent and avant-grade filmmakers, amateur film has been discussed mainly in terms of its technology, with little attention given to its aesthetic, cultural and historical perspectives.' (1993: 5) Therefore the cameras that were used rather than the films that were made, define the history of amateur cinema: illustrating the 'how' rather than the 'why' of amateur film production. This is at least partly due to the lack of visibility and/or accessibility of representative films. When we think of other major movements in film history, individual titles can usually be named to illustrate shared formal characteristics: German Expressionism and The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (1919) have become synonymous, as have Soviet Montage and Battleship Potemkin (1925), or the French New Wave and Breathless (1959). Yet despite being an international movement from the outset, amateur cinema currently has no representative films that invoke precise meanings by their mere mention. In fact, not only does no history of 'exceptional' amateur films exist, we even lack a basic outline of the generic properties of ordinary amateur film production. Into this void of knowledge about the 5 recent past, only small steps can be made. Lacking a basic framework within which to place films produced under the auspices of the amateur sector, samples of film production from representative spheres might be put forward for initial comparison. A more general history can emerge from a number of smaller more focused studies. This thesis was developed with that possible outcome in mind. It attempts to outline the basic generic characteristics of amateur cinema as they developed in Scotland, over a period of fifty years. A project of this nature is now made feasible by developments in the film archive sector since the late 1970s. Before systematic collections of this material were made a cultural priority, the dispersed nature of the amateur cine movement meant that scholars would have to spend most of their time gathering and collecting, rather than viewing and writing. This situation has now changed thanks to the efforts of the archive sector. Now film scholars can reap the benefits of the considerable groundwork, which has taken over thirty years to put in place. Systematic study of material housed in the Scottish Screen Archive suggests that while some of the early assumptions about the amateur cine movement can be grounded in filmic and print evidence, other assertions need to be revised. However, before this more specific study can be pursued, more general theoretical frameworks need to be established. This thesis therefore begins with a consideration of definitions of amateurism, next moving on to a brief history of the British and Scottish amateur cine movement, before finally outlining the chapters which follow, and offering an explanation of the overall methodology employed. The central ambition of this study is to approach this material from a fresh perspective, one that is usually suppressed in investigations of this kind: namely, what is the relationship between amateurism and filmmaking/viewing? This will be explored in relation to various genres, but it is clear that there is no one single answer to this central question. Rather, this thesis demonstrates the incredibly fluid nature of amateurism. 6 Definitions ofAmateurism While it is difficult to propose an a-historical definition of amateurism, as the case studies that follow will demonstrate, a working definition at this point is useful. In general, there are currently two broad connotative fields regularly attached to the 'amateur', the most common involving the negative attributes of ineptitude, and being 'unskilful' that are common in everyday usage. It is these assumptions that my study aims to challenge by offering discernible evidence of amateur accomplishment, and re-instating former understandings of the term. In the first half ofthe twentieth century to be labelled 'amateur' was not in any way derogatory or insulting, rather it was something to savour and enjoy. A much more precise definition is offered by economics; here we run into the seeming paradox of the amateur: they are defined economically (as not being professional) but the motivations behind making these films are not those of profit. Therefore to be an amateur connotes the investment without rewards, a potentially self-abnegating activity. The etymology ofthe term 'amateur' becomes a useful way out of this paradox, amare: meaning 'to love'. To love the pursuit in itself, without seeking financial compensation for your efforts, is a form of idealism that is so out of step with contemporary ideologies that it requires a historical explanation to be properly grasped. Various authors have attempted to account for these transformations in our understandings of the amateur during the past one hundred and thirty years. Two early examples of these tendencies include Bliss Perry's, The Amateur Spirit (1904), and Lewis and Maude'S, Professional People (1952). These two books represent diametrically opposed responses to the same phenomena. While Perry celebrates the benefits of the life of vigorously pursued leisure activity, by contrast, Lewis and Maude opt to analyse and dissect the social 7 changes brought about by the increased focus on the professional sphere by the majority of the population since the industrial revolution. These two opposing perspectives described above are united in the work of the leisure studies scholar Robert A.