Challenging assumptions about amateur film of the inter-war years : Ace Movies and the first generation of London based cine-clubs

• Main Author: Dyson, Francis
• Published: University of East Anglia 2012
• Subjects: 791.43
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.658707

This thesis challenges assumptions about the democratization of amateur film-making in the United Kingdom. By identifying a body of serious amateur film-makers, the thesis broadens our understanding of amateur film-making in the interwar era. It demonstrates by way of a case study of one south London cine-club in the inter-war era, Ace Movies, that the history of the first generation of cine-clubs in the United Kingdom is more complex than is currently appreciated. Derided in British inter-war intellectual film journals for being little more than social clubs trying but failing to emulate commercial film production, the thesis identifies a creative response to British inter-war film culture that not only challenges perceptions about the quality of cine-club films but also the extent of intellectual engagement with that culture. The thesis engages with recent work on alternative film culture, more established works about the development of film culture and production in Britain in the inter-war period as well as studies of class and gender engagements with leisure. Drawing on a range of primary sources, including intellectual film journals, amateur film magazines and Ace Movies' surviving films, the thesis explores the social context in which the first cine-clubs in the United Kingdom emerged; identifies the relationship between the first generation of cine-clubs and alternative and mainstream film cultures; identifies in the studios developed by cine-clubs like Ace Movies a mode of film-making that is distinct from the home mode; and demonstrates that the distribution and exhibition practices of the first generation of cine-clubs were more ambitious than is currently appreciated.