Beyond the “Exhibition Straight-Jacket”: How British Amateur Film Clubs Created an Alternative Distribution and Exhibition Network, 1923–1933

Abstract

This article explores an overlooked third strand of the 1920s British film industry's distribution and exhibition practices: amateur filmmakers. Our analysis of the UK amateur networks that were created through the 1920s and into the early 1930s offers a challenge to accepted ideas that British cinema exhibition was limited to a small number of metropolitan mainstream or independent art cinemas. By tracing the amateur cinema's move from an interaction with mainstream exhibition venues to the introduction of a national amateur network, we offer a more nuanced understanding of amateur-film culture and its community-led model of distribution and exhibition.