Making Dull Films Jolly: Brunel’s Burlesques

Abstract

Brunel’s burlesque shorts have received a great deal of attention from curators and academics due to their satire on the film industry. Made on the fringes of the industry, in a liminal space between amateur film and the professional, these short films are Brunel’s most personal works and have been offered as evidence of an avant-garde or experimental film tradition in Britain. These claims are examined in this chapter through a survey of the various terms in order to find a more appropriate way to define the films that takes into account Brunel’s intent and their production context. The concept of film as experiment is explored through studies of similar developments taking place in America and Europe and the ways that semi-amateur filmmaking practices were used to negotiate an entry into the industry proper.