Small-Gauge Storytelling

Abstract

What do you understand by the term 'home movie'? Do you imagine images of babies-on-the lawn, sandcastles on the beach, or travels with the family? Did you know that amateur filmmakers have also explored fictional genres as diverse and fascinating as their professional counterparts, that specific amateur film studios have risen and fallen, or that household-name directors owe their origins and inspirations to the amateur film movement? Across a range of settings, this book offers an introduction to the amateur maker of film comedies, thrillers, adaptations and sci-fi. It records the ambitions and achievements of enthusiasts struggling to emulate the mainstream and tell their own stories, armed with limited resources and endless initiative. Key Features the first dedicated book-length study of the amateur fiction film draws together established and emerging scholars from Europe, North America and Australasia establishes fresh approaches to the study of small-gauge filmmaking using formats such as 8mm, Super 8 and 9.5mm places amateur fiction within ongoing debates and histories establishes previously unrecognised contributions to the organisational, aesthetic and intellectual history of amateur filmmaking the first published bibliography of critical sources for the study of the amateur fiction film