Amateur movie making : aesthetics of the everyday in New England film, 1915-1960 / edited by Martha J. McNamara and Karan Sheldon ; foreword by Alice T. Friedman ; with contributions by Dino Everett.

Covers films produced in New England between 1915-1960 and held in the collections of the repository, Northeast Historic Film.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

A place for moving images : thirty years of Northeast historic film -- The technologies of home movies and amateur film -- A region apart: representations of maine and Northern New England in personal film, 1920-1940 -- A strange familiarity : Alexander Forbes and the aesthetics of amateur film -- Midway between secular and sacred : consecrating the home movie as a cultural heritage object -- "All the wonderful possibilities of motion pictures" : Hiram Percy Maxim and the aesthetics of amateur filmmaking -- Comedic counterpoise : landscape and laughs in the films of Sidney N. Shurcliff -- Not-at-home movies -- The boss's film : expert amateurs and industrial culture -- Opening the can : home movies in the public sphere -- Layers of vision in amateur film.

Print version record and CIP data provided by publisher.

A compelling regional and historical study that transforms our understanding of film history, 'Amateur Movie Making' demonstrates how amateur films and home movies stand as testaments to the creative lives of ordinary people, enriching our experience of art and the everyday. Here we encounter the lyrical and visually expressive qualities of films produced in New England between 1915 and 1960 and held in the collections of Northeast Historic Film, a moving image repository and study center that was established to collect, preserve, and interpret the audiovisual record of northern New England. Contributors from diverse backgrounds examine the visual aesthetics of these films while placing them in their social, political, and historical contexts. Each discussion is enhanced by technical notes and the analyses are also juxtaposed with personal reflections by artists who have close connections to particular amateur filmmakers. These reflections reanimate the original private contexts of the home movies before they were recast as objects of study and artifacts of public history.

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