1929
Ikebukuro, Japan
9.5mm
"Among the individuals who were active in university cine clubs, one key figure in mediating between students, academics, and local amateur filmmakers was Miyamoto Keitarō (1911-1979) at Rikkyō University, who later became a renowned ethnographer and visual anthropologist. Miyamoto began 9.5mm filmmaking at the age of 17 or 18. While at Rikkyō, he not only became a core member of Rikkyō Baby Cinema Club that he helped to establish in October 1929, but he, as an amateur filmmaker, also published essays in various amateur film magazines as well as some local newspapers, including Patē shinema, Amachua eiga, Amachua mūbīsu, and Patē shine.... Rikkyō’s film club was probably one of the few university societies that engaged heavily with film production, perhaps partly because Miyamoto already had the technology and skills to share with other members. In the early 1930s, the club members made at least two 9.5mm narrative films as a group, as well as a series of newsreels titled R.B.C. gakuen nyūsu (Rikkyō Baby Cinema School News) that covered various campus events and activities." - Noriko Morisue, "Filming the Everyday: History, Theory, and Aesthetics of Amateur Cinema in Interwar and Wartime Japan" (Yale University: PhD Dissertation, 2020): 82-83.
Amateur Cinema