Photo of Betty Stefenel in the June 1951 issue Movie Makers.
1948-1972
Female
Tik Tok Said the Clock won a Peninsula Home Movies Unlimited (PHMU) award in the uncut/unedited 16mm category in 1950.
PHMU awarded her best film of 1958 for This Is Christmas.
She won “Filming for Fun” awards for both Dissolves, and Five Little Kittens and How They Grew, both around 1953.
antiques dealer; precious gems and stones dealer; homemaker
Amateur filmmaker Betty Stefenel (Jan. 2, 1913 – Aug. 4, 1980) was from San Mateo, Morgan Hill, San Jose, and other cities in the peninsular part of the San Francisco Bay Area in California, USA. Beginning in her mid-30s, Stefenel shot with Bolex L-8 and H-8, and Cine-Kodak Mode E Sixteen cameras starting from around 1948 until at least 1972. She became a new member in the Amateur Cinema League in 1950, and was a charter member, treasurer, and eventually program director of Peninsula Home Movies Unlimited (PHMU, later Peninsula Home Movie Club), a regional chapter of the ACL. In 1951, she was also listed as a member of San Jose Movie Club. Alone, and as part of a group, she screened her films for other local clubs such as the Richmond Movie Club.
Stefenel was a prolific maker of both amateur films, edited into little narratives, and home movies that documented domestic scenes and self-portraiture, club meetings and activities, her husband Anthony at work at their rock and gem shop, her son Ronald, also an amateur filmmaker, and son Rudy who routinely made appearances and occasionally worked behind the camera when their mother wanted had an on-screen role), other family, pets, friends, and the landscape San Francisco Bay Area and Marin County. More, she also very enthusiastically experimented with handmade titles with little asides, illustrations, stock footage, unusual film stocks such as Dynacolor (which she criticizes in on-screen notes), and 8mm film to which she (presumably with Kodak’s assistance, but it is yet unclear) added magnetic striping for soundtracks.
In the 1950s, Stefenel was PHMU’s delegate to the Northern California Council of Amateur Movie Clubs, served the Council as assistant editor of its Filming For Fun Quarterly publication, and attended and documented on film its short-lived Film For Fun Fiesta, an event where regional amateur filmmakers converged to screen their films and discuss techniques. Locations varied, but in at least 1955, 1958, it was held in San Francisco, 1963 in Oakland, 1964 in Los Angeles, and 1968 in Berkeley. She also authored a piece for the September 1959 issue of PSA Journal (Official Publication of Photographers Society of America), titled “Animation: Questions and Answers,” in which she covers techniques she had employed and general advice on the topic.
Stefenel’s catalogue of films includes: What! No Dessert?(ca. 1950), Tik Tok Said the Clock, Closeups v. Chatter (January 1951), Pie (June 1952), Cake (May 1952), Pictures of Me I Wouldn't Show to A Dog (ca. 1949), Memories of Eden Movie Makers Picnic 1951, Our Circle of Friends (1947/1949), Xmas Memories 1954, We Drive to Aunt Helen’s (1948), Monterey Memories (1950s), She Dood It (1950s), At Patio Cafe June 1948, and others. Deserted Films has in its collection all but This Is Christmas, Dissolves, and What! No Dessert?. At least four of her films won awards. Tik Tok Said the Clock won a PHMU award in the uncut/unedited 16mm category in 1950; the club awarded her best film of 1958 for This Is Christmas; and she won “Filming for Fun” awards for both Dissolves, and Five Little Kittens and How They Grew around 1953.
[Note: In fall 2023, UCLA Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS) graduate students Jackie Forsyte, Gabz Norte, and Daniella D’Acquisto, inspected, cleaned, and digitized a selection of six films. In 2025 California Revealed supported the digitization (The MediaPreserve) and preservation of seven Stefenel films, and in 2026 three were restored and digitized (Colorlab) with grant funding from a National Film Preservation Foundation. AV Geeks has digitized for us some of her more traditional home movies.]
“Pink Stones Stolen from S.M. Rockery,” The San Mateo County Times, September 17, 1948.
“New ACL Members,” Movie Makers, May 1950, p168.
“Contest Results,” Movie Makers, November 1950, p427.
“Most Gracious,” Movie Makers, November 1951, p350.
”Camerawoman,” The Berkeley Gazette, December 27, 1951, p8.
“Closeups — What Filmers Are Doing,” Movie Makers, June 1951, p204.
“Clubs,” Movie Makers, April 1952, p122.
“Gem, Movie Clubs Hold Show Tonight,” The San Mateo County Times, January 16, 1953.
“Projector Maintenance Kit,” The San Francisco Examiner, January 25, 1953, p43.
“Clubs,” Movie Makers, April 1953, p106.
”Amateur Prize Film Show Friday,” Oakland Tribune, April 26, 1953, p54.
“Movie Makers,” Movie Makers, April 1953, p107.
“Filming Fiesta,” American Cinematographer, December 1955, p558.
”Movie Group Awards Prizes,” Redwood City Tribune, December 22, 1958, p2.
PSA Journal, Vol. 25, No. 1 (September 1959), p49-50.
“David CHS Members Slate Flea Market,” The Sacramento Bee, September 18, 1969, p11.
“Betty Stefenel” on Deserted Films website.
Amateur Cinema