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Genesis

Still taken from Genesis (1980)

Date produced: 1980

Filmmaker(s):

Valrie Ellis

Description:

Cartoon set in the Garden of Eden. Adam is soon bored in his new surroundings, so God creates Eve for him. Over the next three days God finds Adam regularly bored, so God suggests activities for Adam with Eve, explaining each time what he means. The suggestions for days 2, 3 and 4 respectively are: giving Eve a hug; kissing Eve; making love to Eve. On the fourth day, Adam returns and asks God to explain what a headache is. (EAFA)


Glimpses of Rural Hungary

Date produced: 1933

Filmmaker(s):

Elizabeth Rearick

Description:

"Glimpses of Rural Hungary was the first film ever made by Elizabeth Rearick but its excellence must be credited to more than beginner's luck. It represents a willingness to follow instructions carefully and an ability to compose scenes as they are selected. The picture contains a charming record of the people and customs of Hungary, but capturing this was secondary, for Miss Rearick planned the film to be principally a record of folk dances. Most unusually accurate exposure and focusing make the film outstanding in its technical aspects. Clear, crisp, steady pictures inevitably do a great deal to present a subject in a delightful way. One of the remarkable features of the film was the rock steadiness of the camera, although Miss Rearick did not use a tripod at any time. The sequencing is worked out well and, although the film is intended for use in physical education work, it has a tremendous general interest value. The entire finished product is one of which an experienced filmer might well be proud." Movie Makers, Dec. 1933, 500.


Great Man Hunt, The

Date produced: 1949

Filmmaker(s):

Donald W. Volkman

Description:

"The familiar plight of a boy who disappears just before his music lesson is the simple springboard launching The Great Man Hunt. The subsequent adventures of the older brother and a reluctant pal who search for the errant youngster build into a chase sequence (on the teen age level) that is soundly representative of basic movie techniques. In developing this theme, Donald Volkman set himself many a difficult exposure problem — notably in shots of the boys aboard a trolley car and in wooded areas with sunlight slanting through tall trees. His solution of these problems is satisfying in every case. Further, Mr. Volkman's cross cutting in the chase sequences indicates intelligent study of professional masters of this technique. A swift climax is presented amusingly as the music teacher apprehends the boy who, wearing only a pair of swimming trunks, tucks a violin under his chin and proceeds to play his lesson at the edge of a lake." Movie Makers, Dec. 1949, 455.


H2O

Date produced: 1928

Filmmaker(s):

Ralph Steiner

Description:

"This film is a study of water in the new manner: A series of photographic shots of the reflections of boats, ferry houses, docks, etc., on water and the whole resulting in a chain of pure abstract patterns of shapes in water. Steiner achieves an astonishing tempo as his film advances. The picture is bound to attract wide attention and a great deal of discussion wherever is shown." Photoplay, Nov. 1929, 67


Hearts Of The Golden West

Date produced: 1931

Filmmaker(s):

Theodore Huff

Description:

"Hearts Of The Golden West, 1200 ft., 16mm., filmed and directed by Theodore Huff and enacted entirely by youngsters under thirteen, is a delightful and whimsical burlesque of the Griffith melodrama of the days when titles were long and plots of villainy and intrigue laid in the great open places swept grandly to a moral conclusion in which "true hearts were united." In those days, producers did not hesitate to use a cyclorama or to place painted canvas scenery on an outdoor location. Mr. Huff revives all of the old technique, even to the dance hall set, with its inevitable balcony, and the fight to the finish at the edge of the cliff. Under his direction, the children act their parts with complete seriousness and, in some cases, with mimetic ability that would have given their prototypes pause." Movie Makers, Dec. 1931, 658.


Heavens Declare the Glory of God, The

Date produced: 1944

Filmmaker(s):

S. G. Lutz

Description:

"With the use of a time lapse device, S. G. Lutz has made, in The Heavens Declare the Glory of God, a highly competent record of clouds in motion. Although the subject, treated in a different manner, might easily become too static actually to constitute a true movie. Mr. Lutz has achieved a sure continuity and a sense of artistry that is unusual. In many instances, the film presents sequences of such an unusual kind as to be highly exciting and almost awe inspiring. Speeding the motion of the clouds creates, from the commonplace, a sense of eeriness and weird beauty. In many of the storm sequences, the motion is so greatly dramatized as to impart a nearly terrifying sense of impending disaster." Movie Makers, Dec. 1944, 496.


Here We Go Again

Date produced: 1965

Filmmaker(s):

Evelyn Kibar

John R. Kibar

Description:

"An amateur film made by and starring the husband and wife duo, John & Evelyn Kibar. The film documents the couples’ struggles to make and complete a travelogue film of their travels to Colorado. Title cards with dialogue are dispersed throughout the film." Chicago Film Archives


Highwayman, The

Date produced: 1938

Filmmaker(s):

Tedd Briggs

A. Scott Moorhouse

Narcisse Pelletier

Description:

An amateur club adaptation of Alfred Noyes poem The Highwayman. A "ballad of love and murder" that "emphasizes atmosphere and explores the sympathetic relationship between natural and dramatic elements". The poem "narrates the highwayman's secret meeting with his love Bess, a landlord's daughter, their discovery by a group of soldiers who hold Bess as bait for the highwayman, and her grisly death by musket...Throughout the poem the natural settings play an important role in amplifying its supernatural and dramatic content...Like its use of natural settings, a natural acting style was employed to set this film adaptation apart from its source materials and its rival media. Finally, the film's use of double exposure in order to create the impression of ghostliness in the tragic couple's final reunion marks a particularly cinematic solution to the problem of visual representation" Tepperman, 244-245. Title credits name Tedd Briggs as the director and Alan Moorhouse as the Producer, "under the auspices of the Toronto Amateur Movie Club".


Home Movies

Date produced: 1941

Filmmaker(s):

Fred Evans

Description:

" 'Oh, would some power the giftie gie us, to see ourselves as others see us.' In a sophisticated, fast moving satire, Fred Evans has struck at some of the blights of amateur movie making and screening. Turning his opening guns on tyros who ignore the instruction book which accompanies a new camera, Mr. Evans proceeds in a light, witty manner to poke cine fun at those movie makers who insist on learning the hard way. The picture continues on its farcical path, pausing now to watch invitations being telephoned for a screening of an as yet on-existent film and again to sympathize at the scene of frantic last minute editing. Home Movies has as its climax, of course, the fiasco of the screening, which should not be "tipped off" by a verbal preview. Compact and restrained, this movie offers meaningful as well as light entertainment." Movie Makers, Dec. 1946, 471.


Hooked

Date produced: 1934

Filmmaker(s):

Walter Mills

Wendell Patton

M. P. Gamber

L. Thorny

Description:

"Hooked, an 8mm. comedy by the Grand Rapids Movie Makers, was intended as a straight drama of the trout streams. It has ended, however, as a delightful farce of a movie club trying desperately to complete such a picture — and is probably the better because of this mid production metamorphosis. For, although the first and original section of the picture is wholly charming and well photographed, it is in the latter section that the film picks up spirit, sparkle and definite dramatic power. It is in this part that the producers have conceived and executed a number of cinematic coups, climaxing them with a stunning multiple exposure sequence probably never before equalled or even approached in this medium. Walter Mills, ACL, L. Thorny, ACL, M. P. Gamber and Wendell Patton, of the Grand Rapids club, continue and enhance, with this film, their rightful reputation as most able advocates of 8mm." Movie Makers, Dec. 1934. 534.


Total Pages: 10