Paradoy of the avantgarde film culture of the era, including references to Salvador Dalí, Luis Buñuel, Joan Miró and dancer Àurea de Sarrà. It is interesting because it shows the crossed dialogue between these different film cultures that functioned beyond the realm of commercial cinema.
"At the outset of amateur movies' newest medium, magnetic sound on film, Robert G. Williams has accomplished a tour de force with his uncannily perfect synchrony of music to pictures in Poet and Peasant. As Kathryn Williams plays the familiar overture on the Hammond organ, the sound accompaniment matches the hand movements on screen without faltering and without once resorting to tricks or short cuts. Countless closeups of the organist's hands as they play give evidence of Mr. Williams's confidence and ability in the new field. But Mr. Williams also has made a lively and interesting picture from a subject usually so dull and static that, more often than not, it has stumped most professionals. Pacing his film with precision, he has used an amazing variety of camera angles, even shooting from above and behind the organ. Mrs. Williams's playing is competent and assured; but it is Mr. Williams's unusually good filming and recording techniques which bring her abilities vividly to life on screen." Movie Makers, Dec. 1952, 339.
"Portrait of a Young Man, by Henwar Rodakiewicz, ACL, is a triumph of fine photography and sensitive imagination. Abstract in treatment, and speaking through delicately rhythmed scenes of smoke, leaves, grasses, the sea, machinery and the heavens, this film is an attempt to portray in graphic terms a young man's reactions to the beauty, force and mystery of the natural world. In producing the final three reel version, Mr. Rodakiewicz has filmed deliberately toward the one end for more than three years and in many different locales. Although using largely material to be found in nature, he has so transmuted it, by the creative artistry of his selection and control, as to get from each selected scene, not a mere reproduced likeness, but a trenchant and symbolic image. Portrait of a Young Man is beautiful, exciting, workmanlike and distinguished." Movie Makers, Dec. 1932, 538.
"In this dramatization of James Whitcomb Riley's well known poem for children, Andy Potter chose a perfect character for the leading role. It is his fine acting that bolsters the spirit of the story and outweighs the uneven exposure of a few early scenes. Imaginative camera viewpoints and an interesting musical score give pace to what might have been a tritely sentimental production. Suspense is maintained where it is needed, and the settings, both indoors and out, have been chosen with an eye for variety. Quotes from the poet's verses serve as titles. The Raggedy Man is a sensitive portrayal of childhood pathos and drama." Movie Makers, Dec. 1949, 455.
"'Red Clouds Rides Again,' the 8mm picture by Dr. Loscher which was given first prize, was based on a poem that dealt with the pioneers crossing the desert. Its main action had to do with a wagon train being attacked by Indians. The manner in which Dr. Loscher handled this sequence would have done credit to a studio production. With only one wagon, three horses and six people at his command, he made it look like a production employing more in the way of properties and talent. His angles, his composition and his cutting are things for every amateur to observe. His story could have easily become hackneyed by poor cutting and editing, but he kept it moving at a fine tempo." American Cinematographer, Jan. 1936, 24.
"Revelation indeed reveals the slow, but intense, life of flowers as they unfold. Hans J. Theiler, who built a special mechanism for the purpose, has made time lapse studies of blooms in their determined efforts to find sunlight. Other flowers lose as well as open. The time lapse sequences are preceded by closeup footage of various blooms impeccably filmed. In the chief section of the picture, Mr. Theiler has caught very dextrously the unusual and almost terrifying performances of plants as they carry on their exceedingly active careers. The time lapses are exceptionally smooth." Movie Makers, Dec. 1944, 496.
"A black-and-white silent animation, which Kaneko himself described as a visualization of a musical score, Hungarian Rhapsodie. He experimented with visual geometric abstraction as a means to express the musical score, and this film was his first attempt to use the koma-otoshi technique (the technique being used for time-lapse photography or stop-motion animation)." - Noriko Morisue, "Filming the Everyday: History, Theory, and Aesthetics of Amateur Cinema in Interwar and Wartime Japan" (Yale University: PhD Dissertation, 2020): 99.
"Amateur filmmaker, cinema historian and railway engineer H.A.V. Bulleid pays tribute to his dual loves of cinema and rail in an experimental short film. Bulleid uses 'metric editing' - the first of Russian director Sergei Eisenstein's 'methods of montage' - in which cuts are dictated by the number and sequence of frames, not what occurs on screen. First, Bulleid pays tribute to cinema, featuring the facades of picturehouses around Derby in static shots, which build to a dazzling crescendo of short shots. The section on trains features longer views of the railyards in operation, with trains shunting and coming into the station, before a final section focuses on trams, following electric streetcars as they move down urban streets" (EAFA Database).
"Close study of the Town Hall Clock in Rothenburg and the activities of people at a fountain" (EAFA Database).
"By a clever editorial feat, Charles H. Benjamin has transformed a series of animal scenes which he filmed at New York City's Bronx Zoo into a pseudo travelog of the African game belt. He achieved this effect by simply cutting shots of heavily wooded streams into footage of the uncaged animals in the famous zoo, and the illusion is pointed up by some striking title frames. Mr. Benjamin's camera work matches his editorial insight, for his exposures and composition are first rate. His use of back lighting gives his shots of flamingoes and drowsing lions a brilliance that puts them far above the usual run of animal pictures." Movie Makers, Dec. 1946, 488.
Total Pages: 13
Amateur Cinema