Amateur Film Ingenuity: Stylistic Innovations and Resistance Outside the Industry

Resumen

The French film director Eric Rohmer once said (through a translator), ‘He thinks that these  new technologies… he inspires himself a lot from amateur techniques, he thinks that amateurs often have one-up on professionals, because cinema’s a very archaic art. For instance, he’s very interested in video and cinema took a very long time to come to video’. Others have seen amateur filmmaking as the perfect place to push the boundaries of what is technologically and stylistically possible; for example the animator Norman McLaren, the agitational filmmaker Peter Watkins, and the activities of the Widescreen Association. The latter group has been described as significant because, ‘The dynamic of the association differed from most cine clubs. It was progressive and experimental where others were conservative and reactionary.