In the rapidly growing study of amateur film, this groundbreaking book addresses the development of British women's amateur visual practice. Drawing upon social and visual anthropology, imperial and postcolonial studies and British, Commonwealth and gender history, the authors explore how women in Britain and overseas, used the evolving technologies of moving imagery to create visual stories about their lives and times. Locating the making, watching and sharing of women's recreational film-making against wider societal, technological and ideological changes, British Women Amateur Filmmakers discloses how women from varied backgrounds negotiated changing lifestyles, attitudes and opportunities as they created first personal visual narratives about themselves and the world around them. Using non-fictional films and animations, the authors invite readers to view films through different interpretative lens and provide detailed contexts for their case-studies and survey of over forty women amateur filmmakers. Whether in remote communities, suburban homes, castles, missionary or diplomatic enclaves, or simply travelling as intrepid sightseers, women filmed their companions, other people and their surroundings, not only as observers but often displaying agency, autonomy and aesthetic judgment during decades when careers, particularly after marriage, were often denied in film and other professions. Research across Britain on films in private hands and specialist archives, interviews and extensive study of the Institute of Amateur Cinematographers (IAC's) collections enable the authors to reposition an activity once thought of as overwhelmingly male and middle class.
British women's amateur film practice contributes to the rapidly growing specialist field of amateur film studies and to broader cinematic trajectories and media history. Over almost 90 years women used evolving camera technologies—cine, video, and digital—to create visual stories about their lives and the world around them and to experiment with other genres, namely animation and fiction. Their visual practice intersects with wider societal changes and discloses how women negotiated aspects of changing lifestyles, attitudes, and opportunities. Their varied reasons for making and showing films, whether in imperial, postcolonial, or contemporary Britain, and during their years overseas, evidence self‐expression, creativity, and agency. Their informal perspectives differ from the dominant narratives of late imperialism which were mediated via documentary and newsreel productions. Women's amateur films depict interactions shaped by class, gender, and race and disclose subjectivities and perceptions that suggest their filmmakers' responses to changing circumstances, expectations, and notions of authority. Interrogating women's amateur films draws on cross‐archival research, identifies films from public and specialist collections and uses theoretical perspectives central to issues of identity, gender, race and status, national and (post‐)imperial history, visual politics, cinema history, and new media scholarship.
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