Small-gauge Storytelling: Discovering the Amateur Fiction Film

This book focusses on amateur fiction film-making. What do you understand by the term ‘home movie’? Do you imagine images of babies-on-the lawn, sandcastles on the beach, or travels with the family? Did you know that amateur filmmakers have also explored fictional genres as diverse and fascinating as their professional counterparts, that specific amateur film studios have risen and fallen, or that household-name directors owe their origins and inspirations to the amateur film movement? Small gauge film refers to formats such as 8m, Super 8 and 9.5mm. Across a range of settings from the Canadian north-west to the Russian far east, “Small-Gauge Storytelling” offers an introduction to the amateur maker of film comedies, thrillers, adaptations and sci-fi, recording the ambitions and achievements of enthusiasts struggling to emulate the mainstream, and tell their own stories, armed only with limited resources, but endless initiative. This is the first dedicated book-length study of the amateur fiction film. It draws together established and emerging scholars from Europe, North America and Australasia. It establishes fresh approaches to the study of small-gauge filmmaking.It places amateur fiction within ongoing debates and histories establishes. It includes the first published bibliography of critical sources for the study of the amateur fiction film.