Journal of Film Preservation - FIAF

ian redundant. Surely the ability to see for ourselves what people were
doing at home, in leisure activities, at work, through their cultural, political
and social organisations (all of which can be found in the archive
collections), is a better way of knowing about the past than reading or
listening to the historian? This fallacy, like the nineteenth-century documentary-text
fallacy, ignores the processes of intention, selection, editing
and presentation, all of which are core skills of the professional historian.
The insight of the historian enriches our understanding of film and
context through professional research and debate.
Beyond the general value of ‘windows into the past’, there is a particular
aspect of amateur film work that distinguishes the genre from that of the
professional. In the Yorkshire Film Archive, as presumably in others,
there are examples of amateur filmmakers working over time, a process
that is simply not available to the professional filmmaker who works
within time constraints. In one instance a school teacher made a film
which recorded school life in 1938, the building of his new school from
1938 to 1940, the occupation of the new building by the army and their
use of it, finishing with the official opening of the building by the deputy
Prime Minister, Clement Atlee in 1944. In another film a member of the
aristocracy recorded episodes in the life of the village on his estate from
1931 to 1951. Other films record the activities of societies and organisations.
These filmmakers are the Chroniclers of our age, aware of
processes of change and diligently recording them for posterity.
However, if we look at the collections, rather than at the individual
films, it is apparent that all amateur filmmakers are chroniclers in varying
degrees. Their collections of film are unplanned and non-systematic
chronicles, sometimes stretching over thirty or more years of active filmmaking.
The historian can use this material to re-locate our understanding
of life in the twentieth century. We see the infants of the 1920s and
30s becoming the adults of the mid-century, and they in turn record for
us, their children and even grand-children, while around them the great
forces of political, social, economic and technological change move and
shape their lives. As we look at these life-journeys we are reminded that
the unit of history is the life-time, not the year, and the subject of history
is the person, not the State. “Inédits”* are a record of daily life, of family
and communal experience over time.
A knowledge and understanding of history is a necessity for everybody:
“As memory is to the individual, so history is to the community or society”
(Marwick, 1970).
Counsellors and therapists tell us that a person who misuses or abuses
memories of past experience cannot have a healthy relationship with
present circumstances. We all need to maintain a healthy dialogue
between what we think about our lives and how we manage our lives.
What is true for the individual is true also for the community. The relationship
between catastrophic political/military activity and the failure to
use our collective memory, our history, productively and constructively is
very clear in Europe and the wider world today. “Inédits” invite us to
know and to share our common experiences as members of familiar
43 Journal of Film Preservation / 53 / 1996
No mezclemos perros y gatos advierte el
autor. Si vemos el cine amateur como pálido
reflejo del cine ‘verdadero’, mejor ni
hablemos de él. Si lo consideramos como un
fenómeno en sí, convendría evitar su
comparación con el cine profesional. Por
otra parte, si los autores de las dos
categorías de películas tuvieran los mismos
propósitos, valdría la comparación. Mas
como sus intenciones difieren, ésta carece de
sentido. Tal es el contexto conceptual que el
autor propone para valuar al cine amateur,
que considera como fuente de conocimiento
de los cambios sociales a través del tiempo.
Según él, la invención de cámaras de cine
eficaces y poco costosas en los años 20
confirió al cine amateur el mismo valor que
hasta entonces atribuían los historiadores y
biógrafos a los retratos, correspondencias y
diarios personales. Más aún, testigo
espontáneo de su entorno social, el autor de
cine amateur ejerce menos control sobre su
escena y manifesta menos interés en simular
su contexto. Por consiguiente, su testimonio
constituye una fuente de información sobre
la mentalidad que prevalece en la sociedad.
Considerada en su conjunto (abarcando a
veces hasta 30 años de su vida), la obra de
un cineasta no profesional contribuye al
conocimiento de largos períodos de nuestra
historia. Las unidades de la Historia no son
ya los años y los Estados sino los tiempos de
vida y la persona. Los inéditos se
transforman así en testimonios de la vida
cotidiana a través del tiempo.
Como presidente de la Association
Européenne des Inédits (AEI), el autor
enuncia una metodología de la utilización de
los inéditos por los medios de teledifusión
fundada en una deontología respetuosa de la
experiencia humana.
* Inedits are private films, made by individuals
or groups for local purposes. The
essential feature of this complex body of
material is that filmmaker and subjects
have personal/communal purposes rather
than commercial. For a lively discussion
of the films & issues, see Zimmermann
P., Reel Families, IUP 95.