. Historical, Aesthetic, Cultural: The Problematical Value of Amateur Cine Fiction
. Historical, Aesthetic, Cultural: The Problematical Value of Amateur Cine Fiction
Future research on the amateur fiction film will be determined by the availability of representative films and supporting documentation, aiding reconstruction of their provenance, the technical resources involved in their production, and any sense of their private or public reception. To date the resources for such research have been scarce, and archive policy has generally favoured the collection of non-fictional materials with national or local ‘interest’. This chapter examines the origins of an acquisition culture which has limited the collection and preservation of amateur fiction films, across a range of archives within Britain and Continental Europe. Case studies of local debates concerning the acquisition of specific films are included as illustration, together with consideration of some key factors shaping the evolution of collection policy (significant donations, technical innovations, award status, and the growing recognition of cross-over ‘histories of influence’) within the archive sector. The chapter concludes with a brief consideration of the archives’ challenges in cataloguing the amateur fiction film, and in developing wider access for the would-be researcher.
Keywords: Film archives, Cataloguing policy, Film collections
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