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The Annual Problem

The Annual Problem

If you can't go abroad, go a-Broads with country parson and keen amateur cineaste 'Captain' Charles Lyne and his wife Muriel

One step short of a life on the open waves, the Norfolk Broads offer a playground for the wannabe sea captain. Country Parson Charles Lyne and his wife Muriel conquer the annual problem of where to take their holiday by setting sail, waving goodbye to the maids left at their Sussex parsonage. Filming their exploits on a 9.5mm camera, on return the films were often shared with parishioners in community screenings.

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Amateur Auteurs

Ever dreamed of shooting your own movie? These pre-digital cine-enthusiasts did - with all the passion and devotion of the true auteur.


These low- (or no-) budget creations reach beyond simple point-and-shoot, back-garden efforts towards something more ambitious and skilful, revealing their authors' passion for film and their often astonishing ingenuity with limited resources. No desktop editing software or digital special effects for these amateur auteurs. The films include fiction and documentary, competition prizewinners and private labours of love. They may be the work of cine-clubbers or individual enthusiasts. But they all show a devotion to filmmaking that far transcends hobbyism. So look out for the delightful handmade intertitles, table-top special effects and library soundtracks which decorate many of the quirky stories, ultra-local documentaries and painstakingly composed home movies featured here.

65 videos in this collection

Prize-winning amateur film about the fleeting affair between a housewife and a young man on a summer day.

Paper Boat

  • 1949
Silly silent film fun and thrills abound in this award-winning 1954 amateur short spoofing the world of Hollywood trailers.

Coming Shortly

  • High Wycombe
  • 1954
A young angel scours London for her wings in this tender short by the young Ken Russell.

Amelia and the Angel

  • South Kensington
  • 1958
Knitting comes in handy when making a film – a comical take on amateur filmmaking by the ladies of a local Pinner film club

Ladies Hoo Doo

  • Harrow
  • 1965
The puzzle that kick-started the 1980s comes to life in this amateur animation.

Cubism

  • 1981
Nail-biting amateur thriller in Pinner tells the story of a suspicious husband who may not have got the right man.

Falsely Murdered

  • Harrow
  • 1960
What happens when you combine high food prices with female resourcefulness? Fishing!

Canal Cameo

  • Harrow
  • 1976
Gotta dance! A bewitched violin gets everyone's feet tapping.

The Witch's Fiddle

  • 1924
The 20s elite let their guard down... Amateur antics from media baron Lord Beaverbrook and friends, including HG Wells and Rebecca West.

They Forgot to Read the Directions

  • Cherkley Court
  • 1924
A gem-smuggling conspiracy drives an entertaining and unusually accomplished amateur fiction.

The Diamond

  • 1938
Shocking scenes of Kensington slums and 1930s housing developments offer a sharp contrast with today's reinvented area.

Contrasts in Kensington

  • Kensington
  • 1937
Catholic fantasy starring Elsa Lanchester and Evelyn Waugh in an Andy Warhol fright wig.

The Scarlet Woman

  • Hampstead Heath
  • 1924
If you can't go abroad, go a-Broads with country parson and keen amateur cineaste 'Captain' Charles Lyne and his wife Muriel

The Annual Problem

  • Wroxham
  • 1935
The Pinner Cine Society looks at the work of Northwood's welfare services.

Plans for Living

  • 1966
An epic tale of one girl's life from the ages of one to 22, lovingly filmed by her dad.

Saga of Valerie Jean Douglas

  • 1949
Class conflict comes to the boil in an entertaining amateur film about fandom and rival ambitions for movie stardom.

Richard House Home Movies Steps to the Stars

  • 1935
This prize-winning short amateur comedy about a distracted father highlights the best and worst of its times.

Saturday Lunch

  • 1957
An unusual, poignant piece of wartime correspondence showing how movies can be used to comfort those who are far away.

A Movie Letter from Home

  • Wealdstone
  • 1943
Pincurls, pools and a paralytic priest – a housewife's win on the pools leads to a mix-up with the gin and amusing results

Sponge Mix

  • Harrow
  • 1956
A starkly beautiful portrait of crofting life in Flodabay on the Isle of Harris in the Outer Hebrides.

They Are Forsaken A Tale of an Island of the Hebrides

  • Harris/Na Hearadh
  • 1938
A map that leads to treasure and trouble: John, Mary and Anne go in search of Jack Mundy's loot only to find that his map wasn't quite complete.

The Smugglers' Cave

  • Cornwall
  • 1937
A Geoff Charles film showing how “the men of Llanwddyn broke their way out for bread” after a great blizzard hit Britain in January 1947.

Janet, John & Susan present "1943-1947"

  • Newtown
  • 1947
A lively collection of largely comic amateur films, followed by a glimpse at the sets of On the Beach and Ben-Hur.

Star Cabaret 1956

  • 1956
Surrounded by jealously, plots and intrigue are calmer times ahead too much to hope for?

In My End is My Beginning

  • West Lothian
All the boy has to do is to fetch a pail of water…What could possibly go wrong?

Helpu Dad

  • Rhoslan
  • 1970
Catapult-wielding democrats take on wader-wearing fascists in this ‘Plas Newydd' drama filmed by the Marquis of Anglesey.

Pink Shirts

  • Plas Newydd
  • 1936
What dreams may come when a treasured possession is aggressively broken? Unfinished drama starring Anglesey's Earl of Uxbridge as a poor boy.

Little Boy's Dream

  • Plas Newydd
  • 1937

Mr H Ramsbotham on the Use of Films in Schools

  • 1935

Generation Gap

  • 1973

A Few Days

  • London
  • 1963
Nightmarish visions become a reality in this imaginative production that mixes live action, animation, and special effects.

The Fifth Minute

  • 1976
Thrilling pirate adventure made by a preparatory schoolmaster and starring some of his schoolchildren, who apprehend dangerous smugglers.

Smugglers Beware

  • Ingoldisthorpe
  • 1938
A bumbling vicar steals the scene in this short chase film; a silent comedy set in a Norfolk village, featuring many of the villagers.

Teacher's Lesson

  • Ingoldisthorpe
  • 1937
Charming fantasy adventure filmed by a prep schoolmaster and starring the pupils at the school. Schoolboys search for a fairytale princess.

They Act Like Magic

  • Ingoldisthorpe
  • 1938
A female protagonist falls prey to the ‘Shadowman', who stalks his victim before attack. Uses stop-motion animation as well as live action.

Shadowman

  • Harlesden
  • 1994

The Tomb of Frankenstein

  • Comber
  • 1964

The Drumlin

  • Strangford Lough
  • 1980
A young man is left an old mansion in his uncle's will. Too late he discovers that he's also inherited a legacy of witchcraft and demonology!

The Testament of Caleb Meeke

  • Bangor
  • 1969

The Tryzzian Exiles

  • Newtownards
  • 1972

Keep Watching Skies

  • Comber
  • 1975
A man loses everything he has day-dreaming his way through life

Stigmata

  • 1970

Specimens

  • Ballymagowan
  • 1982
Why don't you come along to the Ulster Folk & Transport Museum? Remember, all you need to bring is a little imagination.

Ring of Cultra

  • Cultra
  • 1984
Extra-terrestrial plantlife is discovered in the Welsh countryside causing mischief for scientist Dr Felix Ackerman, filmed in 1977.

The Cure

  • 1977
To carry on his important work the ego-maniacal scientist Dr Kelly must obtain another hand … a hand which begins to take on a life of its own.

Hand in Glove

  • 1976
Driven to distraction a young man murders another, however the dead victim's feline reincarnation wants revenge!

Feline Reincarnate

  • 1976
A decade before the BBC's version of M R James supernatural classic came this chilling version from the North Downs Cinematograph Society

Whistle and I’ll Come to You

  • 1956
Amateur award-winning dramatic thriller influenced by 1940s Universal Horror movies and made by husband and wife team John and Dede Wright.

Two-faced Killer: A Modern Thriller

  • 1951
A haunted mirror is the gateway to Halloween horror in this eerie tale from the Eastbourne Cine Group

Mirror Mirror

  • Eastbourne
  • 1969

Revenge!

  • 1904

The Haunted School

  • Stormont
  • 1955
Amusing fantasy of the adventures of a priest who finds his new parish in the grip of the most blatant depravity

Sodom and Begorrah

  • Holywood
  • 1967

The Fugitive

  • Derry / Londonderry
  • 1966

The Man From A.U.N.T.

  • Derry / Londonderry
  • 1965

Nebelung

  • Derry / Londonderry
  • 1978

Zwischen

  • Derry / Londonderry
  • 1970
Something sinister this way comes in one of The Spence Brothers earliest films.

The Coming of the Black Dawn

  • Newtownards
  • 1965
A sophisticated bookish blonde proves to be a murderer's nemesis in this atmospheric thriller-with-a-twist from the Eastbourne Cine Group

.. And Other Stories

  • Eastbourne
  • 1979
Peter's birthday is one his suffering parents would rather forget in this harrowing film from the Sevenoaks Cine Society

Birthday For Peter

  • Sevenoaks
  • 1958
This gruesome tale from the Barnes Brothers is a warning to parents as a young child falls prey to a band of cliff dwelling murderous outlaws

Fatal Shot

  • Kingsgate Bay
  • 1931
A pair of kidnappers are no match for the derring-do Boy Scouts of Eltham - in this amateur action thriller from the Eltham Cine Society

Good Turners

  • Eltham
  • 1937
This inventive comedy double-bill is more than your average home movie - with its tale of two young pranksters getting their just deserts

All in the Day's Work

  • Hampshire
  • 1930

Bird's-eye View

  • 1949
There are echoes of Fritz Lang in this short film about a shadowy figure following a child through woodland - but what is his true purpose?

Hunted

  • Surrey
  • 1959
Four bright young things enact a midsummer's love tryst among the daisies in this short, well-crafted amateur fiction film.

Midsummer Madness - An Idiotic Idyll

  • 1933
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