Dear Reader,

While touring and training in small format film archives this summer, I began research on the Amateur Cinema League (ACL). The ACL was an association for 16mm filmmakers, founded in 1926 by Hiram Percy Maxim of Hartford, Connecticut. When Eastman Kodak developed the 8mm camera in 1933, enthusiasts of the smaller format also joined the ACL. The League had chapters in towns across the country and overseas. Within its first year, the association began monthly publication of a handsome magazine titled Movie Makers. Filled with advertisements for cameras, projectors, and film processing laboratories, Movie Makers also included articles, technical advice, and two columns on the activities of member groups. These columns are especially interesting to me as they may provide leads to early collections of film footage on the South.

Amateur filmmaking began in 1923 with the introduction of the first Eastman Kodak 16mm camera on the consumer market. Certainly Mississippians, in the first quarter of the 20th century, were fascinated with moving picture images and bought cameras to record their interests, families, communities, businesses, and farms. The Southern Media Archive is interested in identifying these early materials and helping to preserve them. Please contact me if you have any information about old film collections, Movie Makers magazine, the Amateur Cinema League, or other moving image clubs.

Sincerely, Karen Glynn

Assistant Director Southern Media Archive 601-232-7811