Representations of the family in postwar British amateur film: family histories in the Lane and Scrutton collection at the East Anglian Film Archive

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Kerry, M. ORCID: 0000-0001-9173-8518, 2016. Representations of the family in postwar British amateur film: family histories in the Lane and Scrutton collection at the East Anglian Film Archive. The History of the Family, 21 (2), pp. 231-242. ISSN 1081-602X

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Official URL: http://doi.org/10.1080/1081602X.2016.1163274

Abstract

This article examines the construction of the postwar British family in amateur film with reference to the Sidney Lane and Cecil Scrutton collection held at the East Anglian Film Archive (EAFA), particularly the films covering 1948 – 1961. Heather Norris Nicholson argues that home movies contribute to 'an understanding of leisure and visual-related practices of consumption as well as the social processes by which people came to give themselves, and others, identities' in the mid-twentieth century (Nicholson, 2004, p. 323). By considering the social and historical contexts in which these home movies were produced, and using accompanying notes by one of the filmmaker’s sons, the leisure time films of Lane and Scrutton can be analysed in order to understand how the amateur cine hobby ideologically constructed family, community and national identity in postwar Britain. The images of Christmas parties, daytrips and holidays in these films reveal much about this particular family, and are therefore very illuminating to the social historian and film scholar of today.

Item Type:

Journal article

Publication Title:

The History of the Family

Creators:

Kerry, M.

Publisher:

Taylor & Francis

Date:

2016

Volume:

Number: