Film society
Encyclopedia
A film society is a membership club
where people can watch screenings of films which would otherwise not be shown in mainstream
cinema
s. In Spain they are known as "Cineclubs," and in Germany they are known as "Filmclubs".
They usually have an educational aim, introducing new audiences to different audiovisual works through an organized and prepared program of screenings.
Editorial output reinforces the work of these organisations, as they produce hand-programmes, brochures, schedules, information sheets, and even essays, supporting the significance of their exhibitions. A common feature that may characterize a film society screening is that they either begin with an introduction of the film to the audience and/or end with the promotion of a debate / discussion about the film, where assistants, organizers and sometimes the filmmakers themselves, exchange their views.
There are networks in many different countries, and these are organized into federations, councils, collectives, and local networks
. Famous film societies include Amos Vogel
's Cinema 16
, Cinémathèque Française
, and the Film Society of Lincoln Center
in New York City
.
in the time between the two world wars (see below).
The international body for film societies is the International Federation of Film Societies.
This international association was set up in 1947 in Cannes
(France
) among groups of film societies in countries throughout the world and this association is called Fédération Internationale des Ciné-Clubs (F.I.C.C.).
is the Australian Council of Film Societies
(ACOFS) was established in 1950.
Notable members of the Australian "film society movement" include Ian Klava, David Stratton
, Michael Thornhill
, Frank Moorhouse
, Ken Quinnell
and John Flaus
.
, took as its mandate the establishment of a genuine film culture. Within a year, the society opened branches in Ottawa
, Toronto
, Montreal
and Vancouver
.
After a wartime hiatus, the Canadian film society movement enjoyed what may now be seen as its golden age. The National Film Society, renamed the Canadian Film Institute
in 1950, became a clearing house for a growing number of societies across Canada. It was soon a victim of its own success as the groups broke away in 1954 to form the Canadian Federation of Film Societies (CFSS). Spearheaded by Dorothy Burritt, CFFS member societies programmed ambitious retrospectives often accompanied by lengthy and erudite program notes.
boulevard in Paris
, it is to preserve and place at the disposal of its members all the cinematographic documents and productions existing. It is also equipped with a room of projection.
The Italian film theoretician Ricciotto Canudo
who had been living in Paris since 1921 founded one of the first film societies.
After the first world war the film director and film critic Louis Delluc
founded one of the first film societies and the important film magazine Cinéa.
In 1930 Jean Vigo
founded the first film club in Nice
, les Amis du Cinéma.
In 1935 Henri Langlois
and Georges Franju
founded the film society Cercle du cinéma which became the Cinémathèque française
in 1936 to show and to preserve old films.
After the second world war the movement of ciné-clubs boomed. In 1945 the film society of Annecy
was founded from which originated the Annecy International Animated Film Festival
. In 1948 André Bazin
together with Jean-Charles Tacchella, Doniol-Valcroze, Astruc, Claude Mauriac, René Clément and Pierre Kast founded the avantgarde film society Objectif 49. Jean Cocteau
became its president. This film society became the cradle of the Nouvelle Vague. Objectif 49 organized the Festival du Film Maudit which took place in Biarritz
in 1949.
François Truffaut
has depicted vividly Bazin's engagement in the cinéclub-movement:
The first French film society exclusively women was founded in the seventies in Toulouse
.
Im 2005 the Musée Dapper
in Paris founded the first film society entirely concentrating on the cinema of Africa, the Caribbean and the African-American diaspora - the occasion being the celebration of 50 years of African Cinema
.
after 1945 upon the suggestion the British
and French
after the Second World War, in order to promote non-political strictly cultural exchange and democratic consciousness. In the 1950s, the decade of the flowering of the film club movement, gave it a wave of reestablishments, also in the Soviet occupation zone and/or later German Democratic Republic
.
The film clubs became either independent association
s or worked under a carrier, which itself education
and culture
had used up. From them important impulses for the German film landscape proceeded, for example the establishment of film festival
s as from International Filmfestival Mannheim-Heidelberg
.
In the German Federal Republic
however the number of the film clubs decreased to such an extent that in 1971 the Federal association dissolved. For the 1970s
stepped in many places local cinemas to the place of the film clubs. With the collapse of the German Democratic Republic, many East German film clubs lost the financial and organizational basis, succeeded also here unite the step to the local cinema.
There are two national bodies for film societies in Germany who are members of the International Federation of Film Societies, the Bundesverband Jugend und Film e.V. and the Bundesverband kommunale Filmarbeit.
The first Hungarian film club is dated back to 1956, as you can read here:
founded the first Indian film society, the Calcutta Film Society
in 1947. In 1959, Federation of Film Societies of India
was formed as a central organization combining the film societies of Calcutta, Delhi
, Bombay (now Mumbai
), Madras (now Chennai) and Patna. Satyajit Ray was elected President. In Chennai, in 1981 Chennai Film Society was started by serious film buffs and film institute graduates. Sivakumar was its founder secretary and Sasikumar was its founder president. It was active for 15 years with screening of international films, meeting up with film makers and anniversary film festival. It ran a film magazine in Tamil called Salanam for five years. With the advent of DVDs, satellite television channels,and many of its society organizers got active in film making, the Chennai film society slowly disappeared...
The Hyderabad Film Club, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India and ICA Foundation, Chennai
has been conducting an annual international film festival, Chennai International Film Festival
(CIFF) - www.chennaifilmfest.org , an annual event since 2003. The Cochin Film Society, in Kerala
, has been active since 1984 in Cochin. Apart from regular film screenings, film festivals, workshops, it publishing a monthly titled Sequences, the 100th issue of which came out in December 2007.
Metro Film Society in Kochi, Kerala was started in September 2007. Within a short time, it organized the Metro International Film Festival of Kochi in April 2008. Enlighten, the biggest film society of India, took the film society movement into the multiplexes revitalizing the film society movement once again in India.
is the Polish Federation of Film Societies (Polska Federacja Dyskusyjnych Klubów Filmowych - PF DKF). Its honorary chairman is Andrzej Wajda
.
representing Catalonia
and Galicia, the Catalan Federation of Film Societies http://www.federaciocatalanacineclubs.net (Federació Catalana de Cine Clubs) and the Federation of Film Societies of Galicia (Federacion de Cineclubes de Galicia).
(1929, still in existence), the Salford Workers Film Society (1930; this became the Manchester & Salford Film Society, still in existence), and many others.
The national body for film societies in the UK is the British Federation of Film Societies
(BFFS). Most university and college students' unions have film societies, including the Warwick Student Cinema
at University of Warwick
and the St. John's College Film Society at St. John's College, Cambridge, University of Cambridge
. In 2006, FILMCLUB
was launched by BAFTA award-winning filmmaker Beeban Kidron
and educationalist Lindsay Mackie to open up the world of film to primary and secondary school children in the UK.
Inspired by film projections which Maya Deren
had organized, Amos Vogel
and his wife founded Cinema 16
in 1947.
Other film societies in the US include the Film Society of Lincoln Center
based in New York City
, the Tallahassee Film Society, the North Country Film Society, which represents upstate New York, the Rehoboth Beach Film Society in Delaware
, the Case Western Reserve Film Society in Ohio
, the Desert Film Society based in Palm Springs, CA and the Austin Film Society
(AFS).
Club
A club is an association of two or more people united by a common interest or goal. A service club, for example, exists for voluntary or charitable activities; there are clubs devoted to hobbies and sports, social activities clubs, political and religious clubs, and so forth.- History...
where people can watch screenings of films which would otherwise not be shown in mainstream
Mainstream
Mainstream is, generally, the common current thought of the majority. However, the mainstream is far from cohesive; rather the concept is often considered a cultural construct....
cinema
Movie theater
A movie theater, cinema, movie house, picture theater, film theater is a venue, usually a building, for viewing motion pictures ....
s. In Spain they are known as "Cineclubs," and in Germany they are known as "Filmclubs".
They usually have an educational aim, introducing new audiences to different audiovisual works through an organized and prepared program of screenings.
Editorial output reinforces the work of these organisations, as they produce hand-programmes, brochures, schedules, information sheets, and even essays, supporting the significance of their exhibitions. A common feature that may characterize a film society screening is that they either begin with an introduction of the film to the audience and/or end with the promotion of a debate / discussion about the film, where assistants, organizers and sometimes the filmmakers themselves, exchange their views.
There are networks in many different countries, and these are organized into federations, councils, collectives, and local networks
Social network
A social network is a social structure made up of individuals called "nodes", which are tied by one or more specific types of interdependency, such as friendship, kinship, common interest, financial exchange, dislike, sexual relationships, or relationships of beliefs, knowledge or prestige.Social...
. Famous film societies include Amos Vogel
Amos Vogel
Amos Vogel was one of the most influential cineasts in New York. He is best known for his bestselling book Film as a Subversive Art and as the founder of the New York City avantgarde ciné-club Cinema 16 , where he was the first programmer to present films by Roman Polanski, John Cassavetes,...
's Cinema 16
Cinema 16
Cinema 16 was a New York city based film society founded by Amos Vogel. From 1947 until 1963, he and his wife Marcia ran the most successful and influential membership film society in North American history, at its height boasting 7000 members....
, Cinémathèque Française
Cinémathèque Française
The Cinémathèque Française holds one of the largest archives of films, movie documents and film-related objects in the world. Located in Paris, the Cinémathèque holds daily screenings of films from around the world.-History:...
, and the Film Society of Lincoln Center
Film Society of Lincoln Center
The Film Society of Lincoln Center based in New York City, United States, is one of the world's most prominent film presentation organizations. Founded in 1969 by three Lincoln Center executives - William F. May, Martin E. Segal and Schuyler G...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
.
International
The film society movement originated in FranceFrance
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
in the time between the two world wars (see below).
The international body for film societies is the International Federation of Film Societies.
This international association was set up in 1947 in Cannes
Cannes
Cannes is one of the best-known cities of the French Riviera, a busy tourist destination and host of the annual Cannes Film Festival. It is a Commune of France in the Alpes-Maritimes department....
(France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
) among groups of film societies in countries throughout the world and this association is called Fédération Internationale des Ciné-Clubs (F.I.C.C.).
Australia
The national body for film societies in AustraliaAustralia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
is the Australian Council of Film Societies
Australian Council of Film Societies
Australian Council of Film Societies ACOFS is the national body for film societies in Australia. The inaugural meeting was held in Sydney in November 1949 and the constitution was adopted at a second meeting which is the official start of ACOFS, in 1950...
(ACOFS) was established in 1950.
Notable members of the Australian "film society movement" include Ian Klava, David Stratton
David Stratton
David James Stratton is an English- Australian film critic and television personality.-Life and career:Born in Trowbridge, Wiltshire, England in 1939, Stratton was sent to Hampshire to see out the war years with his grandmother, an avid filmgoer, where he was taken to the local cinemas regularly...
, Michael Thornhill
Michael Thornhill
Michael Thornhill is a film producer, screenwriter, and director.He has a background in freelance journalism and publishing including working as a film critic....
, Frank Moorhouse
Frank Moorhouse
Frank Moorhouse is an acclaimed Australian writer with a growing international reputation. He has won major Australian national prizes for the short story, the novel, the essay, and for script writing....
, Ken Quinnell
Ken Quinnell
Ken Quinnell is a screenwriter and director.He has a background in publishing and freelance journalism including working for Screen International and Rolling Stone. He was a member of the WEA Film Study Group in the 1960s where he met writers Michael Thornhill and Frank Moorhouse...
and John Flaus
John Flaus
John Flaus is an Australian broadcaster, actor, voice talent, anarchist and raconteur. He was formerly a prominent film academic and theorist. He was born in Maroubra, Sydney....
.
Canada
The beginnings of Canadian film education may be traced to the relatively late arrival of the film society movement. While the earliest film societies were formed in Paris in 1924 and in London the following year, it wasn't until 1935 that Donald Buchanan assembled a sufficient number of film enthusiasts to launch the National Film Society of Canada. That organization, largely modelled on the British Film InstituteBritish Film Institute
The British Film Institute is a charitable organisation established by Royal Charter to:-Cinemas:The BFI runs the BFI Southbank and IMAX theatre, both located on the south bank of the River Thames in London...
, took as its mandate the establishment of a genuine film culture. Within a year, the society opened branches in Ottawa
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...
, Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
and Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
.
After a wartime hiatus, the Canadian film society movement enjoyed what may now be seen as its golden age. The National Film Society, renamed the Canadian Film Institute
Canadian Film Institute
The Canadian Film Institute has been in existence since about 1935. It arranges a series of screenings of films as well as the Ottawa International Animation Festival.- External links :**...
in 1950, became a clearing house for a growing number of societies across Canada. It was soon a victim of its own success as the groups broke away in 1954 to form the Canadian Federation of Film Societies (CFSS). Spearheaded by Dorothy Burritt, CFFS member societies programmed ambitious retrospectives often accompanied by lengthy and erudite program notes.
Colombia
There are a number of active local societies with one of the currently active ones being Pulpmovies.France
The term "film club" appears for the first time in April 1907 with the creation of Edmond Benoit-Lévy's "Film club." Located at the 5 MontmartreMontmartre
Montmartre is a hill which is 130 metres high, giving its name to the surrounding district, in the north of Paris in the 18th arrondissement, a part of the Right Bank. Montmartre is primarily known for the white-domed Basilica of the Sacré Cœur on its summit and as a nightclub district...
boulevard in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, it is to preserve and place at the disposal of its members all the cinematographic documents and productions existing. It is also equipped with a room of projection.
The Italian film theoretician Ricciotto Canudo
Ricciotto Canudo
Ricciotto Canudo was an early Italian film theoretician who lived primarily in France. He saw cinema as "plastic art in motion". He gave cinema the label "the Seventh Art", which is still current in French....
who had been living in Paris since 1921 founded one of the first film societies.
After the first world war the film director and film critic Louis Delluc
Louis Delluc
Louis Delluc was a French film director, screen writer and film critic, many of whose late 1910s film writings for French newspapers were collected in the volume Cinema et cie...
founded one of the first film societies and the important film magazine Cinéa.
In 1930 Jean Vigo
Jean Vigo
Jean Vigo was a French film director, who helped establish poetic realism in film in the 1930s and was a posthumous influence on the French New Wave of the late 1950s and early 1960s.-Biography:...
founded the first film club in Nice
Nice
Nice is the fifth most populous city in France, after Paris, Marseille, Lyon and Toulouse, with a population of 348,721 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Nice extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of more than 955,000 on an area of...
, les Amis du Cinéma.
In 1935 Henri Langlois
Henri Langlois
Henri Langlois was a French film archivist and cinephile. A pioneer of film preservation, Langlois was an influential figure in the history of cinema...
and Georges Franju
Georges Franju
-External links:* at Allmovie...
founded the film society Cercle du cinéma which became the Cinémathèque française
Cinémathèque Française
The Cinémathèque Française holds one of the largest archives of films, movie documents and film-related objects in the world. Located in Paris, the Cinémathèque holds daily screenings of films from around the world.-History:...
in 1936 to show and to preserve old films.
After the second world war the movement of ciné-clubs boomed. In 1945 the film society of Annecy
Annecy
Annecy is a commune in the Haute-Savoie department in the Rhône-Alpes region in south-eastern France.It lies on the northern tip of Lake Annecy , 35 kilometres south of Geneva.-Administration:...
was founded from which originated the Annecy International Animated Film Festival
Annecy International Animated Film Festival
The Annecy International Animation Film Festival was created in 1960 and takes place at the beginning of June in the town of Annecy, France. Initially occurring every two years, the festival became annual in 1998...
. In 1948 André Bazin
André Bazin
André Bazin was a renowned and influential French film critic and film theorist.-Life:Bazin was born in Angers, France, in 1918...
together with Jean-Charles Tacchella, Doniol-Valcroze, Astruc, Claude Mauriac, René Clément and Pierre Kast founded the avantgarde film society Objectif 49. Jean Cocteau
Jean Cocteau
Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau was a French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, playwright, artist and filmmaker. His circle of associates, friends and lovers included Kenneth Anger, Pablo Picasso, Jean Hugo, Jean Marais, Henri Bernstein, Marlene Dietrich, Coco Chanel, Erik Satie, María...
became its president. This film society became the cradle of the Nouvelle Vague. Objectif 49 organized the Festival du Film Maudit which took place in Biarritz
Biarritz
Biarritz is a city which lies on the Bay of Biscay, on the Atlantic coast, in south-western France. It is a luxurious seaside town and is popular with tourists and surfers....
in 1949.
François Truffaut
François Truffaut
François Roland Truffaut was an influential film critic and filmmaker and one of the founders of the French New Wave. In a film career lasting over a quarter of a century, he remains an icon of the French film industry. He was also a screenwriter, producer, and actor working on over twenty-five...
has depicted vividly Bazin's engagement in the cinéclub-movement:
"During the first days of our friendship - it was about 1947 - I had the chance of accompanying him at his film presentations and observing him who he projected two short films of Chaplin - first in a dominican monastery and two days later to the workers in a metal factory in their short break between their lunch and their return to their workbenches. At both occasions he managed to inspire his audience and to draw everybody into the discussion."
The first French film society exclusively women was founded in the seventies in Toulouse
Toulouse
Toulouse is a city in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern FranceIt lies on the banks of the River Garonne, 590 km away from Paris and half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea...
.
Im 2005 the Musée Dapper
Musée Dapper
The Musée Dapper is a museum specializing in African art. It is located in the XVIe arrondissement at 35 rue Paul Valéry, Paris, France, and open daily except Tuesdays; an admission fee is charged....
in Paris founded the first film society entirely concentrating on the cinema of Africa, the Caribbean and the African-American diaspora - the occasion being the celebration of 50 years of African Cinema
African cinema
The term African cinema refers to the film production in Africa, following formal independence. Some of the countries in North Africa developed a national film industry much earlier and are related to West Asian cinema...
.
Germany
The first film clubs developed in GermanyGermany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
after 1945 upon the suggestion the British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
after the Second World War, in order to promote non-political strictly cultural exchange and democratic consciousness. In the 1950s, the decade of the flowering of the film club movement, gave it a wave of reestablishments, also in the Soviet occupation zone and/or later German Democratic Republic
German Democratic Republic
The German Democratic Republic , informally called East Germany by West Germany and other countries, was a socialist state established in 1949 in the Soviet zone of occupied Germany, including East Berlin of the Allied-occupied capital city...
.
The film clubs became either independent association
Voluntary association
A voluntary association or union is a group of individuals who enter into an agreement as volunteers to form a body to accomplish a purpose.Strictly speaking, in many jurisdictions no formalities are necessary to start an association...
s or worked under a carrier, which itself education
Education
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
and culture
Culture
Culture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...
had used up. From them important impulses for the German film landscape proceeded, for example the establishment of film festival
Film festival
A film festival is an organised, extended presentation of films in one or more movie theaters or screening venues, usually in a single locality. More and more often film festivals show part of their films to the public by adding outdoor movie screenings...
s as from International Filmfestival Mannheim-Heidelberg
International Filmfestival Mannheim-Heidelberg
Mannheim-Heidelberg International Filmfestival is an annual film festival held jointly by the cities of Mannheim and Heidelberg in Baden-Württemberg. The festival was established in 1952. In Mannheim there are six cinema centres and 19 single cinemas.The festival presents arthouse films of...
.
In the German Federal Republic
German Federal Republic
"German Federal Republic" was one of the derogatory terms used by the communist German Democratic Republic to refer to the Federal Republic of Germany from the 1950s until 1968, when they started using the propaganda term "BRD"....
however the number of the film clubs decreased to such an extent that in 1971 the Federal association dissolved. For the 1970s
1970s
File:1970s decade montage.png|From left, clockwise: US President Richard Nixon doing the V for Victory sign after his resignation from office after the Watergate scandal in 1974; Refugees aboard a US naval boat after the Fall of Saigon, leading to the end of the Vietnam War in 1975; The 1973 oil...
stepped in many places local cinemas to the place of the film clubs. With the collapse of the German Democratic Republic, many East German film clubs lost the financial and organizational basis, succeeded also here unite the step to the local cinema.
There are two national bodies for film societies in Germany who are members of the International Federation of Film Societies, the Bundesverband Jugend und Film e.V. and the Bundesverband kommunale Filmarbeit.
Hungary
In Hungary, there is quite a vivid cine-club life with involving hundreds of viewers and dispute partners week by week...The first Hungarian film club is dated back to 1956, as you can read here:
India
Filmmaker Satyajit RaySatyajit Ray
Satyajit Ray was an Indian Bengali filmmaker. He is regarded as one of the greatest auteurs of 20th century cinema. Ray was born in the city of Kolkata into a Bengali family prominent in the world of arts and literature...
founded the first Indian film society, the Calcutta Film Society
Calcutta Film Society
Calcutta Film Society was India’s second film society in the city of Kolkata , West Bengal, India. It was founded in 1947, just after independence, by Satyajit Ray, Chidananda Dasgupta, RP Gupta, Bansi Chandragupta and others...
in 1947. In 1959, Federation of Film Societies of India
Federation of Film Societies of India
The Federation of Film Societies of India was formed in December 1959. This was an association of film societies of Calcutta , Delhi, Bombay , Madras and Patna....
was formed as a central organization combining the film societies of Calcutta, Delhi
Delhi
Delhi , officially National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest by population in India, next to Mumbai. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16,753,265 inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census...
, Bombay (now Mumbai
Mumbai
Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...
), Madras (now Chennai) and Patna. Satyajit Ray was elected President. In Chennai, in 1981 Chennai Film Society was started by serious film buffs and film institute graduates. Sivakumar was its founder secretary and Sasikumar was its founder president. It was active for 15 years with screening of international films, meeting up with film makers and anniversary film festival. It ran a film magazine in Tamil called Salanam for five years. With the advent of DVDs, satellite television channels,and many of its society organizers got active in film making, the Chennai film society slowly disappeared...
The Hyderabad Film Club, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India and ICA Foundation, Chennai
Chennai
Chennai , formerly known as Madras or Madarasapatinam , is the capital city of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, located on the Coromandel Coast off the Bay of Bengal. Chennai is the fourth most populous metropolitan area and the sixth most populous city in India...
has been conducting an annual international film festival, Chennai International Film Festival
Chennai International Film Festival
The Chennai International Film Festival is a festival organised in the city of Chennai by the Indo Cine Appreciation Foundation with the support of the Government of Tamil Nadu, the South Indian Film Chamber of Commerce and the Film Federation of India...
(CIFF) - www.chennaifilmfest.org , an annual event since 2003. The Cochin Film Society, in Kerala
Kerala
or Keralam is an Indian state located on the Malabar coast of south-west India. It was created on 1 November 1956 by the States Reorganisation Act by combining various Malayalam speaking regions....
, has been active since 1984 in Cochin. Apart from regular film screenings, film festivals, workshops, it publishing a monthly titled Sequences, the 100th issue of which came out in December 2007.
Metro Film Society in Kochi, Kerala was started in September 2007. Within a short time, it organized the Metro International Film Festival of Kochi in April 2008. Enlighten, the biggest film society of India, took the film society movement into the multiplexes revitalizing the film society movement once again in India.
Poland
The national body for film societies in PolandPoland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
is the Polish Federation of Film Societies (Polska Federacja Dyskusyjnych Klubów Filmowych - PF DKF). Its honorary chairman is Andrzej Wajda
Andrzej Wajda
Andrzej Wajda is a Polish film director. Recipient of an honorary Oscar, he is possibly the most prominent member of the unofficial "Polish Film School"...
.
Portugal
The national body for film societies for this country is Portuguese Federation of Film Societies. Film societies in Portugal include the University of Evora Film Society.Spain
There are two federations of film societies in SpainSpain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
representing Catalonia
Catalonia
Catalonia is an autonomous community in northeastern Spain, with the official status of a "nationality" of Spain. Catalonia comprises four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. Its capital and largest city is Barcelona. Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an...
and Galicia, the Catalan Federation of Film Societies http://www.federaciocatalanacineclubs.net (Federació Catalana de Cine Clubs) and the Federation of Film Societies of Galicia (Federacion de Cineclubes de Galicia).
United Kingdom
The first film society was established in London in 1925 by a group of left-wing intellectuals interested in films from Europe which could not be shown in public cinemas for political reasons. It was called the Film Society but is often referred to as the London Film Society as it was followed by many others in the next fifteen years. These included the Edinburgh Film GuildEdinburgh Film Guild
The Edinburgh Film Guild is a film society based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded in 1929, it is notable as the oldest continually running film society in the world. Though pre-dated by the original Film Society, founded five years earlier, it has outlasted it, with the Film Society having ceased...
(1929, still in existence), the Salford Workers Film Society (1930; this became the Manchester & Salford Film Society, still in existence), and many others.
The national body for film societies in the UK is the British Federation of Film Societies
British Federation of Film Societies
The British Federation of Film Societies is the national agency for the development and support of the film society and community cinema movement in the UK....
(BFFS). Most university and college students' unions have film societies, including the Warwick Student Cinema
Warwick Student Cinema
Warwick Student Cinema is the student run cinema at the University of Warwick, operating out of a 312 person capacity lecture theatre, and is currently the only UK film society with the capability to show 70 mm film...
at University of Warwick
University of Warwick
The University of Warwick is a public research university located in Coventry, United Kingdom...
and the St. John's College Film Society at St. John's College, Cambridge, University of Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
. In 2006, FILMCLUB
FILMCLUB
FILMCLUB is an education charity which sets up film clubs in schools and other education and care establishments in England, Wales, Northern Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man. The scheme is free to all state primary and secondary schools in Wales and England...
was launched by BAFTA award-winning filmmaker Beeban Kidron
Beeban Kidron
Beeban Kidron is an English Film Director known for her much-lauded adaptation of Jeanette Winterson's autobiographical novel Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit and for directing Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason...
and educationalist Lindsay Mackie to open up the world of film to primary and secondary school children in the UK.
United States of America
"From 1946 until 1954, 'Art in Cinema' presented programs of independent film to large audiences at the San Francisco Museum of Art and at the University of California, Berkeley."Inspired by film projections which Maya Deren
Maya Deren
Maya Deren , born Eleanora Derenkowsky, was an American avant-garde filmmaker and film theorist of the 1940s and 1950s...
had organized, Amos Vogel
Amos Vogel
Amos Vogel was one of the most influential cineasts in New York. He is best known for his bestselling book Film as a Subversive Art and as the founder of the New York City avantgarde ciné-club Cinema 16 , where he was the first programmer to present films by Roman Polanski, John Cassavetes,...
and his wife founded Cinema 16
Cinema 16
Cinema 16 was a New York city based film society founded by Amos Vogel. From 1947 until 1963, he and his wife Marcia ran the most successful and influential membership film society in North American history, at its height boasting 7000 members....
in 1947.
Other film societies in the US include the Film Society of Lincoln Center
Film Society of Lincoln Center
The Film Society of Lincoln Center based in New York City, United States, is one of the world's most prominent film presentation organizations. Founded in 1969 by three Lincoln Center executives - William F. May, Martin E. Segal and Schuyler G...
based in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, the Tallahassee Film Society, the North Country Film Society, which represents upstate New York, the Rehoboth Beach Film Society in Delaware
Delaware
Delaware is a U.S. state located on the Atlantic Coast in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It is bordered to the south and west by Maryland, and to the north by Pennsylvania...
, the Case Western Reserve Film Society in Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
, the Desert Film Society based in Palm Springs, CA and the Austin Film Society
Austin Film Society
The Austin Film Society is a non-profit film society based in Austin, Texas. Founded in 1985 to exhibit independent, experimental, foreign and various other non-mainstream art films, the film society has grown from just film exhibition to fostering independent filmmaking in Texas and has served as...
(AFS).
External links
- International Federation of Film Societies
- National bodies for film societies
- British Federation of Film Societies
- East End Film Society
- University of Evora Film Society
- Portuguese Federation of Film Societies
- Sarasota Film Society
- Rehoboth Beach Film Society
- North Country Film Society
- USA Film Societies
- FILMCLUB
- DesertFilm Society
- Films Australia
- Australian Council of Film Societies (ACOFS)
- Film Society Movement discussion forum