Nontheatrical Film and Media Scholarly Interest Group SCMS

All week.

COMING SOON in #nontheatricalfilm books. @julideetem.bsky.social's FILM DIPLOMACY: A MEDIA HISTORY OF TURKEY-US RELATIONS from @columbiaup.bsky.social. We love to see it! 🍾👏

New(ish) book of note for the amateur film fans! Ciara Chambers’s OUTSIDER CINEMA: INDEPENDENT AND AMATEUR FILMMAKING IN NORTHERN IRELAND, 1929-1989 from Edinburgh University Press.

www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...

Alice Cinema, Yale U, 2025

Amateur Movie Day is next week. In 2025, Yale's Alice Cinema and Brian Meacham of the Yale Film Center screened a half dozen gems. Including the Soviet Russian title seen here. I BELIEVE IN SPRING (1962). It was the first film by director Slava Tsukerman (Liquid Sky, 1982).
R.I.P Slava. 2.28.2026

A/V Geeks 16mm Lunch 3-5-2026 YouTube video by A/V Geeks 16mm Films

A/V Geeks 16mm Lunch 3-5-2026
Going to show old 16mm today provide the power doesn't go out again.. Oof, what a pain! #avgeeks #16mmfilms
www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFE5...

CFA is so excited that many of the great amateur films from our collection (including the iconic OBEY YOUR AIR RAID WARDEN) will be seen around the world for #AmateurMovieDay2026!

Find an AMD event near you: www.amateurcinema.org/index.php/amd

We spy 👀 one of our favorite #nontheatricalfilms— OBEY YOUR AIR RAID WARDEN! (1942) from the Robert and Theresa Davis Collection @chicagofilmarchives.org #AmateurMovieDay2026

www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVTw...

We’re proud to announce the CFP for our annual "Nontheatrical Student Essay Award 2026” in collaboration with @amianet.bsky.social's THE MOVING IMAGE. Submissions due March 15. Please share widely! Link to PDF of CPF with details.
amianet.org/wp-content/u...

The whole slate. April 8-11. 42 presentations, 17 sessions, 50+ presenters.

wp.nyu.edu/orphanfilm/2...

Who among our community will be there? Tell us what you’re presenting please! @orphanfilm.bsky.social

A little less than a month to deadline for our Graduate Student Writing Prize (in collaboration with @amianet.bsky.social's THE MOVING IMAGE journal). Please share widely with students who are working in the ‘nontheatrical’ sphere @scmstudies.bsky.social

📣 We hear the @orphanfilm.bsky.social 2026 schedule just dropped! April 8-11 in Columbus, Ohio. 📣

wp.nyu.edu/orphanfilm/2...

A close up of the Reverend Jesse Jackson.

Here's a 1989 interview with Rev. Jackson from Eyes on the Prize II. He discusses Harold Washington, the 1972 National Black Political Convention, and much more.

Thank you, Rev. Jackson.

Preserved by the Film &Media Archive at the @washulibraries.bsky.social.

repository.wustl.edu/concern/vide...

Inspired by the Winter Olympics. Got 10 minutes and want to unwind? I recommend the National Film Board of Canada's comedy GONE CURLING (John Howe, 1963)

www.nfb.ca/film/gone_cu...

Flyer with image of new book "Teaching AI in Film and Media Studies: Lights, Camera, Algorithms." Event is on Friday, Feb. 13 at 1pm Eastern time. Authors Bridgeet Kies and Mel Stanfill.

Please join us on Friday, Feb. 13 @ 1pm Eastern for a book talk with @bridgetkies.bsky.social and @melstanfill.bsky.social on their new book "Teaching AI in Film and Media Studies." Register here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

The voting period for the 2026 SCMS election is now open and will close on February 27. To participate, one must be an active member and logged in. Get involved and vote for your representatives! Learn more here: cmstudies.org/page/Election2026

New batch of essays on Film Atlas. Latest batch of essays published includes 8mm sound-on-disc system, 16mm nitrate film, Ukrainian optical sound, some of the earliest photographic moving images shown to the public and an inventive amateur widescreen format.
www.filmatlas.com

Picture: Filmmaker Grace Allington, pictured using a cine camera. Grace made films with her husband Jack Allington and her work was discovered as part of the Women in Focus/Empowering Archivists project. Image courtesy of University of East Anglia.

🔊👂Listen up! New podcast of interest just dropped! Dr. Zoë Viney Burges on women amateur filmmakers featured on Infinite Women podcast. #amateurfilmmaking #womenmakemovies #nontheatricalfilm

creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/...

Film archivists and historians- have you saved the date for Amateur Movie Day 2026?

Join in the fun and organize a program of amateur films on (or around) March 12, 2026.

You can register an event or sign up to receive more information at: www.amateurcinema.org/index.php/amd

1960s films restored in hope of enticing new migrants to regional Australia The National Film and Sound Archive has released 4K restorations of the 1960s film series Life in Australia, commissioned by the Department of Immigration to attract new migrants to regional Australia.

The films — commissioned by the Department of Immigration in the 1960s — screened at embassies and High Commissions, particularly in the United Kingdom, to encourage migration to Australia. https://loom.ly/3phdMa8

Looks like physical copies of A CENTURY OF 16MM: THE REMAKING OF CINEMA are circulating! Editors Gregory A. Waller + Haidee Wasson assembled a ⭐ list of contributors.
academic.oup.com/book/61621?l...

Photo credit: @tepperman.bsky.social

A door stopper at 28mm in width, apparently. IYKYK.

Forgive the lack of tagging @washulibraries.bsky.social! ❤️

Preserved by the very awesome Film & Media Archive in the very awesome @washulibraries.bsky.social.

Here’s the full list. Some solid docs but an underwhelming year for non-mainstream films. Le sigh.

newsroom.loc.gov/news/library...

The Maid of McMillan with Score by David Drazin Made in 1916 by the Thyrsus Drama Club for Washington University's Univee Surkuss, "The Maid of McMillan" may be the first student film ever made.…

MAID OF MCMILLAN (1916) joins U.S. National Film Registry! Earliest surviving student film on record shot by drama students @ WashU in St. Louis, Missouri! 2021 @filmpreservation.bsky.social funding supported 4K scan of surviving 16mm print + a 35mm reprint. Stream it ⬇️
vimeo.com/807670018

Film Preservationists Share a Space and a Goal • The Austin Chronicle There are two dominant philosophies in film preservation. Some follow French curator Henri Langlois, who believed that every frame has value. Others hew closer to British archivist Ernest Lindgren, wh...

First, two of the most important film preservation groups - the American Genre Film Archive and the Texas Archive of the Moving Image @texasarchive.bsky.social share an office and a mission of preserving movie history from the grind house to the home movie. www.austinchronicle.com/arts/film-pr...

We’re proud to announce the CFP for our annual "Nontheatrical Student Essay Award 2026” in collaboration with @amianet.bsky.social's THE MOVING IMAGE. Submissions due March 15. Please share widely! Link to PDF of CPF with details.
amianet.org/wp-content/u...

Congrats to all the @scmstudies.bsky.social award winners! We’re especially excited to see that TWO of the three student award recipients seem to be working on #nontheatricalfilm and adjacent topics!

(No shade intended towards Dorothy Arzner, we love her too!)

Want to stay up on nontheatrical film and media studies but aren’t necessarily an active member of SCMS? No problem! Our co-chair Sophia Gräfe launched a semiannual newsletter ("Nontheatrical News”) for our broader global community. If you’re interested in signing up, DM us for details!

CFP for the @nontheatricalscms.bsky.social SIG's Student Essay Award! Click the link to read the full description. Be sure to send to your colleagues and students!

amianet.org/wp-content/u...