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Nontheatrical Film and Media Scholarly Interest Group SCMS

@nontheatricalscms.bsky.social

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Official page of the Nontheatrical Film and Media Scholarly Interest Group of @SCMStudies. Sign up for our newsletter! https://necs.org/news/calls-for-papers/new-newsletter-from-scms-nontheatrical-film-and-media-studies-sig

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Nontheatrical Film and Media Scholarly Interest Group SCMS @nontheatricalscms.bsky.social · Feb 18

The votes are in and our new mission statement is live! TY to Jennifer Blaylock, Sophia Gräfe, Tanya Goldman, + Florian Hoof for spearheading the rewrite + several members who provided incisive feedback. We hope this description makes us legible to nonspecialists!
www.cmstudies.org/page/groups_...

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Nontheatrical Film and Media Scholarly Interest Group SCMS @nontheatricalscms.bsky.social · 1d

More CFP details in alt-text visual.

Submissions should be e-mailed directly to the issue editor. Manuscripts should include the title of the contribution, name of author(s), postal address, e-mail address, and a phone number for the author who will work with the editor on revisions. Contributions should not exceed 5,000 words. Please include a brief abstract and author bio for publicity purposes.

Articles submitted should not be under consideration by any other journals.

Authors should send copies of their work via e-mail as electronic attachments. Files should be formatted in the latest version of Microsoft Word and endnotes should conform to the Chicago Manual of Style.

Upon acceptance, a detailed format/style sheet will be forwarded to all contributors as to the requirements for the submission of images and text.

Nontheatrical Film and Media Scholarly Interest Group SCMS @nontheatricalscms.bsky.social · 1d

CFP — “The Amateur Reconsidered: Media, Labor, Publics”
Spectator Special Issue (Volume 46.2 Fall 2026)

Essay submissions due December 1, 2025.

See images with alt text here and in thread for CFP details. 1/

Spectator Special Issue: The Amateur Reconsidered: Media, Labor, Publics (Volume 46.2 Fall 2026)

The category of the “amateur” has long been marked by instability. Etymologically linked to love (amator), the amateur historically signified passion and connoisseurship, yet in modern usage it has oscillated between devotion and dilettantism. This semantic tension has shaped how amateur practice has been positioned within aesthetic discourse, labor history, and the formation of the public sphere.
Cinema and media studies has repeatedly returned to amateurism to both dismiss it and laud its critical and creative possibilities. Accounts of home movies and small-gauge film cultures once considered them part of the marginalia of personal or domestic life, but scholarship has since demonstrated their aesthetic, social, and historical significance. Scholarship, including Patricia Zimmermann’s foundational work, has situated amateur media within broader institutional and discursive frameworks, from the formation of aesthetic norms in clubs and contests to the intersections of labor history, expertise, and the public/private divide. Simultaneously, amateur practice has been examined as a counter-aesthetic and an alternative mode of production, as in Maya Deren’s “Amateur Versus Professional” (1959), which framed amateur film as resistant to the industrial logics of Hollywood. Yet amateurism has also been understood as politically mobilized: Soviet avant-garde circles and interwar Japanese movements such as Prokino envisioned the amateur as a figure of collectivism, workers’ culture, and social transformation. These diverse trajectories indicate that amateurism has never been a singular phenomenon, but rather a contested and heterogeneous category that both reflects and unsettles the boundaries of cultural production and consumption.

At a moment when digital platforms both amplify non-professional production and intensify regimes of credentialization, amateurism demands renewed critical scrutiny. How might the consideration of amateur practice illuminate shifting conceptions of authorship, expertise, and creativity? In what ways does amateurism negotiate or contest the professionalization of cultural life? And how might the figure of the amateur reframe our understandings of mediation, publicness, and the politics of work and play?

This special issue of Spectator seeks contributions that interrogate amateurism as a theoretical and historical category across media forms and cultural contexts. We welcome essays that draw from diverse archives and methodologies, including studies of amateur film and video, domestic and vernacular media, digital platforms, and transnational amateur practices.

Possible topics include, but are not limited to:
Histories and theories of amateur media
Digital platforms and amateur media
Amateur media in a transnational/global context
The politics of amateurism
The aesthetics of amateur media
Leisure, hobbies, audienceship, and labor
Home movies
Fandom
Preservation and archival practices regarding amateur media
Pedagogical approaches to amateur media
Book reviews of recent scholarship examining amateur media

Deadline for Submission: December 1, 2025

Spectator is a biannual publication by the University of Southern California, School of Cinematic Arts, Division of Cinema & Media Studies.
Manuscripts to be considered for publication should be sent to:

Issue Editor: Wakae Nakane
USC School of Cinematic Arts
900 W. 34th St. Suite 320
Los Angeles, CA-90089
wnakane@usc.edu

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Nontheatrical Film and Media Scholarly Interest Group SCMS @nontheatricalscms.bsky.social · 18d

#homemovies

Tanya Goldman @tanyagoldman.bsky.social · 19d

Oh how I adore scenes of characters watching home movies (or educational films) in movies. Here from George Cukor’s THE WOMEN (1939)

Nontheatrical Film and Media Scholarly Interest Group SCMS @nontheatricalscms.bsky.social · Sep 10

For the (marginal) WIN! 🙄

Tanya Goldman @tanyagoldman.bsky.social · Sep 10

I’m pleased to learn new edition of LOOKING AT MOVIES toned down its dismissal of instructional films (Maybe the authors saw my Tweets?!)

7th edition: "not generally considered worthy of study or analysis"

8th edition: “though they aren’t often analyzed for cinematic language, [they] are studied…

From LOOKING AT MOVIES textbook (7th edition):

“Instructional films seek to educate viewers about common interests rather than persuade them to accept particular ideas…they are not generally considered worthy of study or analysis"

From LOOKING AT MOVIES textbook (8th edition)

“Instructional films seek to educate viewers about common interests rather than persuade them to accept particular ideas…though they aren’t often analyzed for their use of cinematic language, instructional films are studied for their influence on unscripted television, children’s programming, public service videos, YouTube, social media, and other forms of media and communication."

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Reposted by Nontheatrical Film and Media Scholarly Interest Group SCMS

Brown Media Archives & Peabody Awards Colln, UGA Libraries @brownmediaarchives.bsky.social · Sep 5

See also "Threading the RCA Projector" on @avgeeks.bsky.social www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUXN...
and more on his channel: www.youtube.com/@avgeeks/sea...

Threading the RCA Projector (1960)

YouTube video by A/V Geeks 16mm Films

www.youtube.com

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Nontheatrical Film and Media Scholarly Interest Group SCMS @nontheatricalscms.bsky.social · Sep 4

For your viewing pleasure!

Tanya Goldman @tanyagoldman.bsky.social · Sep 4

Not quite sure how demo reels/educational films about how to use a #16mm projector were not on my radar until today but anyway...here’s one from Victor Animatograph circa 1940!
youtube.com/watch?v=BIvO6Z1sP8k

Nontheatrical Film and Media Scholarly Interest Group SCMS @nontheatricalscms.bsky.social · Aug 19

Some exciting books from @ucpress.bsky.social of interest to our community are dropping this fall!

The Development Film in the Americas by Molly Geidel +
Pipeline Cinema: The Cultural Infrastructure of Oil Extraction in Iran and Iraq by Mona Damluji

#FilmSky #AcademicSky

Cover of book: The Development Film in the Americas by Molly Geidel

Cover for book:
Pipeline Cinema: The Cultural Infrastructure of Oil Extraction in Iran and Iraq by Mona Damluji

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Reposted by Nontheatrical Film and Media Scholarly Interest Group SCMS

Benjamín Schultz-Figueroa @benjaminschultzfig.bsky.social · Feb 9

Okay, here's another nontheatrical series idea: Films as teach-ins. It could draw from the feminist and antiwar traditions of holding teach-ins and both screen films *of* teach-ins and *as parts of* teach-ins. Everyone watches and then stays to discuss.

Benjamín Schultz-Figueroa @benjaminschultzfig.bsky.social · Feb 9

I just watched My Contribution (Sara Gómez, 1972) and it is a must-see for anyone who cares about feminism within revolutionary politics; the aftermath of the Cuban revolution as a historical moment; or documentary as a cinematic form. Just beautiful and edifying all around.

Screenshot from My Contribution (Sara Gómez, 1972)

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Nontheatrical Film and Media Scholarly Interest Group SCMS @nontheatricalscms.bsky.social · Aug 13

We're eagerly awaiting the release of "A Century in 16mm: The Remaking of Cinema" edited by Greg Waller and Haidee Wasson. Coming soon from @oxfordunipress.bsky.social!

Tanya Goldman @tanyagoldman.bsky.social · Aug 13

And there's finally a webpage! And what a line up! Happy that "A Century in 16mm: The Remaking of Cinema" edited volume will be dropping soon. My contribution covers trade organizations and the consolidation of the 16mm industrial sector during 1930s and '40s. ⬇️

global.oup.com/academic/pro...

Nontheatrical Film and Media Scholarly Interest Group SCMS @nontheatricalscms.bsky.social · Aug 8

Check out this list of 2025 National Film Preservation Fund grant recipients! Home movies, amateur films, travelogues, 'useful' media, and more. A treasure trove of #nontheatricalmedia! 🤩

@orphanfilm.bsky.social @amianet.bsky.social

amianet.bsky.social @amianet.bsky.social · Aug 6

Congratulations to the 2025 NFPF grant recipients!
https://loom.ly/C4q1Scs

National Film Preservation Foundation: 2025 Federal Grant Winners

www.filmpreservation.org

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Reposted by Nontheatrical Film and Media Scholarly Interest Group SCMS

Tanya Goldman @tanyagoldman.bsky.social · Jul 28

Love it when viewer’s guides and discussion guides are affixed inside film canisters! Evidence of “useful cinema” in action!

Brown Media Archives & Peabody Awards Colln, UGA Libraries @brownmediaarchives.bsky.social · Jul 28

We even have the in-can viewer's guide:

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Nontheatrical Film and Media Scholarly Interest Group SCMS @nontheatricalscms.bsky.social · Jul 29

And lastly — Joan Micklin Silver's THE IMMIGRANT EXPERIENCE: THE LONG LONG JOURNEY (1972) is also available online. Impossible not to see images and themes here echoed three years later in Silver's feature debut HESTER STREET (1975)

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

Immigrant Experience The Long, Long Journey

YouTube video by TheSocialStudiesGuy

www.youtube.com

Nontheatrical Film and Media Scholarly Interest Group SCMS @nontheatricalscms.bsky.social · Jul 29

THE FUR COAT CLUB and THE CASE OF THE ELEVATOR DUCK — both directed by Joan Micklin Silver — are also online thanks to Skip Elsheimer of @avgeeks.bsky.social!

@marshagordon.bsky.social wrote about them both for Salon a few years ago! Link to her essay ⬇️

www.salon.com/2021/03/13/j...

Joan Micklin Silver in Salon

I wrote an article for Salon, with streaming 16mm films provided by AV Geeks, about Joan Micklin Silver's 1970s New York City short films, "The Fur Coat Club" and "The Case of the Elevator Duck."

www.marshagordon.org

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Nontheatrical Film and Media Scholarly Interest Group SCMS @nontheatricalscms.bsky.social · Jul 29

THE FRONTIER EXPERIENCE (1975) — starring and directed by Barbara Loden, written by Joan Micklin Silver

www.youtube.com/watch?v=AW-7...

The Frontier Experience - by Barbara Loden (1975)

YouTube video by Emanuel Lavor

www.youtube.com

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Nontheatrical Film and Media Scholarly Interest Group SCMS @nontheatricalscms.bsky.social · Jul 29

You're in luck! You can find most of the Barbara Loden and Joan Micklin Silver 16mm short films curated by @cinemiasma.bsky.social online! 🧵

THE BOY WHO LIKED DEER (1975) streaming via @avgeeks.bsky.social on YouTube
www.youtube.com/watch?v=43Gn...

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Nontheatrical Film and Media Scholarly Interest Group SCMS @nontheatricalscms.bsky.social · Jul 27

Did you know Barbara Loden and Joan Micklin Silver both directed 16mm educational films?!

elena gorfinkel @cinemiasma.bsky.social · Jul 27

Rarely screened & vital women’s film history: today
Sun@5:45 in THE WORLD OF BARBARA LODEN @anthologyfilm.bsky.social Loden & Joan Micklin Silver’s 16mm educational shorts. Linda Gottlieb, Learning Corporation producer will discuss LCA history & memories of her friend Silver. Xtra special program!

Reposted by Nontheatrical Film and Media Scholarly Interest Group SCMS

Tanya Goldman @tanyagoldman.bsky.social · Jul 25

Colleagues: please share widely! Precarious Labor Fee Waiver deadline approaching! @scmstudies.bsky.social @videoessays.bsky.social @scmsfaas.bsky.social @scms-tv.bsky.social @nontheatricalscms.bsky.social @scmsmst.bsky.social

Tanya Goldman @tanyagoldman.bsky.social · Jul 23

Co-chair of the Precarious Labor Organization of
@scmstudies.bsky.social here! Application for membership fee waivers is LIVE. Deadline to apply: August 1 by 5pm CT. If you applied before July 11 at 2:30pm, please reapply!

Details re: eligibility + lottery here:

docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

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Reposted by Nontheatrical Film and Media Scholarly Interest Group SCMS

Tanya Goldman @tanyagoldman.bsky.social · Jul 23

New academic year means it is *that* time again — online compliance training modules! Whenever I give talks about my historical research on #usefulcinema I always mention these videos as contemporary iteration. Useful media is transhistorical, existing across moving image formats and technologies.

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Reposted by Nontheatrical Film and Media Scholarly Interest Group SCMS

Benjamín Schultz-Figueroa @benjaminschultzfig.bsky.social · Jul 11

The quote posts of this are a treasure trove of #nontheatricalfilm and educational media.

Utopia District @utopiadistrict.bsky.social · Jul 11

Name something you remember watching in this!

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Reposted by Nontheatrical Film and Media Scholarly Interest Group SCMS

Tanya Goldman @tanyagoldman.bsky.social · Jul 11

Co-chair of Precarious Labor Organization @scmstudies.bsky.social again. If you applied for waiver *prior* to 2:35pm on Friday, July 11, please reapply again at same link. There was an error in the survey and we did not properly capture names of applicants. 🤦‍♀️ Link here:
shorturl.at/nom91

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Reposted by Nontheatrical Film and Media Scholarly Interest Group SCMS

Society for Cinema and Media Studies @scmstudies.bsky.social · Jul 10

Precarious scholar? Are you thinking of submitting to #SCMS2026 but no institutional support for membership? Co-chair, grad rep, or on an SCMS committee? Apply for a 2025/26 SCMS membership fee waiver from the PLO! Deadline August 1st!
More here: conta.cc/4lrwcdk

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Reposted by Nontheatrical Film and Media Scholarly Interest Group SCMS

Tanya Goldman @tanyagoldman.bsky.social · Jul 8

Great piece on South Side Home Movie project! Interview by Nicky Ni (@mllecolettex.bsky.social‬) with Jacqueline Stewart!

www.newcityfilm.com/2025/07/08/w...

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Nontheatrical Film and Media Scholarly Interest Group SCMS @nontheatricalscms.bsky.social · Jul 2

"A geographical film is cinema as much as Ben Hur. A film designed to teach children the alphabet has as much claim to be considered cinema as a grandiose production with psychological pretensions."

— Jean Renoir, 1974

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Reposted by Nontheatrical Film and Media Scholarly Interest Group SCMS

Dan Streible 💃🏻🌲🔔 @orphanfilm.bsky.social · Jun 21

CFP: Call for Proposals to present at the 2026 Orphan Film Symposium, "Crisis and Community,"
April 8-11, 2026, Wexner Center for the Arts, The Ohio State University, in Columbus, Ohio. wp.nyu.edu/orphanfilm/2...

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Nontheatrical Film and Media Scholarly Interest Group SCMS @nontheatricalscms.bsky.social · Jun 26

New issue of journal SCREEN includes essay by Georgie Carr on recruitment films produced, distributed, and exhibited by police forces in U.K. schools during 1960s and '70s.

"Coercive Cinema Coercive cinema: police film in schools, 1966–75"

doi.org/10.1093/scre...

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