In/Dependent Activity of the Amateur Film Clubs Movement during the Period of the Polish People’s Republic

The Amateur Film Clubs movement was a collective and institutionalized form of nonprofessional cinema during the period of the Polish People’s Republic and emerged during the 1950s. The movement was propelled by the Thaw era of political and cultural liberalization and declined as a result of the political transformation in the 1990s. It existed within the broader framework of the Amateur Art Movement and at the same time as a part of the institutionalized film culture. Both of these structures influenced and shaped the activities of amateur filmmakers, who maneuvered between them to gain independence on several levels – in defining amateur cinema, in managing the clubs in which they operated, and in the production of films, including practical films commissioned by the authorities in return for financing their activities.