The session will show a small selection of international films from the 1930s to explain a film movement that is still searching for its own history.

To speak of amateur cinema is to refer to a way of approaching cinema without limits or commercial objectives. It is characterised by the impetus of countless filmmakers who, from the 1930s onwards, filmed with a small format camera (9.5 or 16 mm), wanting to capture and publicly share a vibrant world through fiction and documentaries. They extended the history of cinema beyond the commercial screen an in Catalonia, this phenomenon had international repercussions.

« Don’t throw film away! » is the slogan of the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF), taken from the Manifesto that was published on the occasion of its 70th anniversary. Following this call the Cinémathèque de Toulouse and the Institut Jean Vigo have joined forces and launched a project to save the filmic memory of the Languedoc-Roussillon, Midi-Pyrénées and Aquitaine Regions. First, we try to find and/or (re)discover films that private persons, companies or associations may still have in their possession, often forgotten in moist cellars or hot attics, in order to preserve them in the best conditions.