Wiping away tears of laughter. It would be really hard to write something as naturally funny as the folk in this film manage to be.
A Bunch Of Amateurs is a documentary about Bradford Movie Makers, an amateur filmmaking club that has lasted nearly a century. It has a vibrant cast of characters, each with their own passion and enthusiasm for cinema. Despite dwindling cash and an aging membership, it provides a community and creative space for people with a love of film.
The humour comes from the co-existence of the aspiration and fantasy of cinema with the relentlessly mundane concerns of the real world, this dry, deadpan, Northern, working class practicality banging up against imaginative endeavours. Harry wants to recreate the opening song from Oklahoma! Phil asks, “Where we gonna get a field where the corn is as high as an elephant’s eye? Nothing like that round here.” “No,” replies Harry, matter-of-fact, “Not in Bradford.”
The warmth though is what really makes the film. This is a group of people who have been meeting weekly for years, decades in some cases. They’ve built friendships, brought along their spouses, and become a family. Despite the ups and downs of creative differences and the limitations in budget, they are there for one another. Colin is adjusting to life at home now his beloved wife has moved to a dementia care facility, but going to the film club provides continuity, routine, engagement, and joy. When a fall prevents him from making it to a meeting, they come to him, putting up a projector screen in his livingroom.
The laughter the film brings out is the laughter of family, of indulging foibles, of not taking things too seriously when they are meant to be a bit of fun, of fostering each other’s dreams, even when they are decidedly impractical. I loved Colin’s habit of just deciding to do club house improvements at random moments, like sawing through wood partitions in the back kitchen while everyone’s watching Harry’s clip from Oklahoma!, or deciding to paint over graffiti on the side of the building in the drizzling rain. I loved Harry insisting on recreating the scene from Oklahoma! despite refusing to ride an actual horse. I loved watching Phil just stress-drink hunners of cups of tea, as he figures out how to make these ideas a reality.
It’s also great that the documentary gives a representation of 80-year-olds and 90-year-olds you don’t usually see on screen, namely at play. Depictions of that age group can be so unrelentingly grim, focusing solely on being confined to the body as it weakens. It’s good to see a reminder that even when older, we are still a world of imagination, storytelling, silliness, and whimsy. All of us, even in our longer years, are partly magic.
Just a great film, highly recommend you see it. A great laugh, very touching in places, about this little corner of the world where people are keeping their dreams alive. Goan yersel!