A Bunch of Amateurs

This film was shown on BBC iPlayer under its Storyville banner which is usually the sign that you are about to watch a well crafted, thoughtful and perhaps offbeat documentary. This ticks all those boxes and presents a real life story about the often overlooked need for artistic expression present in working class men and women.

A Bunch of Amateurs also tells a poignant story about our neoliberal age and the general loss of social capital. Behind the sometimes bizarre movies and minuted AGMs is the quiet struggle of a aging group of amateur filmakers to keep their club going - if only as a place to meet friends - in the face of mounting unpaid bills and an indifferent wider public. Like many clubs and societies, this club, formed in 1932, is a relic of another age and its heyday has long since past. There is the fear throughout the documentary that the club shares its destiny with its elderly former president, Colin - that both are frail and in the latter years of their lives.