The amateurfilm collection contains films recorded from the 1910s until now. It consists of family films, travelogues, fiction films and animation. It was intended for screenings at home or at the filmclubs in the Netherlands. Nowadays they are loved by historians and filmmakers.
The first amateur filmmaker in the Netherlands was Dick Laan, author of the famous children’s books Pinkeltje. He made fictional films in the 1910s about the Boy Scouts. But amateur film only really started in the 1920s with the arrival of the smaller film formats 9.5mm and 16mm and later in the 1930s with the 8mm format.
The collection of amateur films from Beeld & Geluid shows a history of domestic life in the Netherlands and its former colonies. These are often images that were never captured with a professional camera and now prove so valuable to our history. The collection also includes films made by the film hobbyist. These are films that have been recorded with a script and often provided with titles or music. These filmmakers were usually affiliated with one of the many film clubs in the country.
The collection contains a few thousand amateur films and also a number of videos.
