An acute sense of observation : Eusebi Ferré and the amateur documentary impulse

Abstract

This work was supported by the Filmoteca de Catalunya under the Centenary of Amateur Cinema ProjectThis paper builds on the research conducted for the Centenary of Amateur Cinema in Catalonia, which included the localisation, restoration, and digitalisation of 108 films made by amateur filmmakers from 1928 to 1938, 62 of which are nonfiction, to position amateur cinema as the missing link in documentary film history. I will do so through the figure of Eusebi Ferré, whose archive was partially recovered in the context of the project. 90 years after the shooting of his films, which earned international awards and were praised by the critic Josep Palau in 1934 for their 'acute sense of observation', this paper highlights Ferré as one of the most interesting and unknown filmmakers of the documentary impulse in Spain in the 1930s. His work epitomises how amateur cinema was the backbone of the creative relationship with current affairs in the absence of a strong local film industry, leaving us with a precious archive of everyday life that still awaits its history