top of page

History

Enfield Video Makers was founded in Sepember 1970.

The late Laurence Kohler, who was Hon Secretary for many years, set out a brief history of the club on the occasion of its 20th anniversary in 1990 when he said "It was in 1970 that a group of evening class students decided to form a cine club. Mrs Vida Falconer was largely responsible for organising and setting up the club ... Other founder members have faded avay or are no longer active film makers. Probably 1980 saw the club at its peak. Then, with the arrival of video and the disappearance of cine equipment from photographic shops Ieft people dissolusioned and confused, and they drifted away from the hobby. 1988 and 1989 were poor years for the club when not much was done. " 

 

I can add my own personal contribution to this. I became interested in cine-photography in the 1960's and attended a local authority evening class taught by Mr Percy Parker at an "evening insitute" in Tottenham. He was the same teacher who taught Vida Falconer and others at a similar evening class in Enfield. I remember him telling us (the Tottenham class) about his very keen students in Enfield who made their own films.

 

The Cine Circle was formed because Vida and the fellow-students felt they had got all they could from attending the evening class each year, but that they still wished to continue with their film-making hobby.

 

On 27 March 1974 Cine Circle wrote a letter to Enfield Cine Club proposing an "amalgamation" between the two clubs, and that the amalgamated club would be called Enfield Cine Circle.

 

The Hon Secretary of Enfield Cine Club was  Laurence Kohler. (Laurence had previously been involved with the Enfield 9.5mm Club which had been founded in 1952). (founded 1952), was and the "new" club was called Enfield Cine Circle. 

 

Whilst the letter invited discussion from Enfield Cine Club, and said that an Extraordinary General Meeting would be called by Cine Circle if discussions were in agreement, I can find nothing in the minutes relating to any further discussion. What is clear is that Laurence Kohler became Hon Secretary of Enfield Cine Circle. My research would suggest that the proposal for the amalgamation was made as one of relative strength (as Enfield Cine Club were offered only one committee position and that was for one year). My guess is that Enfield Cine Club may have been down to a couple of members who moved across to Cine Circle without further ado. (I'm happy to be corrected on this supposition - but it is important in establishing the "age" of Enfield Cine Circle. If Enfield Cine Club "took over" Cine Circle then it is entitled to date itself back (probably) to the fouding of the Enfield 9.5mm Club. If Cine Circle took over Enfield Cine Club (which I believe to be the case) then the present club can rightly claim to have been founded in September 1970 (but not before).

 

Vida Falconer "starred" in many of the club film productions over the years and even into video.

Some of these productions will eventually appear on this website.

 

Laurence is quite correct. The club did not readily take to video as the members preferred shooting on their familiar film format, but, eventually, gave way to the unstoppable march of video and became, firstly, at the Club AGM in September 1990, The Enfield Film and Video Club, and, at their AGM in September 1996, the current title of Enfield Video Makers. 

 

The club posses a library of films which are currently being assessed, catalogued, and digitised.

 

Eric Jukes

Chairman

 

 

 

EVM is actively involved in the London's Screen Heritage UK Programme who are digitising films of interest via a Heritage Lottery Grant. A number of historic films from EVM will be repaired and digitised by London Screen Heritage expefrts and consultants.

 

 

The Club produced its first website a few years ago - thanks to Martin Cullum.

 

Our first website

A Club outing to the Buckingham Movie Museum in the 1980s.

A club shoot in the old "coffee lounge" at the St Lukes Hall meeting place in the early 1980s. Bernie Ecker - foreground plus Clive Goldsmith and another.

This photograph was taken at a 3D event in the 1980s.  [We are researching our history and will precisely date this photograph soon]. Both of these photos were taken on 120 film and this picture was enhanced by scanning it twice at different scanner exposures and then combining the two images in Adobe Photoshop CS6 using merge to HDR pro which merges the same scene which has been taken at different exposure to create a picture using the enhanced dynamic range.

This is another photograph taken at the 3D event in the 1980's. On the extreme right (in fur coat) is Vida falconer, the Club's founder. To her left, front row, is Eric Jukes who was Chairman, and is Chairman again today! On the extreme left of the picture is Lawrence Kohler, Hon Secretary for very many years. Peter Cockaday is behind him.

Between February 1982 and November 1985 the Club published "Spooler" for members. (There were only four editions). "Spooler" embraced the modern technology by being produced on a computer with desktop publishing software that was then printed with a dot matrix printer. 

© 2022 by Enfield Video Makers.
 

bottom of page