Cinemactivism: Film Reform, Spectatorship, and the Cleveland Cinema Club

This article traces the formation, activities, and significance of the first amateur cinema club devoted to film study in the US, the Cleveland Cinema Club. From its inception in 1915 until 1968, the Cleveland Cinema Club, an outgrowth of the Cleveland Women's Club, sought to create a local appreciation of film through film festivals, associations with business and civic organizations, libraries and educational institutions, and radio broadcasts. In particular, through its monthly publication of film reviews, the Cleveland Cinema Club fashioned a reform-oriented spectator whose spectatorial strategies emphasized the wide applicability of film content to personal, commercial, and educational ventures, in contrast to censorious impulses in Ohio especially during the Production Code era.