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= VALRIE BRISTOW ELLIS =

EARLY LIFE
Valrie (Val) Bristow Ellis (1937-2018) was a Manchester-based schoolteacher and prolific amateur filmmaker whose work spanned a 50-year period from the mid-1960s onwards. Val was a member of several amateur cinema clubs including Humphrey Park Cine Club and Cheadle and Gatley Film Club. She was also a member of the Institute of Amateur Cinematographers (IAC), becoming the first woman chairperson of the IAC National Council (1999-2000) and first woman president (2002-8).

Val was soon making her own films, many of which with the assistance of friend Celia, shooting under the name Cavalier Films – Cavalier being an amalgamation of Val and Celia. Cavalier was also the name of the boat featured in one of Val’s early films, Return of the Cavalier (c.1960s), depicting a boating holiday through Shropshire with Celia.

CAREER
As a teenager, Val attended Stretford High School for Girls (1949-53) and later trained as a biology and drama teacher before returning to teach at the same school, eventually taking on the role of Head of Science (Motrescu-Mayes and Norris Nicholson, 2018: 207). Her experiences at Stretford are documented in the film Time for Change (1990) in which Val appears in front of the camera, guiding the viewer through the school in which she was both student and teacher. Val often worked with the underprivileged or troubled children, the experiences of which she would often reflect on in later life (Andrew, 2018).

Upon hearing of Val’s filmmaking ventures, the school signed her up to a filmmaking course and subsequently ran a series of media workshops for the students. The course also introduced Val to various animation techniques which became integral to her amateur work and the knowledge she imparted to her students (LongstoneLHGroup, 2018). In the IAC North-West film Animation Workshop 1984 (1984) Val talks about the animation process illustrated by key examples of recent films made by fellow IAC members.

As with her other travelogues and documentary films, Return of the Cavalier is accompanied by a voiceover from Val, combing her joviality and understated humour with a genuine desire to inform and educate. After joining Humphrey Park Cine Club, both Val and Celia became part of a team making three or four films a year and, with their "posh cine equipment", the pair were "at the heart of festival projection teams" (Andrew, 2018).

Throughout her career in amateur filmmaking, Val received awards at many of the amateur film competitions including a Gold Star in the Movie Maker Ten Best Film Competition for Genesis (1980) which also received a ‘Highly Commended’ award at the 1981 IAC International Film Competition (EAFA, 2022). The film is a short animation depicting the first encounter between Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, infusing the recognisable bold colour designs and dry wit common to many of Val’s works.

Her amateur films also reflect a passion for art history and fascination with Escher’s single-frame demonstrations of animal movement (Andrew, 2018). Her film Impressions (1997), an homage to Monet, features images of the artist’s key works accompanied by a voice-over provided by Val, expressing the joys of art appreciation and her passion for the subject.

LATER LIFE
In later life, Val worked with Paul Curtis, art lecturer at Sheffield University, and the pair regularly holidayed together with Val’s sister and brother-in-law. One such excursion is captured in The Artists of St. Ives (2002), in which we see Curtis leading the group in a series of painting sessions, followed by sightseeing trips to Barbara Hepworth's studio, the Tate gallery, and home of artist Alfred Wallis.

Val also took a keen interest in the work of UNICA (the international filmmakers’ federation), travelling to various international festivals and conferences as a result. In addition to the UNICA trips, Val also regularly holidayed with friends, visiting Burma, Russia, South America, Australia, the Arctic, and elsewhere. The film G (1998), of a trip to the Guggenheim in Bilbao, illustrates Val’s continued development as a filmmaker through the use of various post-production effects designed to complement shots of the building’s unique architecture and exhibits.

In Keep Taking the Tablets (2014), an "experimental film created with iPads, iPhones and Androids", Val worked alongside fellow amateurs, including former IAC President Gerald Mee, to create a short film comprised of a series ‘selfies’ recorded by each contributor. The purpose of this experiment was to assess the quality of video recorded on smartphones and tablets for future amateur productions. It also illustrates Val’s continued involvement in the amateur community and club filmmaking during her final years.