Through the study of the practices of amateur cinema, we discover that behind the militant and experimental Italian framework lies the figure of a woman: Maya Deren. This is a story that is often forgotten, even though it has a considerable importance, not least because of the role that Deren's definition of the term 'amateur', that appeared in the magazine Movie Maker in 1959, played in the italian panorama. Although in Italy this definition was attributed to the better known Stan Brakhage, it was actually Maya Deren who proposed it in reference to its Latin root of 'amator', not intended as dilettantism, but as cinema made out of love and passion (of cinema, life and existence).