Hmmm....well, film is great; shooting with cheap cameras is great, but if that is what it takes to become a good photographer, everyone before 2005 would have been a good photographer.
Equipment doesn't make too much difference. If you know what you are doing, you can make great images with any camera - including new digitals. The key to good photography is seeing how light works and knowing how your camera can achieve the effect you want. You need to know the basics: what lens openings, shutter speed, and "film" speed (ISO) do. Look a lots of images and try to figure out what kind of light would do that and from what direction. It might be nice to find a commercial photographer doing "table-top" work with a view camera. There you could watch a situation where the photographer has complete control over every part of making an image.
I love and shoot mostly with film and have professionally for more than 45 years. Tools don't make a photographer. Shooting with film is an arcane process requiring the mastery of much mystery in the darkroom (having someone else process and print your images is a real crap shoot). But a nice older Canon, Nikon, Pentax DSLR (I got my three Canon 10D's for $30 each) and get some instruction; online (
http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/ is the only flawless site I've found) or, better, with someone whose work you admire. Shoot lots but shoot with your brain. Have fun!
