Educational Media Reviews Online

At the dawn of the explosion of moving images as the most important technological invention during the first few years of the twentieth century, a number of entrepreneurs in several countries promoted the medium by creating filmic spectacles using as subjects the very people who would then be compelled to attend a screening of movies in which they appeared. In the north of England traveling showmen hired pioneer filmmakers Sagar Mitchell and James Kenyon to film local people in their everyday activities. These films would be shown shortly thereafter at local fairgrounds, guaranteeing audiences who wanted to see themselves on the screen. The original negatives of these films were discovered just a few years ago and were preserved and restored by the BFI’s National Film and Television Archive in collaboration with University of Sheffield National Fairground Archive.

What this thematically well organized DVD presents is a priceless snapshot of a period of cultural history and a very powerful social record of England’s working classes. This type of visibility was not often afforded working class individuals who readily embraced the new medium as their choice of affordable entertainment. The short films presented on the DVD offer a look at what primarily constituted exterior social engagement through marches, processions, football matches etc. Through this remarkable footage we can establish exactly how people dressed in similar clothing almost resembling uniforms as well as the importance of hats for women, men and boys. We are able to establish that during this period in small towns in England the modes of transportation were mixed with many people still riding in horse drawn carriages while others were in automobiles. We sense their curiosity about the medium and experience their acting out for the camera, particularly adolescent boys whose fascination with the camera is almost maniacal.

One of the most striking films of the series features a University procession of graduates on Decree Day in Birmingham in 1901. The women graduates first file in front of the static camera wearing their caps and gowns followed by their women relatives or faculty, then the men graduating march along wearing their caps and gowns. Interestingly enough, one of the graduating men is visibly a person of color, graduating along with his caucasian peers. In one minute and a half we can establish a sociological snapshot we might not have imagined possible for this period in history, a seemingly integrated institution of higher learning for men and women.

We also see evidence of the development of moving image aesthetics through the technology as seen in the somewhat awkward attempts at moving the camera in several films. Other films establish routines of factory workers and children at school as well as the masses of working class people on holiday at the seaside resort in Blackpool. Interestingly enough, Milestone distributes, Hindle Wakes, a fiction film shot some 20 years later on location in Blackpool. The DVD also has two bonus films one of which has very early animated intertitles, as well as a documentary on the restoration of the films, and valuable interviews, commentary and a downloadable press-kit.

The archival films on the DVD manage to both educate and fascinate because of the importance of the subject matter and the quality of the image. This DVD is highly recommended for anyone remotely interested in social history whether from a sociological or cultural standpoint.