We pitched up in summer 2011 in the familiar surroundings of Barnstaple town square to screen some truly relaxing wildlife footage. One of the Devon Wildlife Trust’s attentive wardens captured the magic of a family of otter cubs playing in a stream, oblivious to the cameras trained on them. You can view this beautiful footage online here, although our version was overdubbed with some gorgeous local folk music.
Screened at the Devon Wildlife Trust Festival, Barnstaple – June 2011
It’s remarkable how much this line of work brings us together with eccentric geniuses. One of these is Austin Vince of the Adventure Travel Film Festival, who brought together an unlikely collection of films that were simply brilliant.
Playing to a full house every time, we treated the audience to ‘Severn Railway Bridge’ (1967), a melancholic newsreel capturing the dismantling of the massive bridge across the Severn Estuary at Sharpness; ‘Century 21 Calling! (1964), a chirpy promo film funded by the Bell telephone corporation showcasing the hoped-for breakthroughs in telecommunications and promising pie in the sky nonsense like ‘pagers’, ‘conference calls’ and ’speed dialling’; ‘The Peak District’ (1954), a delightful celebration of one of Britain’s earliest national parks; and the unexpectedly dazzling film ’The Shovel’ (1953) - a National Coal Board production revealing the history of this most basic of human tools. It seamlessly morphs into a training film aimed at new recruits to the mining industry. Great store is set by the ability to flick a hefty load of spoil horizontally and with great accuracy. This is known as the ‘Pioneer Throw’. The pupils practice this move by trying to launch their loads through a one foot square aperture in a wooden hoarding. This makes for as surreal a moment as you will ever witness.
Austin brought the films to life with unique, hilarious and insightful personal introductions to them all. We’re already looking forward to the Adventure Travel Film Festival 2012, which will no doubt bring more delights!
Screened at the Adventure Travel Film Festival, Bideford – June 2011
Yet again, the good folks of the Media Archive for Central England came up with the goods for us to screen. Audiences were transported back to sample rural Herefordshire life back in the days when horsepower meant just that and a mobile phone was one with a long enough cord to carry through to the next room. Amongst other things, a bicycle tour set out from Hereford town and cruised through the lanes to Bodenham, to enjoy a pint in the pub and some archive cycling films on board the bus.
Screened at the Borderlines Film Festival, various Herefordshire locations – March 2011
The Media Archive for Central England has a 70,000 film strong collection holed up in their vaults. The fabulous people of Flatpack Festival, true to form, mined this dizzying collection of films to come up with a brilliant programme of archive material. Author Catherine O’Flynn gave an introduction to Breathing Space, with a unique insight into the 1960s Birmingham sculpture ’Youth, cast in concrete’ – somewhat different from the no-doubt idealistic vision of the concrete happy architects of the time. Other films focussed on areas like Handsworth and the famous Bullring, and audience members were moved by catching sight of people and homes that they had once known – some of whom are now gone forever.
Meanwhile, Flatpack screened a frankly inspired collection of films at other locations throughout Birmingham – if you’ve never been to this unique film festival, we heartily recommend that you get up there in 2012.
Screened on tour with Flatpack Festival, various Birmingham locations – March 2011
With the Westcountry in our hearts, the good folks at the South West Film and TV Archive are always going to have some films that strike a chord with us. There’s nothing like seeing somewhere familiar brought to life sixty years gone – almost as if the local high street has been transformed into a film set for a period drama.
Screened on tour with Awen Productions, various locations in Cornwall – February 2011
These are some of the fantastic people who are out there busily saving archive films from the ravages of time so that we can continue to peek into life in times gone by. The Digital Heritage Project is a cross-channel digitisation project that aims to increase public access to a unique collection of archive films from the East of England and Upper Normandy in France from the turn of the 20th century. Norwich HEART is collaborating with Rouen based screen agency Pôle Image Haute-Normandie and the archive film collections of the East Anglian Film Archive to bring this valuable, moving image history alive for modern audiences.
Screened on tour with the Firstsite Art Gallery, various locations in East Anglia – January 2011
There’s something magic about archive films – it’s as close as you’ll ever get to time travel. These films from the Bristol Record Office show a picture of life gone by, whether extolling the health-giving properties of Bristol-brewed beer, or taking the audience on a hectic journey around one of Britain’s busiest ports.
Screened at ENCOUNTERS FILM FESTIVAL, November 2010
It’s only a few days now until we take to the roads again, this time for the Southport Flower Show, ‘the most entertaining and inspirational independent flower show in the UK’ .
With this year’s ‘Vintage’ theme we’re sure to fit right in and we’ll be showing some exciting Southport & flower show archive from 18-21 August.
| WEDNESDAY 10 AUGUST, 2011
Latest News A big thanks to all who packed out the cinema at this year’s Vintage Festival in London, where we didn’t have a spare seat all weekend. From Ealing Classics to Ministry of Information films, our programme went down a storm. If you Londoners missed us, don’t panic – we’ll be back in September with the BFI for the Thames Festival. Our visit was made possible by Vue Cinemas as part of their celebrations about opening the new Westfield cinema at Stratford, and thanks also go to Optimum Releasing and the BFI for putting together a brilliant programme of films, including the classic Ealing comedies which have just been re-released on DVD. Upcoming Events RAF Harrowbeer 70th Anniversary Event – Saturday 13th & Sunday 14th August We’re going to be spending the weekend in sunny (we hope!) Devon for the RAF Harrowbeer 70th Anniversary event. The weekend will kick off with a 1940s Dinner Dance at the Moorland Garden Hotel (formerly the Moorland Links Hotel) near Yelverton on Friday 12th August at 7pm, so put on your dancing shoes and come on down. There will be a special menu and live 1940s music, and the crowd will be getting dressed up in 1940s style for this event. See the website for details and tickets. The mobile cinema programme will run all day on Saturday and Sunday, after the event opens on Saturday at 10am, when there will be a Service of Rememberance at the RAF Harrowbeer Memorial Stone at Leg O’ Mutton Corner. The City of Plymouth Pipe Band will lead a march back to Knightstone for the official opening ceremony. Our visit has been made possible by the new owners of the Moorland Garden Hotel, a very special hotel on the edge of Dartmoor National Park, set in 9 acres of beautiful grounds with breathtaking views across the Tamar Valley. So if you need somewhere to stay over the weekend, you know where to go! We’re going to be screening a great mix of archive film, including ‘For Your and Our Skies’, ‘Poles in the Battle of Britain’, and material from the South West Film and TV Archive including the award winning ‘Peter and Ruby’ about subsistence farmers on Dartmoor and a selection of archive footage from as far back as the 1920s. And for the very first time, you’ll be able to catch a glimpse of the upcoming BBC2 TV series ‘The Reel History of Britain’ with an exclusive screening of some material from the programme. And we’re not the only attraction – the sights and sounds include: IN THE AIR: ON THE GROUND: So bring all the friends and family for this unique, one-off event. See the Harrowbeer website for more details. Other Upcoming Events We’re heading up North! We’re going to be at the Southport Flower Show from 18th – 21st August, screening archive footage from Flower Shows of yesteryear. And on the bank holiday weekend 28th & 29th August, we’ll be at the Ramsgate Arts Festival with an eclectic mix of short films on offer. More details about all of this to come, as well as September trips to Birmingham, Yorkshire, Brighton, London, Bournemouth and the New Forest. For more details, see our events list. See you there! |
