A
remarkable hoard of film from the earliest days of motion
pictures has been unearthed in Blackburn and is likely
to have a sensational impact on the history of British
cinema.
Film historians believe something like 90% of early film
was lost as it was shot on nitrate-based stock which combusted
spontaneously with age, as depicted in the disastrous
fire sequence in Cinema Paradiso.
A chance discovery has now unearthed a total of 780 of
these early films on nitrate negative stock. This is the
biggest find of early film for years and the survival
of so much fragile stock from the 1890’s and early
1900’s is nothing short of miraculous.
The films were made by Blackburn pioneer cinephotographers
Sagar Mitchell and James Kenyon, pioneers in film in the
early part of the last century, who advertised themselves
as making "local films for local people".
Their work was mainly non-fiction and has a wide spread,
having been filmed across northern England, Scotland,
Wales and Ireland. The films are essentially a social
record of scenes of life before the First World War in
Victorian and early Edwardian Britain. They include fascinating
scenes in well-known cities captured before bombs and
high-rise developments changed them forever.
The Mitchell and Kenyon partnership was dissolved in 1922
since when their former premises has changed hands three
times. When the last owners moved out some mysterious
barrels were found. They were give to a Blackburn historian,
Peter Worden, who had known Mitchell in his early childhood
and shared his enthusiasm for film.
Worden carefull opened the barrels to discover hundreds
of film negatives, sealed there in 1922. Their dark, airtight
repository had made sure they were unusually well preserved.
The significance of the find was realised immediately
and the collection is now under the wind of the British
Film Institute. The Peter Worden Collection Of Mitchell
And Kenyon Films is now being catalogues and preserved,
a job likely to take about four years, after which a national
tour is planned along with book and video publication,
to make the films available to the public once more.
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A
remarkable hoard of film from the earliest days of motion
pictures has been unearthed in Blackburn and is likely
to have a sensational impact on the history of British
cinema.