Incoming Tide
- Worthing
- 1898
A big cat has to perform for its supper in this early actuality film
There's precious little feeding going on in this well-preserved film shot at London Zoo (celebrating its 70th birthday in 1899) for the Warwick Trading Company. The zookeeper is certainly having fun, and maybe the tiger is too, though you may feel that the animal is having to work a little too hard for such a mean scrap of meat.
Some of the most fascinating of early films are those which are content to watch the world go by. Numerous filmmakers parked their cameras on street corners, in parks, on seaside promenades or outside workplaces or churches to capture fleeting moments of everyday life.
In their own day, these films held a mirror up to Victorian society. Today, these images of our ancestors – relaxed, smiling and laughing, gazing at us through the camera lens - are a gift of moving history. The offer us extraordinary insights into a lost world, more vivid than any still photograph or written account.