Coronation Day - Hong Kong 12 May 1937

Coronation Day - Hong Kong 12 May 1937


Crowds pack the streets of Hong Kong for a stunning procession of dragon dancers, drummers and stilt walkers in celebration of George VI's crowning.

Sadly, the colour in the unique 8mm print of this film has badly deteriorated, leaving only an intense magenta. But this lends an eerily beautiful glow to the procession of gloriously decorated Chinese lanterns, drummers and lion and dragon dancers celebrating George VI's coronation - a lively contrast to the pomp and circumstance of the parallel events far away at Westminster Abbey.

"Chinese Community Demonstrates its loyalty to King George VI" - crowds, flags, and bunting; Chinese Pailaus or triumphal arches; Chinese procession including dragon, lanterns, banners, floats, drummers and acrobats.


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Home Movies & Amateur Film

Celluloid scrapbooks: the most intimate and personal of films invite us into Britain's birthday parties, back gardens and beach holidays.


Home movies are intimate catalogues of everyday life: birthdays and holidays, childhoods and neighbourhoods. Each reel is a private scrapbook - memories of cherished people, places and times committed to film. Rarely shared outside the family, home movies are the most intensely personal kind of filmmaking. They are by us, of us, for us. Victorian inventors put filmmaking gear in the hands of wealthy amateurs, but decade by decade, home moviemaking technology has become ever cheaper, simpler and more ubiquitous. Our home movies look much as they always have: in and out of focus, thumbs over the lens, wobbly framing, over-enthusiastic pans. But these flaws can't diminish their warm authenticity. Collectively, the nation's home movies make up a patchwork archive of British social life, of whims and ways, loves loved and lives lived.


15 videos in this collection

In the year the Wright Brothers made their first flight, an Edwardian family film themselves taking to the skies… sort of.
1

Flying a Kite

Lloyd George tours the sights of Nazi Germany while his chauffeurs lark about with an SS Officer in this grimly fascinating film.
2

Visit to Germany - David Lloyd George Personal Film

A day in the life of a school - filmed by a pupil who later became one of Britain's best documentary makers.
3

Ut Proficias

Petty party politics gets animated - literally - in this amateur cartoon with a message.
4

Problems End

The town of Helston comes out dancing in this charming amateur film of a unique springtime custom.
5

This England - Cornwall: Helston Furry Dance and Villages

Minimalist movie making at its best: kids learn the art of film language using illustrations and margarine boxes.
6

Children on Camera - A Primer about Movies

All the practical dos and don'ts for the amateur film enthusiast, courtesy of Kodak.
7

Using the Camera

Prolific home movie maker Sid Douglas shares his secrets for the ambitious amateur.
8

Amateur Talkies

Step into the aftermath of a WWII bombing raid in south London in this startling amateur film.
9

Bombed Out

This alluring travelogue follows a missionary on his colourful journey into the ethnically diverse mountains of Yunnan, south west China.
10

Among the Tribes in South-West China

Crowds pack the streets of Hong Kong for a stunning procession of dragon dancers, drummers and stilt walkers in celebration of George VI's crowning.
11

Coronation Day - Hong Kong 12 May 1937

The remarkable Baochu pagoda dominates this film about a visit to the West Lake at Hangzhou.
12

Hangzhou and a Trip to the Baochu Pagoda

A starkly beautiful portrait of crofting life in Flodabay on the Isle of Harris in the Outer Hebrides.
13

They Are Forsaken A Tale of an Island of the Hebrides

Beautiful and engaging amateur footage of a lively 1930s Hong Kong.
14

Cine Snapshots - 1938

Charming amateur film of the 1930-31 Marylebone Cricket Club team relaxing while on tour in South Africa.
15

Allom Home Movie No. 1

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