Local Scenes and Family Pictures

From the collection of

Screen Archive South East at the University of Brighton collects, preserves, catalogues and provides public access to its collection of films and magic lantern slides. The collection charts the rise of screen culture in the region and the nation and captures many aspects of life, work and creativity in the South East from the late 19th century to the present day. It is available for research, screenings, creative re-use and commercial access.

Local Scenes and Family Pictures

Screen Archive South East at the University of Brighton
1927-09-01
Silent
14m

Grandma and Grandad also join in the fun of this home movie - with beaches, swings & roundabouts and a medieval pageant led by Christopher Robin

This remarkable film from the late 1920s shows an entire family thoroughly enjoying themselves. Beginning with scenes at Dymchurch and Lancing we see the children and their parents cavort on the beach while Grandad, in his suit and Homberg, looks on. After visiting Chichester's livestock auctions we see the entire family playing on swings and roundabouts. Even Grandma goes down the slide. We then see an historical pageant in progress before visiting two dams in Wales.

This unique film also features Christopher Robin Milne, whose father, A A Milne, created the character, Winnie the Pooh - he is seen in the section of this film which shows the 1929 Pageant of Ashdown Forest. At this event characters dressed in medieval and 18th century costume enact various historical scenarios, including what appears to be a battle, to an appreciative audience. Christopher Robin, then still a small boy, leads a procession of younger players who are dressed as characters from the Winnie the Pooh books.

Pioneers of Personal Film

At the dawn of the cinema age, these trailblazing early adopters brought filmmaking technology into the home.

Home moviemaking is older than the first cinemas: we've been filming ourselves for well over a hundred years. The birth of the cinematograph in 1895 inspired a plethora of inventions pitched at the domestic market: Kinoras, Kammatographs, Pictorialographs, Birtacs and Biokams - all cameras designed for amateurs and enthusiasts to film and project in the home. This collection celebrates the earliest home movies preserved in Britain, and bears witness to the dawn of the amateur's long-standing fascination with family, travel and community. "The object in introducing this apparatus is to endeavour to popularize this extremely fascinating branch of photography.... [I have] always looked forward to the time when animated photography would be within the reach of every one" - filmmaker/inventor Birt Acres, on his Birtac camera, 1898.