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Mermaids at Play

Mermaids at Play

Breathtakingly adorable home movie of an Edwardian seaside holiday on Bognor Regis beach.

This breathtakingly adorable film of an Edwardian seaside holiday at Bognor Regis is an incredible survival from the beginnings of cinema: it's one of the world's earliest home movies. The images are pitted with decay and the frame judders unstably, but this century-old film strikes an astonishing resonance with today. These fleeting, personal, everyday snapshots preserve an authentic memory of British life.

The film was shot just down the beach from Park Terrace in the west end of Bognor by Alfred Ernest Passmore (1867-1948). Some 15 home movies made by AE Passmore recording his family at home and at play between 1902-03 are preserved in the BFI National Archive.

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From the collection

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.

25 videos in this collection

Grandma and Grandad also join in the fun of this home movie - with beaches, swings & roundabouts and a medieval pageant led by Christopher Robin
1

Local Scenes and Family Pictures

  • 1927-09-01
Four bright young things enact a midsummer's love tryst among the daisies in this short, well-crafted amateur fiction film.
2

Midsummer Madness - An Idiotic Idyll

  • 1933
Bright young things thereto plight troth in a society wedding.
3

Psyche's Wedding

  • Devon
  • 1920-01-01
Gotta dance! A bewitched violin gets everyone's feet tapping.
4

The Witch's Fiddle

  • 1924
Marjorie Glasspool's home movie captures a variety of events and occasions experienced by a Hampshire family
5

Marjorie Glasspool Films Her Family in Alton

  • Hampshire
  • 1930-01-01
Catholic fantasy starring Elsa Lanchester and Evelyn Waugh in an Andy Warhol fright wig.
6

The Scarlet Woman

  • Hampstead Heath
  • 1924
In the year the Wright Brothers made their first flight, an Edwardian family film themselves taking to the skies… sort of.
7

Flying a Kite

  • Streatham
  • 1903
Breathtakingly adorable home movie of an Edwardian seaside holiday on Bognor Regis beach.
8

Mermaids at Play

  • Bognor Regis
  • 1903
What would a party be without balloons? The delight of these Edwardian children resonates across the years.
9

Children's Party, Playing with Ball

  • 1902
One of the earliest amateur film portraits, and certainly one of the most charming.
10

Girls Looking at Film and Giggling

  • 1902
Edwardian children play a quick game of oranges and lemons for the camera in this early home movie.
11

Children's Party, "Oranges and Lemons"

  • 1902
Utterly gorgeous Edwardian home movie of a family's day out with bucket and spade on Bognor Regis beach.
12

Playing on Beach, Making Sandcastle

  • Bognor Regis
  • 1903
It's party time in Bournemouth in the pioneering decade that set the standard for change
13

Joan's Birthday Party

  • Poole Harbour
  • 1929-01-01
Joseph Emberton's marvellous film captures the early years of daughters Jocelyn and Gill - with birthdays, Christmas and a trip to Blackpool
14

Joce and Gill at Home

  • 1936-01-01
Men on holiday from work at a Staffordshire firm - and on leave from home – enjoy themselves camping at Penygeulan farm, Llanymawddwy.
15

Early film making at Welsh camp

  • Llanymawddwy
  • 1929-08-01
A new baby holidays with London-based lawyer Goronwy Moelwyn Hughes, his wife and sons, and Lloyd Georges David and Megan discuss a new deal.
16

1934 Spirits from the Vasty Deep

  • Aberystwyth
  • 1934-01-01
Yards of bunting have been put up in Cardiff to celebrate King George V's 25 years on the throne and the Wade home in Park Place has its share.
17

Royal Silver Jubilee 1935 - Cardiff

  • Cardiff/Caerdydd
  • 1935-01-01
The 20s elite let their guard down... Amateur antics from media baron Lord Beaverbrook and friends, including HG Wells and Rebecca West.
18

They Forgot to Read the Directions

  • Cherkley Court
  • 1924
A silent satire with hints of Monty Python.
19

Crossing the Great Sagrada

  • 1924
Aberaeron's pharmacist, with ready access to film, takes a camera out with his family and records them in town, on the beach and by the river.
20

Aberaeron - Alban Square

  • Aberaeron
  • 1929-01-01
Evocative film capturing the suburb of Pinner succumbing to modernity, as we watch roads being constructed and the countryside retreating.
21

Factory to Home and Pinner Rd

  • Pinner
  • 1926
A Somerset holiday with prolific amateur cinematographers the Tigg family
22

Minehead - Osborne Personal Film

  • Minehead
  • 1932
Seven O'Clock Regular Swimmers' Club open the new season with a splash!
23

The Seven O' Clock Regulars' Swimming Club Part 1 of 3

  • Plymouth
  • 1929-01-01
Join the crowds in Barnstaple for fairground attractions
24

Barnstaple Fair in the 1920s

  • Barnstaple
  • 1926-09-15
An interwar outing on the River Thames with a reminder of the Great Western Railway's influence in Birmingham.
25

An Outing on the Thames

  • Henley-on-Thames
  • 1933-01-01
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