Mitchell and Kenyon Unidentified Fiction Offcuts

1902
Silent

Two tantalising fragments of Mitchell and Kenyon's fiction films - but what do they tell us?

What to make of these two tiny fragments? Just a few seconds long, they were probably kept to use as 'leader' for other films - good business sense given the cost of film stock. But they hint at bigger questions - how many of the hundreds of rolls of Mitchell and Kenyon films found in 1994 are themselves just discarded offcuts? How far can we know that we're seeing what audiences saw at the time?

Fiction and Comedy

The other face of Edwardian local film specialists Mitchell and Kenyon.

For historian Rachael Low, writing in the 1950s, Mitchell and Kenyon was a minor film company, best known for some "faked topicals of the South African War". Thanks to the great 90s rediscovery, we now know that M&K’s specialty - at least from 1900 on - was non-fiction. But we also have more of their fiction than before: alongside the works presented here are some 80 more held elsewhere.

Alongside films recreating contemporary events, including the second Boer War and the 'Boxer rebellion' in China, are more straightforward short comedies and dramatic sketches. Together, they illustrate the kinds of entertainment enjoyed by British filmgoers around the turn of the 20th Century.