Mitchell & Kenyon in Ireland (1901-1906)
Mitchell and Kenyon in Ireland (1901-1906)
DVD5 | ISO+MDS | PAL 4:3 (720x576) | 77 mins + 70 mins extras | 3,60 Gb
Silent with Musical Score AC3 2.0 @ 192 Kbps and English SDH subs + Commentary track
Genre: History, Documentary | UK/Ireland
DVD5 | ISO+MDS | PAL 4:3 (720x576) | 77 mins + 70 mins extras | 3,60 Gb
Silent with Musical Score AC3 2.0 @ 192 Kbps and English SDH subs + Commentary track
Genre: History, Documentary | UK/Ireland
The Mitchell and Kenyon collection contains some twenty-six films made in Ireland between May 1901 and December 1902. Presented as 'Local Films for Local People' the films include street scenes of Dublin, Wexford and Belfast, local dignitaries attending the Cork International Exhibition, scenic routes from Cork to Blarney Castle, and much more. With music from Neil Brand and Gunter Buchwald, an essay by Dr Vanessa Toulmin, and a commentary read by Fiona Shaw, this BFI DVD offers Mitchell and Kenyon's unique and vivid record of Ireland at the start of the twentieth century.
BFI
All but forgotten until recently, Mitchell & Kenyon was one of the most prolific film companies in the first decade of the twentieth century. Founded in 1897 by Sagar Mitchell and James Kenyon and based in Blackburn, Lancashire, the company specialised in actuality shorts, billed as “local films for local people”, often shot in a particular town during the day and shown to the people of the same town in the evening. Other films were reconstructions of topical events, sports footage and some comedy shorts. By the end of the decade, the fashion for such films was declining as the cinema tended more towards telling fictional stories and at feature length. James Kenyon died in 1925. Sagar Mitchell carefully stored his film negatives in the basement of the shop he and his son ran, until Sagar’s death in 1952 and John’s retirement in 1960.
Mitchell & Kenyon in Ireland (1901-1906)
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Mitchell and Kenyon may have remained forgotten film pioneers if fate hadn’t intervened. In 1994, workmen clearing out the basement of a shop in Blackburn found three large metal drums containing hundreds of spools of film. These found their way into the hands of film historian Peter Worden, who looked after them until he passed them on to the British Film Institute in 2000. A selection of the films provided the basis of a 2004 BBC TV series, The Lost World of Mitchell & Kenyon and the BFI has released more of the footage in a series of thematic collections beginning with Electric Edwardians. Mitchell & Kenyon in Ireland and the simultaneously-released Edwardian Sports are the next two releases.
Mitchell & Kenyon in Ireland (1901-1906)
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Lost world is right: watching these films you realise that no-one in them is still alive, unless someone shown as an infant is now well into his or her eleventh decade. Also, the fact that many of the young men we see here would die a decade or so later in the First World War gives the films an added, unwitting poignancy. Although they only appear on screen themselves briefly, you can somehow sense the filmmakers’ engagement with and enthusiasm for, this new invention less than a decade old.
Mitchell & Kenyon in Ireland (1901-1906)
![Mitchell & Kenyon in Ireland (1901-1906)]()
Mitchell & Kenyon in Ireland contains twenty-six films shot between May 1901 and December 1902. They were made in association with three travelling film exhibitors: the North American Animated Photo Company, the Thomas Edison Animated Photo Company and George Green, a fairground showman. Although they spent some time in the North, much of their time was spent in what is now the Republic. It certainly wasn’t then: you will note the Union Jacks on display. Whether deliberately or (more likely) inadvertently, the films support a British perspective on their rule in Ireland. We don’t see the dirt-poor parts of the country, but the middle classes living in the towns and cities. Dublin and Cork especially are seen as places on the cutting edge of progress, with their new electric tramways. In fact, much of the disc is devoted to the International Art and Industrial Exhibition, which Cork held in 1902. Other signs of approaching modernity abound: spot the advertising hoardings alongside the road in Belfast. Incidentally, fans of James Joyce’s Ulysses will take a particular interest in the Dublin footage, as at least one person featured in the novel makes an appearance.
Mitchell & Kenyon in Ireland (1901-1906)
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The final section, on Sport, does encroach on the territory of the Edwardian Sports disc, but here it has a particularly Irish slant, even though two of the films are of the national football team playing overseas. The first film in this section is notable as the earliest footage of a Grand National winner, Ambush, owned by King Edward VII, who had won the race in 1900. He’s here shown in training for the 1902 race, for which he was the favourite – though sadly he suffered a fracture and could not compete.
Mitchell & Kenyon in Ireland (1901-1906)
Extras:
- Commentary written by Dr Vanessa Toulmin and read by Fiona Shaw
- New musical score by Neil Brand and Gnter Buchwald, internationally renowned composers of music to accompany silent films
- Street Scenes (14 mins)
- Life in Cork (21 mins)
- Cork Exhibition (16 mins)
- Sport (19 mins)
Mitchell & Kenyon in Ireland (1901-1906)
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