|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
The ‘Factory Gate’ category of film making is a very familiar one to film historians, and there are other examples held both by the NFTVA and by regional archives. However, the sheer scale on which it can be found in the recently rediscovered Mitchell and Kenyon collection (over 90 titles) allows it to be studied in a new light. There are subtle variations in the filmic technique employed, which are of significance to the film historian, and considerable variety amongst the different factories and their personnel, which should be of interest in the wider frame of Edwardian social and industrial history. An academic project, currently being undertaken by the National Fairground Archive at the University of Sheffield, is contextualising all of the films, which have their origin in commissioning by travelling showmen and fairground operators. This film, of Pendlebury Colliery, is a good example of Mitchell and Kenyon’s Factory Gate film making. One unusual feature, the black miner, reminds us that there was a small black presence in Britain at the turn of the century and throws a suggestive light on the history of race relations and minority communities. |
|
