funnystrange.com

January 23 movie: Electric Edwardians. This was an amazing show we saw on Duke campus: a series of short films made in Britain in the earliest years of movies. The purpose of the movies was to capture as many people on film as possible. They would set up a tent and show the movie, and all the people in the town would pay to see themselves in the movie. They filmed things like parades, college graduation ceremonies, workers leaving a factory at the end of a shift, etc. There were films from all over the British midlands, but nothing in Walsall (my dad's hometown). They did show a few minutes of a Manchester United game though.

The main series of movies were from England, and they also showed some similar movies made in North Carolina in the 50s. The main difference between the two that I noticed was people's reaction to the camera. In the NC films, a fair number of people covered their faces or turned away from the camera, 15-20% maybe. But in the British films almost no one did. I only saw one person in all the thousands on film who covered their face. It makes perfect sense when you think about it. In 1904, most of the people in small British towns had probably never seen a movie, much less a movie camera.