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Mitchell and Kenyon
 

Rediscovered films that transform our understanding of early cinema

Main image of Mitchell and Kenyon

In the year 2005, Mitchell and Kenyon, a late Victorian and Edwardian film company, went from being a footnote in the received film history of cinema scholars to becoming a virtual household name. The company is certainly of interest in its own right, but this remarkable re-evaluation also makes it the perfect illustration of how film history - both popular and academic - is influenced by the survival and availability of materials.

James Kenyon (1850-1925) and Sagar Mitchell (1866-1952) formed their partnership at the very end of the 19th Century and continued making films until 1913, but the bulk of their film activity was in the first five years of the 20th Century. They were thus among the wave of filmmakers who swiftly followed in the footsteps of Britain's film pioneers - rather than themselves being pioneers of British filmmaking itself.

Generally, film historians had tended until recently to characterise the firm in terms of its relatively modest surviving output: fictional, or fictionalised, films, notably relating to the Boer War. They were thus interesting, minor regional figures. However, buried in the nation's paper archival sources was considerable evidence that most of their work was in a different type of filmmaking altogether. In fact, the great bulk of the firm's work was the making of non-fiction 'actuality' films across the UK (largely excepting only Southern England, and being especially active in the North West and Yorkshire). These were generally shot by the firm's camera operators, having been commissioned by travelling showmen. In other cases, the firm supplied the materials needed for the showmen or associates to arrange for the filming themselves.

The resulting films, typically two minutes in length, can be grouped into a few basic categories such as 'Factory Gate' scenes; films relating to sporting events; records of local processions; 'phantom rides' filmed from trams; and street scenes. In most cases, the commissioner's requirement would have been that as many people as the operator could possibly film in two minutes be captured somewhere in the frame, if only for seconds, thereby increasing the film's audience when it was screened at the fairground or other venue. The motive behind such films (which we might today prize for their 'documentary' qualities) was therefore almost always a highly commercial one!

The rediscovery and archiving (by the bfi National Film and Television Archive) of the Peter Worden Collection of Mitchell and Kenyon films - some 800 of these early films, unusually in the form of the original negatives - was accompanied by a major research project (at the University of Sheffield) exploring this generally neglected history. Interestingly, this has tended to reveal more about the colourful lives and characters of the showmen, and about the company's practices, than perhaps it has about Mitchell and Kenyon themselves as individuals. This is despite the fact that the sheer quality of their rediscovered films - explored through television, DVD releases and screenings - has made their names almost synonymous with early British filmmaking in the public mind. Future film histories may reach a settled judgment on Mitchell and Kenyon's real importance. It is likely that this will leave them neither the footnote they were for so long, nor perhaps the key filmmakers that they have now become. What future histories cannot take away from them is their place in the imagination of the early 21st Century British public. They owe this partly to the attention brought by the rediscovery of so much lost material, partly to the wealth of research that now supports it - but also to the skill, humour and humanity the films display.

Patrick Russell

Related Films and TV programmes

Thumbnail image of Mitchell and Kenyon: A Trip to North Wales on the St Elvies (1902)Mitchell and Kenyon: A Trip to North Wales on the St Elvies (1902)

The paddle steamer 'St Elvies' leaves Liverpool

Thumbnail image of Mitchell and Kenyon: Birmingham University Procession (1901)Mitchell and Kenyon: Birmingham University Procession (1901)

Edwardian academics and students parade before the cameras

Thumbnail image of Mitchell and Kenyon: Blackpool North Pier (1903)Mitchell and Kenyon: Blackpool North Pier (1903)

Throngs of Edwardian holidaymakers enjoy the seaside attractions

Thumbnail image of Mitchell and Kenyon: Blackpool Promenade Extension (1905)Mitchell and Kenyon: Blackpool Promenade Extension (1905)

The seaside resort grows to fit in the Edwardian crowds

Thumbnail image of Mitchell and Kenyon: Blackpool Victoria Pier (1904)Mitchell and Kenyon: Blackpool Victoria Pier (1904)

Edwardian entertainments on Blackpool's elegant, upmarket 'South Pier'

Thumbnail image of Mitchell and Kenyon: Bradford Coronation Procession (1902)Mitchell and Kenyon: Bradford Coronation Procession (1902)

A procession to mark the coronation of King Edward VII

Thumbnail image of Mitchell and Kenyon: Buxton Skyline (1900)Mitchell and Kenyon: Buxton Skyline (1900)

A panoramic view of Buxton in Derbyshire

Thumbnail image of Mitchell and Kenyon: Crewe Hospital Procession (1907)Mitchell and Kenyon: Crewe Hospital Procession (1907)

A fundraising pageant for Crewe Cottage Hospital

Thumbnail image of Mitchell and Kenyon: Employees Leaving Vickers and Maxim's (1901)Mitchell and Kenyon: Employees Leaving Vickers and Maxim's (1901)

Workers leaving the Barrow-based shipbuilding and munitions firm

Thumbnail image of Mitchell and Kenyon: Employees Leaving Williamson's Factory (1901)Mitchell and Kenyon: Employees Leaving Williamson's Factory (1901)

Workers leaving the Lancaster cotton factory

Thumbnail image of Mitchell and Kenyon: Employees at Walker Engineering Works (1900)Mitchell and Kenyon: Employees at Walker Engineering Works (1900)

Employees leaving the Wigan factory

Thumbnail image of Mitchell and Kenyon: Felling of Brick Works Chimney (1906)Mitchell and Kenyon: Felling of Brick Works Chimney (1906)

Crowds watch a factory chimney being demolished

Thumbnail image of Mitchell and Kenyon: Lady Godiva Procession (1902)Mitchell and Kenyon: Lady Godiva Procession (1902)

A procession celebrating the legend of Lady Godiva

Thumbnail image of Mitchell and Kenyon: Love Burn Street School, Dumfries (c.1901)Mitchell and Kenyon: Love Burn Street School, Dumfries (c.1901)

Edwardian schoolchildren welcome the travelling filmmakers

Thumbnail image of Mitchell and Kenyon: Newcastle United v. Liverpool (1901)Mitchell and Kenyon: Newcastle United v. Liverpool (1901)

An enthusiastic crowd watches a football match

Thumbnail image of Mitchell and Kenyon: Pay, Factory Gate (c.1900)Mitchell and Kenyon: Pay, Factory Gate (c.1900)

Small boys hand out pieces of paper to factory workers

Thumbnail image of Mitchell and Kenyon: Preston v Notts County (1904)Mitchell and Kenyon: Preston v Notts County (1904)

Preston North End plays a home game at the Deepdale football ground

Thumbnail image of Mitchell and Kenyon: Preston v Wolverhampton (1904)Mitchell and Kenyon: Preston v Wolverhampton (1904)

Crowds watch a football match at the Deepdale football ground

Thumbnail image of Mitchell and Kenyon: Private Ward V.C. Leeds Hero (1901)Mitchell and Kenyon: Private Ward V.C. Leeds Hero (1901)

A portrait of Private C. Ward, winner of the Victoria Cross

Thumbnail image of Mitchell and Kenyon: Tynemouth Swimming Gala (1901)Mitchell and Kenyon: Tynemouth Swimming Gala (1901)

Crowds watch a fancy dress swimming race

Thumbnail image of Mitchell and Kenyon: Visit of the Prince of Siam (1901) Mitchell and Kenyon: Visit of the Prince of Siam (1901)

The future King of Siam visits Merseyside

Thumbnail image of Mitchell and Kenyon: Workers at Barlow and Tweedale (1905)Mitchell and Kenyon: Workers at Barlow and Tweedale (1905)

Workers leave the iron works based at Castleton near Rochdale

Thumbnail image of Mitchell and Kenyon: Workers at Pilkington Glass Works (c.1900)Mitchell and Kenyon: Workers at Pilkington Glass Works (c.1900)

Workers leave the St Helen's factory at the end of their shift

Thumbnail image of Mitchell and Kenyon: Workforce Leaving at Lunchtime (c. 1901)Mitchell and Kenyon: Workforce Leaving at Lunchtime (c. 1901)

Workers leaving an unidentified factory, many with baskets

Thumbnail image of Mitchell and Kenyon: Workforce of Scott and Co. Shipyard (1901)Mitchell and Kenyon: Workforce of Scott and Co. Shipyard (1901)

Workers leaving the Greenock-based shipbuilding firm

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