'Silent film shot by Miss Philippa Miller recording scenes of people and activities around the 1930s-style bay-fronted terraced houses and gardens in a small residential close at different seasons of the year. Miss Miller lived in Norwich so the film has provisionally been linked to Norwich, but identification of the location would be welcome. The film captures the relaxed and friendly relationship between the women, men and children filmed and Miss Miller behind the camera. From the film stock marks it appears that the film was shot between 1965 and 1967.
All but two of the scenes are filmed outdoors. Indoors we see four women sitting together looking at two boxed costume dolls and stroking a black poodle, and a brief scene of an elderly lady. The exterior scenes were filmed during winter, spring and summer and capture people's activities and domestic chores around their homes and gardens, their comings and goings, and various pet dogs. Scenes include: women clearing a path through snow; a row of ten sparrows on a ledge above a snowy roof; a man washing a car with cloth and bucket of water as laundry billows on a washing line; a woman dressed to go out in hat and coat carrying bags; children playing with a dog, a football, a toy pram and a toy tractor; a bride in white outfit with bouquet standing with a man, perhaps her father, and a woman chauffeur in peaked cap helping people into a car as they leave for a wedding; crocuses; another man washing a car; a boy on a tricycle; a knife grinder at work, operating his machine by treadle within a handcart with large wheels; a man mowing the lawn a man painting the front gate of a spring garden; a young man and woman; a man up a ladder cleaning windows; women with two children in matching coats; a house under construction with the timber frame of the upper storey and roof open; a woman hanging out sheets on a washing line; a woman shaded beneath a floral parasol standing in front of flowering rose bushes; a woman setting off on a bicycle; a woman holding a baby; children sitting on a lawn and playing with modelling clay; a young man; a woman at a window; a chaffinch; rose bushes; another lady dressed in hat and coat with bag going out; a woman playing ball with the black poodle; a man using an axe to chop at the roots in a hole around a tree stump' (EAFA).
"Mainly shows trip(s) up the Stikine by riverboat and placer mining activity [nearby]. Includes: waterfront view of Wrangell, Alaska; views of and from riverboat Hazel B No. 2 going upriver; the Three Sisters (islands in the river); riverboat at Telegraph Creek and barge at Dease Lake, and local activity; forest fire & fire-fighting; shots of Fokker F-11AHB flying boat designated CF-AUV (at dock and taking off) and a Fairchild floatplane; aerial shots in the vicinity; wreckage of aircraft CF-AUV (which crashed at McDame Lake, 13 July 1935); general scenery and wildlife. The placer mining footage, which is interspersed, includes shots of a small mining camp, sluice works, panning, hydraulic monitor operation, jerry-built mining equipment in use, etc. [The footage] was shot [ca. 1933-35] by Joseph J. Jackson, whose company "Three J's Placer Mines, Inc." prospected near the confluence of Thibert Creek with Dease Lake in [the years 1931-35]." (BC Archives)
"Among the Ten Best, Another Day, by Leslie Thatcher, ACL, is a splendid example of the relatively simple avant garde film, so popular among European amateurs but so seldom attempted by even the advanced workers of the American continent. Set against the background of Toronto, Another Day portrays in semi abstract fashion the dramatic changes which overtake the life and tempo of a great city as Saturday crosses the noontime deadline from work to play. Mr. Thatcher's conception of this theme is clean cut, his execution suave and technically brilliant. Dissolves, wipeoffs and double exposure are blended intelligently with matchless straight photography to enhance the beauty of striking angles and compositions. With the subject matter of such films ready to the hand of every amateur cameraman, it is a strange phenomenon that to date they are not attempted more often." Movie Makers, Dec. 1934, 513, 534.
"In Caineville, Glen H. Turner has now turned his camera on a Western ghost town, and with moments of sheer movie magic, he has brought it to life again. The slow turning by the wind of the leaves of an abandoned school book, and the slow pan to initials carved on a schoolhouse desk, evoke as if he were alive the youngster who carved them. In another scene, done with consummate smoothness, Mr. Turner shows an abandoned street on which a schoolboy, with books over his shoulder, slowly materializes into solid form — and then dissolves again into thin air. Surrounding Caineville always are the brooding mountains and the ever-encroaching river which implacably seeks to destroy the last vestiges of the crumbling village. Caineville is a triumph of imaginative creation over static material." Movie Makers, Dec. 1953, 320.
This was one of five films Rocker submitted to the American Cinematographer contest of 1937 on the subject of "the service given by some municipal agency of his home city of Cleveland." American Cinematographer, Feb. 1938, 78.
"A battleground where the North and the South met in the struggle of the Civil War, where each fought for a cause he thought was right, is still a charming town of colonial beginning. There are many important landmarks held for posterity, and the famous river over which George threw the dollar. We visit this great city in the spring, summer, and fall. A refresher for our heritage" PSA Journal, Oct. 1961, 47.
"doc. a fantasia"/avant-garde documentary
"'Japan and Its People,' Dr. Roy Gerstenkorn's educational class winner, was a pictured visit to the homes and temples of Japan. Ignoring the cities in his search for the story of the Japan that is not known to the average visitor the doctor penetrated the towns and smaller communities. His picture was awarded a high rating on its photography as well as on his treatment of the subject. After the showing of this picture before the Los Angeles Motion Picture Forum last summer the local school authorities requested and received permission from the doctor to make a duplicate of it for school purposes." American Cinematographer, Jan. 1938, 27-28.
"Jericho is a little animated film concerning a couple of dogs which get into a fight and knock down the walls of Jericho. Kallenberg and his wife spent many hours searching for the exact plans and dimensions of the old Biblical town and built an exact replica for the film" PSA Journal, Sept. 1966, 35.
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Amateur Cinema