Filmed record of a local parade crammed with detail and charm.


Accrington Catholic Procession (1912)








Facts
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Titles |
(Alternative)
Mitchell and Kenyon 313 Accrington Catholic Procession
(Alternative)
Mitchell and Kenyon 314 Accrington Catholic Procession
(Alternative)
Mitchell and Kenyon 315 Accrington Catholic Procession
(Alternative)
Mitchell and Kenyon 316 Accrington Catholic Procession
|
Production | |
Distribution |
Categories
Actuality Film Black and White Catholic Church Children Parade People Procession Short Silent Film ChildrenShortActuality Film, Black and White, Catholic Church, Parade, People, Procession, Silent FilmDescriptions
This late Mitchell and Kenyon epic paints a superbly detailed portrait of a pre-WWI Catholic community - layered by clerical hierarchy, class, age, gender, cassock, surplice, suit and frock, bonnet, boater and bowler. The pageantry betrays its mixed roots in recent migration and old local families: Irish blood with English heart. Finally all pomp is burst by a joyous spill-out on to the street.
By 1912, the Mitchell and Kenyon film company was a shadow of its former self, no longer whizzing round Britain on behalf of a wide network of showmen, but instead confined to recording occasional local events in the filmmakers' Lancashire heartlands. Their coverage of the Whit procession to Accrington's Sacred Heart church feels studied and tired when compared with the infectious high-spiritedness of so many of the shorter films the producers had made in their pioneering days. All the same, at a time when everyone's films (not just M&K's) were getting longer, and film itself more familiar, what this film loses in vitality and brevity, it gains in documentary value. It would take endless viewings to pick up all the cultural details packed into this fascinating film.
Source: BFI
Religious procession. (Synopsis) M&K 314: Main (replacement) title (00.07). Bystanders (many holding umbrellas) watch the procession walk down a cobbled street with terraced housing. Policemen ahead of a line of priests carrying flowers which spell the words `Sacred Heart'. They pause (00.30). A tram pulling away in the midst of the crowds. The procession moves forwards - priests, a brass band, girls holding ribbons from a banner with a religious image, very small girls in white dresses and bonnets being marshalled by officials and a policeman. More banners with religious images. Girls in long, white robes with dark cloaks, small girls in white dresses, bonnets and wearing ribbons around their necks holding a medallion (2.24mins). (Shotlist) M&K 313: Main (replacement) title (00.07). A procession down a cobbled street of terraced houses. Spectators line the streets with some looking through upstairs windows. Small girls dressed in white dresses, bonnets and with ribbons round their necks with a `medal' attached slowly and solemnly walk along the street. Behind them marches a uniformed brass band. Behind them are older girls dressed in the same white dresses. At the rear are older women with white dresses but with elaborate hats and many wearing sashes. Some of the people on parade carry banners with images of the Virgin and some priests walk alongside the marchers (2.27mins). (Shotlist) M&K 316: Main (replacement) title (00.07). A brass band, women holding ribbons coming from a religious banner, priests(?) (they wear dark jackets, high broad white collars and hats similar to bowler hats), men of all ages wearing broad sashes from which hang the same medal or badge (1.02). Girls in white dresses and sashes holding ribbons from a banner, men with broader sashes than the former group on which is embroidered an insignia. The bystanders close in and join in behind the procession, some acknowledging camera, Tram No. 74 advertising McDougall's Self Raising Flour in shot (1.35mins). (Shotlist)
M&K 313,314,315 and 316 make up the one film title. Running order: 314, 313, 315, 316.
Source: BFI