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ELECTRIC EDWARDIANS
Directed by: Sagar Mitchell & James Kenyon.
Restored & Produced by: The British Film Institute.
Music by: In the Nursery.
Released by: Milestone/New Yorker Video.
Country of Origin: UK. 85 min. Not Rated.
DVD Features: Optional Voiceover Commentary by Dr. Vanessa Toulmin, National Fairground Archive, University of Sheffield. Video interview with Dr. Toulmin. "Pictures of Crowd Splendour," a visual essay by Tom Gunning, University of Chicago. “Road to Restoration – Mitchell & Kenyon and the National Film and Television Archive” featurette. "Diving Lucy" and additional shorts by Mitchell & Kenyon.

Electric Edwardians, a compilation of short films by cinematographic pioneers Sagar Mitchell and James Kenyon shot and first shown from 1900 to 1913, elicits a response of astonishment. These shorts – chronicling everyday occurrences, mostly of British working-class industrial life – were discovered in a basement and subsequently restored impeccably by the British Film Institute’s National Film and Television Archive and the University of Sheffield’s National Fairground Archive. They magnificently embody early cinema’s aesthetic and social significance.

Divided into sections – youth and education, the Anglo-Boer War, workers, high days and holidays, etc. – the films, set against a frequently melancholy score, convey the unshakable contemplation, through hindsight, of the past’s alternate possibilities, of what might have been. Initially, it is the films’ real-life subjects that fascinate: youths’ various reactions to being filmed, from solemnity to playing to the camera; and the stiff pose of the upper-class, the opposite of the workers.

The collection also raises deeper questions. At times, as the children flippantly put their hands to their noses, the accompanying hymn-like music prompts thought on whatever became of them; did life treat them kindly? At one point, amidst all their revelry, these subjects seem to be absolutely communicating with us, like ghostly apparitions, with all of the ensuing implications of regret and compassion for the possible tragedies that might lay in their future. Additionally, one speculates how the camera affected its subjects: did they realize they were being recorded for posterity?

DVD Extras: For anyone interested in sociology and film history, the bonus features provide invaluable context regarding the showcased film shorts. They will not only deepen their appreciation by film aficionados, but provide the more casual viewer – if there are any for this kind of compilation – with an incredibly well-articulated justification for and a comprehensive understanding of why these movies are considered priceless.

There does seem to be some confusion, though, regarding where precisely the negatives were found: project coordinator Rebecca Vick relates that they were in the basement of Mitchell & Kenyon’s old shop. Further research turns up a 2005 BBC news story citing them as having been found in a shop basement, albeit in the filmmakers’ hometown. And while accessible to a lay audience, the restoration featurette might strike the general public as too technical, dealing with the minute details of film decomposition and camera speed.

Toulmin’s audio commentary supplies more information on the cultivation of audiences for the films, particularly by fairground showmen and exhibitors, as well as bringing up other informative details; Clive Wilson, hailed as a military hero in one film, actually had little involvement in the Anglo-Boer War – serving to remind the viewer that while these films do much to illuminate, they also have the ability to do their fair share to obfuscate. Reymond Levy
July 11, 2006