The Lost World of Mitchell & Kenyon (2005)

Genre

documentary film

Country

United Kingdom

Length

1 season, 3 episodes

Rating

8.7 of 10 from 3 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

This series presents rediscovered and restored films from the early 1900s by Mitchell and Kenyon. It shows everyday life, sports, and celebrations in Britain at that time. A presenter and descendants of the people in the films talk about what is seen.

nostalgiccuriousreflectiveslow-pacedhistoricalintimateearnestobservational

What happens

The Lost World of Mitchell & Kenyon is a BBC documentary series produced in conjunction with the British Film Institute. Three one-hour episodes were broadcast on BBC One in January 2005 and released on Region 2 DVD soon after. The episodes are titled as follows: Life and Times Sport and Pleasure Saints and Sinners The series showcases films made by Mitchell and Kenyon, lost for almost a century, rediscovered in 1994 and restored by the BFI. Most of the films are records of life, sport and culture at the beginning of the 20th century. Dan Cruickshank presents and narrates the series; in addition, descendants of some of the people featured in the original films provide commentaries upon them; and scenes from the life and work of filmmakers Sagar Mitchell and James Kenyon are dramatized in speeded-up form like incorrectly screened silent movies (although the actual film excerpts are shown at the correct speed). The series is notable for being shot in 4:3 format to match the films' original aspect ratio, unlike many modern documentary series which crop all non-widescreen footage into 16:9. This is one of a number of BFI television series featuring footage from the BFI National Archive and produced in partnership with the BBC: The Lost World of Mitchell & Kenyon Mitchell & Kenyon in Ireland The Lost World of Friese-Greene The Lost World of Tibet (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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