This film is part of Free
Mayor's Sunday
Thousands tread the cobbled streets of Stockton-on-Tees to celebrate the Mayor’s Sunday.
Overview
The great and the good don their Sunday best and celebrate Mayor’s Sunday with a magnificent procession through the cobbled streets of Stockton. With thousands marking the event (the annual tradition continues today) it’s an impressive show of civic pride. And it’s fascinating to see top brass and townsfolk rub shoulders, as policemen, firemen and aldermen parade through the crowd-lined streets.
In the decade before this film was shot, producers Mitchell and Kenyon had somewhat perfected the style and economics of the ‘local film’. Cramming the frame with as many people as possible, M&K could profit from selling 'see yourself on film' to the punters. In this film, the producers – a crew working for local cinema, the Empire Picture Playhouse – show notable sophistication behind the camera: intertitles lend commemorative and narrative qualities; and the final close-ups of local dignitaries reveal a genuine interest in municipal affairs.
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