The North East Film Archive is one of a network of regional film archives established to collect, preserve and show film made in, or about the North East of England. Our collections are non-fiction, and date from the early 1900s to the present day, providing a rich record of life in the region over the 20th century. Many of our films are available to watch, free of charge, on our website.
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Pendower Hall Special School, Fancy Dress Pageant
A stirring record of a fancy dress pageant at the Pendower Hall Special School in Newcastle upon Tyne.
From the collection of:
Overview
At Pendower Hall in Newcastle upon Tyne the faces and marvellously inventive costumes of special needs students at a school fancy dress pageant flicker into life. Introduced by a child cinematographer seated at a full scale cardboard TV camera, a stream of children in outfits ranging from an Esso Extra tiger to the ‘Eighth Samurai’ are recorded in a moving theatrical parade. These precious cine memories still resonate across the years.
Salvaged from the school when it closed in July 1999, this ‘orphan’ film is part of a collection that records the trips and activities of students with a range of disabilities over two decades. Marked by time and the technical quirks and passion of vernacular movie making, these visual diaries offer a more affectionate, emotive experience often missing from representations of disability on screen, although the children here do not control the real cameras. Originally built for banker John W Pearce in 1867, Pendower Hall opened as an ‘open-air’ school designed for ‘delicate’ children in January 1925, later offering facilities for more serious disabilities such as cerebral palsy and spina bifida.
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