The East Anglian Film Archive, the first and largest Regional Film Archive in England, was established in 1976. Since 1984, EAFA has been owned and operated by the University of East Anglia, Norwich (UEA), to support research and work to preserve our moving image heritage. More than 250 hours are freely available online as examples of the wide range of film which attracts interest the world over.
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Peterborough Today
Inside the factories and out on the streets - actuality footage of Peterborough, captured by a cinema owner for screening locally alongside a main feature and other shorts.
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Overview
It seems wherever the camera goes, curious faces appear. This is a great example of actuality footage in Peterborough. Captured everyday scenes of local people, who at a later date would have the opportunity to witness the spectacle of their on-screen self at the local picturehouse. The city's would-be paying cinema patrons smile obligingly as the publicity poster at 11:55 requests. This footage was discovered in a cupboard at Peterborough's Embassy Cinema in the 1970s.
Film includes, Baker Perkins factory, Westfield Road; City Picturehouse, owned by Jack Campbell; Fletton United (later Peterborough United) Football Club; Peterborough Laundry, Crawthorne Road; Bishops Road School; Peterborough Hockey Club. Actuality footage, is an early form of documentary film, like a still photograph … yet moving, and typically features everyday scenes of local people in their home town, produced specifically to be screened at a local picturehouse. Often produced by cinema exhibitors and shown in those same cinemas during the very early days of cinema exhibition, as part of a programme along with newsreel and fictional film, and at the time equally as popular as the ‘movies’.
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