Screen Archive South East is a public sector moving image archive serving the South East of England. The archive's collections of magic lantern slides, films, videos and associated materials capture the many varied aspects of life, work and creativity from the early days of screen history to the present day and serve as a rich and invaluable historical resource.
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Aspects of Guildford
Enjoy John Cant's sardonic visual essay about the historic town of Guildford - where dereliction is contrasted with richly historical vignettes and a pancake race
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Overview
We start at Guildford's railway station where older buldings and office blocks are being torn down to make way for a new vernacular. Following a montage of building society and estate agent shop-fronts we see Guildhall's three hundred year-old clock along with a noisy Town Crier. He is followed by a musical trio in 17th century garb playing period instruments to a crowd in the street below. The film ends on a frivolous note with a pancake race by staff of the Angel Hotel.
John Cant explains that he deliberately left this film without a commentary, leaving the viewer to interpret what they had seen for themselves. Unfortunately, this decision led to some misunderstandings. In one instance the film was withdrawn from an amateur film-making competition because the organisers couldn't understand what John was trying to communicate in his film.
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