Local Film and Holmfirth Histories

Sunday, June 9, 2019 - 12:00

LOCAL FILM & HOLMFIRTH HISTORIES

SUNDAY 9 JUNE 12 noon TILL 6.00pm

A cornucopia of local, historic films, photographic exhibitions and talks. Events take place throughout the afternoon on a continuous roll.  Start out at any venue. Take the film trail around Holmfirth. Venue bars open for refreshments.

 

VENUES AND EVENTS INCLUDE:

WALK AND TALK

2pm & 4pm: Gary Naylor will take you on a tour Holmfirth pointing out in his own inimitable way the locations and history of television and film history in the town.  Tour starts at the Picturedrome.

HOLMFIRTH PICTUREDROME, Market Walk, Holmfirth

12 noon: Akenfield: Peter Hall used non-professional actors for this BBC rural, romantic and long unseen cult classic feature film about change in the last century in a Sussex village. It was screened in January 1975 and seen by 14 million viewers.

2pm: Tony Earnshaw introduces Made in Yorkshire: Glorious celebration by former Director Bradford International Film Festival, film critic and academic talks of the feature films shot in the county from the inception of film to the present day.

3.30pm A Day Out: Alan Bennett's first film for the BBC in 1972 (Directed by Stephen Frears) is a very fine look at the day's outing by Halifax cycling club to Fountains Abbey. Set in the summer of 1911 it projects an idyllic vision of Edwardian England.

4.30pm: The Curious Case of Victor Grayson: Extraordinary story of Victor Grayson, local Socialist MP from 1907 to 1910. A political phenomenon, his disappearance remains a mystery. BBC 1985 documentary is largely based on the research of local MP David Clark.

LARGE CIVIC HALL, Huddersfield Road, Holmfirth

12 noon:Inventor of the Forty Foot Ferret: From first series of Roy Clarke's Last of the Summer Wine broadcast on 19 November 1973 with Bill Owen, Peter Sallis and original trio member Michael Bates as the arrogant Cyril Blamire.

1pm:We of the West Riding: Vivid 1946 description of life, work and recreation of one family in the West Riding by Ken Annakin, a director with a visual gift for flair and gift for story-telling who went on to be a major film director. Features the Holme Valley Choir.

2pm:The Classics: Bailey's BathHuddersfield Marketsand more.

Plus screening of Holme Valley's Sharing Memories' Sticklebacks and Swingboats: Chol Theatre; singer/song writer Jenny Goodman; Children’s Art School; Acapella; Honley J&I and Southgate Special School stage Songs and Stories of Hope Bank Pleasure Grounds. Take a ride on the big dipper, explore beneath the surface of the boating lake, be transfixed by the bear and listen to the story of Rita and Cyril who met at the Pleasure Grounds in the 1950s

3pm: Home James: Turn Again to Huddersfield. In 1972 our own Hollywood superstar returned to his home town and visited one of his favourite places, Holmfirth.

4pm: The Yorkshire Textile Industry by G. W. Barnes & Ripping Yarns by Alistair Macdonald. A new series of hort films exploring the contemporary textile industry in Kirklees including bespoke designer rugs and re-cycling, with surprising contemporary twists e.g. turning old jeans into car sound-proofing.

4.15pm: The Brook. Brook Motors 1960 affectionate look at the area including the Mills and Bamforth.

4.45pm: Repeat of the Classics.

LESSER CIVIC HALL, Huddersfield Road, Holmfirth

12.30pm: Early Film Restored George Melies1902A Trip to the Moon. Selection of Bamforth filmsMarian at Bamforth: Last surviving Bamforth actress talks in 1978 about her experiences. Film of pre-WW1 Holmfirth by local photographer Harry Bray. Mitchell & Kenyon's 1902 film of textile workers Chapel Hill, Huddersfield. Live soundtrack from Holmfirth's very own Barry Russell.

1.00:Wilbert Kemp: Man of the People 1904-1990: Tim Copsey's wonderful 2015 bio-documentary on Holmfirth's own playwright, actor and artist.

2.00:Dr Heather Norris Nicholson: Leading authority and local author of British Women Amateur Filmmakers: Amateur Creativity and a Sense of Place in Yorkshire talks about...

2.30: Miss Lockwood: The Lady Behind the Lens: Specially commissioned biographical documentary on the Valley's film chronicler for over half of a century.

PlusChanging Face of the Holme Valley from the 1940s to the 1970sHolmfirth in WartimeSnowArtists of the Holme Valley- Ashley Jackson, Trevor Stubley and Bamforth saucy postcard artist Arnold Taylor.

3.30:The Films of Lucy Fairbanks: Ian Baxter introduces a selection of films by Colne Valley film-maker form the 1930s/40s & 50s.

4.30: Holmfirth Hollywood. Director Ken Annakin’s visual flair and gift for storytelling is abundantly evident in this absorbing account of the experiences of a ‘typical’ Yorkshire family. By the late 1940s Annakin had migrated from government sponsored WW2 documentaries, such as this one, to feature films, his most famous being Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965). Director Ken Annakin’s visual flair and gift for storytelling is abundantly evident in this absorbing account of the experiences of a ‘typical’ Yorkshire family. By the late 1940s Annakin had migrated from government sponsored WW2 documentaries, such as this one, to feature films, his most famous being Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965).BBC 2006 Docudrama about how JamesBamforth, Holmfirth's painter and decorator at the beginning of the last century nearly made the town's film company into a major studio until the war intervened (and a lack of sunshine).

HOLMFIRTH TECH, Huddersfield Road, Holmfirth

12 noon onwards

Room One: Holmfirth Camera Club - the best of the Club's photographs of the area.

Room Two: Local Photographer David Sanderson presents images of Holmfirth in the 70s and the changes that have taken place.

Plus From The Brian Lawton Legacy collection, a selection of photographs featuring TV and film stars who visited Huddersfield and Halifax in the sixties.

Room Three: 12 noon Post-War Documentary Film

  • This Dim Little Island & A Diary for Timothy: Classics from visionary British documentary film-maker Humphrey Jennings - his much loved collaboration with EM Forster about war-end hopes (1946) and an elegiac poetic call to 'Wake up Britain' (1948) - are we going to 'have greed for money ousting decency from the world or to make the world a different place?'

  • Aston Martin win Le Man in 1959: The pinnacle of David Brown's motor racing success.

  • Looking at Britain: Industrial Town: An upbeat portrait by the Central Office of Information of a forward-looking Huddersfield in the early sixties.

  • Today in Britain: In 1964 journalist James Cameron narrates for a global audience a view by peter Hopkinson of pre-swinging sixties Britain as a cosmopolitan nation and a united kingdom.

  • The Shadow of Progress: Remarkable oil company (BP) film made in 1970 addressing ecological concerns head on and presenting, as was the fashion of the time, technology as the solution. Fifty years on, did it work out that way?

2pm: The Films of John Murray

John started as a photographer on the magazine Picture Post and has been making documentary films for 50 years. Talk and clips include Berry Brow, Huddersfield in the sixties.

3pm: The Films of Mike Wade

Screening and commentary of his latest films by local Video Artist Mike Wade, who has been filming the Valley for forty years, including Cliff Rec Celebrations, Beacons and Remembrance and the Tour de France.

4.pm: Remembering Bygone Huddersfield: A selection of clips and videos of post-war Huddersfield

 

Adults: 
£10