Film archivists have compiled a new programme of rare footage held at the West Sussex record office in Chichester.

It will be screened at a special moving picture show at Amberley Working Museum on the weekend of November 15 and 16.

The show is being presented by the Regional Film Archive, Screen Archive South East, following the success of last year's inaugural event.

Thousands of films are held by the archive in its repository, and selected footage will give visitors a unique opportunity to view rare material made in and around Sussex and the south east.

It dates from the beginning of cinematography in the 1890s, to the nostalgic decades of the 1950s and 1960s.

The weekend will showcase the early comedies and actuality films of Brighton and Hove pioneers, George Albert Smith and James Williamson, and the West Sussex work of film-maker Cecil Hepworth.

There was a boom in amateur cine films between world wars, using the new 16mm and 9.5mm gauges. The event will show town and village life in the 1920s and 30s.

There will also be examples of advertising films produced for local firms and factories, showing working life as it was.

Some of these early 'commercials' later found their way on to a new invention called television.

Also on view will be promotional and newsreel films of the Royal Sussex Regiment, whose archives at the county record office include cine material dating back to the Great War.

Films of classic vehicles and vintage transport will feature strongly in four sessions presented on the Saturday and repeated the following day at the 'Amberley Granada' in the museum.

Railway films are also popular and this time will include both steam and early electrification on Southern Railway.

The second screen, the Amberley Odeon, will show cine film of buses, trolleybuses, steam trains and other transport subjects.

The Saturday afternoon will have a tram films special feature, followed by a consultation meeting at 4pm about establishing a tramway in the south of England, possibly at the museum.

The show will take place each day from 11am to 4pm.

Admission is £6, and advanced booking is recommended.

For further details contact the museum on 01798 831370 or click here to send an email.


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