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Grandfather's Footsteps

The filmmaker re-evokes the presence of her great-grandfather, Henry Stiles Savory, a Victorian clergyman, photographer and scientist.

Animation & Artists Moving Image 1983 36 mins

Overview

The starting point for the film was an old cigar box containing the glass negatives of stereoscopic views of the Somerset countryside that had been photographed by the filmmaker’s great-grandfather, Henry Stiles Savory. In Grandfather’s Footsteps, Anne Rees-Mogg explores the similarities and differences in a landscape and the people in it a century apart. Rees-Mogg’s nephew Anthony Bruegger performs as the great grandfather and reads from his writings.

Founded in 1966, the London Film-Makers’ Co-operative started life at Better Books, a counter-culture bookshop on Charing Cross Road, where a group led by poet Bob Cobbing and filmmakers Stephen Dwoskin and Jeff Keen met to screen films. Initially inspired by the activities of the New American Cinema Group in New York, the London Co-op grew into a pioneering organisation that incorporated a film workshop, cinema space and distribution office. During its four-decade history, the Co-op played a crucial role in establishing film as an art form in the UK and participated in a vibrant international film scene. This BFI Player collection brings together new scans of films distributed by and/or produced at the London Co-op.