The Elmhirsts, the founders of The Dartington Hall Trust, were at the cutting edge of education, agriculture, social regeneration, industry and the arts – and this extended to the use of film as a way to document, educate and entertain.
In this way the Elmhirsts documented the restoration of the estate’s buildings, research trips to countries including India and Indonesia, community social events, activities of Dartington Hall School and local industry and agriculture. Their use of film in this way led to the creation of a significant amass of film footage, which today forms part of The Dartington Film Collection, alongside short films by the pioneering Dartington Hall Film Unit.
The Collection includes over 200 hours of original film and about 500 hours of video. In addition to the personal Elmhirst family films, it holds iconic footage of the early work of the Trust including dance, summer school and reconstruction and much of the early work of the Film Unit, which was at the cutting edge of film production in pre-war Britain and produced many short films, specialising in educational films.
This Collection has regional importance to the South West, but is also of key national significance to the history of film and film-making in Britain.
> Click for ARCHIVE FILM VIEWING OPPS
In the early 1990s the film stock was moved to be stored at the regional archive in Plymouth but it returned to the estate in summer 2008 when the Dartington Film Restoration Project began. Following its return from Plymouth, the collection was assessed and it was found that its condition was poor and that immediate conservation work was required.
Much of the film stock has never yet been viewed by archives staff as, as such, remains a tantalising mystery. The Dartington Restoration project aims to bring the film collection back into use and turn it into a fully accessible 21st century resource that can inform not only continuing work at Dartington but work in the community.
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Between Moor and Sea is a pilot project that will take 20 hours of key footage and take it through the process of restoration, from initial cleaning to digitisation. A fundamental principle of the Restoration Project as a whole is to maximise public access to the film collections and create resources that can be used and can interact with contemporary activities both at Dartington and the wider community. An application of £50,000 has been submitted to the Digital Film Archive Fund administered by South West Screen in order to assist with this pilot project.
There is much work to do in preserving and sharing the Collection. It is only once the original film has been cleaned and the emergency restoration carried out to ensure it is not lost that the real work begins! It is crucial that we are able to properly sort and catalogue the films, so that we can know and share what they contain, and then we need to digitise the film to preserve it for future generations and to make it accessible to the public.
In order to do this we will need further funding to help support the restoration, new technology and new systems to help us share it and, most importantly, the help and support of the local community.
> More about this process & HOW TO GET INVOLVED
> Read feature from ONE DARTINGTON MAGAZINE
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The Dartington Hall Trust is a registered charity no. 279756. Company no. 1485560. Registered Office: The Elmhirst Centre, Dartington Hall, Totnes, Devon TQ9 6EL United Kingdom. Telephone 01803 847000; Fax 01803 847007;
