Seeking Sidney Bligh – Bridge CommunityAd

Bridge is a village enveloped in history as varied as it is interesting, so it is reassuring and pleasing for all residents to know that all of that history our humble village has accrued will always be cherished and documented by the Bridge History Society. The coming year, as every year since the group’s creation, will bring a plethora of events and talks not to be missed. The next one is as engaging and fascinating as anything you’re likely to come across at the Village Hall.

A date firmly for your diary is Thursday the 20th of February as local academic and film tutor Tim Jones will present a talk and film on an infamous character that once cruised through these parts of the world, Louis Zborowski.

Since 2011, Senior Lecturer Tim Jones, from the School of Media, Art and Design, has been carrying out research into amateur film making in the Kent area, initially focusing on the Canterbury District. A number of exciting collections of amateur cine films have been unearthed during this research. In many cases films have sat in lounge cupboards, sheds and lofts for the past 70 years or more waiting for a suitable home. Now digitised, these films provide a unique record of the local area as it was and give an insight into the development of amateur cinema.

Tim Jones gives regular screenings of the films that he has unearthed to the local community. His documentary short, Seeking Sidney, about the Canterbury-based filmmaker Sidney Bligh, won a Hollywood International Independent Documentary Award. He explains “This is an area of research that has been barely touched. I believe it’s important to record and collect as much information as I can about the early history of amateur cine while this is still possible.” He has also made a documentary about the films made by Peter Watkins in Canterbury, titled Peter Watkins and the Playcraft Film Unit.

CommunityAd tracked down Tim who was terrifically busy marking exams and essays alike but was kind enough to show us a special screening of the film Seeking Sydney which will be played as well as the Louis Zbrowkski film and we stand by our aforesaid statement that this is not to be missed.

Without giving away too many spoilers for readers, the huge stash of film was discovered in a local house and had laid dormant and unused for seventy years. The collection belonged to Sydney Bligh hence the Sydney, and the ‘seeking’ in the title comes from Sidney’s granddaughter Helen who never met her ancestor but would like to use the films to discover who he was.

Sidney was a respected member of his community, he was president of the rotary club, vice president of the chamber of trade and a freemason. His electrical shop SW Bligh LTD stood where now resides Canterbury’s smaller Wetherspoons The Westgate Inn. Sidney also owned a large portable speaker system that would be hired for public events; Sidney not only brought the sound to public events but the sight.

Between the years 1934 and 1939 Sidney made an annual film, each film lasted an hour and a half with locals excited to see the finished film every year. All proceeds of the screenings went to charity raising a huge £3,000 in the 1930s.

From flooding to village car shows, to coronation celebrations, Sidney filmed it all giving us a fascinating insight into local life back then. What is striking (literally) is how different the mentality was. A village show of sorts shows young boys blindfolded, boxing the bejesus out of each other, much to the joy of surrounding adults who clap alongside the blows. Hard to imagine blindfolded boxing getting approval by the fete committees these days.

Sidney would always film the Canterbury art festival year on year, the highlight of each being the play that took place in the cathedral grounds, plays written by ‘library elites’ such as Dorothy L Sayers and T.S. Elliot. Canterbury arts festival was actually the first to take place anywhere in England, now it seems every Kentish town offers a week-long art festival but this was definitely not the case in Sydney’s time. This gives Sidney’s film perhaps a greater value as he has documented the birth of arts festivals in the United Kingdom.

To see this remarkable film for yourself get to Bridge Village Hall.

£5.00 for non members but well worth it.

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