The Yorkshire Film Archive collects, preserves, and shows film made in, or about Yorkshire. Our collections are non-fiction, dating from the 1890s to the present day, and providing a rich and visually compelling record of all aspects of lives, cultures, landscape, industries, major events and everyday activities, many of which are available to watch, free of charge, on our website.
This film is part of Free
Little Cinders
A magical film in many ways, a fairy tale story using trick photography and with artful and imaginative stop motion animation.
From the collection of:
Overview
Delightful is the only way to describe the wonderful animations that appear half way through this charming film. A small girl, filmmaker Jack Eley’s daughter Susan, misses her friend’s birthday party due to having mumps, only to then fall asleep and have a vivid dream of a fairy appearing and bringing to life the fairy stories in a book. For an amateur of this time, the stop motion animation is of a very high order.
Jack Eley was a major player in the very active Leeds Cine Club in the 1950s and ‘60s, making films over nearly fifty years, from 1932 up until 1980. He rarely took typical family home movies, but preferred to make accomplished documentaries, along with a few comedies. Fairy tales lent themselves to stop motion animation, although around this time this was a form mainly found in Europe, and usually using puppets rather than cut outs. Eley may have been inspired by Ray Harryhausen’s wonderful short, The Story of Hansel and Gretel, of 1951, or even by the amazing cut out silhouette animations of Lotte Reiniger, who settled in England after the war. There was no animation on the early British television of the time.
Related
Face to Face Face to Face
Animation & Artists Moving Image 1981 3 mins Location: South Shields
Marking time on a face, a swift, bleak portrait of a man from cradle to grave.
Pipe Dreams Pipe Dreams
Amateur film 1965 3 mins Location: Wakefield
A once common object in many households becomes transformed into a quirky dancing troupe in this simple homespun animation.
Mr Eppynt a Clara'r Fuwch: Y Bunyip Mr Eppynt a Clara'r Fuwch: Y Bunyip
Animation & Artists Moving Image 1978 6 mins
A fair exchange is no robbery, perhaps. The Bunyip – an unknown quantity – takes the animated Mr Eppynt and Clara the Cow by surprise.
For Your Pleasure For Your Pleasure
Animation & Artists Moving Image 1970 4 mins Location: Flatford Mill
An iconic rural scene becomes a protest site for the bitter yet comic vision of prolific amateur animator Derek Phillips
The Battle of Wangapore The Battle of Wangapore
Amateur film 1955 9 mins Silent
Charge into this slick amateur cartoon from the Grasshopper Group which was three years in the making
Plastic Platitudes Plastic Platitudes
Amateur film 1957 4 mins
Specially commended by ‘Amateur Cine World'. Nineteen fifties claymation by Douglas Butcher offering tongue-in-cheek advice for life.
Spy Ring Spy Ring
1965 1 mins Location: Leeds
There is never a dull moment in this International Spy Game of foreign spies competing to trick their way into sixteen different embassies.
Yorkshire Post: Sports Fan Yorkshire Post: Sports Fan
1973 1 mins Location: Leeds
An Olympic Games hopeful bundles into a Leeds newsagents, only to be met by a new shopkeeper from The Smoke, bemused by the Yorkshire Post.
The Big Country The Big Country
Promotional 1970 16 mins Location: Newcastle upon Tyne
Tuning into the biggest consumer market for television advertising in Britain with Trident TV.
Moorhouse Lemon Cheese Moorhouse Lemon Cheese
1966 1 mins Location: Leeds
Butter, eggs, and lemons, what else could better evoke the healthiness of the countryside than this delicious traditional desert topping?
Railroader Railroader
1964 1 mins Location: Leeds
The great Western way of dog eat dog as opponents try to dynamite each other in their pursuit of what really matters in life, railways and money.
Future Scientists Future Scientists
1966 1 mins Location: Leeds
With the subatomic world getting ever smaller, Waddingtons recognised that a microscope was just what was needed “for the man of the future.”
Starve Acre - Exclusive Q&A Starve Acre - Exclusive Q&A
Short interview 2024 24 mins
Daniel Kokotajlo talks to Nia Childs about Starve Acre, his folk horror about a couple digging deep into grief in the heart of the Yorkshire Dales.
Sky Peals - Exclusive Q&A Sky Peals - Exclusive Q&A
Short interview 2024 30 mins
Sky Peals director Moin Hussain and lead actor Faraz Ayub talk to Tomisin Adepeju about their magic realist drama.
Inside the Archive: The Early Films of Michael Powell Inside the Archive: The Early Films of Michael Powell
Documentary 2024 42 mins
Documentary exploring the BFI National Archive’s role in rediscovering and remastering the early films of Michael Powell.
Inside the Archive: The Riviera Revels Inside the Archive: The Riviera Revels
Short documentary 2024 12 mins
Bryony Dixon, curator of silent film at the BFI national archive, explores the origins of a series of comic travelogues, and Michael Powell's involvement in making them.
New Perspectives: Oldboy New Perspectives: Oldboy
Short documentary 2024 4 mins
Discover why Dan George of Northumbria University believes everyone should experience Oldboy at least once.
New Perspectives: Wings of Desire New Perspectives: Wings of Desire
Short documentary 2024 4 mins
Trixie Parkin-Christie of Northumbria University offers fresh insight into why Wings of Desire remains essential viewing.