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Higgins, Bryce: Family and Holiday Scenes: 1909-1924 - Children Playing
Title:
Higgins, Bryce: Family and Holiday Scenes: 1909-1924 - Children Playing
NFSA ID
278572
Year
1909
Four young children are filmed playing with strips of 35mm film in the Higgins’ back garden. The two toddlers and two older children hold the camera’s gaze and medium close-ups of each of the children capture their expressions clearly. Summary by Poppy De Souza
Bryce Higgins Home Movies Synopsis
This home movie footage, filmed mostly by Ernest Higgins, includes scenes of a family picnic at Mt Wellington, Christmas celebrations, children’s birthday parties, picnics, holidays and other family gatherings between 1909 and 1924.
Curator’s notes
This segment was probably filmed around 1923 or 1924 at the family’s home in Sydney. It is charming because of the Higgins’ family connection to film. These 35mm film strips in the children’s hands were a common item around the Higgins’ family home. According to Ernest’s son Bryce (who is probably one of the toddlers in this clip), the dining room table always had film strips and cans of film on it. Both Ernest and his brother Arthur had their own darkrooms, where they were able to print and develop film at home.
The National Film and Sound Archive has recorded two oral histories with Bryce Higgins in which he recounts his family’s involvement in the film industry.
Notes by Poppy De Souza
The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia acknowledges Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we work and live and gives respect to their Elders both past and present.