Film and the Dartington Experience by David Edward Hilton A thesis submitted to the University of Plymouth In partial fulfilment for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Faculty of Arts School of Media and Photography September 2004 :j:r-ir:-:' University of Plymouth Item No Sheffmark Contents: page List of Illustrations 4 Abstract 6 Introduction Part one: An Overview Chapter 1 The Dartington Experiment 9 A Profile Phases of Activity with film 15 Chapter 2 Early activity with Film at Dartington 17 Film at Dartington New Learning 28 The Cine Group 37 The Film Unit 43 The War 56 The Factual Film 60 The Film Unit Post-War 64 Chapter 3 Dartington and Documentary 71 A Wider View Film and Education 78 Experimental fomris of Film 83 Experimental v/s avant-garde 90 Chapter 4 Outside Interests 97 The Archive Victor Bonham-Carter 98 Richard Thomas 102 Community Video 108 Interpreting Dartington 110 Part two: New Work Chapter 5 A New Archive: review of work 115 1992-1998 4 parts for a Modernist House 118 Tobey at Dartington 120 Tracing Leonard 121 The photoworks 125 Reconstruction 136 Chapter 6 Film and history 141 Context Experimental Documentary 147 Chapter 7 2002 After the Facts An Experiment Introduction to the films 160 Finding Dariington (41 minute video) 166 The FUm Unit (41 minute video) 170 Interpreting Dartington (42 minute video) 178 After the Facts: Evaluation 184 Conclusions 192 Bibliography 196 Appendix. 1. A review of work with Darlington Hall Archive from 1991 to 1994 205 Appendix. 2. Notes on Filnn shot/made at Dartington, now held by South West Film & Television Archive. 222 Community Video Recordings 229 Dartington at 60 231 Umatic videos viewed in 1993 232 TSW Film & Television Archive references 234 List of Illustrations Part One Page Fig. 1 Tille page Close shol of Restoration footage from 1926 spooling across Slecnbeck editing table 1 Fig.2. Juniors and Seniors on the estate in 1929. DHA 11 Fig. 3. Dorothy Iilmhirst typing the first school prospectus in 1925 DHA. 13 Fig.4 l^nard in his Repion school cap sets up the camera for a group photograph before church 1906, The photograph of the camera demonslraies that there u-as more than one in the house. From Family Album compihiion video 1993 DHA. 17 Fig 5 The Elmhirel children Qimual line-ups. 1910 and 1911 . DHA Siills from faini7yy4/ftum compilation video 1993 18 Fig.6 'Mud Larlcing' and Pom takes a photograph of Leonard, (again two cameras present.) 1911. DMA. Stills from Family Album compilation video 1993 18 Fig.7 Still from Lconard'sl933 film of Russia, copied from Stecnbeck edit table at TSWFTA in 2003 19 Fig.8 George Bennett outside the Private House Darlington Hall. Date unknown. DHA 21 Fig.9. Leonard's brother Vic lilmhirst and Bill Cuiry Headmaster at a Kete in 1934. D\\A Family Fibm. This briefshol is the only moving image of Curry extant in the archive films. 27 Fig. 10 Page from the New Learning An Experiment with film in the county of Devon . WEA 1932repon showing a 'typical audience'. Photograph by Stuart Black. DHA 31 Fig.11. Page from New Learning An Experiment with film in the county of Devon .WEA l932rcport. Depicting a sllll from the Experimental film' Q<Peer Cynt. Photograph by Smart Black. DHA 36 Fig. 12. Title Ident from Cine Group Production (1934) photo from video Copy at TSWFTA in 2003 46 Fig. 13. Ricky Lcacock shooting Cawarv Sartana5 1935 48 Fig. 14. Ricky Lcacock on the Galapagos Islands 1938. Picture courtesy of Ricky Lcacock. 49 Fig. 15. Darlington Hall Film Unit shooting Coa5/from 1947. DHA 64 Fig.16. The Film Unit's 1948TeachersCourwshootlng//ow wmoAea^cW/^iyuarium. DHA 67 Part Two Fig. 17. A Page from Leonard's First Album of Photographs from hisRcpton School days, 1912. Taken from Tracing Leonard 1997. DHA 123 Fig.18. //rgACro«//ouse 1997 Photomontage 127 Fig. 19. The negative of Leonard and an unknown companion in the Great Hall in 1925 located in the Great Hall 1997 Leonard during an early visit to Dartington in the Great flail. Double exposure 1997. and part of the original photograph 128 Fig.20. Leonard and Dorothy from the 1920s superimposed on the courtyard in 1998 during Summer Sc/too/ 129 Fig.21. 1930s Visitof the Duke of Kent superimposed on Caleb in the Courtyard 1998 130 Fig.22. Dc\a\\ Uom The Reconstruction of the Great Hall Down. 1998 1 37 Fig.23. The Reconstruction ofthe Great Hall Down. \99% 138 Fig.24. Putting Chairs in the Great Hall. 1998 1 39 Fig.25. Tagore and Leonard superimposed on 1991 car journey. Frames from ^yrcr/>w»/*actt. 2003. 167 Fig.26. Caleb in the Tilt Yard picking daisies. 1998 171 Fig.27. Close Shot of I6mm married print of The Sc/tool from AJler the Facts part three Interpreting Dartington. 2003 1 78 Acknowledgement would like to acknowledge the help of the following institutions and individuals in the research and production of this work Dartington Hall Archive The University of Plymouth Carlton Westcountry TelevlskDn The South West Film and Television Archive Maggie Giraud. Lucy Bartlett and Carol. Paula Morel, Victor Bonham-Carter, Michael Young. Mary Bride Nicholson. Polly Church. Ricky Leacock, Peter Cox. Mark Kidel. Angie Palmer, Yvonne Widger, Eyiain Downing David Jeremiah. Chris Rodrigues, John Daniel. Liz Wells. Rachel Harrison, Rick Creswell-Shaw, Tony Lopez Lydia North. Flynn Cohen, Candace Hilton. Yancy Hilton, Jacqueline Hilton and Caleb Hilton Author's Declaration At no time during the registration of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy has the Author been registered for any other University award. Exhibitions of the Author's work: Or? Reflection, a series of 10 compilation videos produced and presented at Dartington Hall Archive Jan - April 1993 From the Archive 93. a 50 minute compilation video produced presented and distributed by DHA 1993. Four Parts for a Modernist House, a collaborative music and video performance produced and presented at DHA 1995 Tracing Leonard, a 20 minute video biography produced and presented at DHA 1996 - 1997 Tobey at Darlington, a 20 minute video produced and presented at DHA 1996 DeTrey at Dartington, a 20 minute video produced and presented at DHA 1996 Photoworks and video compilation work exhibited in Going Modem and Being Bntish at Exeter Royal Albert and Plymouth museums May to June 1998 Recollecting Reconstructions an exhibition of photoworks High Cross House Aug to Sept 1998 Traces, an exhibition of photoworks at Pheonix Exeter Jan to Feb 2001. A Place in the Archive, an exhibition of photoworks at Gallery 74 Exeter AphI 2003. Film and the Dartington Experience Conference Paper given at Interwar Rural History Group conference Gregynog Powis April 22"** April 2004 Film and the Dartington Experience Abstract This project is a study of Dartington under the leading question "What is Dartington?' and comprises a number of interlinked methodological phases of enquiry. The first explores Dartington's use of film as a process of documenting its experimental activities, and as a commercial product in the form of the films made and distributed by the Dartington Hall Film Unit. The second strategy engages with archive film materials in the production of compilation videos, which were then developed into a series of Photowortcs designed to facilitate a personal interpretation of its particular history. The third approach resulted in the production of three forty minute videos {After the Facts 2003) which articulate an understanding of Dartington's history of engagement with film, a personal experimental engagement with filmmaking, and an interrogation of the possibilities of applying a particular reading of the experimental ethos of Dartington to a filmic practice. A pervading concern has been with the mythic nature of Dartington during the inter-war years and the function of the filmic form in myth generation and perpetuation. The final part of the project presents an overview of these strategies, assessing their successes and limitations. By the ordering of the visual archive, the creative juxtaposition of historic and contemporary images in the Photowori^s, and the interfacing of place and self in After the Facts the intention has been to show the ways in which a creative practice has been able to understand Dartington as a changing and variable experience. Introduction Modern Dartington, the Dartington Experiment, began in 1925 when Leonard and Dorothy Elmhirst bought the run-down country house estate in Devon, with a view to living out their experimental ideas of rural regeneration incorporating economic and social structures within a vital community built around the needs of individuals. This was how they believed they could achieve what Leonard Elmhirst called 'an abundant life'.^ The nature of the experiment is complex and has been explored at length by Victor Bonham-Carter^, Michael Young^ and Mark Kidel;* these and other authors have been extensively consulted. The phase when the 'experiment' began to move from personal to institutional practice can be identified as the early thirties and certainly by the outbreak of World War Two it is possible to identify the end of Dartington's truly experimental phase. By then the Utopian idealism of the experimental phase was moving into a more pragmatic existence with the idea of the Dartington Experiment becoming a mythic element of Dartington's identity. The idea of Dartington as an experiment was to continue to be incorporated in its post-war activities, but was not enacted in the way it had been at the beginning. It was my work on the film and photographic archive of the early years that began to raise questions on the formations of meanings, and the extent to which these constructions had established the mythic elements of the experiment.