"The Lost World of Mitchell & Kenyon" (2005) [TV-series]

James Kenyon and Sagar Mitchell were two English filmmakers of the beginnings of cinema. They made documentary one-reelers featuring common people or social events (they also made a few short fiction films); these films were shown at fairgrounds or city halls. They made films between 1897 and 1913 and then went back to their original line of work -- photography. They stored the hundreds of films they made in metal containers where they remained for decades until in 1994 they were found in a basement in Blackburn, Lancashire, and handed over to a local film historian who then gave them to the British Film Institute who restored them and stored them in a safe place. This documentary is divided in three chapters of one hour each. The first, named 'Life and Times', shows images of common people and the streets of English cities in the beginning of the century. The second, 'Sport and Pleasure', depict football and rugby matches and the people watching them as well as other leisure activities; in the last one, 'Saints and Sinners', we see religious processions, immigrants on ships, some fiction films, military events, etc. The show host has done a research job of identifying places and people in the films and tracking down their descendants. By all accounts, this TV series is a fascinating spectacle, which moved me beyond words.