Claremont

This amateur film meets children with cerebral palsy and other disabilities at a Bristol school.

This award-winning documentary meets children with cerebral palsy and other conditions. The aims and ambitions of the school, located in the Bristol suburb of Westbury-on-Trym, are explained while pupils are shown undertaking educational and therapeutic activities. We also see them on trip to the seaside, trying a spot of painting and dancing in the playground. Short extracts from interviews and songs allow us to hear from the children themselves.

Claremont was awarded a number of prizes, including being placed in Amateur Cine World’s list of the Ten Best films of the year. A follow up, Back to Claremont (1962), tracked the progress of many of the same children. This amateur documentary was made by Bristol Cine Society, a club founded in 1934 that also undertook a number of similar films for local organisations. They are now known as the Bristol Film and Video Society. The film gives an insight into the running of a special school in the late Fifties.