Public School in Annan (c.1901)

A continuous stream of children dash joyously past the camera in the Scottish town of Annan.

Mitchell & Kenyon captured over twenty of these school films, but this example is more anarchic than most. Where others show pupils in a more-or-less orderly march presided over by their stern-faced teachers, here the participants race past at almost full pelt. The effect is a joyous sense of freedom, and it's hard not to join in with the wide smiles on the children's faces.