Aeroplane Flight & Wreck - 1910

Country: United States
The pilot is Mr. Cody and this was filmed by the Biograph Company in June 23, 1910. The name of the filmmaker/director remains a mystery and the work may be of French origin. Standard 35mm spherical 1.37:1 format.

Flying at Pwllheli - 1911

Country: United Kingdom
Travel back to an intrepid age of aviation with this early newsreel, as famous pilot H.J.D. Astley makes an ill-starred attempt to take off from the North Wales coast at Pwllheli. Astley takes it all in good spirit; the son of a millionaire, he had been a racing driver before taking up flying. The woman in the film is likely to be his wife Mary Kinder, an American actress. Astley was no stranger to close shaves, and would survive another near miss on a flight from France to England, but his luck ran out. During a show in Belfast on 22 September 1912, the 30,000-strong crowd saw his monoplane plummet 100 feet to the ground, where he died of head injuries. (Simon McCallum)

Lights and Shades on the Bostock Circus Farm - 1911

Country: United Kingdom
This is not necessarily the most promising of titles, or, indeed, a very accurate one, either. There's certainly a lot of shade, but the only light comes from the flames of the funeral pyre that consume a dead circus elephant shortly after its corpse has been unceremoniously dragged across a field by 50 carthorses.
Augmented by German inter-titles (the BFI's film print was once part of the Swiss Abbé Joye's extraordinary collection), the effect is not unlike a bleakly Expressionist reworking of 'Dumbo'. Unmissable or unwatchable, depending on your own particular sensibility.
The Bostock Circus was American, but toured Europe extensively during this period, including visits to Britain. (Robin Baker)

Alexandra Day in Peckham - 1913

Country: United Kingdom
Alexandra Rose Day is a charity fundraising event, inaugurated in 1912 on the 50th anniversary of the arrival in England of Alexandra of Denmark for her marriage to the future King Edward VII. This charming film follows a cheerful band of women in Peckham, London, as they sell artificial roses to raise funds for local hospitals.