Dear chunkyone-ga,
This was a fascinating and difficult question, a real test for a
researcher (and thus very rewarding.) The film you seek, "To End with
a Curtsey" (1958) is not cataloged in any of the usual film databases,
even those that specialize in documentary films. Searches for that
title yield no results, either in the databases or in more general
searches. However, searching for the director of the film, Derrick
Knight, did produce the necessary leads.
After some careful limiting of the search to exclude an American
football player of the same name, I was able to find reference to Mr.
Knight's extensive work on documentary films from a number of sources
(see the "Additional links" section below) but was still unable to
find your film. I did find a publicly posted email address for Mr.
Knight and was able to contact him regarding the film. While he no
longer has his personal copy, he did give me vital information that
has produced the desired results.
With Mr. Knight's help, I discovered that two copies of the film still
exist, both in the collection of the British Film Institute
(http://www.bfi.org.uk), one being the 16mm copy donated by Mr. Knight
in 1998, and the second a 35mm fine grained copy originally owned by
the film's distributor Contemporary Films and donated in 1988. I did
contact Contemporary Films to see if they retained any further copies,
but they do not. I thus turned to the BFI to see if copies of the film
could be obtained, contacting the cataloging department since there
was no reference to the film in the BFI's online databases. Today I
received the following answer by email which I will quote in full,
since it provides the answer you have been hoping for:
-begin inclusion-
From: "Natasha Fairbairn" <Natasha.Fairbairn@bfi.org.uk>
RE: An enquiry regarding a possible BFI holding.
We do indeed hold 35mm and 16mm copies of the film TO END WITH A
CURTSEY. Unfortunately these are master copies held by the Archive and
we do not have a viewing copy of the film. However, your user should
get in touch with our Donor Access department who may be able to help
obtain a copy since he had direct involvement in the making of the
film. There will be costs involved for your user, and also issues of
copyright, condition of film etc. that may affect the ability to make
a copy.
They should contact Shona Barret on 020 7957 8950 (or
Shona.Barret@bfi.org.uk).
Yours Sincerely,
Natasha Fairbairn
Cataloguing Unit
bfi National Film and Television Archive
(020 7957 8953)
-end inclusion-
I know that this may not sound hopeful, but you do have a good chance
of getting a copy. Mr Knight has asked that I pass along his public
email address so that you might contact him regarding the film. He
still has a selection of stills and other materials from the
production that you might be interested in. His email is
dknight@gn.apc.org and he would like to hear from you.
Additional links:
The Watersons - "Travelling for a Living"
This is site about a documentary Mr. Knight made in 1965 for the BBC,
recording the tour of a popular folk group. It is the site that put me
in contact with Mr. Knight.
http://www.folkicons.co.uk/advert.htm
Oxford Student: 7th November 2002: Begging, borrowing, bludgeoning
An article in the Oxford University student newspaper by Mr. Knight
about his work on early avant garde film at Oxford in the 1950's.
http://www.oxfordstudent.com/2002-11-07/ox2/2
Search strategy:
"To End with a Curtsey" (no results)
curtsey +film +documentary (no results)
"Derrick Knight" (3,090 results)
"Derrick Knight" -football -running -sun -microsystems (394 results)
I hope that all this will finally get you a copy of the film. Good
luck with the BFI and if I can be of any further assistance I will be
glad to help. It has been very rewarding to think that I have put you
in contact not only with the best chance you have of seeing "To End
with a Curtsey" again, but also with Mr. Knight.
Regards,
stwriley-ga |
