The Marvellous Corricks

Christchurch people will soon have the opportunity to see rare gems from the very beginnings of cinema thanks to the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA).

The NFSA has loaned the New Zealand Film Archive a programme from The Marvellous Corricks which includes extraordinary filmic delights on display after 100 years.

For one night only, audience members will be able to witness the first British animated cartoon from 1907, a view of life in London streets and parks in 1904, surreal dramas, early film experimentation and more, collected by New Zealand family the Corricks.

The Corricks were a vaudeville family from Christchurch, who combined musical acts with film screenings. Their diverse programmes included drama, comedy, travelogues, trick films and ‘actualities’. Some of the films they made themselves while others were sourced from Italian, French and British companies between 1903 - 1909. These hand-coloured films have been carefully restored by the NFSA and now this showing in Christchurch will be the first time the films have be seen in New Zealand for over one hundred years.

Showman and Professor Albert Corrick, his wife Alice and their seven daughters - Gertie, Alice, Amy, Ethel, Ruby, Jessie, Elsie and son Leonard - lived in Christchurch while running a music school in Colombo Street. They toured the country from their South Island base from 1902 and were dubbed the ‘Marvellous Corricks’ for their singing, dancing, instrumental and bell-ringing skills.

Inspired by their critical acclaim in New Zealand Albert took the family thousands of miles across Australia, throughout Asia, the South Pacific, India and Europe, first by train and boat then later in a fleet of Model T Fords. Finally the family settled in Launceston, Tasmania.

The ‘Corrick Collection’ films were presented to the NFSA in the 1970s when some preservation work took place immediately. Full preservation of the collection has only recently occurred and in recent years the films have been shown at the Pordenone Silent Film Festival in Italy to high acclaim.

The programme runs for just over an hour. The films will be presented with live music and vaudeville acts as they were originally, in this joint collaboration between The Film Archive and Te Puna Toi Performance Research Project

Te Puna Toi is the host organisation for the Film Archive’s medianet site in Christchurch. At the site it is possible to watch hours of New Zealand footage on a digital format, for free. There is also an interloan service available for Christchurch residents to view material from the central Film Archive repository in Wellington.

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