ABSTRACT
Chapter 3 discusses the National Fairground and Circus Archive (NFCA), established in 1994. In 2005, it collaborated with the British Film Institute (BFI) and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) on the study and exhibition of the newly discovered Mitchell & Kenyon collection of hundreds of early British films. The archive recontextualized them within the milieu of local fairs, working class entertainment, and itinerant film exhibition. Drawing on the variety format of early fairground cinema, the NFCA’s later displays combined film screenings with off-screen performances, including film lecturing, contemporary circus, and burlesque. Through Gadamer’s concept of volksfest (folk festival), I read the archive’s curatorial work as “historical pastiche”— less preoccupied with historical authenticity than with adapting early cinema to current sensibilities.
