On 19 July the BFI releases Secrets of Nature, a captivating DVD collection of 19 British films from 1922 - 1933 that used groundbreaking techniques to share the secrets of the natural world with cinema audiences.
Secrets of Nature, a pioneering series exploring animal, plant and insect life, made wondrous worlds and natural processes visible for the first time: sweet peas unfurl in the sunlight, white owls swoop on their prey, sea life lurks on the ocean floor and moths patiently spin their cocoons. Some films are silent, others have a distinctive commentary and carefully chosen music. Produced in an age before television was established, they were shown in cinemas that specialised in screening newsreels, documentaries and travelogues and were a fixture in many, including the Tatler on London's Charing Cross Road.
These rarely-seen films were made by enterprising men and women such as Percy Smith and Mary Field, at the forefront of science and nature filmmaking, who developed groundbreaking techniques of time-lapse, microscopic and underwater cinematography.
