[KenRa Films Present: the Kenneth Rankine Home Movie Collection: Reel 1]

Kenneth Carruthers Rankine (1890 - 1968) was a keen amateur cinematographer and filmmaker. This collection of his home movies has been donated to ACMI by Kenneth’s granddaughter. The collection represents a wonderful slice of life in Australia; with contents including scenes of everyday life, major family occasions, holidays around Victoria and views of Melbourne.

This film contains scenes taken of the Rankine/Wootton children, filmed primarily at play in a garden. We see the children grow as the film tracks their growth over 3 years. Kenneth uses shots of flowers, trees and leaves throughout to separate scenes.

Selected highlights list:

00:00:10:00 title card “Now I am 3 & Look at Elizabeth 9 months”.

00:00:49:00 baby Elizabeth wearing a hat while sitting strapped into a coach-built pram.

00:01:27:00 family picnic, complete with picnic rug, wicker baskets, thermos flasks and folding chairs.

00:02:14:00 children in the garden shows us excellent examples of hand made and hand knitted children’s clothes. The images of Elizabeth at play show what fun small children can have with just a cardboard box.

00:03:52:00 close-up of a butterfly on foliage.

00:04:47:00 the children have grown and the eldest child is off to school as shown by his schoolbag. The Reel ends with a close-up of dad and the kids.