F. Percy Smith

Time lapse photography of roots growing underground. Part of the “Secrets of Nature” series.

Mosses are seen on walls, old roofs and in hedgerows.

Short film showing (with limited accuracy) the life-cycle of myxomycetes.

The Strangler shows the life history of dodder, from its earliest stage as a seedling, to its parasitic stage feeding off its host.

"Percy Smith (1880-1944) was world famous as a photographer of plant life. Probably the first British example of time-lapse photography as applied to the growth of plants." Monthly Film Bulletin, November 1955.

The film shows the birth, life and reproduction of sweet peas, a familiar and well loved plant of British gardeners.

Time lapse photography of roots growing underground. Part of the “Secrets of Nature” series.

Mosses are seen on walls, old roofs and in hedgerows.

Short film showing (with limited accuracy) the life-cycle of myxomycetes.

The Strangler shows the life history of dodder, from its earliest stage as a seedling, to its parasitic stage feeding off its host.

"Percy Smith (1880-1944) was world famous as a photographer of plant life. Probably the first British example of time-lapse photography as applied to the growth of plants." Monthly Film Bulletin, November 1955.

The film shows the birth, life and reproduction of sweet peas, a familiar and well loved plant of British gardeners.

A short documentary study of hops, barley and yeast, and how they interact.

Charming animated illustration of one of nature's wonders from Britain's most inventive pioneer of wildlife filmmaking.

The life cycle of the larva of the phantom-fly. Released in a silent (1926) and sound (1930) version.

If you are sitting comfortably then Archie the Ant will begin his bedtime story, although sadly Archie’s creator left it unfinished. Frank Percy Smith was a true pioneer of natural history filmmaking and a real lover of insects. “Marking time”, as he later put it, between working on educational films he spent two years making this “Bedtime Stories of Archie the Ant” series, which was seemingly never released. The film is left as it was when Smith abandoned work on it. It’s out of sequence, and has repeat alternate takes giving an insight into his working methods. The intertitles are bunched at the end, offering a tantalising glimpse of where the story was going.

Short documentary showing infusoria in a wine-glass.

A wildlife film with a difference: it has A Message for any humans in the house. "The squirrel in the tree, the fox below, the birds, insects, all know that a time of plenty will not last forever". Austerity-stricken wartime viewers can learn from their economical feeding habits. An entertaining hybrid of public information and natural history from the makers of wildlife series Secrets of Life. Released in the BFI boxset Ration Books and Rabbit Pies: Films from the Home Front.

The struggle between plants for existence and methods of seed dispersal. The plant movements are shown at twenty thousand times their normal speed and in extreme close up.

Short, anthropomorphically-inclined documentary showing the life-cycle of the common newt.

A life history of the Frog. Released in a silent (1929) and sound (1930) version.

A bug’s life laid bare in this charming cut-out animated tale.

An early British Kinemacolor short, in which delicate tones and shades of color are beautifully reproduced in examples of highly cultivated sweet pea flowers.

Short documentary film using innovative filming techniques to show how moulds grow and germinate.

A short black-and-white silent documentary film featuring the sexual elements of pollenation in Dandelion, Globe thistle, Daisy, Cornflower, Carline thistle and Everlastings.

The film uses stop-frame animation to create maps on the screen, and showed the then-current military situation in the Dardanelles, using various maps to assist understanding. Small cardboard cut-outs show the deployment of men and ships. Intertitles explain tactics, and shelling explosions are illustrated by clouds of cotton wool.

A short, early documentary work showing insects exhibiting extreme strength and agility.

Time lapse photography of the broad bean flower unfurling. Released in a silent (1929) and sound (1930) version.

This hand-tinted picture shows a series of hothouse flowers turning upon a pedestal, then displays time-lapse photography of flower growth.

Propped upon the tail-end of a match, a housefly performs astonishing feats, alternately juggling a series of objects - a blade of grass, a cork, a miniature dumbbell… Most extraordinary of all is the sequence in which the fly spins a ball twice its own size, while a second fly perches on top. In the final sequence, the fly repeats some of its earlier tricks while apparently seated on a tiny chair.

Nature’s Handiwork presents the marvelous and critical stages of transformation of caterpillars, moths and butterflies. Through microscopic techniques, this silent film captures hidden nature's secrets in action and composes an alien and strange looking world.

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