Tourist chiefs recreate Holmfirth firm Bamforth and Co’s silent film to boost Yorkshire region

Mar 13 2009 by Henryk Zientek, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

A MILESTONE in movie-making history has been recreated 110 years after it was originally filmed by a Holmfirth firm.

The Kiss In The Tunnel, created in 1889, was the first edited film in the world.

Now the classic piece of cinema, originally shot by Bamforth and Co, is being used to inspire modern film-makers.

The 60-second flickering black and white image depicts an aristocratic couple sharing a lingering embrace while their train rumbles through a tunnel.

A scene from the silent film was recreated at the Ingrow Railway Centre on the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway – where the original film was made – to set the cameras rolling on a nationwide competition.

Tourist chiefs in Yorkshire are inviting people to make a 60-second clip by mobile phone or camcorder capturing their favourite places in the county.

The winners will receive prizes and their movies will feature in a Hollywood-style premiere.

Footage of the entries will also be used on the new pennineyorkshire.com

website – which aims to promote tourist attractions in the Pennine area covering Kirklees, Calderdale, Wakefield, Leeds and Bradford.

For the remake of the Bamforth film, the roles of the two young lovers were played by 18-year-old Gina Metcalfe and Lee Watson, 17. Both are performing arts students at Thomas Danby College in Leeds.

Bamforth and Co were known as a leading producer of magic lantern slides before turning to moving pictures. However, the company later abandoned the movies to focus on producing picture and comic postcards.

The Kiss in the Tunnel was shot in three scenes – the first showing a steam train heading for a tunnel; the second showing the passionate embrace inside the carriage; and the third showing the train approaching a station.