Aptly described as 'bizarrely entertaining', the 1971 documentary The Moon & the Sledgehammer gave glimpses of a family cutting itself off from the world nearly forty years ago.
Mr Page and his grown-up children Kathy, Nancy, Jim and Peter lived in six acres of woodland at Gun Hill near Heathfield, Sussex (south of London). Water was from the well. There were no electricity or gas.
While the girls embroidered, gardened, skivvied at home - or escaped to the coast - the men immersed themselves in machinery, including two steam traction engines. One moment Mr Page was building a submersible iron boat; the next he was shooting rabbit and pigeon for the pot.
Director Philip Trevelyan drew out the conflicting ideas and fantasies of each of the five characters. The men's distrust of technological advance beyond steam has a resonance today.
Filmed in colour, sombrely, without artifical lighting and with plenty of large close-ups, the images build up to what could be something rather nasty in the woodshed - but isn't quite.
Pirated versons of the programme have been shown over the years but this is the first good, legal print to be in circulation, distributed by Vaughan Films Ltd.
The Moon & the Sledgehammer, approx 65 minutes, directed by Philip Trevelyan, produced by James Vaughan, available from Old Pond Publishing at £19.95. NOW IN STOCK.
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