Children Digging for Clams

1896 Documentary 50 seconds Directed by Alexandre Promio

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About Children Digging for Clams

On an English beach, children work a shallow pool with nets, rakes, and shovels while adults stand behind them. A donkey cart crosses the middle of the view. The Lumière catalogue title is Enfants pêchant des crevettes, shrimp rather than clams. The American release title is the one used here.

Cast & crew

More about Children Digging for Clams

Alexandre Promio filmed Lumière view no. 45. Silent Era dates the release 7 November 1896, and a French note also records a Nîmes screening as Les Pêcheuses de crevettes.

Themes

  • Children working a tidal pool
  • Adults watching from the sand
  • A seaside actuality
  • shrimp nets
  • English beach
  • Lumière view 45
  • Promio
  • donkey cart

Look

Promio used a fixed Lumière camera. Mountains sit on the horizon behind the pool, and the cart exits frame right.

Preservation

Silent Era lists a surviving print. The view is in the Lumière catalogue as number 45.

Notes

  • The Library of Congress groups this view with other Lumière seaside films and identifies the location as Great Britain.
  • Silent Era lists it as Lumière film number 45 and says a print exists.
  • One girl glances at the camera. Most of the children keep working.
  • The French running time is given as about 46 to 50 seconds.

Scenes

  • Children lean into a pool with dip nets while women in long dresses coach them.
  • A donkey cart travels across the beach and leaves the frame.

Also available

  • Wikimedia Commons (Enfant pêchant des crevettes - Court métrage 1896.webm)

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