Boys Diving, Honolulu
(1901)

Short Film

Country: USA

Genre: Documentary, Short

Synopsis

A group of young Hawaiian boys dive off a short wooden structure that juts out over the water.

Notes

• The man behind the camera on this piece of film was the pioneering cinematographer Robert Kates Bonine (1862-1923). A former cameraman for Edison, Bonine, who hailed from Altoona, Pennsylvania, would deliver a number of pieces of film, including this one, for Edison's competitor, the American Mutoscope & Biograph Company. This company, founded by Edison's former co-worker William Kennedy Dixon, challenged Edison's Vitascope projection technology, and in fact surpassed Edison's technology in terms of quality of product. Bonine would eventually become disillusioned by the growth in popularity of fiction films and the declining market value of the actuality film, and would end up settling down in his beloved Hawaii, where he would continue to take photographs and moving pictures. Like Bonine's other short films of the time, "Boys Diving, Honolulu" (1901) displays considerable skill in overall layout and framing, with a kinetic foreground of diving boys set against a static background comprising a row of three-masted sailing ships at anchor, their sails furled, in order to make a composition that is both dynamic and aesthetically appealing. A motor powered boat fortuitously passing by adds to the overall effect. Naturally, the identities of the boys featured are unknown, and so - unusually for film entries in this database - no cast details are provided.
• Preserved prints of this short piece of film (with a runtime of approximately 28 seconds) survive in the Library of Congress and the UCLA Film and Television Archives. It is also available to view on YouTube.