I have just ordered a DVD copy of The Moon and The Sledgehammer Philip Trevelyan’s fascinating and thoroughly captivating 1971 documentary that portrays the day to day life of the extraordinary Page family. It is many years since I first saw this, back in the days when CH4 still had a genuinely innovative remit on content and programming. The film, or rather the people and the lives it documents, left an indelible impression on me.
It is even more difficult to find terms to describe the Page family in the context of our 21st century lives than it was back in those relatively uncomplicated early 70s — but imagine a group of people, or rather a close knit family, living in a forest clearing in marginally rural England and yet so dislocated from 20th century life that they appear almost like members of a lost Amazonian tribe with a completely independent and incredibly beguiling view on life. Or more fittingly, in the case of the Page’s, more like elfin wood folk with a childlike fascination for antiquated 19th century machinery and all manner of creative crafts.
The strange childlike innocence of Mr Page and his Son and two Daughters is at times very touching and one can’t help wondering how such people would fare in today’s climate of public pillorying and draconian laws.
See more here The Moon and The Sledgehammer the only place I can find where copies of the DVD are available.