Photographing Fairies

Beautiful in every way
In 1997 there were two movies made about English children who take pictures of fairies. One, Fairy Tale: A True Story, was released to wide audiences and charmed many as an intelligent kid's flick. This story was based on fact, hence the subtitle. The other, Photographing Fairies, was only selectively released on video here in the States, aimed at an adult audience. It deals with a fictional reimagining of the Cottingley fairy incident portrayed in Fairy Tale, as seen through the cynical eyes of a photographer bent on proving the girls false. Charles Castle, spiritually wounded by the death of his bride, tries to disprove the pictures using logic and a camera, but soon finds that there is more to the story than he had bargained on.

Although I was charmed by Fairy Tale, Photographing Fairies is the movie that holds a special place in my heart. I have watched it more times than I can count, and still manage to be surprised and touched by this haunting film. This is everything...

If You Only Believe
'Death is merely a change of state. The soul is a fresh expression of the self. The dead are not dust. They really are only a footfall away.'

It is the ensuing years after World War I, and Charles Castle (Toby Stephens) is eking out a living as a photographer in London after having spent time in the trenches of Europe, photographing dead soldiers for posterity. Before the war, in 1912, he was married in Switzerland, but due to a mountain climbing tragedy, became a widower before the honeymoon was over. He has become a mere shell of a man, going through the motions of everyday life, and unceasing in his wait for the day that he himself will cease to exist. His function in this life has been to debunk the world of the supernatural and all who claim to make contact with the spirit world.

At one such function, sponsored by the Theosophical Society, he lays waste to a set of photographs purporting to show two young girls with fairies dancing around them. A woman...

Crisis Of Faith In Fairyland ~ Guarding The Border Between This World And The Next
Note: If you live in the America's you must have a multi-region DVD player to watch this one.

Introduction: `Photographing Fairies' is an obscure British film from '98 that to my knowledge was never released to American theaters. It was available in limited quantities on VHS but has yet to appear on a REGION 1 DVD.

This probably shouldn't be too surprising when you look at the subject matter of the film. Unlike the Emerald Isles who have an ancient and ongoing oral and written tradition concerning the "wee folk", American audiences are vastly untutored in the topic of the intangible realm of the "Secret Commonweath" and its myriad of inhabitants. Tales of fairies, elves, undines and fauns are not something that would normally dwell in the psyche of U. S. natives. For this reason more than any other 'Photographing Fairies' remains all but unknown on this side of the Atlantic Ocean. This magical realm of existence is something unfortunately lacking in this...

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