page_title: William Haggar
section_title: Films
hierarchical_section_title: William Haggar / Films
caption_attribution_description: English: A still from William Haggar's 1903 silent short Desperate Poaching Affair.
context_page_description: William Haggar was a British pioneer of the cinema industry. Beginning his career as a travelling entertainer, Haggar, whose large family formed his theatre company, later bought a Bioscope show and earned his money in the fairgrounds of south Wales. In 1902 he began making his own short fictional films, making him one of the earliest directors in Britain. His films were shown worldwide and his short Desperate Poaching Affray is believed to have influenced early narrative drama in American film, especially in chase genre. As a director Haggar is recognised for his use of editing and the depth of staging in his melodramas and crime films.
context_section_description: In 1901, Haggar began making his own films, filming the arrival of a train at Burry Port. Although the filming of everyday events was popular for early experimenters of film, Haggar and his family had access to props, costumes and the understanding of how to both act and to entertain the public. In 1902 Haggar began making narrative shorts, and these found distribution from Gaumont, Charles Urban and the Warwick Trading Company. 1902 saw Haggar film The Maid of Cefn Ydfa based on the well known Welsh folk tale. Shot in Maesteg, with his family as the cast, the main filming took little over an hour and a half with seven scenes. The Maid of Cefn Ydfa was shown at the Swansea fair and caused a sensation with people flocking to see it. The film made Haggar's fortune, and was one of the earliest productions to relate to a regional audience.
  Amongst Haggar's productions of 1903 was his crime chase film Desperate Poaching Affray. Including Haggers first extant panning shots, the film is now regarded as one of two or three films that influenced early narrative drama in United States cinema, especially in the genre of the chase movie. in the film, poachers are chased by gamekeepers and police officers before being captured. The film includes panning shots, actors running past camera conducted with a sense of urgency and speed. The film was a great success and sold over 480 copies in Europe and America and was widely pirated.
  Contemporary accounts describe Haggar's films as considerable achievements given their production conditions. He never used a studio, and many of his shorts were shot near a river and wrapped up in under two hours. His work was held in high esteem by Gaumont who presented him with a film camera, mechanical tripod and supplied him with film stock, all free of charge. Haggar handed over all his negatives to his films in return for retaining the rights in south Wales, and he is believed to have lost out financially in this relationship when the likes of his 1905 The Salmon Poachers – A Midnight Melee sold 480 prints at £6.17s apiece for Gaumont. The Salmon Poachers, a 274ft. film, was praised by the company for its 'magnificent quality throughout' and hailed it as 'the most realistic moonlight effect picture we have ever issued'. Haggar's films were also recognised for their intelligent use of depth of staging and screen edges, while film academic Noël Burch praised Haggar's effective use of off-screen space.
  Despite filming during the height of the Welsh religious revival, Haggar's films were often steeped in violence, much to the delight of his audiences. In Desperate Poaching Affray the villains are seen firing guns at their pursuers. While his 1905 melodrama, The Life of Charles Peace, the central character, based on the notorious English burglar and murderer, makes the viewer complicit in his crimes by approaching the camera and thumbing his nose after sending a police officer in the wrong direction. The film starred much of Haggars family with his son Walter taking the central character role, while his wife played Peace's mother.
  In total, Haggar made more than 30 documented films, though only four are known to exist today: Desperate Poaching Affray, The Life of Charles Peace, The Sheepstealer (1908) and Revenge! (1904). The Sheepstealer was previously lost, and was rediscovered in the 1970s in the collection of the early film educator Abbé Joseph Joye in Switzerland; and restored by the British Film Institute in the 1990s. Revenge! was rediscovered in 2007 in the collection of the US Library of Congress, and is considered one of his most violent films.
caption: Desperate Poaching Affray (1903)
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