28mm: the forgotten home movie gauge
Long before the arrival of 16mm film, a revolutionary film format became the first to make viewing film possible beyond cinemas – in schools, churches and even homes. So why has 28mm film been forgotten?
As part of the BFI’s Film on Film season, BFI National Archive Curator Rosie Taylor and I will be presenting an event about a film format very few people have even heard of: 28mm. Most people know about Kodak’s 16mm gauge, brought out in 1923, and a few know about Pathé’s 9.5mm, brought out the year before. But a decade earlier was a truly pioneering film gauge, designed to take films out of cinemas and into schools, churches and even homes. This was summed up by the slogan Pathé used for their new format: “Le Cinema Chez Soi” – “The cinema in your own home”.
The flammability of nitrate film stock had been a major obstacle to exhibiting films in non-theatrical venues. But in 1912 Pathé brought out a new type of film stock: safety film, which could legally be projected anywhere, not requiring purpose-built fireproof projection booths.
Another obstacle was that professional projectors needed electricity to power their carbon arc lights. Few of the venues and homes Pathé were targeting would have had electricity at this time. So the first projector designed for the gauge was also revolutionary. Not only was it compact, resembling a sewing machine, but it didn’t require electricity at all. The hand crank not only moved the film through the projector, but also powered a small dynamo which provided electricity to the lamp, making the projector entirely self-sufficient.
The projector was named the KOK, a phonetic rendering of Pathe’s trademark cockerel, and sounding perhaps deliberately similar to Kodak’s brand name.
Why was the 28mm width chosen for the new format? Possibly because it allowed the film stock manufacturer to prevent unscrupulous dealers issuing films on nitrate stock. Such people would only have access to perforated 35mm stock, and the area between the sprocket holes on 35mm is less than 28mm wide, allowing Pathé to maintain control of the format.
The 28mm film format was not intended solely for watching professional films. Pathé also made a camera, albeit hand-cranked, necessitating the use of a tripod. Despite its cumbersome nature, it was clearly targeted at what we think of as conventional home movies: a 1914 28mm advert shows a child standing on a chair in order to crank the camera, which is filming the rest of the family on the beach.
The camera did not use safety film; because the camera negative was never intended for projection, the camera stock was nitrate film. Once processed by the laboratory, a safety positive was returned to the client for projection.
Pathé (and in America, Victor), built up an extensive hire library. The professional films released on the 28mm gauge were of high photographic quality, the format being only slightly smaller than the professional 35mm gauge. Some releases have quite high contrast, to offset the low power lamps in the dynamo-powered projectors.
The films cover a wide range of subjects, with the first edition of the 28mm catalogue featuring such diverse categories as travel, documentary, comedy, drama, religion, military, animation and science. Judging by the surviving films, educational items were especially popular, indicating 28mm’s success in schools. The films were designed for rental, not the outright sale that was popularised a decade later by 9.5mm.
The 28mm gauge was successful, being marketed in several territories, including France, Britain, Canada and Australia. In America, various models of projector were made, including the Pathescope Premier and the Victor Safety Cinema. Both of these will be on display at the Film on Film event, and a 1917 Victor projector, upgraded by former owner Brian Giles, will be used to project the original prints.
The gauge is not just of historic interest, but has led to the preservation of several films that survive on no other format. Most famous of these is The Perils of Pauline (1914), which only exists as a shortened 28mm release. I have a lost Harold Lloyd film on 28mm, That’s Him (1918), which was scanned and released by Criterion. I also have a lost episode of another early serial, The Hazards of Helen (1914), which we will be projecting at the 28mm show for Film on Film.
The BFI has an extensive collection of 28mm films, approximately 200 titles. Because these are mainly regarded as preservation masters, they cannot be projected, so the original prints we will be running at the Film on Film event come from my own collection, and will include early animation, comedy and drama, and a ‘trick’ film.
Despite being forgotten today, the 28mm film gauge made movies outside purpose-built cinemas a practical reality. It was supplanted by Pathé’s own cheaper and more compact 9.5mm gauge, and Kodak’s 16mm gauge, which had the benefit of keeping filmmaking costs down by the use of reversal film, rather than negative-positive. But it remains hugely historically important as the first attempt to bring movies into homes and non-theatrical settings, without the dangers of nitrate film.
The BFI Film on Film Festival runs 12 to 15 June 2025.