| The Boxing Kangaroo | |
|---|---|
 Screenshot from the film | |
| Directed by | Birt Acres |
| Produced by |
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| Cinematography | Birt Acres |
Release date |
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| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | Silent |
The Boxing Kangaroo is an 1896 British short black-and-white silent documentary film, produced and directed by Birt Acres for exhibition on Robert W. Paul's peep show Kinetoscopes, featuring a young boy boxing with a kangaroo. The film was considered lost until footage from an 1896 Fairground Programme, originally shown in a portable booth at Hull Fair by Midlands photographer George Williams, donated to the National Fairground Archive was identified as being from this film.[1]
It was one of at least four boxing-themed films Acres produced in 1896, the others being Boxing Match; or, Glove Contest, A Boxing Match in Two Rounds by Sgt. Instructor F.Barrett and Sgt. Pope and A Prize Fight by Jem Mace and Burke.[2][3] The year before, German filmmaker Max Skladanowsky had made a similar film depicting a man boxing with a kangaroo, entitled Das boxende Känguruh.[3]
- ^ "A brief History: A 1896 Fairground Programme - The George Williams Collection". Europa Film Treasures. Archived from the original on 4 June 2011. Retrieved 25 May 2011.
- ^ Streible, Dan (2008). Fight Pictures: A History of Boxing and Early Cinema. University of California Press. p. 292. ISBN 978-0-520-94058-1.
- ^ a b Crosson, Seán (2013). Sport and Film. Routledge. p. 36. ISBN 978-1-135-16745-5.