Oss tales
John Melville Bishop (Film director, Commentator), Sabrina Magliocco (Film director, Commentator), Alan Lomax (Film director), Peter Kennedy (Film director, Commentator), George Pickow (Film director, Commentator)
Oss Tales: Padstow, a town on the north coast of Cornwall, celebrates May Day with a unique custom: two hobby horses, or osses dance through the town streets, accompanied by drums and accordions. All Padstownians participate in this exciting event, which has now become a tourist attraction, drawing over 30,000 visitors the first of May to this fishing town of 3000. Folklorists Alan Lomax and Peter Kennedy visited Padstow in 1951, producing a film called Oss Oss Wee Oss (1953). In 2004, filmmaker John Bishop and folklorist Sabina Magliocco (with Jaynie Ali Aydin and Noah Bishop) returned to Padstow to see how the custom was faring fifty years later. -- Oss Oss Wee Oss Redux: Beltane in Berkeley: A portrait of a contemporary pagan group in Berkeley, California that yearly re-enacts the custom of the hobby horse as part of its May Day revelries. -- About the Oss Films: George Pickow and Peter Kennedy talk about making the 1953 film and John Bishop and Sabina Magliocco speak about making this video
Online Video, English, 1953-2007
Documentary Educational Resources (DER), Watertown, MA, 1953-2007