Oss Oss Wee Oss! (1953)

Padstow, a fishing village on the coast of Cornwall, celebrates May Day with an ancient custom: two osses (hobby-horses) dance through the town streets accompanied by drums and accordions. All Padstownians participate in the event, which has now become a tourist attraction drawing over tens of thousands of annual visitors. Folklorists Alan Lomax and Peter Kennedy and filmmaker George Pickow collected footage at the festival in 1951, producing a pioneering work in the use of sound, low-light photography, and conversational presentation of narrative. A favorite of Margaret Mead, who used it in her classes, the film circulated widely and continues to have influence today, especially in the neo-Pagan community.

The film is available on DVD through Media Generation (media-generation.net) alongside the following shorts:

Oss Tales (2007) 25 min: Re-engages the Padstow May Day in 2004. The film includes footage from Oss Oss Wee Oss and commentary by Peter Kennedy and Ronald Hutton, and people of Padstow.

Oss Oss Wee Oss Redux: Beltane in Berkeley (2004) 14 min: 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 (2007) 11 min: George Pickow and Peter Kennedy talk about making the 1953 film and John Bishop and Sabina Magliocco discuss the making this DVD.