Documentary preview: "Bartitsu - the Lost Martial Art of Sherlock Holmes"

The 2009 preview trailer for a new documentary exploring the cultural history, rediscovery and modern revival of E.W. Barton-Wright's "New Art of Self Defence". The new 2011 preview trailer is available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYqAdaosuIw and you can visit the Freelance Academy press website to learn more about the documentary.

Founded in London in 1899, Bartitsu was an early example of a mixed martial art, combining boxing, jiujitsu, savate and self defence with a walking stick. After a brief heyday, it was all but forgotten throughout the 20th century except for a single cryptic reference in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes story, "the Adventure of the Empty House".

Shot on location in Italy, Switzerland, England and the USA, "Bartitsu: the Lost Martial Art of Sherlock Holmes" is presented by Tony Wolf and features interviews with Dr. Emelyne Godfrey, Harry Cook, Graham Noble, Will Thomas, Mark Donnelly and Neal Stephenson.


Il documentario analizza la storia passata, la riscoperta, e la recente rinascita della New Art of Self Defence di E.W. Barton Wright.

Creato a Londra nel 1899, il Bartitsu fu una delle prime forme documentate di arte marziale mista, combinando il repertorio tecnico di pugilato, jiuijitsu, savate e dell'autodifesa con il bastone da passeggio. Dopo un momentaneo successo, durante il XX secolo se ne perse il ricordo, fatto salvo per una criptica menzione nel racconto L'avventura della casa vuota di Arthur Conan Doyle, con protagonista il celebre Sherlock Holmes.

Girato in Italia, Svizzera, Inghilterra e Stati Uniti Bartitsu: la perduta arte marziale di Sherlock Holmes è presentato da Tony Wolf e contiene interviste con la Dottoressa Emelyne Godfrey, Harry Cook, Graham Noble, Will Thomas, Mark Donnelly e Neal Stephenson.

Producers / Produttori:

Ran Arthur Braun

Tony Wolf

Bartitsu Club Italia - Broken Art: Paolo Paparella - Angelica A. Pedatella

Cletarte: Gaetano Guglietta - Filomena Longo

2009 trailer producers:

Digital Room Srl

Music:

Adi Bar (piano)
Roni Cohen (cello)
Abney Park ("Airship Pirate" and "Sleep Isabella")

Information:

www.bartitsu.org (English)
www.bartitsu.it (Italian)

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Bartitsu
• baritsu
• Sherlock Holmes
• documentary
• preview
• trailer
• history
• martial arts
• self defence
• self defense

[aethelwyn666]

And where is the reference to canne de combat and savate ? It mainly originates from the french sports. And the guy just told himself he could mix a bit of asian stuff in it. And why didn't his club last long ? The guy gave his name to the sport mixing it with some asian suffix to make it sound cool. We should concentrate on making canne live ( because we are only 3000 peple practising it in France ) because it's dying here, Instead of reviving something that didn't work because it was useless.

[BartitsuSociety]

@aethelwyn666 - this is a preview trailer for a full-length documentary. There are multiple shots (historical images and re-enactment footage) showing savate and the canne Vigny method in the trailer, and obviously both styles are discussed in greater depth in the documentary itself. No-one knows why the original Bartitsu Club didn't last. Historically, Bartitsu was composed of about 2/3 jujitsu and a remaining 1/3 combination of English boxing and Pierre Vigny's system.

[Spartacus74]

IN Italy that would be called simply "Scrimia" or "NOva Scrimia"; it comes from a tradition of hand by hand and armed style of close combat with several sources like Flos Liberorum and Duellatorum with newer integrations of Carmine Boxing and XVIII and XIX centuries well known styles.

NOthing new except for the obviously well working movie's battage of advertisement.

[BartitsuSociety]

@Spartacus74 - as it happens, members of Nova Scrimia performed Bartitsu-style stick fighting demonstrations for this documentary.

There are numerous modern revivals of historical martial arts systems, each one representing, as well as they can, the flavour and detail of the originals.

[braveTOMINATOR]

Yes. Because we all know Mua Thai with BJJ is the only and best style of martial arts.

What about a boxing and pankration combo?

Savate and Russian sambo?

Judo and kickboxing?

There's a lot of styles that will get you in basically the same place. Just because BJJ and MT schools are the most common in the U.S. and in UFC, it doesn't mean that it is automatically the way and the only way to effectively fight.

[BartitsuSociety]

Raposamandinga, yes, of course; most people involved in reviving Bartitsu have backgrounds in other historical martial arts reconstruction, including work with the Flos Duellatorum. Likewise, many martial arts from different periods and cultures have combined unarmed striking and grappling with weapon training.

The significance of Bartitsu in that sense is that it was the first method to deliberately blend Asian and European self defence arts into a more-or-less cohesive system.

[BartitsuSociety]

@aethelwyn666 - Barton-Wright spent three years living in Japan, between 1895-98. He studied at the Shinden Fudo Ryu jujitsu dojo of sensei Terajima Kuniichiro in Kobe, and also with Professor Jigoro Kano (Kodokan Judo). Barton-Wright spoke Japanese and pioneered the teaching of Japanese martial arts in the Western world.

[aethelwyn666]

@Empireian

Mr Barton was a guy finding very clever to put his name in front of a japanese sounding suffix like "tsu" to make it sound cool. Doesn't mean he actually knew anything about japanese. It was just cool at the time to do asian sports, it was new !

[crocopie]

Lolz. Sherlock Holmes is a fictional character.

[DantehMan]

Time to dig up some instructional videos or something.

[theOYRISHCLOVER]

Well it's a good thing Sherlock Holmes was said to use Baritsu! Which is about as fictional as he is, so this isn't any conspiracy :)