{{Short description|1903 British film by F. Martin Duncan}} {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2025}} {{Use British English|date=April 2016}} {{Infobox film | name = The Cheese Mites | image = Cheese Mites screen shot.jpg | caption = Screenshot from the film | director = F. Martin Duncan | producer = Charles Urban | writer = | narrator = | starring = | music = | cinematography = F. Martin Duncan | editing = | studio = Charles Urban Trading Company | distributor = | released = {{film date|df=yes|1903|8|}} | runtime = 2.5 mins extant | country = United Kingdom | language = Silent | budget = }}
'''''The Cheese Mites''''' (1903) is a British short silent documentary film, produced by Charles Urban and directed by F. Martin Duncan.
==Plot== A gentleman is put off his lunch when he holds up a magnifying glass and sees a microscopic view of the cheese mites in his Stilton cheese sandwich.
==Production background== The film "was the sensation of the first public programme of scientific films in Britain shown at the Alhambra Music Hall in Leicester Square, London, in August 1903". According to Michael Brooke of BFI Screenonline, "its claim to being scientific lay in its being shot through a microscope, revealing to a lay audience sights that would normally only have been available to owners of microscopes."<ref name="BFIso01">{{cite web |title=The Cheese Mites |first=Michael |last=Brooke |url=http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/1336505/ |work=BFI Screenonline Database |date= |accessdate=2011-04-24 }}</ref><ref name="BBCbm01">{{cite web |title=Cheese mites and other wonders |first=Finlo |last=Rohrer |url=https://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7423847.stm |work=BBC News Magazine Database |date= |access-date=2011-04-24 }}</ref>
==Preservation status== thumb|thumbtime=45|Duncan in the full version of ''The Cheese Mites'' A complete copy which includes an opening sequence, featuring F. Martin Duncan as the gentleman, was discovered uploaded to YouTube under a different title, and has now been acquired by the British Film Institute. Previously only the sequence showing the cheese mites was known to have survived.
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *{{IMDb title|id=0828001|title=The Cheese Mites}} * {{YouTube|wR2DystgByQ|Complete film}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cheese Mites, The}} Category:1903 films Category:British short documentary films Category:British black-and-white films Category:British silent short films Category:1900s short documentary films Category:Black-and-white documentary films Category:Documentary films about science Category:Documentary films about food and drink Category:Microscopy Category:Films about arthropods Category:1903 documentary films