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Frank Humphrey Sinkler Jennings was an English documentary filmmaker and one of the founders of the Mass Observation organisation. Jennings was described by film critic and director Lindsay Anderson in 1954 as "the only real poet that British cinema has yet produced".
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The GPO Film Unit was a subdivision of the UK General Post Office. The unit was established in 1933, taking on responsibilities of the Empire Marketing Board Film Unit. Headed by John Grierson, it was set up to produce sponsored documentary films mainly related to the activities of the GPO.
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Night Mail is a 1936 British documentary film directed and produced by Harry Watt and Basil Wright, and produced by the General Post Office (GPO) Film Unit. The 24-minute film documents the nightly postal train operated by the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) from London to Scotland and the staff who operate it. Narrated by John Grierson and Stuart Legg, the film ends with a "verse commentary" written by W. H. Auden to a score composed by Benjamin Britten. The locomotive featured in the film is LMS Royal Scot Class 6115 Scots Guardsman.
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Stuart Legg was a pioneering documentary filmmaker. At the 14th Academy Awards in 1941, Legg's National Film Board of Canada film Churchill's Island became the first-ever documentary to win an Oscar.
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For Those in Peril is a 1944 British war film produced by Ealing Studios that marked the directorial debut of Charles Crichton. The film was developed from a short story by Richard Hillary, an RAF pilot killed in action in January 1943. The basic and relatively slight storyline of For Those in Peril was an end to produce a film with a documentary feel and an element of wartime propaganda. The film stars Ralph Michael and David Farrar.
Stewart McAllister was a British documentary film editor who collaborated closely with Humphrey Jennings during the Second World War to produce films for the Crown Film Unit of the Ministry of Information. His contributions towards these films was largely neglected until Dai Vaughan's biography of him, Portrait of an Invisible Man, was published in 1983.
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Squadron 992 is a 23-minute 1940 British propaganda film produced by the General Post Office GPO Film Unit of the British Ministry of Information and re-distributed by the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) as part of their wartime Canada Carries On series. The film was directed by Harry Watt and produced by Alberto Cavalcanti. Squadron 992 describes the training and operations in 1940 of No. 992 Squadron RAF, a Royal Air Force (RAF) barrage balloon unit stationed in the United Kingdom. The film's French version title was Escadrille 992.
Bill Blewitt was a Cornish postman 'discovered' by film-maker Harry Watt and cast in his 1936 film The Saving of Bill Blewitt. The documentary was about the Post Office Savings Bank and featured Blewitt and the villagers of Mousehole in Cornwall. Assistant director Pat Jackson remembered Blewitt's "mesmeric gift of the gab, a glorious Cornish accent, twinkling blue eyes, a grin as broad as 'Popeye' and the charismatic charm of the Celt." Charles Crichton remembered Blewitt as a natural actor and storyteller.
The Saving of Bill Blewitt is a 1936 documentary film produced by Alberto Cavalcanti of the GPO Film Unit and directed by Harry Watt.
The King's Stamp is a 1935 short film produced by Alberto Cavalcanti under the auspices of the GPO Film Unit and directed by William Coldstream. It was commissioned as part of King George V's Silver Jubilee celebrations in 1935. The music was composed by Benjamin Britten.
Spare Time is a 1939 British film directed by Humphrey Jennings for the GPO Film Unit, and made for the 1939 New York World's Fair. It is 15 minutes long and documents the leisure activities of workers in the coal, steel, and cotton industries in Sheffield, Bolton, Manchester and Pontypridd. Commentary is provided by Laurie Lee.
References
- 1 2 "BFI Screenonline: North Sea (1938)" . Retrieved 11 December 2016.
- ↑ Swann, Paul, The British Documentary Film Movement, 1926-1946, Cambridge University Press, 1989
- ↑ Ealing's salt-of-the-earth film star, The Guardian 13 March 2009
