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British Documentary Film Movement
The Documentary Film Movement is the group of British filmmakers, led by John Grierson, who were influential in British film culture in the 1930s and 1940s. Principles The founding principles of the movement were based on Grierson's views of documentary film. He wished to use film to educate citizens in an understanding of democratic society. History The movement began at the Film Unit of the Empire Marketing Board in 1930. The unit was headed by John Grierson, who appointed apprentices such as Basil Wright, Arthur Elton, Edgar Anstey, Stuart Legg, Paul Rotha and Harry Watt. These filmmakers were mostly young, middle-class, educated males with liberal political views. In 1933, the film unit was transferred to the General Post Office. From 1936, the movement began to disperse and divisions emerged. Whereas previously the documentary film movement had been located in a single public sector organisation, it separated in the late 1930s into different branches, as filmmakers explore ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Grierson
John Grierson (26 April 1898 – 19 February 1972) was a pioneering Scottish documentary maker, often considered the father of British and Canadian documentary film. In 1926, Grierson coined the term "documentary" in a review of Robert J. Flaherty's '' Moana''.Ann Curthoys, Marilyn Lakebr>Connected worlds: history in transnational perspective, Volume 2004p.151. Australian National University Press Early life Grierson was born in the old schoolhouse in Deanston, near Doune, Scotland, to schoolmaster Robert Morrison Grierson from Boddam, near Peterhead, and Jane Anthony, a teacher from Ayrshire. His mother, a suffragette and ardent Labour Party activist, often took the chair at Tom Johnston's election meetings. The family moved to Cambusbarron, Stirling, in 1900, when the children were still young, after Grierson's father was appointed headmaster of Cambusbarron school. When the family moved, John had three elder sisters, Agnes, Janet, and Margaret, and a younger brother, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Empire Marketing Board
The Empire Marketing Board was formed in May 1926 by the Colonial Secretary Leo Amery to promote intra-Empire trade and to persuade consumers to 'Buy Empire'. It was established as a substitute for tariff reform and protectionist legislation and this is why it was eventually abolished in 1933, as a system of imperial preference replaced free trade. During its brief existence, the Empire Marketing Board was unsuccessful in raising Britain's imports of products from the Empire. Overview Amery was its first chairman, Sir Stephen George Tallents its secretary, Edward Mayow Hastings Lloyd its assistant secretary, and Walter Elliot was chairman of its research committee. The EMB had three principal aims: * to support scientific research; * promotion of economic analysis; and * publicity for Empire trade. In 1925 the Imperial Economic Committee; a board which hosted representatives from the Dominions and Britain; conceived the Empire Marketing Board to generate public support for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Basil Wright
Basil Wright (12 June 1907, Sutton, Surrey – 14 October 1987, Frieth, Buckinghamshire, England) was a documentary filmmaker, film historian, film critic and teacher. Biography After leaving Sherborne School, a well known independent school in the market town of Sherborne in Dorset, Basil Wright was the first recruit to join John Grierson at the Empire Marketing Board's film unit in 1930, shortly after he graduated from Cambridge University. Wright's 1934 film '' Song of Ceylon'' is his most celebrated work. Shot on location in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) the film was completed with the composer Walter Leigh at the GPO Film Unit in London. At the GPO, Wright acted as producer and wrote the script for ''Night Mail'' (1936) for which he received a joint directorial credit with Harry Watt. Wright had introduced his friend W. H. Auden to the film unit and the poet's verse was included in the film. Wright left the GPO to form his own production company, The Realist Film Unit (RFU) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sir Arthur Elton, 10th Baronet
Sir Arthur Hallam Rice Elton, 10th Baronet (10 February 1906 – 1 January 1973) was a pioneer of the British documentary film industry. Educated at Marlborough College and Jesus College, Cambridge, he was a schoolfriend of John Betjeman. After graduation, he worked as a scriptwriter in England and Germany, and in 1931 was recruited into the Empire Marketing Board Film Unit (later the GPO Film Unit) by John Grierson. He worked as a director and producer on many films over the next two decades, mainly for the government, though 1932's ''Voice of the World'' was sponsored by His Master's Voice, the first example of industrial sponsorship of a documentary film. During the Second World War he became supervisor of films at the Ministry of Information, and afterwards he became an advisor to the Shell Petroleum Company and production head of Shell Films. Elton married Margaret Ann Bjornson (d.1995) in 1948. On inheriting the Elton Baronetcy title and Clevedon Court on the death of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edgar Anstey
Edgar Anstey (16 February 1907 in Watford, Hertfordshire, England – 26 September 1987 in London, England), was a leading British documentary film-maker. Anstey was educated at Watford Grammar School for Boys and Birkbeck College. He spent a few years as a civil servant before starting in 1930 at The Empire Marketing Board's film unit, under the direction of John Grierson. In 1949, he joined the British Transport Films unit, which he headed until 1974. He was nominated for the Short Subject (Live Action) Academy Award in 1965 for the documentary film Snow. He directed ''Housing Problems'' in 1935. See also *Alberto Cavalcanti * Arthur Elton *British Transport Films *John Grierson *Humphrey Jennings *Wolfgang Suschitzky Wolfgang Suschitzky, BSC (29 August 1912 – 7 October 2016), was an Austrian-born British documentary photographer, as well as a cinematographer perhaps best known for his collaboration with Paul Rotha in the 1940s and his work on Mike Hodges' ... Refer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stuart Legg
Stuart Legg (31 August 1910 in London, England – 23 July 1988 in Wiltshire, England) was a documentary filmmaker who was a leading figure in both the United Kingdom and Canada as a pioneering director, writer and producer. During his long filmmaking career, Legg's work was largely unknown, although he had won an Academy Award during the Second World War. Early life Legg was born on 31 August 1910 in London into a middle-class household. His father was a solicitor. Legg graduated from Cambridge with a degree in engineering. His first film was ''Varsity'' (1931) with the university's Film Society. This was followed by ''Cambridge'' (1932), produced with some involvement from British Instructional Films. Filmmaking career After graduation, Legg worked for six months as an assistant to director Walter Creighton at Publicity Films, a commercial company. As part of the British Documentary Film Movement, Legg worked with John Grierson. His first film after being taken on by Grierso ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paul Rotha
Paul Rotha (3 June 1907 – 7 March 1984) was a British documentary film-maker, film historian and critic. Early life and education He was born Paul Thompson in London, and educated at Highgate School and at the Slade School of Fine Art. Career Rotha was a close collaborator of John Grierson, and Wolfgang Suschitzky was one of his cinematographers. He directed and produced dozens of documentaries including ''Contact'' (1933), ''Air Outpost'' (1937) ''The Face of Britain'' (1935),'' World of Plenty'' (1943), ''Land of Promise'' (1947), ''A City Speaks'' (1947) and many others. '' The World Is Rich'' (1947) and '' Cradle of Genius'' (1961), both of which were nominated for an Academy Award, and feature films including the BAFTA-nominated ''No Resting Place''. Rotha was Head of BBC TV's Documentaries Department between May 1953 and May 1955. Rotha shared with Otto Neurath an interest in the techniques of visual communication, and the two men worked together on several films, where ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harry Watt (director)
Harry Watt (18 October 19062 April 1987) was a Scottish documentary and feature film director, who began his career working for John Grierson and Robert Flaherty. His 1959 film ''The Siege of Pinchgut'' was entered into the 9th Berlin International Film Festival. Biography He was born in Edinburgh, the son of a Scottish Liberal MP. He studied at Edinburgh University but failed to complete his degree. He enlisted in the Merchant Navy and worked in a number of industrial jobs. Documentaries In 1932, Watt joined the Empire Marketing Board Film Unit under John Grierson and began working on documentaries. He was an assistant on ''Man of Aran'' (1934). In 1936 Watt became a director for the London unit of the American newsreel series ''March of Time'', where his films included ''England's Tithe War'' (1936). Watt then joined the GPO Film Unit where he made his reputation as a documentarian with ''Night Mail'' (1936) which received much acclaim. He followed it with ''The Saving ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
General Post Office
The General Post Office (GPO) was the state postal system and telecommunications carrier of the United Kingdom until 1969. Before the Acts of Union 1707, it was the postal system of the Kingdom of England, established by Charles II in 1660. Similar General Post Offices were established across the British Empire. In 1969 the GPO was abolished and the assets transferred to The Post Office, changing it from a Department of State to a statutory corporation. In 1980, the telecommunications and postal sides were split prior to British Telecommunications' conversion into a totally separate publicly owned corporation the following year as a result of the British Telecommunications Act 1981. For the more recent history of the postal system in the United Kingdom, see the articles Royal Mail and Post Office Ltd. Originally, the GPO was a state monopoly covering the dispatch of items from a specific sender to a specific receiver, which was to be of great importance when new forms of co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Royal Dutch Shell
Shell plc is a British multinational oil and gas company headquartered in London, England. Shell is a public limited company with a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and secondary listings on Euronext Amsterdam and the New York Stock Exchange. It is one of the oil and gas "supermajors" and by revenue and profits is consistently one of the largest companies in the world. Measured by both its own emissions, and the emissions of all the fossil fuels it sells, Shell was the ninth-largest corporate producer of greenhouse gas emissions in the period 1988–2015. Shell was formed in 1907 through the merger of Royal Dutch Petroleum Company of the Netherlands and The "Shell" Transport and Trading Company of the United Kingdom. The combined company rapidly became the leading competitor of the American Standard Oil and by 1920 Shell was the largest producer of oil in the world. Shell first entered the chemicals industry in 1929. Shell was one of the " Seven Sisters" whi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
National Film Board Of Canada
The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; french: Office national du film du Canada (ONF)) is Canada's public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary films, animation, web documentaries, and alternative dramas. In total, the NFB has produced over 13,000 productions since its inception, which have won over 5,000 awards. The NFB reports to the Parliament of Canada through the Minister of Canadian Heritage. It has bilingual production programs and branches in English and French, including multicultural-related documentaries. History Canadian Government Motion Picture Bureau The Exhibits and Publicity Bureau was founded on 19 September 1918, and was reorganized into the Canadian Government Motion Picture Bureau in 1923. The organization's budget stagnated and declined during the Great Depression. Frank Badgley, who served as the bureau's director from 1927 to 1941, stated that the bure ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ministry Of Information (United Kingdom)
The Ministry of Information (MOI), headed by the Minister of Information, was a United Kingdom government department created briefly at the end of the First World War and again during the Second World War. Located in Senate House at the University of London during the 1940s, it was the central government department responsible for publicity and propaganda. The MOI was dissolved in March 1946, with its residual functions passing to the Central Office of Information (COI); which was itself dissolved in December 2011 due to the reforming of the organisation of government communications. First World War Before the Lloyd George War Cabinet was formed in 1917, there was no full centralised coordination of public information and censorship. Even under the War Cabinet, there were still many overlapping departments involved. The Admiralty, War Office and Press Committee (AWOPC) had been formed in 1912 as a purely advisory body, chaired initially by the Secretary of the Admiralty Sir G ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
