GPO Film Unit
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GPO Film Unit
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. Among the films it produced were Harry Watt's and Basil Wright's ''Night Mail'' (1936), featuring music by Benjamin Britten and poetry by W. H. Auden, which is the best known. Directors who worked for the unit included Humphrey Jennings, Alberto Cavalcanti, Paul Rotha, Harry Watt, Basil Wright and a young Norman McLaren. Poet and memoirist Laurie Lee also worked as a scriptwriter in the unit from 1939–1940. In 1940 the GPO Film Unit became the Crown Film Unit, under the control of the Ministry of Information. In Autumn 2008 the British Film Institute issued a first collection of selected films from the Unit. Titled ''Addressing The Nation'', it comprises fifteen titles from the years 1933 ...
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United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland, and many smaller islands within the British Isles. Northern Ireland shares a land border with the Republic of Ireland; otherwise, the United Kingdom is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel, the Celtic Sea and the Irish Sea. The total area of the United Kingdom is , with an estimated 2020 population of more than 67 million people. The United Kingdom has evolved from a series of annexations, unions and separations of constituent countries over several hundred years. The Treaty of Union between the Kingdom of England (which included Wales, annexed in 1542) and the Kingdom of Scotland in 170 ...
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London Can Take It!
''London Can Take It!'' is a short British propaganda film from 1940, which shows the effects of eighteen hours of the German blitz on London and its people. Intended to sway the US population in favour of Britain's plight, it was produced by the GPO Film Unit for the British Ministry of Information and distributed throughout the United States by Warner Bros.Kevin Jackson ''Humphrey Jennings'', 2004, London: Picador, p429. The film was directed by Humphrey Jennings and Harry Watt, and narrated by US war correspondent Quentin Reynolds. Plot The film opens with shots of the London streets in late afternoon, as people begin their commute home. The narrator reminds the audience that these people are part of the greatest civilian army the world has ever known, and are going to join their respective service before London's "nightly visitor" arrives. Listening posts are stationed as far away as the coastline and the "white fingers" of searchlights touch the sky. Soon the Luftwaff ...
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Tschierva Hut
The Tschierva Hut (German: ''Tschiervahütte'', Romansh: ''Chamanna da Tschierva'') is a mountain hut located in the Swiss canton of Graubünden at the foot of Piz Bernina, Piz Tschierva and Piz Morteratsch at the end of Val Roseg. The hut lies at 2,584 metres above sea level near the Tschierva Glacier and can be accessed from Pontresina Pontresina ( rm, Puntraschigna) is a municipality in the Maloja Region in the canton of Graubünden in Switzerland. History and name Pontresina was first mentioned in medieval Latin documents as ''ad Pontem Sarisinam'' in 1137 and ''de Ponte Sar ... via a trail. The hut is the starting point of the ''Biancograt'', the serpentine north ridge of Piz Bernina. The hut is owned by the Swiss Alpine Club. External linksChamanna da Tschierva CASsac-cas.ch Mountain huts in Switzerland Mountain huts in the Alps Pontresina {{switzerland-struct-stub ...
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Evelyn Cherry
Evelyn Spice Cherry (née Evelyn Spice) was a Canadian documentary filmmaker, director, and producer. She is best known for her work as the head of the Agricultural Films Unit at the National Film Board of Canada and as a member of the British Documentary Film Movement. Early life Evelyn Spice was born in 1904 in Yorkton, Saskatchewan.Ho, Vanessa. "NFB pioneer may yet be famous." ''Regina Leader-Post'', March 23, 2002. She began her career teaching public school.Ramsay, Christine"Cherry, Evelyn Spice (1906–90)."''The Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan''. In 1929, she graduated from the University of Missouri with a degree in journalism and started working at the ''Regina Leader-Post'' as the society columnist. Spice moved to London, England in 1931, where she began working at the Government Post Film Unit. She worked under John Grierson, whom she would later go on to work with at the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) in Canada. While working at the GPO, Spice met and worked ...
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North Sea (1938 Film)
The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Sea in the north. It is more than long and wide, covering . It hosts key north European shipping lanes and is a major fishery. The coast is a popular destination for recreation and tourism in bordering countries, and a rich source of energy resources, including wind and wave power. The North Sea has featured prominently in geopolitical and military affairs, particularly in Northern Europe, from the Middle Ages to the modern era. It was also important globally through the power northern Europeans projected worldwide during much of the Middle Ages and into the modern era. The North Sea was the centre of the Vikings' rise. The Hanseatic League, the Dutch Republic, and the British each sought to gain command of the North Sea and access to th ...
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Lotte Reiniger
Charlotte "Lotte" Reiniger (2 June 1899 – 19 June 1981) was a German film director and the foremost pioneer of silhouette animation. Her best known films are ''The Adventures of Prince Achmed'', from 1926, the first feature-length animated film, and ''Papageno'' (1935). Reiniger is also noted for having devised, from 1923 to 1926, the first form of a multiplane camera. (an extract from ) Reiniger worked on more than 40 films throughout her career. Biography Early life Lotte Reiniger was born in the Charlottenburg district of Berlin on 2 June 1899 to Carl Reiniger and Eleonore Lina Wilhelmine Rakette. Here, she studied at Charlottenburger Waldschule, the first open-air school, where she learned the art of scherenschnitte, the German art of silhouette, inspired by the ancient Chinese art of paper cutting and silhouette puppetry. As a child, she became fascinated with this Chinese art of paper cutting of silhouette puppetry, and even built her own puppet theatre so that she ...
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Len Lye
Leonard Charles Huia Lye (; 5 July 1901 – 15 May 1980) was a New Zealand artist known primarily for his experimental films and kinetic sculpture. His films are held in archives including the New Zealand Film Archive, British Film Institute, Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and the Pacific Film Archive at University of California, Berkeley. Lye's sculptures are found in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Albright-Knox Art Gallery and the Berkeley Art Museum. Although he became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1950, much of his work went to New Zealand after his death, where it is housed at the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery in New Plymouth. Career As a student, Lye became convinced that motion could be part of the language of art, leading him to early (and now lost) experiments with kinetic sculpture, as well as a desire to make film. Lye was also one of the first Pākehā artists to appreciate the art of Māo ...
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Richard Massingham
Richard Massingham (31 January 1898 in Sleaford, Lincolnshire – 1 April 1953 in Biddenden, Kent) was a British medical doctor who is principally known for starring in public information films made in the 1940s and early 1950s. Life After working in medicine and making amateur films, Massingham set up Public Relationship Films Ltd in 1938 when he noticed that there was no specialist agency making short educational films for the public. In the films he typically played a bumbling character who was slightly more stupid than average, and often explained the message of the film through demonstrating the risks if it was ignored. Films' topics included postal deliveries, how to cross the road, how to prevent the spread of diseases, how to swim and how to drive without causing the road to be unsafe for other users. Family Massingham's father was H. W. Massingham, H.W. Massingham (1860–1924) the journalist, and his siblings included writer Harold John Massingham (1888–1952), wr ...
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