Directing
Documentary which shows some of the spare-time activities of service personnel and civilians during the war.
Portrait of a small French town following its liberation during World War II.
Life aboard merchant ships with the Maritime Regiment of the Royal Artillery.
This early docudrama uses dramatic reenactment, working models of early flying machines, and archival footage to trace man's attempts to fly from ancient times through the 1930s.
A documentary about the precursor to the Arts Council, the wartime Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts (CEMA), featuring an introduction by education minister R A Butler, an art exhibition in a factory and live music and theatre performances in various English locations.
The ethnic groups, ceremonies and industries of Malaya.
A sergeant returns from war to his contemptible fiancée, intending to reconcile with her against all odds. But he falls in love with a charming new lodger instead.
The film sequences were represented by the premiere of the now thought lost short 'Cover To Cover' directed by Paul Rotha. This short film illustrated the production of a book. Added comments from such luminaries as Julian Huntley and TS. Eliot added class.
British educational documentary film about the principal instruments in the modern symphony orchestra, illustrated through Benjamin Britten's composition, "The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra", for which it was commissioned.
With great optimism Britain re-constructed after World War I but ignored the threat from the Gathering Storm of Nazi aggression.
A 1940 black and white film, production sponsored by the Colonial Empire Marketing Board. 'The East African colonies are introduced as representative examples of the Colonial Empire. A tribal dance hints at the "life of fear and uncertainty" replaced by British rule, a village's "squalor" the need for continued war on "ignorance, poverty and disease." "Much can be achieved by money and the initiative of the White Man:" film hints at hydro-electric schemes, modern harbours (Mombasa), roads, bridges etc and illustrates in more detail hospital expansion; tsetse fly research and control; relieving malnutrition; agricultural improvement; education (primary school; Makerere College)." - Abridged version of synopsis on colonialfilm.org
In the cities of Britain we can travel in time as well as space. This film chooses the England of Hogarth, Gainsborough, Robert Adam and Captain Cook. As the camera moves across outstanding monuments of their work and relics of their achievements from Syon House to Greenwich, members of the Old Vic Company speak appropriate passages from the literature of the mid-eighteenth century. The musical score was specially composed by the late Sir Arnold Bax.
British documentary on the use of Penicillin.
Made with the full cooperation of Imperial Airways and written by novelist Graham Greene, the film examines how a letter could travel from the Australia Outback, across the jungles, mountains, and steppes of the Empire to arrive in England. The Rotha-produced film was careful to draw contrasts between the air delivery of mail and the ancient monuments like the Pyramids and Angkor Wat.
A Record of the Great Social Experiment of "Evacuation". During the first three days of war one million children were moved to places of safety in the country in order to avoid areas which might have made targets for enemy bombers. When schools re-opened they agreed to work on a half-shift basis--giving their own pupils games for half the day while the town children used the schoolrooms. Progressive teachers gave their pupils open-air lessons in simple architecture, in botany and in the way of living of country people.
A 1935 black and white film advertising London and exolting it's most popular tourist attractions.
The history of Scottish education. One of a group of seven documentaries made for the 1938 Empire Exhibition, under the supervision of John Grierson.
Tomorrow is Theirs examines provisions for secondary school education during the war, arguing for the importance of maintaining excellent, thorough schooling in spite of wartime obstacles.
A short GPO documentary showing how undersea telephone cables are repaired.
Bristol's historical buildings, streets, docks, churches, bomb ruins, and industries, her great traditions and associations with famous citizens.
