In the years after the First World War the British government had to adapt its communication policy to connect with the new mass electorate. This book examines the government’s own Film Units and their slow development of the Public Information Film. By reviewing the entire film catalogue produced by the Empire Marketing Board, the General Post Office and Crown Film Units, particular themes are identified which not only reflect the demands of the Units’ sponsors but also the anxieties and concerns of the 1930s and 1940s. The impact of the films is explored through the contemporary reaction of the audiences to them. By the time the Crown Film Unit was closed in 1952 a style of Public Information Film had been developed and continued into the 1970s.
Price: £90.00
Pages: 344
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Imprint: Manchester University Press
Publication Date:
22 October 2024
ISBN: 9781526154781
Format: Hardcover
BISACs:
PERFORMING ARTS / Film / History & Criticism, Documentary films, PERFORMING ARTS / Film / Genres / Documentary, PERFORMING ARTS / Film / Direction & Production, Film history, theory or criticism, Film: styles and genres
'There is something about these films that keeps drawing people back every generation or so. Here is a fine addition to the literature on them, both as entry-level summary for novices and required reading for devotees: synthesising previous accounts, surfacing new information and adding insights.'
— Patrick Russell, Journal of British Cinema and Television
Alan J. Harding is a former Programme Director at the University of Southampton and a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
Introduction
1 A shaky start – the British Government and film, 1900–30
2 The Empire Marketing Board Film Unit: Tallents, Grierson, documentaries and the revival of government interest, 1930–33
3 The General Post Office Film Unit in peacetime, 1933–37
4 Rumours of War and the creation of the Crown Film Unit, 1938–40
5 The Crown Film Unit’s wartime productions, 1940–45
6 The Crown Film Unit’s post-war productions, 1946–52
7 Non-theatrical exhibition and audiences
8 Commercial and theatrical exhibition
9 The end of Government film making, 1951–52
10 Legacy
Index
