The first of three deluxe double-disc box sets presenting all the key films of the GPO Film Unit on DVD for the first time.The complete collection includes legendary filmmakers such as John Grierson, Len Lye and Humphrey Jennings.
Created 75 years ago out of the ashes of the Empire Marketing Board Film Unit, the GPO Film Unit was one of the most remarkable creative institutions that Britain has produced. A hotbed of creative energy and talent, it provided a springboard to many of the best-known and critically acclaimed figures in the British
Documentary Movement.
John Grierson, Alberto Cavalcanti, Humphrey Jennings, Basil Wright, Harry Watt, Edgar Anstey and Arthur Elton, alongside innovators and experimentalists such as Len Lye and Norman McLaren are some of the directors whose work embraced public information films, drama-documentary, social reportage, animation and advertising.
Celebrating the 75th anniversaries in September 2008 of both the BFI and the GPO Film Unit itself, the BFI National Archive, in partnership with The British Postal Museum & Archive (BPMA), Royal Mail and BT Heritage, has curated and restored this legendary output of short films.
Addressing the Nation contains 15 films from the period 1933-1935 and provides a fascinating exploration of the unit's early experimentation with sound. It features Basil Wright's award-winning Song of Ceylon and Len Lye's A Colour Box; the critically acclaimed Weather Forecast; Coal Face - directed by Alberto Cavalcanti and Auden and Brittens precursor to Night Mail (included in volume two) and other neglected works, many of which will be available for the first time since their original release.
The discs are presented in a deluxe box with an 80-page bound book.
Extras
- On the Fishing Banks of Skye (John Grierson, 1935)
- GPO Film Display trailer
- 80-page book containing introductory essays, biographies and film notes
- Dolby Digital mono audio
We Live in Two Worlds: The GPO Film Unit Collection Volume 2
Created in 1933 out of the ashes of the Empire Marketing Board Film Unit, the GPO Film Unit was one of the most remarkable creative institutions that Britain has produced. A hotbed of creative energy and talent, it provided a spring board to many of the best-known and critically acclaimed figures in the British Documentary Movement, including John Grierson, Alberto Cavalcanti, Humphrey Jennings, Basil Wright, Harry Watt, Edgar Anstey and Arthur Elton, alongside innovators and experimentalists such as Len Lye and Norman McLaren. Their work embraced, public information drama-documentary, social reportage, animation, advertising and many points in between. The BFI National Archive, in partnership with the British Postal Heritage Museum, Royal Mail and British Telecom, has preserved and curated the legendary output of short films produced by the GPO Film Unit.
If War Should Come: GPO Film Unit Collection Volume 3
This, the final of three volumes, covers 1939-1941, the last years of the GPO Film Unit before it evolved into Crown Film Unit, and sees it at its most technically sophisticated, with directors, such as Humphrey Jennings, Harry Watt and Alberto Cavalcanti leading the way in the use of documentary cinema in support of the war effort. Featuring the poetic masterpiece Spare Time and the rousing classics London Can Take It! and Christmas Under Fire, the 18 films in this collection provide a fascinating and poignant insight into a nation on the cusp of war and its transition to the brutal realities of life in the Blitz.
Disc one: The City (1939), The Islanders (1939). Spare Time (1939), A Midsummer Days Work (1939), SS Ionian (1939), If War Should Come (1939), The First Days (1939), War Library Items 1,2,3 (1940)
Disc two: Squadron 992 (1940), La Cause Commune (1940), French Communique (1940), The Front Line (1940), Men of the Lightship (1940), London Can Take It! (1940), Spring Offensive (1940), Story of an Air Communique (1940), War and Order (1940), Christmas Under Fire (1941)
Extras
- An interview with Pat Jackson
- Britain Can Take It!
