GPO Film Unit

The GPO Film Unit was a subdivision of the British General Post Office (GPO) established in 1933 for the production of information and advertising films . Under its first director, John Grierson , the GPO Film Unit formed the center of the British documentary film movement of the 1930s. It brought forth talents such as Humphrey Jennings and Alberto Cavalcanti , and more than 100 films were made between 1933 and 1940. After the beginning of World War II , the film unit was subordinate to the British Ministry of Information and henceforth operated as the Crown Film Unit .

History of the GPO Film Unit

The GPO Film Unit had its origins in the film division of the Empire Marketing Board (EMB), a British government agency that promotes relations between Britain and its colonies . The EMB was founded in 1926, at the initiative of its secretary Stephen Tallents , shortly after it was founded, a film production company was attached to it, which was supposed to produce advertising films. The Scottish film critic and theorist John Grierson was hired as deputy director of this society in 1927. In 1929 Grierson completed Drifters for the EMB, the first significant work of the new British documentary film movement, of which Grierson was to become the ideological leader. He gathered young directors like Basil Wright , Paul Rotha and Edgar Anstey around him.

When the Empire Marketing Board was dissolved in 1933, Tallents moved the film department to the General Post Office. Grierson was named the first director of the GPO Film Unit and brought some of his staff from the EMB to the new film company. The early releases of the GPO Film Unit primarily included films informing the public about the work and services of the General Post Office. In The Coming of the Dial, for example, the newly introduced rotary dial was presented on the telephone. Documentaries about the regions of Great Britain and modern industrial techniques have also been published. Work on the award-winning documentary The Song of Ceylon about life in the British colony of Ceylon and on the most elaborate British documentary, BBC - The Voice of Britain, about the work of the British Broadcasting Corporation , began at the time of the EMB Film Unit .

John Grierson saw the GPO Film Unit still committed to the most authentic possible representation of reality, but also promoted artists who brought their individual style and thus improved the experimental profile and artistic prestige of the film department. The native Brazilian Albert Cavalcanti worked at the GPO Film Unit not only as a director, but also as a sound engineer who used film sound as a creative tool. With Len Lye and Norman McLaren two were animation artists involved, trying out the experimental animation techniques. Lye's advertising film A Color Box from 1935 is considered to be one of the first animated films to be made without a film camera, by drawing the individual images directly on the film material. Lotte Reiniger , who became famous for her silhouette films, was hired for the GPO Film Unit in 1936. For the 1936 published documentary Night Mail on the mail train of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway , the directors Harry Watt and Basil Wright won the poet WH Auden and the composer Benjamin Britten . Britten's film music and Aude's poem helped make Night Mail one of the GPO Film Unit's successful films.

From the beginning, British industry also participated in the films of the GPO, whose financial support by the government was severely limited as a result of the global economic crisis . The energy industry in particular sponsored documentary films, so Shell founded its own film department as early as 1934. Films like Housing Problems from 1935 or Enough to Eat? from 1936, which addressed socio-political issues and highlighted the living conditions of the British working class , were primarily created in these industrially funded film units, but largely corresponded to John Grierson's requirements for a documentary film and were directed by former companions. In June 1937, John Grierson finally gave up his post at the GPO Film Unit to promote independent documentary filmmakers with the newly founded Film Center . While the British documentary movement had initially concentrated on the film department of the GPO, several groups were now active in parallel.

As Grierson's successor, Alberto Cavalcanti took over the management of the film unit. Under Cavalcanti, elements of the feature film were increasingly integrated into the work of the Film Unit, while social aspects came to the fore in terms of content. As early as 1936, Harry Watt made The Saving of Bill Blewitt, a film in which a fictional but realistic story was told with amateur actors . Stylistically, this documentary film is considered to be the forerunner of neorealism . The Cornish fisherman Bill Blewitt was also the lead actor in 1938 published docudrama North Sea , the commercial for the most success of the GPO Film Unit was.

Under Cavalcanti's direction, Humphrey Jennings became the most important director in the GPO Film Unit. Jennings was with the GPO Film Unit from 1934 to 1936 and returned to the GPO in 1938 after an interlude at Shell where he worked with Len Lye. In 1939 he shot the documentary Spare Time for the New York World's Fair , in which Jennings first used the collage technique. In a similar style, Jennings made the Oscar- nominated short films London Can Take It! and Listen to Britain .

Before the war began, Cavalcanti had left the GPO Film Unit to work as a film director at Ealing Studios . The new director was the screenwriter Ian Dalrymple , under whom the GPO Film Unit devoted itself entirely to the war effort. In view of the increased importance of the medium of film as a means of propaganda , the film department was finally subordinated to the British Ministry of Information. From then on she worked as the Crown Film Unit . After the end of World War II, the Crown Film Unit became part of the Central Office of Information ; In 1952 the film department was finally completely dissolved.

Productions of the GPO Film Unit (selection)

1933: Cable Ship 1933: The Coming of the Dial 1934: The Glorious Sixth of June - An Epic of Human Endeavor 1934: Granton Trawler 1934: Locomotives 1934: Pett and Pott - A Fairy Story of the Suburbs 1934: The Song of Ceylon 1934: The Story of the Wheel 1934: Weather Forecast 1935: BBC - The Voice of Britain 1935: Coal Face 1935: A Color Box 1935: The King's Stamp 1936: The Fairy of the Phone 1936: Night Mail 1936: Rainbow Dance 1936: The Saving of Bill Blewitt 1937: Book Bargain 1937: A Job in a Million 1937: N or NW

1937: Trade Tattoo 1937: We Live In Two Worlds 1938: God's Chillun 1938: Love on the Wing 1938: News for the Navy 1938: North Sea 1938: The daughter 1939: The City - A Film Talk by Sir Charles Bressey 1939: If War Should Come 1939: The Islanders 1939: A Midsummer Day's Work 1939: Spare Time 1939: SS Ionian 1940: Britain At Bay 1940: London Can Take It! 1940: Spring Offensive 1940: Squadron 992 1940: War and Order 1941: Christmas Under Fire

literature

• Scott Anthony, James G. Mansell (Eds.): The Projection of Britain: A History of the GPO Film Unit . Palgrave Macmillan, London 2011, ISBN 978-1-84457-374-5 .
• Richard M. Barsam: Non-Fiction Film: A Critical History . Indiana University Press, Bloomington 1992, ISBN 0-253-31124-1 .
• Brian McFarlane (Ed.): The Encyclopedia of British Film . 3 ^rd edition. Methuen, London 2008, ISBN 978-0-413-77660-0 .

Web links

• GPO Film Unit in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• GPO Film Unit . BFI Screenonline (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Ian Aitken: Film and Reform: John Grierson and the Documentary Film Movement . Routledge, London 1990, ISBN 0-415-08121-1 , pp. 90-97.
2. ↑ Michael O'Pray: Avant-garde Film: Forms, Themes and Passions . Wallflower Press, London 2003, ISBN 1-903364-56-6 , p. 40.
3. ^ Brian McFarlane (ed.): The Encyclopedia of British Film. Pp. 289-290.
4. ↑ Philip Logan: Humphrey Jennings and British Documentary Film: A Re-Assessment . Ashgate, Farnham 2011, ISBN 978-0-7546-6726-1 , pp. 52-53.
5. ↑ Richard M. Barsam: non-fiction film: A Critical History. P. 94.
6. ^ Jack C. Ellis, Betsy A. McLane: A New History of Documentary Film . Continuum, London 2005, ISBN 0-8264-1751-5 , p. 62.
7. ^ Jack C. Ellis: John Grierson. Life, Contributions, Influence . Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale 2000, ISBN 0-8093-2242-0 , p. 94.
8. ↑ Richard M. Barsam: non-fiction film: A Critical History. P. 97.
9. ^ Rachael Low: The History of the British Film Vol. V, 1929–1939: Documentary and Educational Films of the 1930s . Routledge, London 1997, ISBN 0-415-15451-0 , p. 68.
10. ^ Luca Caminati: The Role of Documentary Film in the Formation of the Neorealist Cinema . In: Saverio Giovacchini, Robert Sklar (Ed.): Global Neorealism. The Transnational History of a Film Style . University Press of Mississippi, Jackson 2012, ISBN 978-1-61703-122-9 , pp. 59-60.
11. ↑ Richard M. Barsam: non-fiction film: A Critical History. P. 104.
12. ↑ Philip Logan: Humphrey Jennings and British Documentary Film: A Re-Assessment . Ashgate, Farnham 2011, ISBN 978-0-7546-6726-1 , p. 104.
13. ^ Jack C. Ellis, Betsy A. McLane: A New History of Documentary Film . Continuum, London 2005, ISBN 0-8264-1751-5 , p. 109.