Basil Wright

Experimental documentary focusing on a day in the life of city workers, featuring montage sequences and repetition to emphasise the monotony of routine office work.

Narrated by Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise, this documentary is about "Laurel and Hardy", one of the most popular and critically acclaimed comedy double acts of the early Classical Hollywood era of American cinema. It features interviews with Jerry Lewis, Dick Van Dyke, Babe London, Marcel Marceau, Lucille Hardy (Ollie's wife), Bob Monkhouse, Hal Roach, Marvin T Hatley, Jack McCabe and many more.

A portrait of John Grierson, the first Canadian Government Film Commissioner and founder of the National Film Board in 1939. Interweaving archival footage, interviews with people who knew him and footage of Grierson himself, this film is a sensitive and informative portrait of a dynamic man of vision. Grierson believed that the filmmaker had a social responsibility, and that film could help a society realize democratic ideals. His absolute faith in the value of capturing the drama of everyday life was to influence generations of filmmakers all over the world. In fact, he coined the term 'documentary film'.

The film, made to advertise domestic telephone sets, is based around two very different families. The Petts are conventional, happy and have children; the Potts are unconventional and unhappy, without children.

A housewife galvanises her docker husband to take an interest in more important matters than the football pools.

Ancient Greece, contrasted with modern Greece.

Ancient Greece, contrasted with modern Greece.

A narrator recounts the state of Great Britain near the end of WWII via a visual diary for the titular baby boy born in September 1944.

In a bid to encourage city-dwellers to leave behind the restrictions of war, 'The Green Girdle' escapes from the austere urban landscape of inner-city London and savours the natural delights of the capital’s rural surroundings.

A doctor talks about the number of injuries and deaths resulting from automobile accidents.

Rainbow Dance is a 1936 British animated film released by the GPO Film Unit. This is Lye's second film. It uses the Gasparcolor process.

Peter and his friends find unexpected and exciting adventures when all their wishes are granted by a magic marble.

A Defeated People is a 1946 British documentary short film made by the Crown Film Unit, directed by Humphrey Jennings and narrated by William Hartnell. The film depicts the shattered state of Germany, both physically and as a society, in the immediate aftermath of World War II. The narration explains what is being done – and what needs to be done – both by the occupying Allied forces and the German people themselves to build a better Germany from the ruins.

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

A BAFTA award nominated documentary looking at an exhibition of Da Vinci's drawings at Burlington House in London, marking the quincentenary of his birth.

This documentary short examines the special train on which mail is sorted, dropped and collected on the run, and delivered in Scotland on the overnight run from Euston, London to Glasgow.

A celebration of the importance of the British countryside.

Weiss’s classic B&W agitprop short made after his escape to London just ahead of the Nazis. He carried with him three reels of material for his unrealized film ‘Dvacet Let Svobody’ (‘Twenty Years of Freedom’) i.e. 20 years of the existence of independent Czechoslovakia from its 1918 founding to 1938 when the Munich Agreement dissolved it. In English with poetic narration written by C. Day-Lewis (father of Daniel Day-Lewis).

Focuses upon the journey of child refugees from the Basque Country to temporary accommodation near Southampton, Hampshire [England].

Ambitious documentary chronicling the cultural life and religious customs of the Sinhalese and the effects of advanced industrialism on such customs.

Deals with Britain's treatment of mental health in wartime. Shows a specialized hospital for military and civilian patients and gives a picture of its organization and operation, including diagnostic and therapeutic methods, occupational therapy, recreation, and rehabilitation.

A short documentary to demonstrate what can be done with Technicolor film and to show various other colourful products.

The history of Scotland and the factors that have shaped the character of its people.

The occupation of the Channel Islands.

The story of a ship's arrival, unloading and departure from the Port of London in 1951, and all the life of the docklands and the river. Made for the Festival of Britain.

Propaganda short showing how London is coping with World War II.

An overview of the shepherd's life during the lambing season.

Short documentary about British education in the late 1930s.