Known for
NRDocumentary which shows some of the spare-time activities of service personnel and civilians during the war.
Breathing Space
1943
The ethnic groups, ceremonies and industries of Malaya.
Five Faces
1938
5.4This 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.
The Conquest of the Air
1931
8.0British 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.
Instruments of the Orchestra
1946
NRPortrait of a small French town following its liberation during World War II.
French Town...
1945
7.0A 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 Cure for Love
1949
Behind the camera
NRDocumentary which shows some of the spare-time activities of service personnel and civilians during the war.
Breathing Space
1943
The ethnic groups, ceremonies and industries of Malaya.
Five Faces
1938
5.4This 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.
The Conquest of the Air
1931
8.0British 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.
Instruments of the Orchestra
1946
NRPortrait of a small French town following its liberation during World War II.
French Town...
1945
7.0A 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 Cure for Love
1949
7.0A 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 Cure for Love
1949
7.0Life aboard merchant ships with the Maritime Regiment of the Royal Artillery.
Soldier, Sailor
1944
NRA 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.
CEMA
1942
NRA 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
Men of Africa
1940
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.
Journey Into History
1952
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.
Cover to Cover
1936
NRA 1935 black and white film advertising London and exolting it's most popular tourist attractions.
Heart of an Empire
1935
With great optimism Britain re-constructed after World War I but ignored the threat from the Gathering Storm of Nazi aggression.
The New Britain
1940
British documentary on the use of Penicillin.
Penicillin
1944
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.
The Future’s in the Air
1938
The history of Scottish education. One of a group of seven documentaries made for the 1938 Empire Exhibition, under the supervision of John Grierson.
The Children's Story
1938
Bristol's historical buildings, streets, docks, churches, bomb ruins, and industries, her great traditions and associations with famous citizens.
Bristol, British City
1951
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.
These Children Are Safe
1939
NRTomorrow 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.
Tomorrow Is Theirs
1940
A short GPO documentary showing how undersea telephone cables are repaired.
Cable Ship
1933
