The Projection of Britain: A History of the GPO Film Unit

by Anthony, Scott; Mansell, James G.

• ISBN13: 9781844573752
• ISBN10: 1844573753
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-10-15
• Publisher: British Film Inst

Summary

This Reader provides a comprehensive resource guide to the films, filmmakers and social and cultural importance of the GPO Film Unit. In addition to original essays by leading film and cultural historians, the volume reprints rare archival material about the work of the Unit, as well as a GPO filmography and profiles of key figures.

Author Biography

SCOTT ANTHONY is the author of Night Mail in the BFI Film Classics series (2007). His script for the BFI's interactive film on the GPO Film Unit starring Sir Derek Jacobi was an Honoree at the 2009 Webby awards. As well as writing essays and short articles on the documentary movement for many BFI publications and websites,he hasintroduced screenings ofthe GPO film compilation Love Letters and Live Wires.He is currently a Research Fellow at the University of Manchester and hasbeen a contracted freelancer at The Guardian since 2005.

JAMES MANSELL is currently Research Associate and Teaching Fellow at the University of Manchester.His book Sound and Selfhood in Early Twentieth-Century Britain will be published in 2010 and includes a chapter on the sound effects used in GPO films.His research on theBritish composer John Foulds featured in The Independent and on BBC News in 2007 and was subsequently published by The Historical Journal.

Table of Contents

Contents
1. Acknowledgements
2. Introduction (Chris Frayling tbc)
PART I: ARGUMENTS, IDEAS, ISSUES
3. John Grierson and the lost world of the GPO Film Unit
Jeffrey Richards
4. The GPO Film Unit and 'Britishness' in the 1930s
Scott Anthony
5. GPO films and modern design
Yasuko Suga
6. Old industry, new science? The GPO Film Unit between palaeotechnology and neotechnology
Timothy Boon
7. An archivist's perspective on the work of the GPO Film Unit
Steve Foxon
PART II: FILMMAKERS 
8. Alberto Cavalcanti: lessons in fusion at the GPO Film Unit
Charles Drazin
9. Harry Watt: on land, at sea, and in the air
Amy Sargeant
10. Humphrey Jennings: the customs of the country
Michael McCluskey
11. Portrait of an invisible man: the working life of Stewart McAllister, film editor
Dai Vaughan
12. Job in a Million: Evelyn Spice at the GPO
Barbara Evans
13. The joy of drooling: in praise of Len Lye
Kevin Jackson
PART III: KEY DOCUMENTS FROM THE HISTORY OF THE GPO FILM UNIT
PART IV: AESTHETICS
14. Rhythm, modernity and the politics of sound
James G. Mansell
15. Voiceover/Commentary
Martin Stollery
16. National identity, the GPO Film Unit and their music
E. Anna Claydon
17. Technology the GPO Film Unit
Leo Enticknap
18. Modern art and design in 1930s Britain: contexts and legacies of the documentary film
Paul Rennie
PART V: THE GPO FILM UNIT AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS CULTURE 
PART V: FILMS
19. 'Go the way the material calls you': Basil Wright and The Song of Ceylon
Jon Hoare
20. The Horsey Mail: documentary as landscape
David Matless
21. The GPO at play: What's On Today and Spare Time
Richard Haynes
22. The Silent Village: the GPO Film Unit goes to war
Wendy Webster
23. Visualising the world: the British documentary at Unesco
Zoë Druik
24. Counterpoints and counterparts: film at the post-war GPO
Patrick Russell
PART VI: THE GPO FILM UNTI AND THE MODERN POST OFFICE
25. Postscript
Roy Mayall
26. Filmography
27. Notes on the contributors