Listen to Britain
Humphrey Jennings and Stewart McAllister's masterly collage of the various people and classes of Britain - at home and at work, at war and at peace - is one of the great films of war-time Britain.
Documentary, public information film, morale booster; propaganda film – all descriptions that apply to Humphrey Jennings and Stewart McAllister's extraordinary war-time film. Using his customary combination of poetry and propaganda, Jennings constructs a collage of the various people and classes of Britain, at home and at work, at war and at peace. The result, while not overtly proselytising, sounded a clear clarion call to internal and international audiences to fight and save Great Britain from the onslaught of war.
The film was nominated for the inaugural Academy Award for Documentary Feature in 1943.
World War II: The Home Front
Sandbags and searchlights, firefighters battling blazing streets; trains packed with departing children or servicemen... film has given us some of our most enduring images of the Second World War.
The outbreak of the war saw cinemas closed as a public safety measure, but government soon realised film’s value for morale, information and propaganda. Feature films and novelty shorts brought audiences entertainment and some relief from fear, anxiety and grief. Official propaganda disseminated vital messages about the war effort or the dangers of careless talk. Meanwhile, newsreels, instructional and informational films delivered reports from the battlefields and practical advice.
In hindsight\, among the most valuable films are amateur ones – watched by only a handful in their own time – which give us a matchless insight into ordinary life behind the blackout curtains. This collection brings together an extraordinary range of material capturing the experience of life under fire.
