Bombed Out

Bombed Out


Step into the aftermath of a WWII bombing raid in south London in this startling amateur film.

If you weren't there to experience the Blitz and its aftermath, then this is probably as close as you would like to get. The German V1 rocket seen flying overhead places this film in the last 12 months of the war, and the citizens of Southwark appear well-practiced in picking up the pieces of their decimated neighbourhood. By the end of the film the worst is over, as the Royal family are driven through crowd-lined streets and kids enjoy a victory party.

Amateur footage of wartime London.


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Home Movies & Amateur Film

Celluloid scrapbooks: the most intimate and personal of films invite us into Britain's birthday parties, back gardens and beach holidays.


Home movies are intimate catalogues of everyday life: birthdays and holidays, childhoods and neighbourhoods. Each reel is a private scrapbook - memories of cherished people, places and times committed to film. Rarely shared outside the family, home movies are the most intensely personal kind of filmmaking. They are by us, of us, for us. Victorian inventors put filmmaking gear in the hands of wealthy amateurs, but decade by decade, home moviemaking technology has become ever cheaper, simpler and more ubiquitous. Our home movies look much as they always have: in and out of focus, thumbs over the lens, wobbly framing, over-enthusiastic pans. But these flaws can't diminish their warm authenticity. Collectively, the nation's home movies make up a patchwork archive of British social life, of whims and ways, loves loved and lives lived.


15 videos in this collection

In the year the Wright Brothers made their first flight, an Edwardian family film themselves taking to the skies… sort of.
1

Flying a Kite

Lloyd George tours the sights of Nazi Germany while his chauffeurs lark about with an SS Officer in this grimly fascinating film.
2

Visit to Germany - David Lloyd George Personal Film

A day in the life of a school - filmed by a pupil who later became one of Britain's best documentary makers.
3

Ut Proficias

Petty party politics gets animated - literally - in this amateur cartoon with a message.
4

Problems End

The town of Helston comes out dancing in this charming amateur film of a unique springtime custom.
5

This England - Cornwall: Helston Furry Dance and Villages

Minimalist movie making at its best: kids learn the art of film language using illustrations and margarine boxes.
6

Children on Camera - A Primer about Movies

All the practical dos and don'ts for the amateur film enthusiast, courtesy of Kodak.
7

Using the Camera

Prolific home movie maker Sid Douglas shares his secrets for the ambitious amateur.
8

Amateur Talkies

Step into the aftermath of a WWII bombing raid in south London in this startling amateur film.
9

Bombed Out

This alluring travelogue follows a missionary on his colourful journey into the ethnically diverse mountains of Yunnan, south west China.
10

Among the Tribes in South-West China

Crowds pack the streets of Hong Kong for a stunning procession of dragon dancers, drummers and stilt walkers in celebration of George VI's crowning.
11

Coronation Day - Hong Kong 12 May 1937

The remarkable Baochu pagoda dominates this film about a visit to the West Lake at Hangzhou.
12

Hangzhou and a Trip to the Baochu Pagoda

A starkly beautiful portrait of crofting life in Flodabay on the Isle of Harris in the Outer Hebrides.
13

They Are Forsaken A Tale of an Island of the Hebrides

Beautiful and engaging amateur footage of a lively 1930s Hong Kong.
14

Cine Snapshots - 1938

Charming amateur film of the 1930-31 Marylebone Cricket Club team relaxing while on tour in South Africa.
15

Allom Home Movie No. 1

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