British Transport Films website updates

Tuesday, 31 July 2012

Simon Murphy, Curator, Film and Photographs at London Transport Museum has confirmed that London Transport Museum has licensed the LT part of the BTF output to the BFI and that volume 10 of the DVD series will be out later in the summer. All films are remastered and represent a considerable improvement in quality over the EAVB/Beulah discs, many of which were made from 1990s one-inch tape masters.

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Here is the BFI blurb:

BRITISH TRANSPORT FILMS VOLUME TEN

LONDON ON THE MOVE

Following the nationalisation of transport in 1948, the British Transport Commission set up its own in-house film production unit. Launched on 1st May 1949, and led for 25 years by Edgar Anstey - a founding father of the British documentary movement - it became one of the largest industrial film units in Britain.

This, the tenth in a series of double DVD box sets, presents a selection of films covering both bus and underground that The BTF produced for London Transport in the post-war period and includes classic such as All that Mighty Heart, Under Night Streets, Overhaul, as well as rare gems like Power Signal Lineman and Our Canteens.

This selection has been digitally remastered for this two-disc set, which is a 'must' not just for the transport enthusiast, but also for the documentary aficionado who will recognise traits and innovations in British non-fiction filmmaking.

DISC ONE

All that Mighty Heart (1951)
Our Canteens (1951)
One for One (1964)
Cine Gazette No.14: Do you Remember? (1955)
The Nine Road (1975)
London on the Move (1970)

DISC TWO

Under Night Streets (1958)
Power Signal Lineman (1953)
Omnibus 150 (1979)
Cine Gazette No.10 (1951)
Moving London (1983)
AFC: Automatic Fare Collection and You (1969)
Overhaul (1957)

Special features:

Moving Millions (1947, 15 mins): A Central Office of Information film made by the Crown Film Unit in 1947 illustrating the scope of London Transport activities at their most extensive including bus, underground, trams and trolleybuses.

UK | 1947-1983 | black and white, and colour | 223 minutes | Ratio 1.33:1

BFIVD894

Sunday, 9 October 2011

Engines Must Not Enter the Potato Siding (1969)

This once almost mythical BBC programme about railways and railwaymen in Sheffield has been part of railway film lovers folklore for many years. The BBC has slowly allowed brief clips to appear in other programmes (eg Reel History of Britain) and web pages.

The full film has now been 'leaked' onto YouTube for everyone to enjoy.

Sunday, 11 September 2011

Peak District (1954)

The BFI have published a 5 minute extract of Peak District on their YouTube Channel

Friday, 15 July 2011

Britain Through A Lens: The Documentary Film Mob

Showing soon on BBC4 :

The unlikely story of how, between 1929 and 1945, a group of tweed-wearing radicals and pin-striped bureaucrats created the most influential movement in the history of British film. They were the British Documentary Movement and they gave Britons a taste for watching films about real life.

They were an odd bunch, as one wit among them later admitted. "A documentary director must be a gentleman... and a socialist." They were inspired by a big idea - that films about real life would change the world. That, if people of all backgrounds saw each other on screen - as they really were - they would get to know and respect each other more. As John Grierson, the former street preacher who founded the Movement said: "Documentary outlines the patterns of interdependence".

The Documentary Film Mob assembles a collection of captivating film portraits of Britain, during the economic crisis of the 1930s and the Second World War. Featuring classic documentaries about slums and coal mines, about potters and posties, about the bombers and the Blitz, the programme reveals the fascinating story of what was also going on behind the camera. Of how the documentary was born and became part of British culture.

More:-

BBC4 Website