Stuart Legg
Documentary about Humphrey Jennings, an English documentary filmmaker from the 1930s to 1950.
A BAFTA award nominated looking at methods of increasing food production, including improved strains of crops, the use of pesticides, weedkillers and insecticides and land reclamation.
A BAFTA award nominated documentary looking at advances in the treatment of infectious diseases.
A documentary looking at how truly international air travel (and transportation) has become and at the benefits in trade, medicine and communications that have ensued.
A fascinating behind-the-scenes look at Harwell's nuclear research establishment and the peaceful applications of atomic energy.
Documentary short about how Britain is improving after WWII and what the populace can do to help.
Examines contemporary educational methods and policies in the light of an age that has released new natural energies, to be used for or against mankind. It reiterates the question sociologists ask: is the development of social responsibility in today's children keeping pace with their technical knowledge?
Made at the end of WWII, this documentary looks at Britain's post-war period. During a time of economic hardship, Prime Minister Winston Churchill is concerned about the future of his nation.
Short film produced and directed in 1945 for the National Film Board of Canada series The World in Action. Over its nearly 21-minute running time, circumstances during the immediate postwar period following the Second World War, leading to the formation of the United Nations are discussed.
The end of WWII has brought much hardship to Western Europe, especially in the area of food security and availability. The war has wiped out much of Europe's ability to grow its own food - it, as a continent, was close to being self sufficient during peace times - or to distribute what can be grown internally. In cities, there are long line ups at the few places where food is available, and a growing black market for food for those who can afford it. Much of the food growing regions of the southern hemisphere are also having problems growing enough to feed their own due to natural disasters. That leaves the United States and Canada as the only major food growing nations to assist its war time allies of Europe through this crisis while Europe rebuilds.
This short film focuses on the period between World War I and World War II when France was struck by riots, strikes and economic stress. During the war that followed there was again internal dissension, between those supporting the Fighting French and those supporting the Vichy government. With the end of the war, however, France put itself on the road to recovery, rebuilding its strength on more solid foundations.
This wartime newsreel from 1942 documents the efforts of China to deal with Japanese aggression.
The people of Britain resist the German air force and navy with help from North America.
Much activity is happening in naval yards on the western shores of the Pacific as tensions rise across the ocean with Nazi Germany's support of the Japanese government and military. As such, westerners in Pacific outposts have headed home in case of war in the Pacific. These tensions make it difficult for Japanese-Canadians who have adopted their new homeland as their own. The Japanese learned modern technologies through global trade, and now may use that technology against their western trading partners. There is also much internal tension with Japan itself as it tries to reconcile its feudal history with its new modern self as a potential global power. But one things that may prevent a Pacific base war is the current Sino-Japanese War with which the Japanese must first contend. Regardless, the western powers, including Canada, are militarily prepared.
This short WWII propaganda documentary drives home the point that steel and committed steel workers can make the difference between winning and losing in modern warfare. A short sequence demonstrating the depravity of the Nazis is followed by a detailed explanation of the manufacture of Bren guns, ambulances, transport trucks and submarine chasers in Canada during World War II.
This short documentary about the Canadian seamen who manned Canada's eastern ports during WWII is the first film in the Canada Carries On series. The film depicts the work of the Royal Canadian marines who accompanied convoys of military supplies to the Allied Forces and those who remained on the eastern coast to defend against the Germans.
The first film ever distributed by the NFB, The Case of Charlie Gordon focuses on an unemployed young Canadian who has never held a job. In the late '30s, there were many in Charlie's position. Determined to change this, a committee was formed to team up local employers with these young men. Through their efforts, and with the help of the Federal Government, people were trained and employed. As a result, their hopeless attitudes were transformed into a readiness to learn and be useful members of society.
Not by any means a truly comprehensive scientific study, this film nevertheless conveys in a popular fashion facts as to the development and habits of various types of apes. Skillful direction and interesting commentary almost succeed in transforming the film into an “entertainment” piece.
Two case studies highlighting the work of the National Council of Social Service: the conversion of a barn into a village hall in South Cerney, Gloucestershire, and the building of an occupational centre in the depressed mining village of Pentre in the Rhondda Valley, Wales.
Sharjah airport in the 1930's Showing the airport, town, Emirate and Imperial Airways staff. An early British documentary produced by many pioneers of the medium.
Unemployed miners in South Wales are helped to form a Subsistence Production Society to farm and produce goods co-operatively.
This documentary short examines the special train on which mail is sorted, dropped and collected on the run, and delivered in Scotland on the overnight run from Euston, London to Glasgow.
A film made by the British General Post Office (GPO) in 1933, promoting the automation of telephone exchanges.
Adapted from the book By Way of Cape Horn by A.J Villiers, Windjammer is a beautifully-filmed record of the last journey of the Grace Harwar, a full-rigged Windjammer sailing from Australia to England via Cape Horn.
