Today sees the publication of the first instalment of a major new BFI project that will ultimately span a DVD box, a comprehensive big-screen retrospective and online coverage across various platforms (Mediatheque, Screenonline, YouTube), all dedicated to exploring the surprisingly unspoilt territory of the British postwar documentary film.

Two-and-a-half years ago, Land of Progress traced the history from 1931 to 1950, in the process covering what as far as most people are concerned was the golden age of British documentary. Since then, despite no drop in output (quite the reverse, in fact), serious critical study of later documentaries has generally been restricted to the more critically-favoured likes of the Free Cinema movement and the easily accessible output of British Transport Films. Meanwhile, the bulk of British documentary output from the period (roughly 1950-77) remained in the vaults of their production companies, sponsors or the BFI National Archive.

So when the Shadows of Progress project was formally approved, part of the challenge was to contextualise this material. Though the forthcoming DVD box (a four-disc set, like its predecessor) would also include a 100-page book, it was felt that this wasn’t nearly enough, and that the project should also encompass a far more extensive 400-page survey of the entire postwar documentary scene. Overseen by Patrick Russell (the BFI’s Senior Curator of Non-Fiction) and James Piers Taylor, the book’s first half presents an overall history of the period, with particular focus on the various production companies and major sponsors and how they interacted. The second, longer, half focuses on individual filmmakers, with chapters commissioned from BFI staff (mostly non-fiction curators) and external experts:

• ‘People, Productivity and Change: Peter Bradford’ by Timothy Boon;
• ‘The World Still Sings: Jack Howells’ by Dave Berry;
• ”I Don’t Think He Did Anything After That’: Paul Dickson’ by Leo Enticknap;
• ‘Conflict and Confluence: Michael Orrom’ by Katy McGahan;
• ‘Documentary on the Move: Tony Thompson, Bill Mason, Geoffrey Jones’ by Steven Foxon;
• ‘Pictures Should Be Steady: James Hill’ by James Piers Taylor;
• ‘Less Film Society – More Fleet Street: Peter Hopkinson’ by James Piers Taylor;
• ‘Science and Society: Peter de Normanville, Sarah Erulkar’ by Ros Cranston & Katy McGahan;
• ‘Shooting the Message: John Krish’ by Patrick Russell;
• ‘Who’s Driving?: Peter Pickering’ by Patrick Russell;
• ‘The Passing Stranger: Anthony Simmons’ by Michael Brooke;
• ‘Meet the Pioneers – Early Lindsay Anderson’ by Erik Hedling;
• ‘A Person Apart: Guy Brenton’ by Ros Cranston;
• ‘Tracts of Time: Derek Williams’ by Patrick Russell;
• ‘Savage Voyages: Eric Marquis’ by Rebecca Vick;
• ‘Between Two Worlds: Derrick Knight’ by Bert Hogenkamp;

My own chapter looked at the career of Anthony Simmons, who was probably the most commercially successful of these filmmakers after Lindsay Anderson. Happily, he’s still alive and well and was only too glad to reminisce about his career. In addition to conducting two interviews myself (one on video for the DVD box, another much longer one in private) and having long chats over various lunches, I also had access to Rodney Giesler’s four-tape interview conducted in 1997 for the invaluable BECTU History Project – and, most crucially, was able to watch virtually all the films that I needed to see, including his unfinished and unreleased debut Bulgarian Village (1947). In fact, I think the only one that I couldn’t get hold of was his feature debut Your Money or Your Wife (1960), but both Tony and the contemporary reviews suggested that I wasn’t missing much (and in any case it wasn’t a documentary).

When writing a project like this, there’s a huge weight of responsibility that comes with the knowledge that this will be the definitive resource for postwar documentary research for some time to come – and that any mistakes will duly find themselves reprinted in countless follow-ups. It’s now several months since I proofread my final draft, and I’m not aware of any mistakes that have crept into my own contribution, so fingers crossed that things stay that way. And I’m greatly looking forward to finding the time to read the rest of the book.

Reviews

• The Digital Fix (Anthony Nield)
• Illuminations (John Wyver)