Videoteca

Your Children's Play 1951
Paging all parents! Need some post-war childrearing advice? Then this is the film for you. It was an instalment in the Your Children series of films produced between 1945 and 1951, dealing with various facets of children's health - in this case, the importance of play to both mental and physical development. The surprise is not that much of it has amusingly dated – of course it has – but how much still feels enlightened and applicable today.

These Are Our Children 1948
Social documentary short from Australia, on the welfare of children, especially those from a poor background.

Beautiful Melbourne 1947
In the 1940s, Brotherhood of St Laurence founder, Father Gerard Tucker, commissioned three short, silent films which were screened to audiences in the affluent suburbs of Melbourne and rural Victoria. 'Beautiful Melbourne', 'Gaol Does Not Cure' and 'These Are Our Children' were made on a shoestring budget between in 1946-47. 'Beautiful Melbourne' with its raw scenes of the pre-gentrified Fitzroy near Melbourne’s CBD exposed the living conditions of families living in overcrowded, dilapidated and vermin-infested housing.

In My Beginning 1947
'A colour sound film funded by the Koornong School in Warrandyte, Victoria. Produced to promote awareness of the school’s activities, in particular its cooperative approach to school management, the film illustrates the traditional left ideal of collective action and again deploys the rural ideal which provides a response to the problems depicted in A Place to Live and These are Our Children. Scenes include the collective building of the school, a meeting of the school’s ‘bully committee’ to discuss students’ problems, and various activities where the emphasis is on groups of people working together. The school is located in what was a rural landscape outside Melbourne and the film shows exercise, learning and craft work in this locale as particularly wholesome activities.' (Deane Williams)

Your Children's Ears 1945
British health documentary on children's ears and how to prevent deafness.

Your Children's Teeth 1945
Instructs on the importance of ante-natal care and proper diet in helping children to grow healthy teeth.

French Town... 1945
Portrait of a small French town following its liberation during World War II.

Atlantic Trawler 1944
Trawlers at work; the crew on board and landing a catch. The fishing crew are seen with their families on shore shopping and enjoying themselves in the pub. Life aboard a West Coast trawler under arduous and dangerous wartime conditions.

Words and Actions 1943
Information on the different groups and organizations that are there to help the population during wartime.

Stooking and Stacking 1943
A stook is a group of sheaves of grain stood on end in a field, which can be stacked in ingenious and skilful fashion, in barn or field, to preserve and maintain the nutritional value of the grain. Some of these substantial stacks are shaped like cottages, and the local thatcher is even brought in to complete the roof. Director Rosanne Hunter made at least six films, all in the 1940s, however little is known of her life and career.

Newspaper Train 1942 star_border 5
The story of how newspapers were distributed during the Blitz, stressing the importance of an accurate and objective press on the home front.

The Harvest Shall Come 1942
"The Harvest Shall Come" is a wartime story/documentary produced by Realist Film Unit and starring John Slater. This tells the story of an ordinary farmer (Tim Grimwood), and his struggles as a boy starting out in 1900, to a farm labourer come the second world war. The story documents the ebbs and flows of the fortunes of such as him in the industry over those 40 years, and (as the name suggests) has an air of new dawn, whereby farmers essential to the war effort would at last secure a fair deal.

Living with Strangers 1941
Consideration of the social problems arising out of evacuation.

Storing Vegetables Outdoors 1941
This Ministry of Information film does ‘what it says on the tin’. It is a straightforward, ‘no frills’ demonstration of how to store roots vegetables outside by a traditional method known as ‘clamping’, which had been used for centuries.

Bampton Shows the Way 1941
Part of BFI boxset Ration Books and Rabbit Pies: Films from the Home Front.

They Also Serve 1940
Short World War II documentary showing how the everyday work of British housewives aided the war effort.

Roads Across Britain 1939
A journalistic survey of Britain's road traffic problems and a plea for the adoption of a National Road Plan.

Modern Orphans of the Storm: The Story of the Refugee Basque Children 1937
Focuses upon the journey of child refugees from the Basque Country to temporary accommodation near Southampton, Hampshire [England].

Children at School 1937
Short documentary about British education in the late 1930s.