GPO Film Unit

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.

Short documentary about a trawler fishing for hake.

The film, made to advertise domestic telephone sets, is based around two very different families. The Petts are conventional, happy and have children; the Potts are unconventional and unhappy, without children.

This portait of life on the tea plantations is decidedly rosy – clearly, there are no exploited workers here. However, the film provides an intriguing overview of tea production – from the planting of tea seeds to the final shipping of the precious leaves across the globe.

This expository film shows the mood of European society on the eve of the Second World War while promoting the values of international cooperation. Using the Swiss office of the BBC as an example, the film describes the functioning of radio and presents the possibilities opened by mass communications. After the advent of sound film, Cavalcanti promoted experimentation with sound, and in this connection he was interested in the communicational, organizational, and social aspects of radio.

A tribute to the courage and resiliency of Britons during the darkest days of the London Blitz.

Wartime morale-boosting propaganda short, looking at the greatness of Britain and the efforts of all to preserve her power and integrity.

Trade Tattoo went even further than Rainbow Dance in its manipulation of the Gasparcolor process. The original black and white footage consisted of outtakes from GPO Film Unit documentaries such as Night Mail. Lye transformed this footage in what has been described as the most intricate job of film printing and color grading ever attempted. Animated words and patterns combine with the live-action footage to create images as complex and multi-layered as a Cubist painting. Music was provided by the Cuban Lecuona Band. With its dynamic rhythms, the film seeks (in Lye’s words) to convey “a romanticism about the work of the everyday in all walks of life."

Ambitious documentary chronicling the cultural life and religious customs of the Sinhalese and the effects of advanced industrialism on such customs.

How long-distance telephone calls are made, from the UK to the USA. We see operators, miles of wires, and the amplification of voice transmitted across the waters. Engineers of the Post Office describe how they are improving the service.

A behind-the-scenes GPO Film Unit documentary (directed by Stuart Legg) that races from studio rehearsals and newsrooms to control rooms and transmitters, weaving speeches, music, and outside broadcasts—featuring voices like H. G. Wells and Ramsay MacDonald—into a kinetic portrait of how the BBC’s national “voice” is made.

The picture shows the industrialization of England, and the measures taken to clean up afterwards: a lyrical counterpart of Men In Danger, and a contradiction.

“The rolling hills and wide valleys of the Chilterns are given centre stage in this travelogue aimed at boosting tourism … The Chilterns are a range of rolling hills not far from Greater London; starting at the Thames in Oxfordshire and meandering in a north-easterly direction for nearly 50 miles, before having the good sense to stop short of Luton. This travelogue was produced by the Travel and Industrial Development Association, projecting an image of olde worlde charm to audiences abroad. The fact that this version is silent suggests that it was made for non-theatrical screening.” - BFI Player.

Humphrey Jennings’s wartime short rallies Britain’s countryside, showing fields ploughed up from fallow, seed sown, and crops raised on once-idle land as part of the national push to feed the home front—an urgent, lyrical call to turn soil into sustenance.

Experimental GPO publicity film extolling the virtues of the telegram service.

Sponsored by the Ministry of Information and shown as part of cinema programmes throughout the Second World War, this short film takes place halfway through the Battle of Britain and at the beginning of the Blitz, during sustained bombing raids on UK cities.

Humphrey Jennings' first film as a director, a brief overview of the British postal service.

Shows the production of the London telephone directory.

A short GPO documentary showing how undersea telephone cables are repaired.

As the subtitle of the film suggests - The Story of a Post Card from Manchester to Graffham - this journey is very much focused on the process of sorting, transporting and delivering the postcard in question.