COI

Impressions of contemporary British arts and fashion. Summary of art through the ages taking in every thing from Mary Quant to the Marat/Sade production. Made for the Montreal "Expo '67" exhibition.

Filmed partly in Urdu, Insaaf (Injustice) is a public information film aimed at Britain’s South Asian communities. Produced through the Central Office of Information for the Race Relations Board, it seeks to inform viewers of the Board’s role in enforcing the 1968 Race Relations Act, via the story of a young man denied a job he is qualified for due to the racism of his potential employer.

An African tribe in the Eastern Nigerian village of Umana work to build a maternity hospital, with the aid of government officials, and against the opposition of some tribal members.

On an English farm, six reckless children play at being a fierce band of Apache warriors, unaware of the many dangers to which they are exposed. (Public information short film produced on behalf of the British Government to warn children living in rural areas about the risks of playing near farm machinery.)

Reported cases of sexually transmitted disease took a sharp rise during and after World War II, but as this film testifies, sexual license amongst soldiers on the frontline wasn't the sole cause. Back on the home front, for many women, like Joan from No. 19, loneliness or newfound independence acted as an incentive to extramarital promiscuity.

Even the most devout monarchist may feel uncomfortable watching this film - hindsight makes this a rather poignant experience. Although clearly intended as a hymn to royal life, with a panting narration describing the bliss Charles, Anne and Andrew are experiencing (the film was made three years before the birth of Edward), the images tell a different story - only a couple of shots feature the children smiling, while the first glimpse of Andrew as a baby, a spotlight shining on his face as photographers snap away, is a faintly sinister symbol of the royals’ lack of privacy from birth. The knowledge that a future of divorce and tabloid scandal would tarnish these children's adult lives adds irony to this snapshot of supposed utopia.

A mysterious stranger foreshadows Death, but is good enough to give a handy driving safety tip along the way.

A short film to warn children of sexual predators.

Popular animated character Charley explains the National Insurance Act, which was legislation that made health insurance available to all British citizens.

No man is an island, but Charley represents his nation in this economical cartoon tale of Britain’s economics.

In the middle of a six-week tour of the Indian sub-continent between January and March 1961, the Queen and Prince Philip visited Pakistan and East Pakistan, now Bangladesh.

This cartoon propaganda short by Halas & Batchelor sweetens the pill of post-war coal prices by promising jam tomorrow.

An exhortation to drivers to pay attention to road safety. In just 15 minutes, John Krish manages to give this road safety film something new and different by presenting events not from the point of view of the driver, but of his brain, memory and ego, who operate from a rather camp technology-driven command centre.

Documentary about Sir Terence Conran, an English designer, restaurateur, retailer and writer.

The message of this coastguard film was to raise awareness that HM Coastguard had become a ‘999’ service enabling the public to raise the alarm as it does for other emergency services. It was made in 1968 and, highly unusually for an animation short, remade and re-released in 2006.

This film is a compilation of footage shot by Associated British Pathe, which covered royal events for its newsreels, and the company would have been ideally placed to use their footage to make short films for the COI. The varied life of the Queen depicted in the film encompasses duties such as making the first telephone trunk call in 1958, from Bristol.

Highlights of Prince Philip's visit to Antarctica, Falkland Island Dependencies, the Falkland Islands themselves, Gough Island, Tristan da Cunha, St. Helena and Ascension Island.

A short information film produced to get Britain ready for decimalisation.

A haunting fire prevention film about keeping matches out of the hands of children.

The President had been due to visit twice before, but on both occasions the trip had to be cancelled. The first time was in 1963, the same year as the Commonwealth visit by the President of India. The second cancellation occurred in 1965 when a longstanding dispute between India and Pakistan over the sovereignty of Kashmir boiled over into full-scale war in September of that year. However, as one might expect from a film made for international diplomacy purposes no reference is made to ongoing political problems either at home or abroad. Like the Indian presidential visit of 1963, the film was for screening to domestic audiences (both in the UK and in Pakistan) whose main interest would be in the pomp and ceremony of the visit, and the reception and status afforded to the President by the Queen and royal family.