Thursday, May 03, 2012

The British Council Film Collection: The Western Isles (1942)



From the British Council website:
The British Council Film Collection is an archive of over 120 short documentary films made by the British Council during the 1940s designed to show the world how Britain lived, worked and played. Preserved by the BFI National Film Archive and digitised by means of a generous donation by Google, the films are now yours to view, to download and to play with for the first time. ... 
Today, we are beginning to make the whole Collection available right here, not simply as a fully catalogued resource available to watch once again, but to download too - and you are all actively encouraged to play with the films! We'll be adding more films, more background information, and more fascinating material from the paper archive here, throughout 2012.
The first batch of 80 films was released today.

The Western Isles was photographed by Jack Cardiff, Powell and Pressburger's cinematographer, in 1942 and not surprisingly is reminiscent of their wartime films. I hope it will make you more appreciative of what goes into making your tweed jacket.

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