Love Letters & Live Wires (U)
Short films from the marvelously inventive GPO Film Unit recreate 1930s Britain
N or NW (Dir: Len Lye, 1938)
Love on the Wing (Dir: Norman McLaren, 1939)
The Fairy of the Phone (Dir: William Coldstream, 1936)
The Horsey Mail (Dir: Pat Jackson, 1938)
Trade Tattoo (Dir: Len Lye, 1937)
A Midsummer Day's Work (No director credited, 1939)
The Tocher (Dir: Lotte Reiniger, 1938)
Night Mail (Dir: Harry Watt, Basil Wright, 1936)
UK, 1936 - 1939, 1 hour 20 minutes
Mon 30 March 4.15pm - The Courtyard Hereford
The GPO Film Unit became internationally renowned for its creative, exciting public information films, leaving us an evocative record of the 1930s on celluloid. This selection of some of its greatest short films showcases the Unit's sheer range: from quintessential documentary (Night Mail) to avant-garde animation (Trade Tattoo) and even to musical comedy (The Fairy of the Phone). Made by such varied talents as Grierson, Cavalcanti, Len Lye and Norman McLaren, the films bring alive a revolution in mass communications as epoch-changing then as the Internet is now. They brilliantly promote the GPO's contribution to workplace efficiency, world trade and smoothing the path of true love.
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External Links: Channel 4 review / Guardian review / Sight and Sound review