British Universities Film & Video Council

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Humphrey Swingler

Profile

Dates
1950-1953
Role
Producer
Newsreels / Cinemagazines
Oil Review; The March of Time
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Career

Humphrey Swingler began his working life as a teacher in the Malvern Hills, after studying at Oxford. A change of career brought hm to Merton Park Studios as an editor. He had always been a film fan, and saw the documentary film as an opportunity to reach an infinitely wider audience than the classroom. After beginning in editing, he spent two years as a writer and director with the British unit of The March of Time. He then returned to teaching for two years, setting up his own school in Dorset. When war broke out, Swingler was asked to join the Films Division of the Ministry of Information [qv], which he did, leaving the school to look after itself. Whilst working for the government, he spent his time in the cutting rooms of the Crown Film Unit [qv].

After the war, Swingler joined Greenpark Productions Ltd. [qv] as a director. He became managing director of Greenpark in 1950. As such, he produced the cinemagazine series, Oil Review for the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company [qv]. His other successes include an Oscar nomination in 1972 for ‘The Tide of Traffic’, a BP film.

Sources

NoS Number 349183; Oil Review Number 1; Date released 1950: NoS Number 349310; Oil Review Number 13; Date released 1951: NoS Number 349321; Oil Review Number 18; Date released 1953: Film User, Volume 7 Number 81, page 371; Date July 1953: Imagery, Volume 6 Number 2; Date June 1954.

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