This Modern Age

Dates

1946 - 1951

History

This Modern Age was a monthly news cinemagazine, produced by the Rank Organisation. It was similar in style to The March of Time, to which it was often compared, usually unfavourably. There were forty-one issues in all, from October 1946 to January 1951. Each issue was devoted to a single story, lasting around twenty minutes. Initially it covered only domestic issues, gradually branching out to cover international themes. Among its notable productions were PALESTINE (issue 6, 1947), COAL CRISIS (issue 7, 1947), THE BRITISH - ARE THEY ARTISTIC? (issue 16, 1948) and WOMEN IN OUR TIME (issue 22, 1948). The executive producer was Sergei Nolbandov, Eric Cross the chief cinematographer, and the commentators were Bruce Belfrage, Leo Genn, Robert Harris and Bernard Miles.

Provenance

Data taken from Documentary News Letter and the monthly Film Bulletin, with background information from Leo Enticknap’s PhD thesis, The Non-Fiction Film in Britain 1945-1951.

Films in this series can be obtained from:

Film Archive

Name

British Film Institute (BFI)

Email

For BFI National Archive enquiries: nonfictioncurators@bfi.org.uk For commercial/footage reuse enquiries: footage.films@bfi.org.uk

Web

http://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web

Phone

020 7255 1444

Fax

020 7580 7503

Address

21 Stephen Street
London W1T 1LN

Notes

The BFI National Archive also preserves the original nitrate film copies of British Movietone News, British Paramount News, Empire News Bulletin, Gaumont British News, Gaumont Graphic, Gaumont Sound News and Universal News (the World War II years are covered by the Imperial War Museum).

Series held

View all series held by British Film Institute (BFI)