Point of View

Dates

1939 - 1940

Category

Cinemagazine - News Related

History

Point of View was a monthly series, produced by Spectator Short Films, which aimed to counter what its producers perceived as being the ‘propaganda’ bias of the documentary film by presenting pro and cons of social and political issues of the day. Each issue focused questions such as SHOULD NON-VOTERS LOSE THE VOTE? issue no. 3 (1939) or IS IDLENESS A VICE? issue no. 7 (1940) and different points of view were put forward in each case. For example, in SHOULD WE GROW MORE FOOD? issue no. 5 (1939) a farmer and housewife discussed whether Britain should grow more food, or import more produce. There were seven issues in all covering twelve topics. Only one issue is known to survive but unfortunately the soundtrack is missing.

Provenance

This data has been compiled from reviews in the Monthly Film Bulletin and Today’s Cinema.

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)