British Universities Film & Video Council

Series Histories - Detail

History
Frontier was a series of fourteen black and white films on science and technology produced by the Central Office of Information on behalf of the Commonwealth Relations Office. The films were made by a variety of companies, including United Motion Pictures (London) Ltd, British Films, Eyeline Films, and directed by documentary filmmakers such as Michael Orrom and Margaret Thomson. Each 13-minute film dealt with an aspect of current British research such as radio astronomy, the development of computers, the invention of the hovercraft and the progress of nuclear power. This was primarily designed for English-speaking countries but three language versions were available, in Arabic, Persian and Asian English.

The series was resurrected early in 1969 in a colour version, Frontier (Colour series), but was limited to five films, after the decision was taken to produce the science magazine series Living Tomorrow. The films were made by a variety of companies, including United Motion Pictures (London) Ltd, New Decade Films and Viewpoint Productions. Each 13-minute film dealt with an aspect of current British research such as radio astronomy, research into car safety and the uses of radio isotopes. It was now produced in seven foreign language editions including Arabic, French, German, Thai and Latin American Spanish.

Provenance
The data for this series was compiled from the following sources: the COI catalogue cards and production documents on microfilm held at Film Images, production documents [INF 6] and monthly divisional reports of the COI [INF 8] held at The National Archives, the Films From Britain catalogue, the British National Film Catalogue and viewing copies held at the British Film Institute.