The FourDocs archive is a library of full length documentaries put together to represent some of the best filmmaking of the past century.
George Cricks
1906
A Visit to Peek Frean & Co's Biscuit Works. A promotional film that turned mechanical tedium into industrial lyricism
Paul Yule
2000
An investigation into the disappearance of a journalist in Chechnya
Mike Figgis/Jeremy Deller
2001
Reconstructing miners clashing with the police in Yorkshire and looking back at the decline of coal mining in the 80s
Jonathan Lewis/Elizabeth Taylor-Mead
1977
Examining editorial attitudes in the non-fiction British cinema and newsreels of the thirties towards the rise of Fascism
Patrick Collerton
2003
Hugely-influential story of a man with a rare disease that led to his skin peeling off, and his last days of life
Paul Watson
1997
Conservative voters in the home counties come together to discuss their politics.
Kim Longinotto
2001
Documentary about women and divorce in Iran set in a family law court in Tehran.
John Grierson
1929
The lives of herring fisherman of the North Sea, as portrayed by John Gierson.
Kate Blewett
1995
In 1995, Brian Woods and Kate Blewett uncovered the systematic neglect of abandoned babies in China.
Nicholas Cohen
1996
Army cadets from a private school take their end of year training tests.
John Smith
1976
Pretending to direct an everyday 1970s East End street scene
Belinda Giles
1997
A team of forensic archeologists try to piece together what happened in a massacre during the Yugoslav conflict.
Humphrey Jennings
1941
Made by Humphrey Jennings and the Ministry for Information, this film is a tribute to the workers of Britain during World War Two.
A. Elton/E. Anstey
1935
Provocative depiction of living conditions in the slums in South London.
J.Grierson/R.Flaherty
1933
This film about British Industry in the 1930s portrays the industrial worker as a heroic figure, championing the craftsmanship of the individual behind the dehumanizing façade of the industrial landscape.
Marilyn Gaunt
1994
A deaf blind mother fights with social services to be able to bring up her baby.
Nick Broomfield
1991
The Leader, His Driver and the Driver's Wife. Documentary about the South African neo-Nazi leader Eugene Terreblanche, and Nick Broomfield's attempts to get an interview with him.
Marc Isaacs
2001
Marc Isaacs' award winning film set in a lift in some council flats.
H.Jennings/S.McAllister
1942
Documentary showing a Britain united in the war effort through a montage of various scenes of daily life.
Patrick Keiller
1992
A surreal and imaginative portrait of a depressed London in 1992, as the city lurched from one crisis to another
US National Archives
1930
Teaching farm boys how to make Ford wheels in an instructional doc
Witold Starecki
1996
Rabbi Gordon's job is to track down wayward husbands and force them to divorce their wives.
Joseph Bullman
2000
The Man Who Bought Mustique. The story of Lord Glenconner from Scotland, who bought an island in the Caribbean and then lost it.
T. Richardson/K. Reisz
1956
A celebration of the free spirit of youth and Teddy Boys, particularly in London's 1950s working class.
Lindsay Anderson
1956
The start of the Free Cinema movement, the iconic Margate funfair as a metaphor for the shabbiness of modern life
Ronald Stark
1953
Documentary recording the construction and testing of Britain's first atomic bomb.
Ian Taylor
1992
The never seen before and brutal four week selection test for the elite parachute regiment.
Sue Bourne
1993
Businessmen go on an outward bound course that makes P Company look like a picnic.
Paul Jenkins
2001
Documentary about the once great but now decaying Russian Army and the soldiers forced to endure it.
Norman Hull
1997
Inside the newsroom of the newspaper that everyone pretends they don't buy.
John Schlesinger
1961
Observational film looking at the comings and goings of London's Waterloo railway station.
Paul Berczeller
2003
Investigating the mysterious death of a Japanese girl in Fargo, USA
Clive Gordon
1993
Documentary about the conflict in former Yugoslavia.
Dan Reed
1999
The plight of the Albanian population in Kosovo.
Penny Woolcock
2002
Observing Providence Row refuge for the alcoholic homeless, a place where the residents can drink as much as they like
