In the 1920s and 1930s most significant British documentary film-making was funded by the government and its national agencies, such as the Ministries of Transport, Trade, Information, the General Post Office and Empire Marketing Board.
During this time UK governments tended to be right-leaning, but documentary films attracted socialist directors from the start.
Harry Watt, who joined the Empire Marketing Board Film Unit in 1932 said,
‘Not many of us were communists, but we were all socialists and I’m sure we had dossiers.’
The hard-hitting documentaries made by these new documentary directors were often technically advanced, using the latest film equipment in novel and exciting ways.
Synchronised sound-recording on location was a technology driven by British documentary makers; first in Workers For Jobs by Arthur Elton in 1934, then by Edgar Anstey in 1935 to devastating effect in Housing Problems, for the Gas Light and Coal Company.
And 16mm film – first standardised in 1923 by Eastman and Bell & Howell – was a lightweight format aimed at documentary.
The finished films were usually shown in cinemas as ‘supporting features’ to the main movie attraction.
The audiences were big.
