The Forms of the British Official/Sponsored Documentary Film

Abstract

This chapter attempts to define and describe the posited different categories of the post-1945 British official and sponsored film. These are the categories of the ‘Griersonian’, ‘post-war expository’, ‘colonial’, ‘late colonial’ and ‘post-colonial’ official film. These categories of film, which are seen as emanating from or imposed upon a particular historical context, are then set against the historical background of British society, and also that of Malaya/Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong over 1945–75. The introduction also addresses recent reinterpretations of the post-war British official and sponsored film, and arrives at conclusions regarding the influence of John Grierson and the British documentary film movement, both in Britain, and in the British colonies.