Visions of Community: The Postwar Housing Problem in Sponsored and Amateur Films

Abstract

This chapter will compare a group of sponsored municipal films with an amateur film on a similar topic; a process that will attempt to highlight what could be regarded as general features of amateur cinema as a mode of production, by considering an amateur film that is agitational in nature. Let Glasgow Flourish (1952—6) is an unusual film that combines elements from various film traditions; including educational films, social problem dramas and even newsreels. It has been interpreted as a reaction to the overly optimistic sponsored productions that were commissioned by the Glasgow Corporation to explain their extensive house-building programme following the Second World War. From this point of view, Let Glasgow Flourish acts as a corrective, showing how things ‘really’ are for the lower paid residents of the city. Moreover, I want to argue that the film also displays some elements more typical of films produced by filmmakers working as part of the organized network of amateur cinema that was so active in Britain, especially during the 1950s and 1960s. Knowledge of this context goes some way to explaining the aesthetic practices of Let Glasgow Flourish for viewers who have little prior experience of films produced outside mainstream commercial cinema.