Films for the Colonies: Cinema and the Preservation of the British Empire

Description

Films for the Colonies examines the British Government’s use of film across its vast Empire from the 1920s until widespread independence in the 1960s. Central to this work was the Colonial Film Unit, which produced, distributed, and, through its network of mobile cinemas, exhibited instructional and educational films throughout the British colonies. Using extensive archival research and rarely seen films, Films for the Colonies provides a new historical perspective on the last decades of the British Empire. It also offers a fresh exploration of British and global cinema, charting the emergence and endurance of new forms of cinema culture from Ghana to Jamaica, Malta to Malaysia. In highlighting the integral role of film in managing and maintaining a rapidly changing Empire, Tom Rice offers a compelling and far-reaching account of the media, propaganda, and the legacies of colonialism. Cover Films for the Colonies Title Copyright Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Accessing Digitized Materials Timeline Introduction 1. Beginnings: The Interwar Movement of Nonfiction Film 2. Film Rules: The Governing Principles of the Colonial Film Unit 3. Mobilizing an Empire: The Colonial Film Unit in a State of War 4. Moving Overseas: “Films for Africans, with Africans, by Africans” 5. Handover: Local Units through the End of Empire Notes Selected Bibliography Index