Movies: Gpo Film Unit

This documentary short examines the special train on which mail is sorted, dropped and collected on the run, and delivered in Scotland on the overnight run from Euston, London to Glasgow....

A tribute to the courage and resiliency of Britons during the darkest days of the London Blitz....

Trade Tattoo went even further than Rainbow Dance in its manipulation of the Gasparcolor process. The original black and white footage consisted of outtakes from GPO Film Unit documentaries such as Night Mail. Lye transformed this footage in what has...

Documentary short by Humphrey Jennings. The GPO Film Unit was a subdivision of the UK General Post Office. The unit was established in 1933, taking on responsibilities of the Empire Marketing Board Film Unit. Headed by John Grierson, it was set up to...

This portait of life on the tea plantations is decidedly rosy – clearly, there are no exploited workers here. However, the film provides an intriguing overview of tea production – from the planting of tea seeds to the final shipping of the precious l...

Ambitious documentary chronicling the cultural life and religious customs of the Sinhalese and the effects of advanced industrialism on such customs....

1935 documentary about the hard working life of Welsh coal miners....

The film, made to advertise domestic telephone sets, is based around two very different families. The Petts are conventional, happy and have children; the Potts are unconventional and unhappy, without children....

The building and launch of a new long-wave radio transmitter - just as the TV age is about to be born....

“Catching up with gossip, inspecting new ducklings, clambering over gates, walking across meadows - the life of a postman appears idyllic, but this Devon postie has some startling ideas about improving efficiency... The inimitable Richard Massingham,...

Documentary following an Edinburgh fishing trawler, the "Isabella Grieg"....

Short documentary about a trawler fishing for hake....

Humphrey Jennings' first film as a director, a brief overview of the British postal service....

Rainbow Dance is a 1936 British animated film released by the GPO Film Unit. This is Lye's second film. It uses the Gasparcolor process....

Sponsored by the Ministry of Information and shown as part of cinema programmes throughout the Second World War, this short film takes place halfway through the Battle of Britain and at the beginning of the Blitz, during sustained bombing raids on UK...

Animated shapes dance to Cuban music. This was one of the first animations to be painted directly onto the film....

Correspondence between young lovers nearly ends in disaster through a mistake in postal district. Fortunately the GPO spots the error and all ends well, but with the moral that correspondents should get the address right....

How news of a general reduction in GPO charges was finally brought to parliament and the people, despite attempts by the country's enemies to prevent the announcement......

Police work during World War II in Britain....

This expository film shows the mood of European society on the eve of the Second World War while promoting the values of international cooperation. Using the Swiss office of the BBC as an example, the film describes the functioning of radio and prese...