Britain’s Shipbuilding Heritage On Film
This week sees the start of the British Film Institute’s “Tales from the Shipyard” with screenings of documentaries, studio features and independently produced films recalling the stories of UK communities shaped by the shipbuilding industry. The film series offers a richly fascinating and often surprising view of a vanished way of life.
“Tales from the Shipyard” draws on some of the remarkable films held in the BFI National Archive, Scottish Screen Archive and Northern Region Film & Television Archive. This includes newly-restored feature films, non-fiction and television material captured by filmmakers across a century. The project launches at BFI Southbank, Glasgow Film Theatre, Tyneside Cinema and QFT, Belfast in February 2011.”
A DVD set complied by the BFI’s, “Tales from the Shipyard” contains over five hours of material that portrays Britain’s shipbuilding past through acclaimed documentaries, little-known cinematic gems and emotive actuality films made at the great shipyards of Belfast, Clydeside, Tyne, Wear and elsewhere. In addition to films from the BFI National Archive, there are two brand new restorations from the Scottish Screen Archive at the National Library of Scotland.
It begins with three Mitchell & Kenyon films and scenes of jubilant workers celebrating spectacular launches in the early 1900s. Further highlights include King George V and Queen Mary’s morale-boosting trip to Northern England’s shipyards at the tail end of the Great War; rare footage of the stunning SS OLYMPIC (1911) showing the building and launch; beautiful colour film of the iconic QUEEN MARY in “RMS Queen Mary Leaves the Clyde” (1936); Sean Connery’s perspective on Glasgow’s industrial relations in “The Bowler and the Bunnet” (1967) – the only film Connery ever directed – and lyrical documentaries in celebration of industrial might such as “Shipyard” (Paul Rotha, 1935) and the Oscar-winning “Seawards the Great Ships” (Hilary Harris, 1960).
BFI / Shipyard
BFI filmstore for DVD (DVD is Region 2)
Thanks to Jill Reading, BFI
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This hopes to be a project of merit.
I was born in Scotland’s Clyde River Valley, but now teach for Galveston College in Texas. I look forward to seeing this collection, sharing it with family, and perhaps, incorporating it to enhance instruction.
Being born in Glasgow, but calling Canada home, I would love to see this doc. Having 3 generartions of my family who worked at Fairfield, John Browns it is a part of my history.
This is and will be a major tribute to the grand, and proud, seafaring history Britain.
One of the last ships built if not last passenger ships, was the Vistafjord, now sailing with Saga. At least there is one still sailing and viewable. The QE2 being the last British built liner.
I hope it will be readily viewable. Perhaps BBC will air it, and send it over to BBC America.
I definitely hope to get this on DVD if I can! Being that I’m too young to have enjoyed sailing on even the late mid-century liners (though I’m lucky, living in Long Beach, I get to see the Queen Mary every day), I relish the opportunity to see any picture or learn any new factoid of that great era of ship building. It saddens me to see what most passenger ships have turned into. I understand the need for profit, but it doesn’t make it any less easy to swallow.
BTW, I suppose the Olympic was an SS (steam ship), but the proper reference would still be RMS, no?
Hi Brad H.
yep, you are quite correct in saying Olympic was a steam-ship; that is, she was powered by two steam triple-expansion engines on her two outer shafts, while the steam from these engines exhausted into a low-pressure turbine that drove her centre shaft. The turbine must have been enormous!
The abbreviation “RMS” stands for “Royal Mail Ship” and refers to the fact that White Star held a contract for the carriage of mails across the Atlantic. Unlike “SS” however, it has no technical meaning – a motor vessel (“MV”) could also be an “RMS”
Alan
Keep us i formed about the project of this fantastic ERA! I hope an electronic support will be available.
PLB
Attended various of these events at the glasgow film theatre (GFT) and loved all of them – absolutely fabulous seeing the brand new Queen Mary, in colour, looking gigantic on our wee River Clyde.
Thank you Martin for bringing this treasure to the forefront. Anyone who loves steamships will cherish it.
HI,
Does anyone know where I can get the Imperial War Museum – Shipyards and Docks at War [DVD], if I am in the US? I tried to buy it on Amazon.co.uk, but it seems no one will ship to the US.
After talking more with my mom, now that I am older and appreciate my heritage more, though I am American, I am both part Scottish and part Irish. I found this dvd about the shipyards after starting to find all kinds of stuff about England, Scotland and Ireland related to the industrial revolution, and also seeing Stings Broadway performance about the shipyards on the River Tyne and his growing up in Tyneside and Newcastle. Before, I vaguely knew that the industrial revolution started in the UK, but I didn’t really know exactly and how much it really completely changed the world we live in today. The modern world really came into being in the UK.