This extract comes from Humphrey Jennings and Stewart McAllister’s ‘Listen to Britain’. The film is available to buy on the BFI DVD ‘Land of Promise: British Documentary Movement (1930-1950)’. The 4-disc set with 13 hours of re-mastered footage, in deluxe presentation box with 96-page booklet, is available from the BFI at http://www.bfi.org.uk/filmstore

A landmark BFI collection, and the first major retrospective of the documentary film movement during its period of greatest influence. These films – many of which are being made available here for the first time since their original release – capture the spirit and strength, concerns and resolve of Britain and its people before, during and after the Second World War.

These diverse and compelling films are fascinating historical documents, bearing witness to the social and industrial changes of the rapidly changing world. Yet they are also striking in their different approach to the form. Using poetry, dramatic reconstruction, the techniques of modernism and explicit propaganda, the filmmakers found fresh, new ways to get their message across.

You can watch ‘Listen to Britain’ and over 1000 other complete films and TV programmes from the BFI National Archive free of charge at the new BFI Mediatheque – http://www.bfi.org.uk/mediatheque