When We Build Again

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Summary

Documentary looking at post war housing provision based on a report written by the Bournville Village Trust.

Year:

1943

Duration:

0:27:00

Film type:

Black & White / Sound

Genre:

Documentary

Company:

Strand Film Company

Master format:

16mm

Description

The film follows three soldiers going home for seven days leave contrasting their different housing conditions. Victorian terraced housing with outside toilets, cramped conditions and back yards are contrasted with houses in suburbs. We also see small factories close to housing areas which include cramped workshops. There are scenes of children playing in the street. There are interviews with people living in various dwellings from back to back houses to modern municipal flats (one man complains of the noise) and a new suburban development (too far from work is one comment). The commentary also mentions a 1938 Bournville Village Trust survey called 'When We Build Again' which asked people want their want from a house. Future urban planning including large-scale clearance of inner cities and the construction of post war new towns is discussed and demonstrated by a town planner using diagrams and models. An ideal development is shown (the Bournville estate) which includes open space within a 'garden city' design.


Credits

Camera: Charles Marlborough
Assistant: J.M. Burgoyne-Johnson
Script: Reg Groves
Commentary: Dylan Thomas
Commentators: James McKechnie; Dylan Thomas
Music: V. Hely Hutchinson
Musical Director: Muir Mathieson
Supervising Editor: Alan Osbiston
Recordist: Harold King with John Slater; Norman Howard; Laurence Davies


Notes

Main titles and some of the credits are missing from print held. Published sources give the director as Ralph Bond, producer as Donald Taylor and the production company as Strand Films. The inner-city 'slum' housing is probably Birmingham given the sponsorship of the film by Cadbury although Bournville, which is seen in a much more positive light, is the only area actually named in the film.