Britain Recut
4 * 3 mins for Channel 4
Mosaic Films, Channel 4 and the BFI joined forces to produce Britain Recut, a groundbreaking series of short films by four new filmmakers.
For the first time in its history, the BFI made historic documentary footage by the early pioneers of documentary available to the public to re-edit into their own short films, as part of an online competition which saw the four winning films screened on Channel 4, and entering the BFI National Archive.
The filmmakers were challenged to comment on an aspect of life in contemporary Britain by recutting public information films from the 1940's and 50's. The results range from the experience of refugees arriving in London, to how we have fun, rationing and working mothers, and display the creative potential of this archive. In turns playful and poignant, they ask how much life in Britain has changed since the war, and whether things really were better in the good old days.
Executive Producer: Andy Glynne
Producer: Kerry McLeod
The Films:
Anyway, Who Are You? (Tuesday 5th May - Dir. Meghan Horvath)
Two refugees, fifty years apart, share their oddly similar experience of arriving in London.
A Welcome Return (Wednesday 6th May - Dir. Barry J Gibb)
If the great British public can't watch their own weight, then perhaps it's time to bring back rationing?
Women Only (Thursday 7th May - Dir. Valeria Coizza)
A group of women compare their freedoms - and their constraints - with those of their grandmothers.
Grandpa William (TX. tbc - Dir. Barnaby Lankester-Owen)
Barnaby Lankester-Owen wants to find out about how people used to have fun. A conversation with his 91 year-old Grandpa William leads to some interesting surprises.