Saturday, 14 May 2016

The Thirties in Colour (episode 1) / BBC



A World Away
The Thirties in ColourEpisode 1 of 4

Four-part series using rare, private and commercial film and photographic archives to give poignant and surprising insights into the 1930s, a decade which erupted into colour as polychromatic photographic technology came of age and three important processes - Dufaycolour, Technicolor and Kodachrome - were patented and brought to the market.

This opening part looks at the work of socialite and amateur film-maker, Rosie Newman, who used her high society contacts to secure extraordinary access to the social elite. Between 1928 and her retirement in the 1960s, Newman criss-crossed the globe and shot some of the most important colour documentary footage of the period.

Some of her colour films have been seen before, but this programme features some of Newman's work that has never been broadcast and has not been seen publicly for over 70 years.




Unseen footage of the Queen as a young girl in new BBC documentary
Previously unseen footage of the Queen has been discovered showing her as a young girl playing with her sister.
By Nicole Martin, Digital and Media Correspondent 2:20AM BST 17 Jul 2008

The film was taken in the summer of 1936 and shows a young Princess Elizabeth with Princess Margaret in their parents' garden at 145 Piccadilly, London, near Hyde Park.
It was shot by Rosie Newman, a socialite and amateur film-maker, whose family lived next door to then Duke and Duchess of York.
That year, following the surprise abdication of King Edward VIII, they became King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, known later as the Queen Mother.
The footage was part of The Thirties In Colour, a BBC4 documentary about a decade when colour film came of age, screened on Wednesday.
The opening episode of the four-part series examined the work of Miss Newman, the daughter of a wealth banker, who used her wealthy contacts to travel the world and document key moments of the period.
David Okuefuna, who research and produced the series, said: "The Thirties was an extraordinary important and pivotal phase in world history.
"Just weeks before the new decade began, the Wall Street Crash of November 1929 propelled the world into the great global Depression.
"And just weeks before the decade came to a close, the invasion of Poland catapulted the nations of Europe into what would become the bloodiest war in history."

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