British Council Film Collection

May 3, 2012 6:34 AM

The British Council Film Collection "is an archive of over 120 short documentary films made by the British Council during the 1940s designed to show the world how Britain lived, worked and played. Preserved by the BFI National Film Archive and digitised by means of a generous donation by Google, the films are now yours to view, to download and to play with for the first time." A couple of essays and case studies also already up, with more to come.
posted by Abiezer (7 comments total)

Wow, available for download? In halfway decent quality even?

I suspect much mashup mayhem can be created out of this.
posted by hippybear at 6:41 AM on May 3, 2012 [1 favorite]

Hasn't Peter Serafinowicz done this? I'm thinking of a clip of a man wandering around a farmer's market, looking at wooden stakes.... Bah! I have to find the clip!
posted by potsmokinghippieoverlord at 6:51 AM on May 3, 2012

Here it is! "Markets of Britain"
posted by potsmokinghippieoverlord at 7:01 AM on May 3, 2012 [6 favorites]

(not the derail but) i can't describe how hilarious and smart the vid in potsmokinghippieoverlord's link is. more of this please!
posted by jmccw at 7:50 AM on May 3, 2012

I was immediately drawn to the cricket film, my latest affectation. There's something rather charming about the whole thing.
posted by kendrak at 8:30 AM on May 3, 2012

These are great. But Lee Titt ruined them for me. *shakes fist*
posted by stbalbach at 9:57 AM on May 3, 2012

Here it is! "Markets of Britain"
posted by potsmokinghippieoverlord at 3:01 PM on May 3

This egregious disrespect to the mighty Jack Hargreaves.... had me on the floor, to be honest. Marvellous vid.
posted by Decani at 10:45 AM on May 3, 2012