The Workers Film
and Photo League (sometimes just 'The Film and Photo League') was a 1930s
organisation associated with the Communist Party. I came across an article about
them recently: 'England: the (Workers) Film and Photo League' by Terry Dennett,
published in Photography/Politics: One' - a journal/book published by
Photography Workshop in 1979.
A League document quoted in the article set out its
mission as being: 'to provide and popularize film and photos of working class
interest, giving a true picture of the industrial and social conditions of the
workers today and of their organized struggle to improve their conditions'.
Another text states: 'There are thousands of workers in this country who own
cameras, but who only use them for taking an occasional snapshot. If even a
number of them were to photograph the conditions around the - in the factories,
workshops, railways and countryside, in their streets - we should have an
invaluable record of working class life'.
The League held regular film schools with lectures and
film shows. No doubt there was some dreadful Stalinist propaganda - the 1933
advert below mentions a lecture by Stephen Harrison 'just back from Moscow'. But
some of the films from that time sound interesting - a 1936 advert mentions
'Tenants in Revolt! - 'A Stirring Record of the Struggle of the Stepney Tenants'
made by the British Film Unit with the Stepney Tenants League and
featuring music by the Unity Theatre orchestra.
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| 1933 |
A film school was held in July 1933 in the garden of the
Studio Theatre (59 Finchley Road, London NW8), followed by 'Flannel Dance in the
Ballroom' attended by 'stars' including Elli Tompuri (Finnish dancer and
actress), Fritz Kortner (Austrian Jewish film actor)
and Mabel Constanduros (famous at the time for her
radio show The Buggins Family).
A 1936 London Film School held at the Veterans' Hall in
High Holborn was also followed by a dance, while a four day film school in 1938
included a Saturday night 'Grand Social and Dance - The Highspot of the rally!
Bring all your friends! Any costume... carnival and fun'.
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| '1936: The Film is a weapon. Use it' |
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| 1938 Film School programme - note also Session on 'The Place of Sound' including 'Disc-records to be made by members' |
(Sorry for poor quality images)
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