This film is part of Free
A passionate post-war plea for workers to return to the cotton industry after decades of decline, framed as an argument between father and daughters.
This evocative post-war plea from the Ministry of Labour stakes a claim for the continuing relevance of the cotton industry. Structured as an argument between a cynical father and his two daughters, both fervent champions of the newly modernised mills, Donald Alexander’s film aims to illustrate the rebirth of an industry perceived to be in decline following its industrial revolution heyday.
Shot on location in Shaw, Oldham and Rochdale, using ‘real people’ to enact the story, Cotton Come Back was one of several postwar recruitment films sponsored by the Board of Trade and Ministry of Labour, designed to revivify trade and encourage workers back into industry. Cotton Come Back is also available on the BFI DVD collection Land of Promise: The British Documentary Movement 1930-1950. This government film is a public record, preserved and presented by the BFI National Archive on behalf of The National Archives, home to more than 1,000 years of British history.
