This film is part of Free
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_480x270/public/hero-images/0844ed6679090149887ee113b444565b.jpg?itok=ApaKPJFq)
The Defence of the Realm Act
Ending child exploitation, saving theatres, and finding a stiff drink - how to survive the Great Depression.
Overview
While the first newsreels had avoided political controversy, March of Time often took on a campaigning stance. So it was that the leading item in this edition found Louis de Rochemont and co, who produced the films, lending support to a political initiative to enshrine workers' rights for children. Here in Britain, meanwhile, there was clearly a rather different discussion about rights going on: the right to buy booze in the evening.
Context is everything in these reports, each of which cast a spotlight on day-to-day life during economic hardship. Although headquartered in the US, the March of Time cinemagazine had an arm in Britain, and liked to stress that it understood the national psyche here. The third item reveals, with wry humour, the crafty ways in which citizens managed to circumvent old alcohol buying restrictions. The second film, meanwhile, remembers American showbusiness before the Depression - a time when minstrel shows and performances from the "Negro unit" might have been deemed acceptable.
Related
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/c0ce399e162076f1739ea0b74f158e1a.jpg?itok=AlvBrUxd)
Inside Nazi Germany Inside Nazi Germany
Documentary 1938 16 mins
A genuinely historic film, which caused much controversy at the time: the first commercially -released American motion picture to explicitly attack Hitler and Nazism.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/43b30147d7f368d6ffcfd42de0019720.jpg?itok=b1Pg24Ne)
Presidential Year Presidential Year
Documentary 1948 15 mins
‘Crisp and sincere’,‘carefully trained’ or ’resonant and vibrant’? Which voice would appeal to you if you had to pick the Republican candidate for the 1948 Presidential Election?
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/6c9986d056a3c1506b93ab6c68918329.jpg?itok=Pv38FtZs)
Great Britain Coronation Great Britain Coronation
Anthology 1937 24 mins
Weatherproof bunting, fog, clockwork dolls and a Hollywood exodus to London: this sideways look at preparations for the Coronation of George VI provides a wry American take on a very British ceremony.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/70ea67110d0787359e8cb9914d0645ad.jpg?itok=A9mpYxR4)
Metropolis Metropolis
Documentary 1939 18 mins
This ode to New York from March of Time shows us how seven and half million people from every race and nationality in the world, live, work and play together in ‘the greatest metropolis of the New World’.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/194bfa2b331f133c8f40b52ab5f1304b.jpg?itok=V6jknMQQ)
Irish Free State Irish Free State
Anthology 1936 23 mins
How Ireland turned herself into a self-sufficient powerhouse - plus a study of the "lunatic fringe" in US politics.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/d3ff3229fdb68fccf12772a1a43f7221.jpg?itok=ml3Vm2X_)
America Thinks It Over America Thinks It Over
Documentary 1939 17 mins
In a world on the verge of war, will America support the democracies of Europe, or turn inwards and embrace isolationism?
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/Shoot-Your-Shot-02.jpg?itok=KREdlpBS)
Shoot Your Shot Shoot Your Shot
Drama 2022 12 mins
An emotional stand-off takes flight, as teen best friends Ronit and Brennan come to terms with navigating that fuzzy feeling in their stomachs, all whilst learning to skateboard.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/%25E2%2580%258ELook-Like-You-02.jpeg?itok=2R3w9luT)
Look Like You Look Like You
Drama 2022 13 mins
While visiting the adoptive family of her eight-year-old biological son, Tara relays advice she gathered from growing up as a queer outcast.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/Yellow-04.jpg?itok=Bt5NDkC8)
Yellow Yellow
Drama 2023 13 mins
In Taliban controlled Afghanistan, Laili walks into a Chadari store in Kabul to buy her first full body veil from a Talib shopkeeper and face a new future.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/NEHEMICH-02.jpg?itok=ba9fjUy4)
Nehemich Nehemich
Drama 2023 23 mins
Banished in a dilapidated village hut during her menstruation, a young girl waits to elope with her lover.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/1717526943-default-ovp-poster-image.jpg?itok=Fk8VLsGa)
Interview with Pam Cullen Interview with Pam Cullen
Inside Film 2020 53 mins
Interview with Pam Cullen who at 97 boasts an incredible career spanning over fifty years in the Indian film industry.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/muscleqanda.jpg?itok=8sw22r7R)
Muscle - Exclusive Q&A Muscle - Exclusive Q&A
Short interview 2024 34 mins
Director Gerard Johnson talks Nia Child through the making of Muscle, an adrenalized drama that tears into the stereotypes of masculinity and male friendship.