Construction

A stirring film “made by the men on the job” showing a strike at a building site in Putney, London.

Alf Garrard, carpenter and amateur filmmaker, shot this film, combining undercover footage of men working on a building site with a re-enactment of a strike which took place there in October 1934. Garrard’s maintenance job on the building site allowed him to move about easily with his camera concealed behind his apron - into which he had cut a hole. This ingenious shooting style results in images combining imaginative angles with a not infrequent lack of focus.

This film was the first production of the newly renamed Film and Photograph League, formerly known as the Workers’ Film and Photography League. The WFPL was established in 1934 with the manifesto that “the time has come for workers to produce films and photos of their own” and the opening credit of Construction proclaims its authenticity, declaring that it was “made by the men on the job”.