This film is part of Free

Title of error

See Help

Wartime Factory

The factory floor view of WWII, inside a busy aircraft works

Government sponsored film 1940 9 mins Silent

Overview

This documentary was filmed in a simple, confident style at a WWII aircraft factory, at the sharp end of the frantic production drive servicing total war. It's a world of lathes, drills, milling machines and furnaces but of offices too, and community. Many women, many men, a recreation hall and the all-important canteen ("the industrial army marches on its stomach"): everything running like clockwork, shift to shift, night into day, day into night.

Everyone's on the job six days a week. But all work stops for lunch, smoking is permitted at all times and some nights the factory is magically transformed into a concert hall. The film's credits include several key names from the British Documentary Film Movement, which had always viewed government information films as a means of advancing national self-awareness and a vaguely progressive, broadly communitarian vision. The factory is ultimately a metaphor for nation: Britain itself, we infer, has become a sort of giant wartime factory - an intricate but epic national machine that is purposeful, efficient but also humane. 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.

Director

Edgar Anstey

Genres

Government sponsored film

Country

United Kingdom

Language

No Dialogue with English subtitles

Subjects

World War II

Watch for free

Yesterday Is over Your Shoulder Yesterday Is over Your Shoulder

Industry sponsored film 1940 8 mins

An enticing government call for men to retrain as skilled engineers to help with the war effort.

Watch for free

Warwork News No 11 Warwork News No 11

Cinemagazine 1942 12 mins

Wartime news magazine for factory workers, sponsored by the Ministry of Supply. News items often stressed the value of the 'factory front'.

Currently unavailable

Worker and War Front No. 3 Worker and War Front No. 3

Cinemagazine 1942 11 mins Location: Liverpool

A wartime magazine made to motivate and inform war workers, commissioned by the Ministry of Information in 1942 and exclusively screened in factories.

Watch for free

Behind the Guns Behind the Guns

Documentary 1940 20 mins Silent

A Second World War propaganda film, looking at the industrial might behind Great Britain’s armed forces.

Watch for free

Shipbuilders Shipbuilders

Government sponsored film 1940 10 mins

Shipwrights, plate-fitters and riveters support the war effort as their ships take majestic shape in this tour of British shipyards.

Watch for free

The Port of Cardiff 2 The Port of Cardiff 2

Promotional 1943 25 mins Silent Location: Whitchurch

Meat and wheat, oranges and eggs (dried), salmon and peaches (tinned) arrive in Cardiff from Brazil, America, Canada and New Zealand to keep war-time’s wolf from the allied door.