Boon,
T., 'Film and contestation of public health in interwar
Britain'
PhD Thesis completed, 1999. Wellcome Institute
Abstract: This is the first
study to analyse and list the approximately 350
health films distributed in Britain in the interwar
period. It provides a social-historical explanation
for their existence, and grounds its account in
the history of public health and the highly associative
culture of the period. The first part establishes
the context within which they were produced: Chapter
one introduces the notion of the contestation of
public health, first demonstrating the widespread
agreement about the importance of public education
in health. The main players are then introduced:
the local authorities, the voluntary associations,
and the Ministry of Health. Chapter two proposes
that the health education policy established by
the new Ministry of Health in 1920 was created and
sustained in the context of a mixed public and private
model of health care. Within this, first voluntary
associations, and later organised Medical Officers
of Health, contested the sanction of responsibility
for health education in general (as opposed to that
on single disease categories). Part two devotes
a chapter each to the film making activities of
voluntary associations, local authorities and documentarists.
The style of films produced is, in each case, explored
in the context of the cultures of the different
organisations involved. Voluntary associations tended
to prefer 'moral tales', fiction films with a health
message, whilst local authorities mostly subscribed
to a type of naive realism. Documentarists introduced
a new type of realist cinematic literacy deriving
from the Russian montage tradition. The final chapter
returns to the policy issues introduced in part
one, and explores changes in policy at the Ministry
of Health which led to an increased concern with
film making. The study concludes with a detailed
discussion of the Ministry's 1939 documentary film,
Health for the Nation, the culmination of many long
term trends.
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