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Chapman, J., 'Official British Film Propaganda
during the Second World War'
PhD Thesis completed, 1995. Lancaster University
The Ministry of Information was set up at the
outbreak of war in September 1939 to co-ordinate all aspects of
propaganda and information for the British Government. Its Films
Divison was responsible for the formulation of official film propaganda
policy and the production of official films.
Both the M.O.I. and its films division were
handicapped initially by the failure to make adequate plans for
propaganda machinery before the war, by an often inappropriate
choice of key personnel, and by a lack of co-ordination with other
government departments. They were also beset by numerous administration
reoganisations and changes of personnel during the first year
of the war which caused a great amount of institutional instability.
Abstract: The Ministry of Information
was set up at the outbreak of war in September 1939 to co-ordinate
all aspects of propaganda and information for the British Government.
Its Films Division was responsible for the formulation of official
film propaganda policy and for the production of official films.
Both the M.O.I. and its Films Division were handicapped initially
by the failure to make adequate plans for the propaganda machinery
before the war, by an often inappropriate choice of key personnel,
and by a lack of co-ordination with other government departments.
They were also beset by numerous administrative reorganisations
and changes of personnel during the first year of the war which
caused a great amount of institutional instability. The Films
Division at first attached the most importance to the commercial
film industry for propaganda purposes, though even so it struggled
to find a role for feature films and at first it merely responded
to the initiatives of commercial producers without laying down
any policy guidelines itself. The Films Division was soon attracting
much hostile criticism, both from the film trade press and also
from members of the documentary movement who felt that they had
been excluded from the film propaganda effort. The trade interests
on the one hand and the documentarists on the other represented
the opposite poles of the film industry with which the M.O.I.
had to work. After the upheavals of 1940, both the M.O.I. and
its Films Division became more settled and stable. A policy for
film propaganda was developed which defined a role for both commercial
feature films and documentary films. The feature film was used
for general, indirect and long-term propaganda. After its experiment
in partly financing the production of a feature film, 49th Parallel,
the Films Division instead opted for a policy of informal co-operation
with commercial producers through various channels to ensure that
feature film propaganda worked within certain general guidelines.
Chapman now works for the Open
University, and has converted his PhD thesis into
a
book.
Published Works:
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