About this Collection
Paul Rotha was a British film critic, documentary filmmaker, producer and movie director. A former painter and designer, he became a film critic and wrote a seminal work on cinema history titled, The film till now (1930). He began making his own documentary films in association with John Grierson and was a leading figure in the British documentary movement of the 1930s and 1940s. The images in this digital collection were created in conjunction with the creation of two films: Rotha’s first documentary, Contact (1933), and Power for the Highlands (1943), a documentary produced by Rotha. Made to promote Imperial Airways and financed by Shell-Mex and BP Ltd, Contact documents air travel routes in the Middle East and Africa to show how air travel is opening up the world. Regarded as a pioneering sponsored film by many in the early documentary movement, Contact was praised for its clarity of exposition and lyrical editing. The 161 images for Contact are still photographs made during the filming in England, the Middle East, Africa and Athens. Power for the Highlands is a look at the possibilities of hydro-electric power for the Highlands of Scotland. The 71 images are movie film strips by cameraman Wolfgang Suschitzky that were intended for the creation of movie still photographs.