| Summary: | Forgotten Futures: British Municipal Cinema 1920-1980 offers for the first time a lively overview of the development, peak and ultimate demise of British municipal film in the twentieth century. Author Elizabeth Lebas brings together the largest survey of these films to date, many of which were previously lost or forgotten, often hidden away for decades in local archives and libraries. Municipal cinema is explored as a tool for urban and social reform in twentieth century Britain, revealing its relationship to the British documentary movement and to contemporary popular culture. Lebas' findings offer a celebratory look at this unique cinema that projects the beginning and the end of a collective yet personal future promoted through local governments. The films depict Britain in a transitory period as a country looking to the future whilst simultaneously engaging with the past. Consequently they became highly influential in developing the social democratic model of modern British urban life. With in depth chapters on the films and filmmaking practices of Bermondsey Borough Council's Public Health Department and The Glasgow Corporation, as well as an overview of many more boroughs, towns, cities and counties from across the country, Forgotten Futures, complete with a comprehensive filmography of the identified films to date, is the first study into the distinct film language of municipal cinema. This volume pays tribute to an incredible period of British filmmaking and reveals the often-neglected impact of municipal cinema on the post-war British public. --Book Jacket.
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