Love Letters and Live Wires: Highlights from the GPO Film Unit

Innovative documentaries, comedies, and animations delivered by—who knew—Britian’s postal service.

This program of eight newly printed shorts from the British Film Institute highlights the unexpected output of the UK’s General Post Office Film Unit. During its heyday, the unit was internationally renowned as a center for creative and innovative films that ranged from documentaries to experimental animation and quirky comedies. Tonight’s program includes such classics as Norman McClaren’s Love on the Wing (1938), John Grierson’s Night Mail (1936), William Coldstream's The Fairy of the Phone (1936), and Len Lye’s Trade Tattoo (1937). (program app. 80 mins., 35mm)

List of films:
N or NW (Len Lye, 1937)
Love on the Wing (Norman McLaren, 1938)
The Fairy of the Phone (William Coldstream, 1936)
The Horsey Mail (Patrick Jackson, 1938)
Trade Tattoo (Len Lye, 1937)
A Midsummer Day’s Work (Alberto Cavalcanti, 1939)
The Tocher (Lotte Reiniger, 1938)
Night Mail (Harry Watt & Basil Wright, 1936)

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