BFI : Shadows Of Progress

[dpgmel]

Excellent news in November the bfi are releasing the follow up set to Land Of Promise, Shadows Of Promisea 4 disc set of documentaries from 1951 onwards.



Well that's at least one they'll sell



http://www.play.com/DVD/DVD/4-/16151...7/Product.html

[didi-5]

Wonderful

[Film Man]

Thanks for the tip 'dpgmel'...agree with all you say!

Film Man.

[dpgmel]

name='Film Man' timestamp='1282397047' post='466683']

Thanks for the tip 'dpgmel'...agree with all you say!

Film Man.

My pleasure Looks like they've got three sales at least

[Dr Amicus]

And there's going to be an accompanying book as well - that is, in addition to the one included in the package (which I understand will be a similar format to the one in Land of Promise) - as the films / directors are far less well known than in LoP.



I don't have details to hand, but anyone interested should head over to www.criterionforum.org/forum and go to the BFI DVD folder (I would give a proper link / more details but I'm at work, and bizarrely that forum comes up against our firewall but this one doesn't...).

[Bernardo]

Glad I did insult Big Brother and got exiled to the PC now. What good news. Interesting how documentaries stimulate my Nostalgic Nerve.

[marker]

I also enjoyed Land Of Promise so will be buying this set as well

[MarcDavidJacobs]

Very thorough information on this set now finally available from the BFI itself, as well as from DVD Outsider, who include an extra paragraph at the bottom with some welcome details regarding the accompanying booklet, its contributors, and the newly-commissioned extra feature, Perspectives On Documentary Filmmaking.



With four from Lindsay Anderson, Jill Craigie's To Be A Woman (1951), and hopefully a gorgeous print of David (1951), I cannot wait for this one to arrive....

[dpgmel]

name='MarcDavidJacobs' timestamp='1286636809' post='481207']

Very thorough information on this set now finally available from the BFI itself, as well as from DVD Outsider, who include an extra paragraph at the bottom with some welcome details regarding the accompanying booklet, its contributors, and the newly-commissioned extra feature, Perspectives On Documentary Filmmaking.



With four from Lindsay Anderson, Jill Craigie's To Be A Woman (1951), and hopefully a gorgeous print of David (1951), I cannot wait for this one to arrive....

Yep agreed It's getting nearer....

[didi-5]

Now we've all had time to at least watch some of the documentaries on this set, does anyone want to share their thoughts/reviews/total indifference?

I thought it was a better set than Land of Promise in some ways, perhaps because some of the titles on that set were more familiar. The BFI have excelled themselves though with the documentary box-sets they have produced. As well as Land of Promise and Shadows of Progress they released the three excellent GPO volumes, the British Transport set, the Tales from the Shipyard, the Portrait of a Miner, the COI sets, and most recently the Humphrey Jennings Collection volume 1.

We are getting incredibly spoilt for choice. I was particular glad to see the shipyard and mining sets as those industries were both represented in my family, and it is fascinating to go back and take a look at how things were when my dad, grandad and great-grandad worked in those sectors. The GPO sets are wide-ranging and absorbing and although I have only watched a tiny amount of the transport films I love the travelogues in particular.

The documentary side of film-making is often neglected, IMO, and these sets go a long way to redressing the balance.