Colonial Film Unit

The Colonial Film Unit (C.F.U) was a propaganda and educational film production organization of the British government.[1] It produced films for various British colonies including British Guiana and Nigeria. The Jamaica Film Unit was a division for films produced in Jamaica. The Colonial Film Unit was established in 1939 and produced 200 films before being shut down in 1955.[2] It was part of Britain's Ministry of Information.[3] It produced a magazine titled Colonial Cinema.[4] Training filmmakers was also an important part of the unit's activities.[5]

Originally established to produce British war propaganda, the C.F.U. transitioned to making instructional films after World War II.[6]

Tom Rice is a British film historian and educator who has focused his work on studying the Colonial Film Unit, and the American Ku Klux Klan films; as well as the depiction of the far-right in media.[7][8][9]

Filmography
  • Learie Constantine, welfare worker and cricketer, a documentary about Learie Constantine's welfare department work
  • Springime in an English Village (1944)
  • African Visitors to the Tower of London (1949)
  • Journey by a London Bus (1950)
  • Towards True Democracy (1951)[10]

See also

References
  1. Rice, Tom. "British Empire's forgotten propaganda tool for 'primitive peoples': mobile cinema". The Conversation.
  2. "Production Companies | colonialfilm". www.colonialfilm.org.uk.
  3. Smyth, Rosaleen (15 September 2006). "The British Colonial Film Unit and sub-Saharan Africa, 1939–1945". Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television. 8 (3): 285–298. doi:10.1080/01439688800260391.
  4. "Beyond the Colonial Film Archive".
  5. "Colonial Cinema". 23 April 2013.
  6. Smyth, Rosaleen (26 July 1979). "The Development of British Colonial Film Policy, 1927–1939, with special reference to East and Central Africa". The Journal of African History. 20 (3): 437–450. doi:10.1017/S0021853700017400. S2CID 162516233 – via Cambridge Core.
  7. Burns, James (2021). "Films for the Colonies: Cinema and the Preservation of the British Empire by Tom Rice". JCMS: Journal of Cinema and Media Studies. 60 (3): 196–199. doi:10.1353/cj.2021.0037. ISSN 2578-4919.
  8. Tillet, Salamishah (2 August 2018). "Spike Lee Takes on the Klan". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 6 April 2023.
  9. Teague, Matthew (26 December 2015). "Ku Klux Klan's place in history hinges on the power of the spectacle". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 6 April 2023.
  10. "Colonial Film Unit". BFI. Archived from the original on 7 April 2023.

Further reading
  • Smyth, Rosaleen (1979). "The Development of British Colonial Film Policy, 1927-1939, with Special Reference to East and Central Africa". The Journal of African History. Cambridge University Press. 20 (3): 437–450. doi:10.1017/S0021853700017400. JSTOR 181124. S2CID 162516233.
  • Sellers, O.B.E., W. (1953). "Making Films in and for the Colonies". Journal of the Royal Society of Arts. Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce. 101 (4910): 829–837. JSTOR 41365579.


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