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A Paul Rotha Reader (University of Exeter Press - Exeter Studies in History)

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Rotha's place in documentary history lies in the early days in Britain - as a colleague of John Grierson, a documentary film-maker and a writer about film. His influence remains strong, in spite of his books having been out of print for some years. Apart from Eric Barnouw and a couple of tthers, he is the only writer about documentaries capable of creating prose as stunning as the films themselves. Like the best film-makers, such writers make it look easy. Grierson would agree, as he wrote in his review of Rotha's 'Shipyard' in 1935: " (Rotha) is...our film historian; and he is the keeper of our conscience as much as the keeper of our records........ ". Incidentally, Grierson then goes on, in his usual blunt fashion, to criticise Rotha's films, calling them "impressionistic", a coda for "apolitical" and "superficial". (Grierson was wrong). Rotha was significant asa a film-maker in the thirty years from 1933 - his credits include 'Contact', 'Shipyard' , 'The Face of Britain', 'World of Plenty', 'Land of Promise', 'The World Is Rich' and 'The Life of Adolf Hitler'. For much of hat time he was at the centre of Britain's documentary scene and he took to upon himself to document the documentatrsts. Much of what we know about Grierson and others from that time comes directly or indirectly from Paul Rotha. Thus it is as a writer, critic and diarist that Rotha will be respected in the 21st century. From his seminal and contrarian 'The Film Till Now" (1930), through ''Documentary Film' (1935), 'Rotha On Film' (1958) and the breath-taking 'Documentary Diary: An Informal History of the British Documentary Film' , Rotha created not only a body of work but an essential part of the legend of the Grierson days. If documentary has a founding myth, Rotha was the shaman who interpreted it for lesser mortals. Petrie and Kruger's book returns Rotha's work to us after years spent searching second-hand bookshops. Most of the copies owned by film schools and libraries seem to have disappeared some time ago, lost to poor but obsessed students. It may not be the whole oevre, but this "best of Rotha" collection is a great start, with selecions from the major works, woven together chronologically within sections to form powerful linear narratives on 'The Art of Film', 'Cinema and Britain' and 'Film Practice'. The editors also give us a very decent, forty-page introduction to different aspects of Rotha work, plus excellent bibliographies and filmographies. Libraries will need this book because of its utility as a documentary film course book. A lot of industry professionals will want to to fill in the half-remembered fragments and remember why they entered the business in the first place. The next generation need to know the past to better create the future. (Docos)