Spare Time (1939)

Directed by

Humphrey Jennings

Genre

documentary

Country

United Kingdom

Runtime

15 min

Rated

14

Rating

6.4 of 10 from 14 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A short documentary showing workers from coal, steel, and cotton industries in four British towns during their time off. It captures ordinary people at leisure in the late 1930s.

observationalgentlenostalgicquietgroundedeverydayhistorical

What happens

Spare Time is a 1939 British film directed by Humphrey Jennings for the GPO Film Unit, and made for the 1939 New York World's Fair. It is 15 minutes long and documents the leisure activities of workers in the coal, steel, and cotton industries in Sheffield, Bolton, Manchester and Pontypridd. Commentary is provided by Laurie Lee. Time Out calls it "A touching, troubling encapsulation of 1930s Britain." Spare Time was the subject of one of a set of ten postage stamps produced by the Royal Mail in 2015 to commemorate British cinema classics, including four from the GPO Film Unit. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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• Coal Face (1935)
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• Country Town (1943)
• Industrial Britain (1932)
• Island People (1940)
• Listen to Britain (1942)
• The Saving of Bill Blewitt (1936)