Frank Humphrey Sinkler Jennings (19 August 1907 – 24 September 1950) was an English documentary filmmaker and one of the founders of the

Mass Observation Mass-Observation is a United Kingdom social research project; originally the name of an organisation which ran from 1937 to the mid-1960s, and was revived in 1981 at the University of Sussex. Mass-Observation originally aimed to record everyday ...

organisation. Jennings was described by film critic and director Lindsay Anderson in 1954 as "the only real poet that British cinema has yet produced".

Early life and career

Born in Walberswick, Suffolk, Jennings was the son of

Guild Socialists Guild socialism is a political movement advocating workers' control of industry through the medium of trade-related guilds "in an implied contractual relationship with the public". It originated in the United Kingdom and was at its most influent ...

, an architect father and a painter mother. He was educated at

the Perse School (He who does things for others does them for himself) , established = , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent day school , religion = Nondenominational Christian , president = , head_label = Head , h ...

and later read English at Pembroke College,

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

. When not studying, he painted and created advanced stage designs and was the founder-editor of ''Experiment'' in collaboration with William Empson and

Jacob Bronowski Jacob Bronowski (18 January 1908 – 22 August 1974) was a Polish-British mathematician and philosopher. He was known to friends and professional colleagues alike by the nickname Bruno. He is best known for developing a humanistic approach to sc ...

. After graduating with a starred First Class degree in English, Jennings undertook post-graduate research on the poet

Thomas Gray Thomas Gray (26 December 1716 – 30 July 1771) was an English poet, letter-writer, classical scholar, and professor at Pembroke College, Cambridge. He is widely known for his '' Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard,'' published in 1751. G ...

, under the supervision of a predominantly absent I. A. Richards, who was teaching abroad. After abandoning what looked like being a successful academic career, Jennings undertook a number of jobs including photographer, painter and theatre designer. He joined the GPO Film Unit, then under

John Grierson John Grierson (26 April 1898 – 19 February 1972) was a pioneering Scottish documentary maker, often considered the father of British and Canadian documentary film. In 1926, Grierson coined the term "documentary" in a review of Robert J. Fl ...

, in 1934, largely it is thought because Jennings needed the income after the birth of his first daughter, rather than from a strong interest in filmmaking. Relations with his colleagues were difficult; they saw him as something of a ''dilettante'', but he did form a friendship with

Alberto Cavalcanti Alberto de Almeida Cavalcanti (February 6, 1897 – August 23, 1982) was a Brazilian-born film director and producer. He was often credited under the single name "Cavalcanti". Early life Cavalcanti was born in Rio de Janeiro, the son of ...

. In 1936, Jennings helped with the organisation of the 1936 Surrealist Exhibition in London, in association with André Breton, Roland Penrose and

Herbert Read Sir Herbert Edward Read, (; 4 December 1893 – 12 June 1968) was an English art historian, poet, literary critic and philosopher, best known for numerous books on art, which included influential volumes on the role of art in education. Read ...

. It was at about this time that Jennings, along with Charles Madge and

Tom Harrisson Major Tom Harnett Harrisson, DSO OBE (26 September 1911 – 16 January 1976) was a British polymath. In the course of his life he was an ornithologist, explorer, journalist, broadcaster, soldier, guerrilla, ethnologist, museum curator, archaeo ...

, helped to found

and co-edited with Madge the text ''May the Twelfth'', a montage of extracts from observer reports of the 1937

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for Mass Observation. A fiftieth-anniversary edition of this text was published in 1987 by Faber. In 1938, he edited an issue of the '' London Bulletin'' which included a "collection of texts on the Impact of the Machine" and he used this material to prepare a series of talks to miners in the Swansea Valley while making '' The Silent Village'' several years later. This prompted him to add more material and he obtained a contract from

Routledge Routledge () is a British multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanities, behavioural science, education, law ...

to prepare it for publication as a book; he worked on it fitfully and thought it was almost ready just before his death. His daughter, Mary-Louise, asked Charles Madge to assist in finally editing it for publication in 1985 as '' Pandaemonium, 1660–1886: The Coming of the Machine as Seen by Contemporary Observers''. The book was cited by writer Frank Cottrell Boyce as an influence in the London 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony, with an early section of the ceremony named after it.

The war years

The GPO Film Unit became the

Crown Film Unit The Crown Film Unit was an organisation within the British Government's Ministry of Information during the Second World War. Formerly the GPO Film Unit it became the Crown Film Unit in 1940. Its remit was to make films for the general public in ...

in 1940, a film-making propaganda arm of the Ministry of Information, and Jennings joined the new organisation. Jennings only feature-length film, the 70-minute '' Fires Were Started'' (1943), also known as ''I Was A Fireman'', details the work of the Auxiliary Fire Service in London. It blurs the lines between fiction and documentary because the scenes are re-enactments. This film, which uses techniques such as '' montage'', is considered one of the classics of the genre. His films are otherwise shorts, inclusively patriotic in sentiment and very British in their sensibility, such as: ''Spare Time'' (1939), '' London Can Take It!'' (1940), ''Words for Battle'' (1941), ''A Diary for Timothy'' (with a narration written by E.M. Forster, 1945), ''The Dim Little Island'' (1948) and ''Family Portrait'' (his last completed film, which tells of the

Festival of Britain The Festival of Britain was a national exhibition and fair that reached millions of visitors throughout the United Kingdom in the summer of 1951. Historian Kenneth O. Morgan says the Festival was a "triumphant success" during which people: ...

, 1950). Co-directed with Stewart McAllister, Jennings' best remembered short film is '' Listen to Britain'' (1942). Excerpts are often seen in other documentaries, especially portions of one of the concerts given by Dame Myra Hess in the

National Gallery The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director ...

while its collection was evacuated for safe-keeping.

Personal life

Jennings married Cicely Cooper in 1929. The couple had two daughters. He was also associated with the American writer

Emily Coleman Emily Holmes Coleman (1899–1974) was an American born writer, and a lifelong compulsive diary keeper. She also wrote a single novel, '' The Shutter of Snow'' (1930). This novel, about a woman who spends time in a mental hospital after the birth ...

and the American heiress

Peggy Guggenheim Marguerite "Peggy" Guggenheim ( ; August 26, 1898 – December 23, 1979) was an American art collector, bohemian and socialite. Born to the wealthy New York City Guggenheim family, she was the daughter of Benjamin Guggenheim, who went down with ...

in the 1930s. He died in Poros, Greece, in a fall on the cliffs of the Greek island while scouting locations for a film on post-war healthcare in Europe. Jennings was buried in the First Cemetery of Athens.

Reputation

Humphrey Jennings' reputation always remained very high among filmmakers, but had faded among others. After 2001 this situation was partly rectified: firstly by the feature-length documentary by Oscar-winning documentary-maker Kevin Macdonald, ''Humphrey Jennings: The Man Who Listened to Britain'' (made by Figment Films in 2002 for British television's

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...

); and secondly by Kevin Jackson's 450-page biography ''Humphrey Jennings'' (Picador, 2004). In 2003 two of his films, ''Listen to Britain'' and ''Spare Time'', were included in the

Tate Britain Tate Britain, known from 1897 to 1932 as the National Gallery of British Art and from 1932 to 2000 as the Tate Gallery, is an art museum on Millbank in the City of Westminster in London, England. It is part of the Tate network of galleries in ...

retrospective, ''A Century of Artists' Film in Britain'' which featured the work of over one hundred filmmakers. The Macdonald documentary is included in the Region 2 DVD of ''I Was a Fireman'' (''Fires Were Started'') released by Film First in 2008. An earlier BBC documentary written and directed by Robert Vas is entitled ''Heart of Britain'' (1970). On 14 May 2014, his 1939 film ''Spare Time'' was one of those chosen to be commemorated in a set of

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stamps depicting notable GPO Film Unit films. The edition of

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC's ...

's ''

Great Lives ''Great Lives'' is a BBC Radio 4 biography series, produced in Bristol. It has been presented by Joan Bakewell, Humphrey Carpenter, Francine Stock and currently (since April 2006) Matthew Parris. A distinguished guest is asked to nominate the pe ...

'', on 18 December 2018, was devoted to the life of Jennings.

Filmography

As director

* '' Post-Haste'' (1934) * '' Locomotives'' (1934) * '' The Story of the Wheel'' (1934) * '' Farewell Topsails'' (1937) * '' Penny Journey'' (1938) * '' Speaking from America'' (1938) * '' The Farm'' (1938) * '' English Harvest'' (1938) * '' Making Fashion'' (1938) * '' Spare Time'' (1939) * '' SS Ionian'' (1939, a.k.a. ''Cargoes'') * '' The First Days'' (1939) * '' Spring Offensive'' (1940) * '' Welfare of the Workers'' (1940) * '' London Can Take It!'' (1940, a.k.a. ''Britain Can Take It!'') * '' The Heart of Britain'' (1941, a.k.a. ''This Is England'') * '' Words for Battle'' (1941) * '' Listen to Britain'' (co-director 1942) * '' Fires Were Started'' (1943, a.k.a. ''I Was A Fireman'') * '' The Silent Village'' (1943) * ''

The True Story of Lili Marlene ''The'' () is a grammatical Article (grammar), article in English language, English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite ...

'' (1944) * '' The Eighty Days'' (1944, a.k.a. ''V. 1'') * '' Myra Hess'' (1945) * ''

A Diary for Timothy ''A Diary for Timothy'' (1945) is a British documentary film directed by Humphrey Jennings. It was produced by Basil Wright for the Crown Film Unit. The narration was written by the British author E. M. Forster (spoken by Michael Redgrave) and ...

'' (1945) * ''

A Defeated People ''A Defeated People'' is a 1946 British documentary short film made by the Crown Film Unit, directed by Humphrey Jennings and narrated by William Hartnell. The film depicts the shattered state of Germany, both physically and as a society, in th ...

'' (1946) * '' The Cumberland Story'' (1947) * '' The Dim Little Island'' (1949) * ''

Family Portrait Family Portrait may refer to: Portraiture painting * ''Family Portrait'' (Hals, four persons), a 1635 painting by Frans Hals * ''Family Portrait'' (Hals, five persons), a 1648 painting by Frans Hals * ''Family Portrait'' (Kralj), a 1926 paint ...

'' (1950) * '' The Good Life'' (completed by Graham Wallace 1951)

As producer/creative contributor

* '' Pett and Pott: A Fairy Story of the Suburbs'' (dir.

, 1934) * '' The Birth of the Robot'' (dir. Len Lye, 1936)

References

External links

*

via UC Berkeley Media Resources Center
the BFI's "screenonline" site about JenningsReview of Kevin Jackson's Jennings biography
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Jennings, Humphrey 1907 births 1950 deaths Accidental deaths from falls Accidental deaths in Greece Alumni of Pembroke College, Cambridge Burials at the First Cemetery of Athens Civil servants in the Ministry of Information (United Kingdom) English documentary filmmakers English film directors Humphrey Jennings People educated at The Perse School People from Walberswick Propaganda film directors