''Housing Problems'' is a 1935 British

documentary film A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

produced by the Realist Film Unit for the British Commercial Gas Association. The fourteen-minute film documents the poor living conditions experienced by

slum housing A slum is a highly populated urban residential area consisting of densely packed housing units of weak build quality and often associated with poverty. The infrastructure in slums is often deteriorated or incomplete, and they are primarily in ...

tenants in the

East London East London is the part of London, England, east of the ancient City of London and north of the River Thames as it begins to widen. East London developed as London Docklands, London's docklands and the primary industrial centre. The expansion of ...

district of

Stepney Stepney is an area in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in the East End of London. Stepney is no longer officially defined, and is usually used to refer to a relatively small area. However, for much of its history the place name was applied to ...

, combining narration with interviews of tenants. It emphasises the role of the British Commercial Gas Association in providing social housing, interviewing residents of new housing projects about their improved conditions as well as displaying architectural models of housing estates planned by local authorities. ''Housing Problems'' does not have a credited director; however, production is credited to Arthur Elton and

Edgar Anstey Edgar Anstey (16 February 1907 – 26 September 1987), was a leading British documentary filmmaker. Anstey was born in Watford, Hertfordshire, England in 1907, and was educated at Watford Grammar School for Boys and Birkbeck College. He ...

, and "photography" is credited to

John Taylor John Taylor, Johnny Taylor or similar is the name of: Academics *John Taylor (Oxford), Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University, 1486–1487 * John Taylor (classical scholar) (1704–1766), English classical scholar *John Taylor (English publisher) ...

Ruby Grierson Ruby Isabel Grierson (24 November 1903 – 17 September 1940) was a Scottish documentary film director and producer, and a leading authority in the early documentary movement. Her brother John Grierson and her younger sister Marion Grierson also ...

also worked as an uncredited assistant on the film, her first role in documentary filmmaking. It was one of the first documentaries that centred the voices of its subjects through the use of interviews. Whether these interviews were scripted remains a matter of debate. One of the housing models depicted is of the planned Quarry Hill Estate in

Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

. The film showcases the estate's innovative steel-frame architecture and open spaces, with amenities including a shopping centre and a welfare centre. In actuality, the Quarry Hill Estate was never fully completed; many of the intended amenities were never built, and it was completely demolished in 1978.

References

External links

* British documentary films 1935 films British black-and-white films 1930s British films {{UK-documentary-film-stub