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The Promised Land?: New Towns for Old (1942)
 

Material to accompany the BFI Mediatheque 'The Promised Land?' DVD

Main image of The Promised Land?: New Towns for Old (1942)
 
35mm, black and white, 7 min
 
DirectorJohn Eldridge
Production CompanyStrand Film Company
 
Focus Questions
In the Classroom

A wartime public information film, scripted by Dylan Thomas, to assure audiences that work was continuing to improve housing.

In the dark days of WWII, maintaining morale on the Home Front was high on the agenda. Like many other propaganda films at this time, New Towns for Old intended to assure audiences that the work done to improve British housing in the 1930s was continuing despite the war. It was scripted by no less than Dylan Thomas.

Sheffield, battle-scarred and laden with slums, is re-imagined here as 'Smokedale' - an industrial Everytown where planners are working to clear decrepit and bomb-damaged back-to-backs and maintain a green belt around the city.

 
Video Clips
New Towns for Old complete film (7:00)
Downloadable Teaching Resources

Related BFI Mediatheque Titles

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Thumbnail image of The Promised Land?: High Living (1968)The Promised Land?: High Living (1968)
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Thumbnail image of The Promised Land?: The Ten Year Plan (1945)The Promised Land?: The Ten Year Plan (1945)
Thumbnail image of The Promised Land?: Who Cares (1971)The Promised Land?: Who Cares (1971)

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