BFI

This jaunty short film is surely the liveliest film ever made to promote the welfare of workers. Dance and music are used to encourage cotton mill managers to pay more attention to working conditions. The effectiveness of this approach in influencing the managers' behaviour is not known.

Co-director Jack Ellitt worked with Len Lye in the 1930s and developed techniques of combining perky abstract animation, music and statistics in films such as A Colour Box (1935) and Rainbow Dance (1936). Ellitt's pioneering work in synchronising colour and sound has been relatively little recognised in comparison with the admiration bestowed on Lye.

Chasing the Blues was produced by the co-operative Data Film Productions and the other co-director, Jack Chambers, continued his career in documentary until the 1960s. The film was photographed by the now celebrated cinematographer Wolfgang Suschitzky.

Ros Cranston

*This film is included in the BFI DVD compilation 'Land of Promise: The British Documentary Movement 1930-1950'.

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