Formed in 1919 by H. (Harry) Bruce Woolfe, British Instructional Films (BIF)
started life in a makeshift army hut at Elstree, and soon established itself as
one of Britain's more innovative production companies. BIF's early reputation
grew from the success of its military re-enactment films, including The Battle
of Jutland (1921) and Ypres (d. Walter Summers, 1925). This success was
consolidated by the Secrets of Nature series; between 1922 and 1933 BIF released
these single-reel educational films in 'sets' of around six titles, often taking
months to perfect. The extraordinary attention to detail came courtesy of their
creator Percy Smith, a pioneer of early scientific filmmaking and time-lapse
photography techniques (see The Birth of a Flower, 1910). Blending nature
photography with painstaking laboratory work, Smith and his team produced a
steady stream of titles embracing nature's minutiae, from the life cycle of a
sweet pea to the 'home-wrecking' tendencies of the cuckoo. Now regrettably
overlooked within documentary history, BIF's Secrets of Nature series was
described by Paul Rotha in 1930 as "the sheet anchor of the British film
industry".
Following a move to more comfortable headquarters at Surbiton in 1924, BIF
maintained its military-themed output, culminating in The Battles of Coronel and
Falkland Islands (1927), directed by BIF stalwart Walter Summers. The company
also embarked on an interesting programme of feature production, mostly for
distribution by associates Pro Patria Films; key personnel included Anthony
Asquith, who shot the technically precocious Shooting Stars (co-d. A.V. Bramble,
1927). 1928 saw a further move for the company, this time into a purpose-built
studio at Welwyn Garden City, signalling the rapid growth in BIF's status.
Asquith remained on board, christening the new facility with The Runaway
Princess and A Cottage on Dartmoor (both 1929), the latter a dark thriller
co-produced by the Swedish Biograph company.
Despite the growing prominence of features, at its core BIF remained a
documentary producer. It also maintained a steady bias towards patriotic fare
with Asquith's Gallipoli drama Tell England (co-d. Geoffrey Barkas, 1931) and
England Awake (1932), co-directed by Woolfe and the novelist John Buchan, a BIF board member. The Empire was well represented by the likes of Walter Creighton's
eccentric One Family (1930) and the docu-dramas Stampede and Stark Nature (both
1932), featuring footage filmed in Sudan by the Court-Treatt party. At the
quirkier end of the non-fiction spectrum, Secrets of Nature editor Mary Field
contributed such delights as Deferred Payment (1929), a warning of the dangers
of syphilis, and The Mystery of Marriage (1932), a hilarious comparison of
insect and human mating rituals; Field also made her own short feature for BIF,
Strictly Business (co-d. Jacqueline Logan, 1932), an early milestone in British
female directorship.
With company finances deteriorating, British Instructional's tenure at the
studios they had built would not continue far into the 1930s. A merger with
British International Pictures (BIP) in 1931 bought Woolfe some time, but
inevitably saw his control eroded, with Pro Patria dissolved in favour of BIP's
distribution arm, Wardour Films, and promises of support for BIF's distinctive
educational output overshadowed by the larger company's bias towards cheap
feature production. With BIF's own features, such as Asquith's musical Dance,
Pretty Lady (1932), running at a loss, the increasingly marginalised Woolfe
resigned from the board of directors in 1933 and left Welwyn to set up British
Independent Productions (later Gaumont-British Instructional), taking the
Secrets of Nature series and BIF staff, including Mary Field and Percy Smith,
with him. In future years, the BIF name existed mainly for use by Pathé in
marketing its educational back catalogue.
Simon McCallum
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