Basil Wright

Basil Wright, (June 12, 1907, Sutton, Surrey - 14 October, 1987, Frieth, Buckinghamshire, England), was an English documentary film-maker, film historian, film critic and teacher. He was a key figure in the British documentary film movement and the first recruit to join John Grierson at the Empire Marketing Board's film unit early in 1930.

Wright's 1934 film Song of Ceylon is his best known work, although he also received a joint directorial credit with Harry Watt for the GPO Film Unit's Night Mail (1936). Wright acted as a Producer during the War, first at John Grierson's Film Centre before joining The Crown Film Unit between 1945 and 1946 as producer-in-charge. Among the best known films he produced for Crown are Humphrey Jennings' A Diary For Timothy (1946) and A Defeated People (1946).

Centenary Celebrations

In honor of Basil Wright's centenary year, his career, and the careers of his colleagues and fellow centenarians: Edgar Anstey, Marion Grierson, Humphrey Jennings and Paul Rotha, were celebrated with a season of films between August and October 2007 at the British Film Institute in London.

Filmography As Director

• Conquest (1930)
• The Country Comes To Town (*Bfi's Screenonline links to the Film. )
• O'er Hill and Dale (*Bfi's Screenonline links to the Film. )
• Liner Cruising South
• Cargo From Jamaica
• Windmill in Barbados
• Song of Ceylon (*Bfi's Screenonline links to the Film. )
• Children at School (*Forthcoming on a New Bfi Boxset DVD)
• The Face of Scotland (*Available from Scottish Screen)
• Waters of Time (*Available from Museum in Docklands, London)
• World Without End Film
• The Stained Glass at Fairford(*Watch at the Arts Council Film Collection)
• Greece: The Immortal Land
• Greek Sculpture: 3000 BC to 300 BC
• A Place For Gold

References

• Basil Wright, (1948), The Uses of Film, Bodley Head, Oxford.
• Basil Wright, (1974), The Long View: An International History of Cinema, Secker & Warburg, London.

• Ian Aitken, (1998), The documentary film movement: an anthology, Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press.
• Martin Stollery, (2000) Alternative empires: European modernist cinemas and the cultures of imperialism, Exeter, University of Exeter Press.

External links

• IMDB Entry For Basil Wright
• Bfi's Screenonline entry for Basil Wright
• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
• Watch Films from the Arts Council Film Collection

See also

• Michael Ayrton
• Edgar Anstey
• Charles Burnett (director)
• Alberto Cavalcanti
• John Grierson
• Robert Flaherty
• Humphrey Jennings
• Walter Leigh
• Muir Mathieson
• Paul Rotha
• Harry Watt