March 6, 2014

list 02: london, precincts, 1960’s nostalgia

Look at Life was a regular British series of short documentary films of which over 500 were produced between 1959 and 1969 by the Special Features Division of the Rank Organisation for screening in their Odeon and Gaumont cinemas. The films always preceded the main feature film that was being shown in the cinema that week. It replaced the circuit’s newsreel, Universal News, which had become increasingly irrelevant in the face of more immediate news media, particularly on television with the launch of ITN on the Independent Television service, which began broadcasting in parts of the United Kingdom in 1955.

Over 500 episodes were produced altogether. Digitally restored from the original film, the Look at Life series is now licensed by ITV Studios Global Entertainment, previously known on screen as Granada Ventures and distributed by Network DVD. Many of the films have not been seen in full since their original showing in the cinemas, although a number of films have been previously released on Super 8 and more recently on DVD in themed categories. These include Look at Life - Swinging London, which explore elements of contemporary London life, work and traditions and Look at Life - On the Railways, which represented the great changes that were taking place to Britain’s railways in the wake of the modernisation programme and the decline of steam. However Network has gradually released box sets of the films in volumes.

Volume 1 - Transport is a four disk compilation released in 2010 and contains 54 films on the theme of transport.

Volume 2 - Military was released in June 2011, while

Volume 3 - Science was released in September 2011.

Volume 4 - Sport and Volume

Volume 5 - Cultural Heritage, were for released in August and November 2012 respectively.

Volume 6 - World Affairs was released on the 1 February 2013.

Look at Life - Coffee Bar, 1959