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CALLING BLIGHTY (ISSUE 401)

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Metadata

WORK ID: YFA 6046 (Master Record)

TitleYearDate
CALLING BLIGHTY (ISSUE 401)1944-1946 1944-01-01
Details Original Format: 35mm
Colour: Black & White
Sound: Sound
Duration: 11 mins 38 secs
Credits: India Command Produced by Services Film Centre India For the Directorate of Welfare and Amenities

Subject: Wartime



Summary
Calling Blighty is a series of 12 minute films which were made between 1944 and 1946. Of the 391 issues made, only 64 are now known to survive.  The films feature servicemen, and a few servicewomen, who were stationed in the Far East, recording a message to be screened for friends and family at local cinemas back in the UK.  
Description
Calling Blighty is a series of 12 minute films which were made between 1944 and 1946. Of the 391 issues made, only 64 are now known to survive.  The films feature servicemen, and a few servicewomen, who were stationed in the Far East, recording a message to be screened for friends and family at local cinemas back in the UK.   On a canteen-style film set in Bombay, servicemen from York take turns to approach the camera and send personal messages back to their loved ones at home.   Opening...
Calling Blighty is a series of 12 minute films which were made between 1944 and 1946. Of the 391 issues made, only 64 are now known to survive.  The films feature servicemen, and a few servicewomen, who were stationed in the Far East, recording a message to be screened for friends and family at local cinemas back in the UK.   On a canteen-style film set in Bombay, servicemen from York take turns to approach the camera and send personal messages back to their loved ones at home.   Opening Titles: India Command Presents Calling Blighty Produced by Services Film Centre India For the Directorate of Welfare and Amenities After the individual messages have been delivered, the participants join together in singing “We’ll Meet Again.” Title – The End Further information can be found at the NWFA “A Message Home” http://www.nwfa.mmu.ac.uk/blighty/index.php
Context Filmed direct to camera and often in only one take, the messages are mostly stiff upper lip testimonies, sometimes funny, occasionally emotional, and very moving.  These compelling films provide a unique window to the past to help audiences understand the courage of servicemen who had endured the long separation from their home often since the start of the war.  The films all end with the soldiers singing a song to camera.
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