Film Screening: Fires Were Started

Humphrey Jennings, widely considered one of the greatest documentary filmmakers, was once described as ‘the only real poet of British cinema’. His talent lay in depicting everyday life in inventive yet authentic ways. Fires Were Started (UK 1943), his most celebrated film, follows a day in the life of a unit of the National Fire Service at the height of the Blitz and blends observation with reconstruction. 

It successfully blurs the lines between fiction and documentary, blending observation with reconstruction. Jennings used real firemen instead of actors, shooting exteriors on location and interiors in Pinewood studios. His film, which uses montage techniques, is considered one of the classics of its genre. Dilys Powell, then on the Sunday Times declared the film to be “moving and terrifying”.

Professor Brian Winston, Lincoln University and founder member of the Glasgow Media Group, introduces the screening. His interests include media history, media ethics, communications technology, documentary film and free expression issues. He began his career in on Granada TV's long-running news documentary film series World in Action and won an Emmy Award for documentary scriptwriting in 1985. In 2010, Prof Winston co-produced and scripted A Boatload of Wild Irishmen, a feature-length film about controversial American documentary-maker Robert Flaherty. Professor Winston is founding Chair of the British Association for Film, Television and Screen Studies (BAFTSS). He is also a member of the University's Centre for Research in Journalism and The Centre for European Cultural Studies.

In collaboration with the BFI                                     

Make your night even more pleasurable with a free drink at our bar. Peyton and Byrne are providing a complimentary cocktail with every ticket bought for this event. Simply show your ticket at the bar between 17.30 and 18.00 on the night.

The bar is open from 17.30 to 18.00, selling cocktails, wine, beer and soft drinks