East Kilbride: Town of Tomorrow (1954)
Here's a very early new town film, from East Kilbride in 1954, not even a decade since the New Towns Act was passed. It was a promotional film made for the East Kilbride Development Corporation.
Stylistically it has the feel of jerky newsreel footage, but the structure is classic new town promo film: taking us through the heroic story of the town's founding and development, lots of shots of building work, children playing and looking off into the future, and sensible-looking adults going about their business with a minimum of fuss.
Mixed in we do get some of the development landmarks, from meetings and unveilings, that give a feeling of what was considered important at the time by the corporation, if not the people of the town. No-one really gets to speak, it's all down to the narrator and the endlessly swirling score. But we do get to see some excellent models and maps (pointed at by a planner's pipe) and even some classic 'pram town' images from a neighbourhood shopping street. And, of course, it's all overseen by the Clyde Valley Regional Plan, that must-contested document that led to the creation of the town in the first place.
Stylistically it has the feel of jerky newsreel footage, but the structure is classic new town promo film: taking us through the heroic story of the town's founding and development, lots of shots of building work, children playing and looking off into the future, and sensible-looking adults going about their business with a minimum of fuss.
Mixed in we do get some of the development landmarks, from meetings and unveilings, that give a feeling of what was considered important at the time by the corporation, if not the people of the town. No-one really gets to speak, it's all down to the narrator and the endlessly swirling score. But we do get to see some excellent models and maps (pointed at by a planner's pipe) and even some classic 'pram town' images from a neighbourhood shopping street. And, of course, it's all overseen by the Clyde Valley Regional Plan, that must-contested document that led to the creation of the town in the first place.
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