# Spare Time

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{{Short description|1939 British film}}
{{For|the concept of spare time|Leisure}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox film
<!-- |italic title  = (see above) -->
| name           = Spare Time
| image          = Spare Time titles.jpg
| alt            = 
| caption        = 
| native_name    = <!-- {{Infobox name module|language|title}} or {{Infobox name module|title}} -->
| director       = [Humphrey Jennings](/source/Humphrey_Jennings)
| producer       = [Alberto Cavalcanti](/source/Alberto_Cavalcanti)
| writer         = 
| screenplay     = 
| story          = 
| based_on       = <!-- {{Based on|title of the original work|creator of the original work|additional creator(s), if necessary}} -->
| starring       = 
| narrator       = [Laurie Lee](/source/Laurie_Lee)
| music          = 
| cinematography = H.E. Fowle
| editing        = 
| studio         = [GPO Film Unit](/source/GPO_Film_Unit)
| distributor    = <!-- or: | distributors = -->
| released       = {{Film date|1939}}
| runtime        = 15 minutes
| country        = United Kingdom
| language       = English
| budget         = 
| gross          = 
}}
'''''Spare Time''''' is a 1939 British film directed by [Humphrey Jennings](/source/Humphrey_Jennings) for the [GPO Film Unit](/source/GPO_Film_Unit), and made for the [1939 New York World's Fair](/source/1939_New_York_World's_Fair).  It is 15 minutes long and documents the leisure activities of workers in the coal, steel, and cotton industries in [Sheffield](/source/Sheffield), [Bolton](/source/Bolton), [Manchester](/source/Manchester) and [Pontypridd](/source/Pontypridd). Commentary is provided by [Laurie Lee](/source/Laurie_Lee).

''[Time Out](/source/Time_Out_(magazine))'' calls it "A touching, troubling encapsulation of 1930s Britain."<ref name="Time Out"/>  ''Spare Time'' was the subject of one of a set of ten postage stamps produced by the [Royal Mail](/source/Royal_Mail) in 2015 to commemorate British cinema classics, including four from the GPO Film Unit.

==Production==
''Spare Time'' is a 1939 British film directed by [Humphrey Jennings](/source/Humphrey_Jennings) for the [GPO Film Unit](/source/GPO_Film_Unit), and made for the [1939 New York World's Fair](/source/1939_New_York_World's_Fair),<ref name="BFI">{{cite web |title=Spare Time (1939) |url=http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/443890/index.html |website=BFI |access-date=18 February 2021}}</ref> to show how the working class in Britain spent their leisure time in the 1930s. It runs for a duration of 15 minutes.<ref name="Time Out">{{cite web |title=Spare Time |url=https://www.timeout.com/movies/spare-time |website=Time Out |access-date=18 February 2021}}</ref><ref name="BFI"/>

==Synopsis==
It documents the leisure activities of workers in the coal, steel and cotton industries in [Sheffield](/source/Sheffield), [Bolton](/source/Bolton), [Manchester](/source/Manchester) and [Pontypridd](/source/Pontypridd). It depicts in short clips activities like wrestling, ballroom dancing, card games and pigeon fanciers. Strung together in startling combinations to the sounds of brass bands, choirs, and jazz.<ref name="Time Out"/><ref name="LWLies">{{cite web |last1=Westad |first1=Jan |title=Why Humphrey Jennings' Blitz docs are the films you should be watching now |url=https://lwlies.com/articles/humphrey-jennings-blitz-documentaries/ |website=LWLies |access-date=18 February 2021}}</ref> Commentary is provided by [Laurie Lee](/source/Laurie_Lee).<ref name="BFI"/>

==Reception==
thumb|2014 Royal Mail stamp showing a still from ''Spare Time''
Paul Swann has described ''Spare Time'' as an "early example of Jennings's aural and visual poetry on film" that showed the direction in which his film-making would go after the Second World War.<ref>Swann, Paul. (1989) ''The British Documentary Film Movement, 1926–1946''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 89. {{ISBN|0521334799}}</ref> The film does not analyse social or economic problems, and is almost free of narrative commentary. [Basil Wright](/source/Basil_Wright) felt that the film portrayed a "patronising, sometimes almost sneering attitude towards the efforts of low-income groups". The art historian David Mellor felt that ''Spare Time'' was the work most emblematic of a 'pop iconography' until the 1950s work of [Tom Phillips](/source/Tom_Phillips_(artist)) and the [Independent Group](/source/Independent_Group_(art_movement)).<ref name="BFI"/>

''[Time Out](/source/Time_Out_(magazine))'' has called the film "A touching, troubling encapsulation of 1930s Britain."<ref name="Time Out"/> Scott Anthony, in a profile of the film for the [British Film Institute](/source/British_Film_Institute)'s [Screenonline](/source/Screenonline) describes ''Spare Time'' as "an incredible portrait of the prewar working class and an early illustration of Humphrey Jennings' genius".<ref name="BFI"/> Anthony felt the film possessed a "a similar cinematic catalogue" to Jennings's book ''[Pandaemonium](/source/Pandaemonium_(Jennings_book))'' and that the film was "an obvious extension" of Jennings's work with the British amateur anthropological [Mass-Observation](/source/Mass-Observation) organisation.<ref name="BFI"/>

In 2015, ''Spare Time'' was the subject of one of a set of ten postage stamps produced by [Royal Mail](/source/Royal_Mail) to commemorate British cinema classics, including four from the GPO Film Unit.<ref>{{cite news |title=Great British films celebrated on new Royal Mail stamps |url=https://www2.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/features/great-british-films-celebrated-new-royal-mail-stamps |access-date=18 February 2021 |work=BFI |date=3 March 2015}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=British stamps honor films and GPO documentaries|url=https://www.linns.com/news/us-stamps-postal-history/2014/april/british-stamps-honor-films-and-gpo-documentaries.html|access-date=21 February 2021|website=Linns Stamp News|language=en}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}
{{commons category|Spare Time}}
{{Italic title}}

== External links ==
* {{IMDb title}}

Category:1939 short documentary films
Category:British black-and-white films
Category:British short documentary films
Category:1939 English-language films
Category:Films directed by Humphrey Jennings
Category:Films set in Sheffield
Category:Films set in Wales
Category:GPO Film Unit films
Category:Working-class culture in the United Kingdom
Category:1939 New York World's Fair
Category:World's fair films
Category:English-language short documentary films
Category:1939 films

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Spare Time](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spare_Time) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spare_Time?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.