{{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 | producer = 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 | music = | cinematography = H.E. Fowle | editing = | studio = 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 for the GPO Film Unit, and made for the 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, Bolton, Manchester and Pontypridd. Commentary is provided by Laurie Lee.
''Time Out'' 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 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 for the GPO Film Unit, and made for the 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, Bolton, Manchester and 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.<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 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 and the Independent Group.<ref name="BFI"/>
''Time Out'' 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's 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'' and that the film was "an obvious extension" of Jennings's work with the British amateur anthropological 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 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