Humphrey Jennings

A poet, surrealist painter and theatrical set designer, Jennings began making documentaries in the 1930s after joining the renowned GPO Film Unit. He produced his best work during WWII, with his most notable achievements including: "Words for Battle" (1942), which matched passages of literature with footage of the Home Front; "Listen to Britain" (1942), which eschewed any narrative commentary in favor of "found" sound; and "Fires Were Started" (1943), his only feature film. Jennings' post-war output lacked the verve and lyricism of his earlier work, partly because he felt himself out of joint with what he saw as a fragmented society; Lindsay Anderson wrote that the director's "traditionalist spirit was unable to adjust itself to the changed circumstances of Britain after the war." Others have attributed the decline in the quality of his output to the cessation of his working relationship with editor and sometime co-director Stewart McAllister. Jennings died in a rock fall while scouting locations for a film on a Greek island.