Battle of the Somme film at Hyde Park Picture House, Leeds

Dir. Geoffrey Malins/ J B McDowell / William F Jury
78mins UK 1916

SYNOPSIS:
The film, ‘The Battle of the Somme’, was released in Britain while the battle itself was still being fought, in August 1916. The impact of the film was enormous – it took real life footage and turned it into a main feature with mass appeal. It was, in effect, a despatch from the front line, and an estimated 20 million people (half the population) went to see it.

The Imperial War Museum (IWM) carried out an extensive restoration of the film a decade ago, and the reach and usage of the film since then has proven its continued ability to affect a 21st century audience.

With the kind assistance of IWM, we have been given permission to hold a screening of this landmark film, a hundred years after it was made. The screening will be introduced by Matthew Lee, archivist at the Imperial War Museum and director of the Imperial War Museum Film Festival.

This special screening will be filmed by BBC News for a documentary, presented by Robert Hall, which is being made to mark the centenary of the battle and the landmark in documentary filmmaking that BATTLE OF THE SOMME represents.

If you would like to attend this screening tickets are absolutely FREE but we ask that you please RSVP to: wendy@hydeparkpicturehouse.co.uk