Educational and Television Films: A history

Stanley Forman founded Plato Films in 1950 with encouragement from prominent Communists such as Ivor Montagu and Bill Wainwright. Plato was not, strictly speaking, a Party organisation although it did have strong Communist Party support: Plato could be considered as the outcome of the desire for the Party to have it's own library. Using the slogan 'See the other half of the world', Plato was established as a centre for distribution for films that were coming into the UK from countries all over the Socialist world, especially the former Soviet Union. The films that Stanley handled were, for the most part documentary films, his main area of interest. The films were seen and were to be used as an educational tool, as a medium to inform and enlighten the British population. Most of Plato's customers at that time were interested groups, such as the British-Soviet Friendship Society, schools, the peace movement and even sometimes the army.

In the late 1950's Plato Films experienced a huge upheaval. Two East German documentary film markers, husband and wife team Andrew and Annelie Thorndike made a series of films, 'The Archives Testify'. One of these films, Operation Teutonic Sword flung Plato into the middle of a libel action that was taken out against them by former Nazi General Hans Speidel, the subject of the film and the West German government, who possibly provided the money for Speidel's defence. In late June 1961 the case ended in the House of Lords: the German Democratic Republic, with the recent construction of the Berlin Wall were forced to go on the defensive and were no longer interested in the case and Speidel was willing settle the matter: he renounced any financial claims for damages but insisted that all the prints of both versions of the films be taken out of circulation. Although the case ended inconclusively, Plato had to take precautions as in 1959 Stanley became personally involved in the case and the lawyers advised him to register a new company in case Plato went bankrupt as a result of the verdict. Therefore, on 5 July 1959 Educational and Television Films Ltd (better know as Educational and Television Films), was incorporated.

After the Speidel affair, Educational and Television Films and Plato struggled on. Educational and Television Films's customers changed throughout the decades. Over the years, the interested parties were diminishing in number and the demand for screenings of socialist documentary films falling, although Educational and Television Films did continue to supply films to those who wanted them until the end. The outlets for Educational and Television Films material began to change in the late '60's and '70's as technology changed and film began to be replaced by various tape formats. It was with the arrival and expansion of television that Educational and Television Films's customer base changed dramatically. The emphasis had to change from the academic and friendship societies to the world of broadcasting.

Educational and Television Films saw the potential in television and Stanley quickly realised that the main interest lay in the archival material rather than complete films. Educational and Television Films began to market itself in various ways and also began to search for archive material, usually British. The collection of archive material was not a new area for Educational and Television Films as for a number of years Educational and Television Films had held the films of the British Communist movement. This is a significant collection within Educational and Television Films: the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) produced its own films and when the question arose as to where to keep the films, Plato was immediately thought of. Plato produced many films for the Party, often with the cameraman Manny Yospa. Educational and Television Films also assisted East German camera crews coming over to the United Kingdom on missions that varied from the making of English language courses to television news items.

After more than 52 years of independent trading, Educational and Television Films closed its doors and donated the collection to the BFI as the lease ran out on the building and Stanley, Hilda Forman and the long serving Betty Baker decided to finally retire.