Glasgow Film Theatre

Seawards the Great Ships
27 February & 29 March
The stunning Oscar-winning documentary Seawards the Great Ships (1960, 29min) celebrates Scotland's role as shipbuilder to the world; and there's glorious colour footage of the Queen Mary Leaving the Clyde (1936, 2min) – before she was painted grey - newly restored by the Scottish Screen Archive. Sean Connery directs and presents a startling, stylish and wry look at the shipyards of Govan in The Bowler and the Bunnet (STV 1967, 36min).

Red Ensign
6 March
UK 1934 Dir. Michael Powell. With David Barr, June MacKinnon, John Laurie. 69min
This early feature by Michael Powell is a stirring, melodramatic tale of romance and labour relations on Clydeside. The glorious photography by Leslie Rowson includes epic shots of men at work in the shipyards. Stars David Barr as the wonderfully domineering managing director of a shipbuilding company and June MacKinnon as his strong-willed love interest. Plus: The Building of a Liner (1938, 10min), a gorgeous documentary, encompassing dramatic scenes at steelworks, and crowds of men streaming to the shipyard, through streets strung with washing.

The Ship
13 March
BBC Scotland 1990. Dir: Bill Bryden & Derek Bailey.With Joseph Brady, Phil McCall, Hugh Martin. 100min
This powerful television version of Bill Bryden's spectacular theatre production The Ship, portrays the pride, resilience, wit, hardships and humour of shipbuilding communities on the Clyde. It was staged - and filmed - in Harland & Wolff's former engine shed in Govan and culminated each night in a remarkable recreation of a launch – an astounding coup de theatre!

The Shipbuilders
20 March
UK 1943 Dir. John Baxter. With Clive Brook, Morland Graham, Nell Ballantyne. 89min
In this Clydeside drama, intimate family scenes convey a vivid sense of the living and working conditions of shipyard communities spanning the 1930s and World War II. Lively performances, particularly from Nell Ballantyne as the longsuffering Mrs Shields. The idealised view of relations between boss and worker, contrasts sharply with Red Ensign (showing at GFT 6 Mar).

Sunderland Oak
22 March
Sunderland Oak (BBC 1961, Dir Philip Donnellan, 30min) beautifully combines songs, workers' voices and evocative imagery. Amber Films' impressionistic Launch (1974, Dirs Murray Martin & Peter Roberts, 10min) features VIPs and workers and their different experiences of the big day of a launch at Swan Hunters, Wallsend. Paul Rotha's modernist classic Shipyard (1935, 24min) filmed at Barrow in Furness, captures the building of a liner with the eye of a painter, plus The Little Ships of England (1943, 13min), a patriotic and picturesque documentary on the building of various types of small craft in SW England to support the war effort.

glasgowfilm.org/theatre