Paul Rotha

Directing·Jun 3, 1907·London, England

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Paul Rotha (3 June 1907 – 7 March 1984) was an English documentary film-maker, film historian and critic. He was born Paul Thompson in London, and educated at Highgate School and at the Slade School of Fine Art. Rotha was a close collaborator of John Grierson, and Wolfgang Suschitzky was one of his cinematographers. He directed and produced dozens of documentaries including Contact (1933), Air Outpost (1937) The Face of Britain (1935), World of Plenty (1943), Land of Promise (1947), A City Speaks (1947) and many others. The World Is Rich (1947) and Cradle of Genius (1961), both of which were nominated for an Academy Award, and feature films including the BAFTA-nominated No Resting Place. Rotha was Head of BBC TV's Documentaries Department between May 1953 and May 1955. Rotha shared with Otto Neurath an interest in the techniques of visual communication, and the two men worked together on several films, where Neurath's ISOTYPE pictorial statistics were animated as an important component of the films' arguments. He was initially a major opponent of sound in movies, although he later developed the technique of multi-voice commentary, in which the argument of the film is conveyed via discussion between several distinct voices, a distinctive form of documentary exposition. Films using this technique include New Worlds for Old (1938), World of Plenty (1943), The World is Rich (1947) and Land of Promise (1946). Rotha wrote, produced and directed the 1958 crime drama Cat & Mouse, based on a novel by John Creasey and starring Lee Patterson and Ann Sears.

Film	Credit
The Silent Raid1962 · Director, Producer	Director, Producer
TThe Life of Adolf Hitler1961 · Director	Director
Cradle of Genius1960 · Director	Director
Cat & Mouse1958 · Director, Writer, Producer	Director, Writer, Producer
WWorld Without End1953 · Director	Director
No Resting Place1951 · Director, Writer	Director, Writer
The Balance1947 · Director, Producer	Director, Producer
AA City Speaks1947 · Director, Writer	Director, Writer
The World Is Rich1946 · Director	Director
Land of Promise1946 · Director, Producer	Director, Producer
Britain Can Make It, No. 11946 · Producer	Producer
TTotal War in Britain1945 · Director	Director
New Builders1944 · Producer	Producer
World of Plenty1943 · Director, Producer, Writer	Director, Producer, Writer
NNight Shift1942 · Producer	Producer
The Countrywomen1942 · Producer	Producer
Five and Under1941 · Producer	Producer
IIsland People1940 · Director	Director
TThe Future’s in the Air1938 · Producer	Producer
AAir Outpost1937 · Producer	Producer
Today We Live1937 · Producer	Producer
CCover to Cover1936 · Producer	Producer
People of Britain1936 · Director, Writer	Director, Writer
Shipyard1935 · Director	Director
The Face of Britain1935 · Director	Director
Contact1933 · Director	Director
AAustralian Wines1931 · Director	Director