Well I Never! Locating Alexander Esway's Films for the Electrical Development Association in the History of Industrial Film-making

Abstract

The Science Museum Group's archive for the Electricity Council, held at the Science and Industry Museum in Manchester, includes films sponsored by the British Electrical Development Association (EDA). The three earliest films in the archive date from 1934 and share a director in Alexander Esway. During content development research for the collaborative exhibition Electricity: The Spark of Life and research into Esway's films for a paper given at the Material Cultures of Energy BFI film workshop Picturing Energy: Approaches to Energy Films, questions arose about the lack of attention shown to commercial and industrial films included in Rachael Low's definition of ‘quota’ films and also about Esway's significance as a film-maker and his place in the history of British industrial films. This article provides information about the three films, the man who directed them and the context of what was happening in both the electricity industry and the film-making world at the time, including why the EDA decided to use film in its publicity campaigns. It attempts to discover whether Esway has been unjustifiably neglected by film historians, with his career a footnote to those of his more famous peers, and questions whether his work for the EDA forms part of a body of commercial and industrial films that need to be re-evaluated.