Basil Wright was a documentary filmmaker, film historian, film critic and teacher. During World War II, Wright worked only as a producer, first at John Grierson's Film Centre before joining The Crown Film Unit between 1945 and 1946 as producer-in-charge. Among the best known films he produced for Crown are Humphrey Jennings' A Diary for Timothy (1946) and A Defeated People (1946) and Instruments of the Orchestra (1946) featuring Benjamin Britten's The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra.[1] Returning to direction in the early 1950s, his films included Waters of Time (1951) made for the Festival of Britain, World Without End (1953) directed with Paul Rotha for UNESCO and Greece: The Immortal Land (1958) in collaboration with his friend the artist Michael Ayrton. Writing throughout the 30s and 40s, Basil Wright had contributed to the theoretical development of documentary in the movement's journals Cinema Quarterly, World Film News and Documentary Newsletter. He was the film critic for The Spectator after Graham Greene left. Wright was a regular contributor to the British Film Institute's Sight and Sound during the 1940s and '50s. He published a small book: The Uses of Film (1948) and his personal (extensive) history of cinema The Long View (1974). He taught at the University of Southern California (1962 and 1968), The National Film and Television School in London (1971–73) and Temple University in Philadelphia (1977–78). He was Governor of the British Film Institute, a fellow of the British Film Academy and President of the International Association of Documentary Filmmakers. In his films Wright combined an ability to look closely and carefully at a subject with a poetic and often experimental approach to editing and sound. In Britain he is commemorated with a film prize awarded biennially by the Royal Anthropological Institute.

Фільмографія

• 1958The Immortal Land — Director, Producer
• 1956One Wish Too Many — Producer
• 1953The Drawings of Leonardo da Vinci — Producer
• 1953World Without End — Director
• 1951Waters of Time — Director
• 1946A Defeated People — Producer
• 1946It Might Be You — Producer
• 1945A Diary for Timothy — Producer
• 1945The Channel Islands 1940-1945 — Producer
• 1943Neuro Psychiatry 1943 — Producer
• 1942London Scrapbook — Producer
• 1942This Is Colour — Producer
• 1941The Green Girdle — Producer
• 1940London Can Take It! — Associate Producer
• 1940Men of Africa — Producer
• 1939The Londoners — Associate Producer
• 1939The Rape of Czechoslovakia — Writer
• 1938Advance Democracy! — Producer
• 1938Night Mail — Director, Editor, Producer
• 1938The Face of Scotland — Director
• 1937Children at School — Director
• 1937Modern Orphans of the Storm: The Story of the Refugee Basque Children — Director
• 1935Coal Face — Director of Photography
• 1934Pett and Pott: A Fairy Story of the Suburbs — Vicar (uncredited), Other
• 1934The Song of Ceylon — Director, Director of Photography, Editor
• 1933The Country Comes to Town — Director, Director of Photography
• 1932O'er Hill and Dale — Director, Cinematography
• 1931Industrial Britain — Additional Photography
• 1930Conquest — Editor
• 1929Every Day

Ток-шоу, премії та інші появи (2)

• 1974Omnibus - Cuckoo: A Celebration of Mr. Laurel and Mr. Hardy — Self
• 1973Grierson — Self