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Many local authorities and councils have used the medium of film in the past to document or promote their services and these films provide an 'official' view on local social change. From the Scottish Screen Archive ‘Progress Report No.2’ is one of a series of films that were commissioned by the Glasgow Corporation housing department aiming to demonstrate the progress they were making in building new houses for the people of Glasgow in the late 1940s. The building programme was in response to problems of overcrowding and poor housing in the inner city areas in the pre and post Second World War era. The new Pollock housing estate was highlighted as an achievement for the housing department and a huge improvement in the lifestyles of those due to move there. The film offers an idealised vision of the new purpose built communities that contrasts with the current reality. In the film, the ‘mean streets and dilapidated tenements’ are replaced with the ‘exciting’ new housing blocks intended as a ‘modern answer to the drab tenements in the city’. The film talks about the plans they have for creating communities by introducing schools, churches, shops and transport for the new development. However for some at the time, the film represented a distorted view of the changes taking place. In response to the council's attempt to sell some of its council houses the left wing 'Dawn Cine Group' went on to make their own film on the Glasgow housing crisis entitled 'Let Glasgow Flourish' (1952/56) showing the continued problems of overcrowding and poverty in the inner city. |
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