Return Journey (1981)

If you’re at all interested in the development of documentary film making, then this is quite an interesting film that follows the careers of three trailblazers of the art. Humphrey Spender, Derek Smith and Jimmy Forsyth all have working class backgrounds from the North of England and who determine to tell the stories of the deprivation, decay and underinvestment in their areas - Bolton and Tyneside featuring prominently - using a stunning style of more intimate photography to illustrate local situations in a much more personal and individual fashion. These three men are on the political left and so their comments and interpretations are often tempered by their own underlying opinions but there’s still quite a potent sense of social anthropology presented here, especially when Smith takes a three month break in London and then returns to his home town where the contrasting situation appears even more stark. Largely supplanted by video imagery now, it has maybe lost some of it’s punch but it still conveys a sense of humanity and a cultural identity across the working and middle classes poignantly.