Focus On Film is a jointly funded project by The National Archives and the South East Grid for Learning. This site presents film as a historical source and considers its advantages and disadvantages as evidence for the past.
Introduction: This article outlines with film clips, some of the issues relating to film as evidence.
Activities: These investigate different aspects of film evidence with clips. The activities can be accessed either for individual use on a pc or for whole-class teaching using an interactive whiteboard.
Film Archive: The archive contains a range of original footage from the twentieth century as well as some reconstructions of earlier periods of history. All clips have full background information and can either be viewed online or downloaded for free.
Editor′s Room: You can understand the power of the film editor by working with our film archive and online editing tool.
Sources used: film, typed document, photo, hand written document
This gallery looks at what factors caused the end of the empire. There are four case studies on the end of the British rule in these regions: the Dominions; Ghana (West Africa); India; Ireland.
This exhibition contains six galleries that investigate the causes and effects of the Cold War. Using a wide of range of sources, including film, pupils can explore these galleries:
Did the Cold War really start in 1919-39?
How strong was the wartime alliance, 1941-45?
Who caused the Cold War?
How did the Cold War work?
The nuclear game
How close was it?
Was Vietnam a turning point in the Cold War?
Within each gallery there are case studies using original sources with questions.
Pupils will also find timelines, notes on the sources, document transcripts and a worksheet for each case study to help them organise their work. Pupils have an opportunity to create their own exhibition on how the Cold War worked (gallery 4). There are text links to a glossary and an Archive Section that has extended versions of the sources used in the case studies. The exhibition features the Nuclear Bunker in Essex with a tour using stills.
Did the Cold War really start in 1919-39? There are three case studies on: the Russian Civil War; the Zinoviev letter; the Munich Agreement and after, 1938-9.
This exhibition contains galleries that examine a significant event in the life of these historical figures:
Winston Churchill and the bombing of Dresden
John Kennedy and the Cuban missile crisis
Benito Mussolini and the invasion of Abyssinia
Joseph Stalin and the industrialisation of USSR
Harry Truman and the atomic bomb
Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement
Each gallery raises a series of questions that pupils can examine in the light of the sources provided. There are additional report writing activities and worksheets within the gallery. The exhibition contains a glossary.
What happened at Little Rock Central High School? What were the results of the civil rights campaign in Birmingham? What was the March on Washington? How did people view Martin Luther King after his death? There are two activities on the following: the March on Washington and Martin Luther King's contribution to civil rights.
How did the Cold War work? There are four case studies: Berlin Blockade, 1948-9; Soviet control of Eastern Europe; Korean War, 1950-53; Berlin Wall, 1961. Pupils can create their own online exhibition in this gallery.
The nuclear game - how close was it? There are three case studies: nuclear politics in the 1950s and 1960s; Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962; banning the bomb.
How strong was the wartime alliance, 1941-1945? There are four case studies: what the public saw; what the public did not see; the Yalta Conference; the Potsdam Conference.
Who caused the Cold War? There are three case studies: Soviet Policy, 1945-1948; Churchill and the Iron Curtain speech; Truman Doctrine and Marshal Aid
Two Sides, Two Stories: this workshop aims to help students investigate and understand the events of Bloody Sunday and the different interpretations regarding what happened and who was responsible, through the study of original documents.
What triggered the Cuban Missile crisis? Why didn't it lead to nuclear war? Did international relations improve? How might Kennedy's death affect our view of him? There is an activity on the issues which concerned the key players during the crisis.
This workshop aims to help students to investigate and understand how the Second World War and the fall of Singapore changed attitudes to imperial rule within British colonies, and within Britain itself, through the study of original contemporary documents held at the National Archives.
Moving Here explores, records and illustrates why people came to England over the last 200 years and what their experiences were and continue to be. It includes an online archive of original material related to migration history from local, regional and national archives, libraries and museums and gives visitors to the site the opportunity to publish stories of their own experience of migration. The site features numerous resources designed specifically for schools.
