Seawards the Great Ships

Seawards the Great Ships
Directed by	Hilary Harris
Written by	John Grierson Cliff Hanley
Starring	Kenneth Kendall Bryden Murdoch
Production company	Templar Films
Distributed by	Central Office of Information
Release date	1961 (1961)
Running time	28 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

Seawards the Great Ships is a 1961 British short documentary film directed by Hilary Harris.^[1] It won an Oscar in 1962 for Best Short Live Action Subject,^[2][3] the first Scottish film to win an Academy Award.

The film chronicles the Shipbuilding industry of the River Clyde during the early 1960s, featuring footage from the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, John Brown & Company and Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company. It was produced by Glasgow-based Templar Films for the Clyde Shipbuilders' Association and the Central Office of Information (COI). It was released onto Blu-ray by Panamint in 2010 as part of their 'Faces of Scotland' compilation.^[4]

It includes dialogue between shipyard workers, but this is all scripted. They had hoped to use genuine dialogue between shipyard workers, but this included too many swearwords to be usable.^{[citation needed]}

Cast

• Kenneth Kendall as narrator (worldwide version)
• Bryden Murdoch as narrator (original Scottish version)

References

1. "Seawards the Great Ships". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 17 August 2024.
2. "The 34th Academy Awards (1962) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. Retrieved 22 August 2011.
3. "New York Times: Seawards the Great Ships". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. 2009. Archived from the original on 19 April 2009. Retrieved 22 May 2008.
4. Nield, Anthony (11 February 2011). "Faces of Scotland". The Digital Fix. Retrieved 11 February 2011.

External links

• Seawards the Great Ships at IMDb
• National Library of Scotland: Scottish Screen Archive (Film details and clips from Seawards the Great Ships)
• Seawards the Great Ships at the BFI's Screenonline