Although made for the GPO, Spare Time was in fact a Mass Observation film about the ways in which people in the industrial areas of Britain spend their free time. Its very title suggests how removed Jennings was from the dominant philosophy of Griersonian documentary because this film does not glorify the dignity of labour but shows instead the working classes producing their own culture. There is an expressive use of sounds and music and a surreal quality about the landscape which prefigures...

Although made for the GPO, Spare Time was in fact a Mass Observation film about the ways in which people in the industrial areas of Britain spend their free time. Its very title suggests how removed Jennings was from the dominant philosophy of Griersonian documentary because this film does not glorify the dignity of labour but shows instead the working classes producing their own culture. There is an expressive use of sounds and music and a surreal quality about the landscape which prefigures much of Jennings' later work It also demonstrates what later became his most accomplished technique, the counterpoint of soundtrack and images which relate to each other in unexpected ways. UK 1939 Dir Humphrey Jennings 18 mins (BFI Catalogue entry)