Out of the Rubble

(Penny Woolcock/2015/UK)

Using footage from the BFI archives, spanning from 1950’s Glasgow to London in 2015, Penny Woolcock looks at urban planning and social housing in Britain since World War II. By cutting across years and juxtaposing footage from different areas and eras she manages to build a very forceful and coherent message using a form of cinematic impressionism. It’s quite an extraordinary 18 minutes that shows how little has changed in attitudes to the poor, immigrants and social housing in over half a century. Through the montage style of editing Woolcock disparages the move away from traditional community structures to suburban, distanced and isolated living. Early on the Isle of Dogs in London is described as a village where everyone looks out for each other immediately followed by someone expressing the wish to tear down all the old towns and build them anew. T.S. Eliot, in Birmingham, pinpoints segregation of class and race as the failings of these new housing drives. Shock expressed at levels of deprivation in 1967 follows footage of deprivation in 2015, the initial hope and optimism in high rise urban renewal projects of the 1950’s contrasts with residents commenting on luxury, private accommodation and retail developments encroaching on their community as property becomes a premium and gentrification spreads. Out of the Rubble is a visually lyrical lament for an older way of life but more so a barbed critique of the one that has replaced it. It is a film I have watched numerous times since first seeing it and its impact hasn’t diminished any. Penny Woolcock, by carefully selecting old, anachronistic clippings from across the ages and stitching them together to create something new, presents a searing and saddening vista on a very relevant current issue.

(5/5)