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Title: NEW LIVES

Reference number: 1684

Date: 1939c

Director: d. Alan Harper

Sponsor: Church of Scotland Home Board

Production company: Campbell Harper Films Ltd.

Sound: silent

Original format: 16mm

Colour: bw

Fiction: fiction

Running time: 15.15 mins

Description: Some aspects of the Church of Scotland Extension work are shown in this story of a family's evacuation from an Edinburgh slum to a new housing area.

For review of film see Scottish Educational Film Review Volume 1, Review No. 168.

Credits: story by Rev. Arthur H Dunnet
scenario Norman Wilson

Shotlist: REEL 1.
Credits (.27); The McAllisters; typical of a thousand other working class families..lived happily enough in an old part of the town; (.36) shot of Edinburgh tenements (.45) Ma McAllister, "a well-doing body" with a sharp tongue.. and a heart of gold (.50) shot of a shop front (.52) shots of Mrs McAllister shopping and walking through the streets (1.25) gvs back courts and vennels, crowded, possibly in Leith (1.30) shots of Mrs McAllister chatting to a neighbour (1.43) shot of Mrs McAllister and Jimmy McAllister in the house (1.49) Jimmy McAllister, one of the many unemployed. (1.52) shot of Jimmy looking at his "Regular Unemployment Book" (2.05) The father - a "decent working-man".. but a born pessimist. (2.10) Mr McAllister, a labourer, shovelling rubble into the back of a lorry (2.22); leaving work and walking through the streets with a friend who goes into a public house. (2.44) shots of shop sign, Hughes and Hudson, Sawmakers(2.47) Mr McAllister arrives home (3.00) offers his son a cigarette (3.07) the family at the table. Mrs McAllister gives her husband a letter from the Local Authority telling them that their house is unfit for habitation and they must move to a ground floor flat in a a new housing estate (3.29); Mr McAllister talks with his family (3.48) Six weeks later, the removal. Shots of house being vacated. gvs of flitting and horse and cart being loaded up (4.24); While father goes ahead with the furniture, mother and son lock up the old home for the last time. Shots of mother and son leaving, having said goodbye to the neighbours (4.54); mother and son get on a bus (5.01) father and cart travelling through the streets (5.14) mother and son arrive at their new house (5.49) father with horse and cart (6.01) shots of mother and son waiting for the arrival of their furniture (6.12)

REEL II
(0.00) The new home has attractions which tend to soften the blow of being uprooted from the little world they have left behind. Family walk around their new home (0.30) The men begin to unload the cart (0.43) But with nothing to do, nowhere to go and no friends, boredom soon makes life a misery. Son wonders about on pavement outside home. Stops outside Granton Parish church at Wardieburn Drive and reads poster for opening of new church hall. At home letter is received inviting family to attend the social event to open the new hall and to discuss ways of improving social amenities in the new district. Father and son resist Mrs. McAllister's encouragement to go (2.32) But Ma McAllister has a way with her!!! Family get dressed and make way to church hall. gvs social gathering, hosted by the parish minister who outlines some of the activities organised by the church (5.26) and in less than a month the "Sewing Bee" is in full swing. Mrs McAllister joins the sewing group (6.10) The help given to the young folks means a lot to Jimmy McAllister. Jimmy in the wood-working workshop (6.41) But keenest of them all is old Jimmy in his garden gvs same, talking to neighbour. (7.20) Young Jimmy gets letter offering a job (8.0) Shots of the McAllisters in church (8.40) The erection of Church buildings must go on even in troublous times, and we count on your contributions to meet all our present responsibilities. Do not let us fail our people who seek the help of the Church in the new areas The End (9.03)