The Thirties in Colour

Rosie Newman was a socialite and amateur filmmaker who used her high society contacts to secure extraordinary access to the social elite. Between 1928 and her retirement in the 1960s, Newman travelled the globe and photographed some of the most important color documentary footage in history. This documentary features work that has not been seen publicly for over 70 years.

Together with his younger brother Bolling, the American industrialist Harry Wright was wealthy enough to indulge his passions for travel, adventure and filmmaking. Both siblings collected and shot films that captured the world at a pivotal time in history. The exotic locations they documented would soon become a battleground, as the world lurched towards the bloodiest war in history.

American industrialist Harry Wright was one of the most prolific collectors of color film in the 1930s. A self-made millionaire with a passion for photography and travel, he acquired hundreds of films, which he screened at his private cinema, built at his home in Mexico City. Wright's extraordinary color films of Africa and Central America provide a unique visual record of indigenous people.

The 1930s were a golden age for international travel, a decade when advanced transport systems allowed people to journey all over the world. Travelers with the means recorded their experiences by using the new color film and photography technologies. Their home movies captured a defining moment in history, when the nations of Europe were about to be plunged into the Second World War.