The Soviet Influence: Battleship Potemkin + Drifters

Films by Sergei Eisenstein and John Grierson

In the 1920s and 1930s, Soviet propaganda films profoundly influenced the emerging luminaries of British documentary filmmaking. Sergei Eisenstein's groundbreakin Battleship Potemkin was not seen in the UK until the momentous London Film Society screening in 1929, where it was double-billed with John Grierson's Drifters. This new restoration of Battleship Potemkin is presented with the 1926 Edmund Meisel score, while the digitally remastered transfer of Drifters employs the original tinting and toning and features a newly commissioned score by innovative British composer/performer Jason Singh.

Special Features

• All films presented in both High Definition and Standard Definition
• Battleship Potemkin presented in a new restoration by Film Museum Berlin and partners,accompanied by the 1926 Edward Meisel score
• Drifters presented in a new HD transfer, tinted and toned as originally intended, with a score by innovative composer/performer Jason Singh
• Granton Trawler (John Grierson, 1934, 11 mins): Grierson's follow up to Drifters, one of the GPO Film Unit's first experiments with sound
• Trade Tattoo (Len Lye, 1937, 6 mins): celebratory animation made from off-cuts of EMB and GPO films, including Drifters and Night Mail
• North Sea (Harry Watt, 1938, 32 mins): dramatic reconstruction of sea farers battle with the elements, produced by the GPO Film Unit
• Fully illustrated booklet with credits and essays by Henry K Miller, Patrick Russell and Michael Brooke

Disc 1: BD50 | 1080p | PCM 5.1 surround and 2.0 stereo audio

Disc 2: DVD9 | PAL | Dolby Digital 5.1 surround (448 kbps) and 2.0 stereo audio (320 kbps)

USSR + UK / 1925 +1929 / black and white, with hand-coloured detail + tinting and toning / silent, with Russian intertitles and English subtitles + English intertitles / 69 minutes + 41 minutes / Original aspect ratio 1.33:1 / Region B blu-ray / Region 2 DVD