Collection context
Summary
- Creators:
- Rotha, Paul
- Abstract:
- Paul Rotha (1907-1984) was a film critic, documentary filmmaker, and movie director. The collection consists of materials related to Rotha's documentary and feature films and Rotha's books on the cinema.
- Extent:
- 42 Linear Feet (84 boxes and 7 oversize boxes)
- Language:
- English .
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item], Paul Rotha papers (Collection 2001). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
Background
- Scope and content:
-
Collection consists of projects, early treatments, narration scripts, technical plans and shooting scripts for Mr. Rotha's documentary and feature films. Also includes manuscript, typescript, and proof copies of Rotha's books on the cinema along with clippings of his periodical writings and review articles. Reviews and articles on Rotha are both loose and in scrapbooks. Includes Rotha's personal diaries as well as correspondence from John Grierson, Eric Knight, and Richard Griffith, among others. There are art works from the 1920s, photographs (mostly location stills), and recording tapes from Rotha's films.
- Biographical / historical:
-
Paul Rotha was born in London, England on June 3, 1907; a former painter and designer, he became a film critic and wrote a seminal work on cinema history titled, The film till now (1930); began making his own documentary films in association with John Grierson and was a leading figure in the British documentary movement of the 1930s and 1940s; directed three feature films in the 1950-60s; writings include: Documentary film (1935), Rotha on the film (1958), and The innocent eye: A biography of Robert Flaherty (1963); died on March 7, 1984.
- Acquisition information:
- Motley Books, Limited, purchase, 1967. Paul Rotha, purchase, 1980.
- Processing information:
-
Processed by Library Special Collections staff, 1999. Container listings for boxes 1-65 and 86-91 compliled by Selina Portera, 2020 based on existing paper inventories.
Collections are processed to a variety of levels depending on the work necessary to make them usable, their perceived user interest and research value, availability of staff and resources, and competing priorities. Library Special Collections provides a standard level of preservation and access for all collections and, when time and resources permit, conducts more intensive processing. These materials have been arranged and described according to national and local standards and best practices.
We are committed to providing ethical, inclusive, and anti-racist description of the materials we steward, and to remediating existing description of our materials that contains language that may be offensive or cause harm. We invite you to submit feedback about how our collections are described, and how they could be described more accurately, by filling out the form located on our website: Report Potentially Offensive Description in Library Special Collections.
- Arrangement:
-
Collection maintains the exiting order of materials upon transfer to UCLA.
- Physical location:
- Stored off-site. All requests to access special collections material must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.
- Rules or conventions:
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Access and use
- Restrictions:
-
Open for research. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.
- Terms of access:
-
Property rights to the objects belong to UCLA Library Special Collections. All other rights, including copyright, are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item], Paul Rotha papers (Collection 2001). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
- Location of this collection:
-
A1713 Charles E. Young Research LibraryBox 951575Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575, US
- Contact:
- (310) 825-4988