Food from the Empire emphasises the solidarity and unity of the British Empire during the early part of the War. This is apparent initially through a commentary which asserts that ‘there are 500 million people inhabiting roughly one quarter of the globe who have pledged themselves with us to preserve a way of living that is called the British Commonwealth of Nations’. The film then illustrates this solidarity through the example of food production and distribution.

Formally, the film provides a succession of industrial sequences relating to different parts of the Empire and unites these images through the commentary and the animation used. The commentary positions these films in the context of the ‘British housewife’, as it explains that ‘these men and women all over the world are helping to fill the shopping basket of the British housewife’. This link to the ‘British housewife’ is also established through the film’s animation. Items are removed from the shopping basket and then discussed. Furthermore, the industrial films are initially depicted within a globe –illustrating the significance of these industrial processes to the rest of the Empire and the world –before extending to the full screen.

Food from the Empire highlights the severity of the food issue, by discussing food production as a battle – ‘But we are not alone in this struggle’ –and by subsequently emphasising the scale and organisation of the food divisional officers. The commentary states that if supplies are blocked the ‘whole of the emergency machinery goes into action’, and refers to the ‘men available to be called upon at a moment’s notice’. This seemingly unthreatening image – the housewife’s shopping basket – becomes symptomatic of broader war-time struggles, as the commentary attests that the ‘full shopping basket’ would not be possible but ‘for the might of the Royal Navy and the courage and endurance of our sailors and merchant seamen’.

Food from the Empire also offers insights into British attitudes towards its colonies and dominions. The commentary notes that the ‘free people’ of these countries are ‘anxious to send every ounce they can to the United Kingdom for they know that upon the ability of Great Britain to hold out depends their own freedom’. Britain is depicted as a dominant power, fighting to protect those within the Empire, while the colonies are loyal and ‘anxious’ to help.

Documentary News Letter complained in December 1940 that ‘for all we see of the Empire on the public screens … we neither see the imperial scene nor hear the imperial voice’ (Documentary News Letter, December 1940, 2). Yet, Food from the Empire attempts to provide a voice for these countries, stating ‘Let their voices speak to us through the products they send us’. Each country is assigned a first-person narrator –scenes from Canada for example are introduced with the announcement that ‘You folk over there can be assured of Canada’s contribution’. Yet there is one notable exception. Whilst showing ethnographic shots of Africans cutting down beans and transporting food on their heads, a very well-spoken British voice announces ‘I speak for West Africa from which among other things comes your cocoa’. The failure to assign an authentic, or even enacted, local voice would seemingly illustrate the lack of autonomy granted to the Africans, and a controlling British paternalistic attitude distinct from that shown to other areas of the Empire.

Tom Rice (April 2008)