How it Happened Here

by Kevin Brownlow

How It Happened Here tells the story of the making of a film and the subsequent reception that the film received and the controversy and alarm that it stirred up when it was first released. The film-makers were two teenagers (18 and 16) and they started out with no budget and a borrowed 16 mm camera. The project took 8 years to complete. Part of the book is a humorous and detailed account of how the boys overcame all the practical and financial hurdles of amateur film making and saw the project through to completion and national release. This in itself would qualify the book as a thoroughly entertaining read and a sound basis for a course in film making or media studies of any kind. But this was no ordinary film. Kevin and his co-director Andrew Mollo took as their theme the "what if?" idea of a conquered and occupied England, after a hypothetical defeat and invasion following the Dunkirk retreat. As they grew up with the project and developed their own political understanding the film departed from its "war adventure" origins and developed into a low key and terrifying Orwellian fantasy confronting its audience with the detailed reality of life under Fascism, darkened by all the moral compromise that is forced on everyone who wants to survive under such a regime. It Happened Here is a provocative and challenging film that demands of everyone who sees it "What would I have done?." The British people had never before been able to imagine with such clarity the fate that they had so narrowly (some would say, unaccountably) avoided. A nation lulled by Churchillian rhetoric into complacent self-satisfaction was shaken more than anyone could have foreseen by this vision of what might havebeen. But in telling his story Kevin had allowed genuine British Fascists to speak their mind, and therein lies the starting point of the second part of the book, the battle to confront the misunderstanding and hostility of Jewish organisations and other well-meaning people who had failed to appreciate the irony of Kevin's allowing the Fascists to be themselves in front of his camera. The six minute sequence became more famous than the film itself, a symbol of every serious artist's struggle with the forces of censorship and narrow-mindedness. The story of Kevin's attempts to overcome the wall of misunderstanding that stood between the completed film and its general release touch on just about every issue of artistic freedom and will serve as an inspiration to anybody who believes in free speech and the other things that distinguish England as it is from England as it might have been. Arguably Kevin and his film have never been fully accepted and his career has never completely recovered from this early brush with the arbiters of artistic good taste and the boundary setters of what we may and may not say. But what he did say was profoundly worth saying. Almost thirty-five years after its initial publication this book has lost none of its impact, freshness and relevance. And none of its quietly understated humour. The UKA Press is privileged to be entrusted with its re-issue. (The book contains almost 100 pictures, mostly stills from the film, and an introduction by David Robinson)

Genres: Film

216 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1968

About the author

Kevin Brownlow, is a filmmaker, film historian, television documentary-maker, author, and Academy Award recipient. Brownlow is best known for his work documenting the history of the silent era. Brownlow became interested in silent film at the age of eleven. This interest grew into a career spent documenting and restoring film. He has rescued many silent films and their history. His initiative in interviewing many largely forgotten, elderly film pioneers in the 1960s and 1970s preserved a legacy of cinema. Brownlow received an Academy Honorary Award at the 2nd Annual Governors Awards given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on November 13, 2010.

Reviews

[Tom Newth · Rating 4 out of 5]

delightful writer, fascinating story

[Nicholas Foster · Rating 5 out of 5]

The story of how one of the most politically powerful British films was made by amateurs over a period of years with next to no budget and borrowed props. A triumph.