Newsreel

Newsreel, compilation of recent news items recorded on film and presented in cinemas. Various contemporary events were recorded on motion picture film from the beginning of cinema, and these were assembled for exhibition in various ways. The first regular series of short films of news items compiled into a fixed form on one film reel, and generally released as such, were produced by Pathé Frères in France in 1910. This first newsreel was given the title Pathé Journal, and a new edition was distributed each week. When special versions were produced in the United Kingdom and the United States from 1910 and 1911 respectively, the title used there was Pathé Gazette. Other major film companies of the time in France, the United Kingdom, and the United States then produced their own competing newsreels. With the coming of sound, after a short period when many items in newsreels were filmed with direct synchronous sound, it became the usual practice to film most events silent, and then to add music, sound effects, and commentary after the picture had been edited. The frequency of many newsreels was also increased to two issues a week, and special small “newsreel theatres” were established in all big cities, which showed a continuously repeated hour long programme of newsreels, other factual films, and animated cartoons.

Newsreels took several days after filming to get into the cinemas, so with the coming of television they soon died out, being replaced by television news programmes. In 2002 Pathé made its archive of newsreels spanning 1910-1970 available for public viewing free of charge via the Internet.

See also News and Current Affairs.