Nina Hibbin
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Nina Gloria Hibbin (28 September 1922 – 28 May 2004)[1] was an English film critic and author. She was the film critic for the Daily Worker (subsequently known as the Morning Star) from 1960 to 1971, and also wrote reviews for The Lady. After retiring from journalism, she became the first person to work in the position of films officer for the Yorkshire Arts Association. During the late 1970s, she was programme director of the BFI-aligned Tyneside Cinema in Newcastle upon Tyne. She is the author of Eastern Europe: An Illustrated Guide and co-author (with her daughter, film producer Sally Hibbin) of What a Carry On – The Official Story of the Carry On Films.
Hibbin was a staunch communist and ensured that her reviews conveyed her political convictions. Writing in The Guardian shortly after her death, film critic Derek Malcolm said: "She will be remembered for her passionate advocacy of east European cinema, her hatred of the censorship sometimes imposed on it by regimes with no taste for rebellious art, and for her many campaigns to persuade British distributors to screen what was then called third-world cinema."[1] In 2019, Ranker listed Nina Hibbin at number 15 in its list of "Famous Female Film Critics".[2]
Hibbin was born in Romford, Essex. Her family were Jewish and originated from Eastern Europe.[1]
At the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939, Hibbin began working as an investigator for the Mass-Observation (MO) research organisation. She first reported on the British public's reaction to posters about the war. She went on to write studies on antisemitism in London's East End, conditions in the city's air-raid shelters, and the role of the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF).[3] She worked as an observer in the East End throughout the early part of the war, engaging citizens in casual conversation to ascertain morale and the effectiveness of the government's security measures.[4] She was highly opposed to the MO's ties with the Ministry of Information, however, describing the link as an "act of betrayal".[5] She resigned from the job in 1941, out of protest at what she saw as the ministry's manipulation of her reports, and once the opportunity came for women to enlist in military units on the home front.[6]
Hibbin welcomed the opportunities presented by the war and enlisted in the WAAF.[3] She later said: "Before the war, there was virtually no way well-brought-up young women could leave home and the prospect was simply that you got married to leave home. And now suddenly there was this possibility of joining the WAAF ... [We] knew we would learn a trade, we would travel, and ... just the mere fact of leaving home meant a lot, being free from the chores that were expected of women ..."[7] She worked as a mechanic on Spitfire fighter planes at RAF Hendon, north of London.[6]
A contributor to Picture Post magazine, Hibbin wrote captions for photographs of working people.[1] Her socialist convictions were further reflected in her authorship of reports for the London Workers' Film Society and a conference paper at the International Film Festival in Moscow and at the Symposium in Repino, Leningrad.[3]
Hibbin was disappointed that, with the end of hostilities, women's opportunities in the armed services evaporated.[8] After demobbing from the WAAF, Hibbin trained as a teacher at Dartington Hall, near Totnes in Devon. She then taught at a school in Cornwall, where here communist sympathies proved controversial. She returned to London in the early 1950s.[1]
