The BFI have announced the second instalment of its This Working Life project: Tales from the Shipyard, for a February 2011 release. The project is a major celebration of our shipbuilding heritage on screen with many rare films drawn from the BFI National Archive, Scottish Screen Archive and Northern Region Film & Television Archive and includes a BFI Southbank season, national tour and new 2-disc DVD set.

This Working Life: Tales from the Shipyard will be shown in cinemas at BFI Southbank, Newcastle's Tyneside Cinema, Glasgow Film Theatre and Belfast's Queen's Film Theatre, presenting newly restored feature films, non-fiction and television material – all captured by filmmakers across a century.

A double-disc DVD will feature over five hours of documentary film revealing the history of British shipbuilding with many rare and little known titles. A supporting free programme will be available in the BFI Mediatheques in London, Cambridge, Derby, Wrexham and Newcastle and there will be online study resources in www.screenonline.org.uk

One of the highlights of the programme is the only film ever directed by Sean Connery, a rare discovery entitled The Bowler and the Bunnett (1967) made for Scottish Television. Sean Connery said "I am very pleased that The Bowler and The Bunnet will be screened as part of the Tales From The Shipyard season. I spent a month making the film and was inspired by the common sense attempts being made to revolutionise working practices – all ultimately with the goal of making a great industry succeed in Scotland. Although it was made in the 60's there are lasting themes to be found in it."

Other highlights include the stunning S.S. Olympic (1910) showing the building and launch of the Titanic's sister ship in Belfast and beautiful colour footage of the iconic Queen Mary Leaving the Clyde (1936) newly restored by the Scottish Screen Archive. Michael Powell's fiction feature Red Ensign (1934) is a drama of shipboard industrial relations neatly paralleled by Connery's film, and Bill Bryden's extraordinary theatrical celebration of shipbuilding The Ship (1990).

The BFI's This Working Life project began last year with King Coal, an exploration of the rich collections of films relating to the coal industry; the final instalment in 2012 will focus on the steel industry. What each part of the project has in common is a real sense of re-discovery of films which document the culture and heritage of our all-but-vanished major national industries.

This Working Life: Tales from the Shipyard will be released on 2-disc DVD by the BFI on 14th February 2011 at the RRP to be confirmed. An illustrated booklet will accompany the DVD set. Full details of the included films is pending, dependent on, and I quote, "licensing, available material, or other considerations."