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EWS LETTER

JANUARY-FEBRUARY 1947

ONE SHILLING

his issue: Why No Labour Films?; Documentary Radio;
NESCO Gets G< ing; Films and Medicine; News from Egypt and
Malaya; Documentary Film Reviews; First Days of Documentary;
Films and Micro-biology; Documentary Theatre; Notes of the Month

y+*

There is great interest in the film strips

LIST OF SUPPLIERS OF
FILM STRIPS

(Without claiming that it is complete,
we publish for the information of
readers a list of film strip suppliers and
of companies from which projectors
may be hired or purchased.)

common ground ltd., Sydney Place, S.W.7.

BRITISH INDUSTRIAL FILMS LTD. See Unicom

Film Library.

GAUMONT BRITISH INSTRUCTIONAL LTD., Film

House, Wardour Street, W.l.

instructional screen ltd. See Visual Education

Ltd.

national film board of Canada, 9 Long Acre,

W.C.2.

newton and CO., 72 Wigmore Street, W.I.

NEW ZEALAND GOVERNMENT OFFICE, 415 Strand,

W.l.

PATHE-BRITISH INSTRUCTIONAL FILMS, 1 1 1 War-

dour Street, W.l.

UNICORN FILM STRIP LIBRARY, BRITISH INDUSTRIAL

films ltd., 183 King's Road, Chelsea, S.W.3.
visual education ltd., 9 Upper Berkeley
Street, Portman Square, W.l.
visual information service, 168a Battersea
Bridge Road, S.W.I 1.

FILM STRIP PROJECTORS
FOR SALE

British industrial films. See E.D.P. Produc-
tions.

common ground ltd., la Sydney Place, S.W.7.
dufay chromex ltd., P. & O. House, 14-16
Cockspur Street, S.W.I.
e.d.p. productions ltd., Gayfere House,
Great Peter Street, Westminster, S.W.I.

GAUMONT BRITISH INSTRUCTIONAL LTD., Film

House, Wardour Street, W.l.

INTERNATIONAL ENGINEERING CONCESSIONAIRES

ltd., 70 Victoria Street, S.W.I.
metalair. See International Engineering Con-
cessionaires Ltd.
newton and CO., 72 Wigmore Street. W.l.

THE PULLEN OPTICAL CO. LTD., Phoenix Works,

Great West Road, Brentford, Middlesex.
ross ltd., 24 Conduit Street, W. 1 .
visual information service, 168a Battersea
Bridge Road, S.W.I.

FILM STRIPS MADE
TO ORDER

DUFAY CHROMEX LTD., P. & O. House, 14-16

Cockspur Street, S.W.I.

newton and co., 72 Wigmore Street, W.l.

spectrocolour ltd., 89 Wardour Street, W.l.

visual information service, 168a Battersea

Bridge Road, S.W.I 1.

Wallace heaton, 127 New Bond Street, W.l.

FILM STRIP PROJECTORS
FOR HIRE

DOCUMENTARY

NEWS LETTER

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THEATRE TODAY

WINTER MISCELLANY
Edited by MONTAGU SLATER

CONTENTS

LAURENCE OLIVIER as Lear: An appreciation
by Una EUis-Fermor

THE STRANGE CASE OF PATRICK
HAMILTON: Eric Capon

HOW SHALL WE TRAIN OUR ACTORS:
A Symposium by Leslie Banks, Frederick
Valk, Guy Verney, Tyrone Gulhiie, William
Armstrong, Thomas Taig, Andre Van
Gyseghem, Nevill Coghill

HENRY IRVING AS ROMEO: Harcourt
Williams

ACTING FOR THE CINEMA: Dilys Powell

THE OLD VIC PLAN: James Forsyth

THE BRITISH COUNCIL AND THE
THEATRE: B. Kennedy Cooke etc

ART SUPPLEMENT: DESIGNS FOR THE
OLD VIC SEASON

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A cultural Quarterly

MONTHLY FILM Bl LLKTI.N

appraising educational

and
entertainment values

Published by: TheBritishFilm Institute
4 Great Russell Street, London, W.C.I

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

Editorial Board: Edgar Anstcy, C.cofTrcy Bell, Sinclair Road. John Taylor, Basil Wright

JANUARY-FEBRUARY 1947 VOL 6 NO 55 PUBLISHED BY FILM CENTRE 34 SOHO SQUARE LONDON Wl

65 FILM — RADIO— THEATRE

66 NOTES OF THE MONTH

67 UNESCO'S WORLD PLANS '

68 WHY NO LABOUR FILMS?

69 FILMS AND MICRO-BIOLOGY

70 BRITISH MEDICAL *FILMS

Annual subscription 6s. (published six times a year)

71 FILMS IN MALAYA AND EGYPT

72 DOCUMENTARY RADIO

73 DOCUMENTARY THEATRE

74 NEW DOCUMENTARY FILMS

76 FIRST DAYS OF DOCUMENTARY

Bulk orders up to 50 copies for schools and Film Societies

NOW IS THE TIME

In the field of public information there can be little doubt that the
outstanding event of recent months is the UNESCO Conference
in Paris. Matters 'educational, scientific and cultural' are the bricks
with which the edifice of international understanding will eventually
be built, and this latest attempt to lay down foundations is at once
modest and imaginative — modest from financial compulsion and
imaginative from the devotion and optimism of most of the dele-
gates. An account of the programme of action in Mass Media
which was adopted in Paris will be found elsewhere in this issue.
In its insistence that help should be given to peoples ill-supplied with
the means of mass communication it supports an old-established
doctrine of the documentary movement; and in its references to the
world-wide distribution through all appropriate media of informa-
tional themes of outstanding international significance, it touches
upon a possibility which has long been a documentary pipe-dream —
the possibility that One World might, in times of crisis and need, be
stimulated to think as one.

The British documentary film-makers who attended the Paris
Conference in one capacity or another were stimulated (as they had
been also during the course of the British Film Festival in Prague) to
find that the post-war re-establishment of contact with fellow
workers reveals a fortifying identity of view as to future needs and
as to the contribution which the documentary method can make
towards meeting them, not only in the field of film hut in the whole
area of information.

The documentary method — the 'creative treatment of actuality',
as John Grierson defined it. is for international use on all class
levels. It is as appropriate to the self-articulation of a leper colony
as to the collaboration of Governments. Also it is for use in all
appropriate media. Film is the medium which in the pioneering days
lay handiest; it was adopted and. as a consequence, much critical
attention has been concentrated upon it which might in part have
been directed to comparable developments in other media.

The UNESCO 'Feature-story' project is a reminder that the
Press not infrequently presents the story behind the spot news with
all the dramatic and aesthetic devices of considered narrative and,
in doing so, gives what might have been an ephemeral piece of re-
porting the deeper and more prolonged impact of literature. In
literature itself there have been and will continue to be 'docu-
mentary' novels, where the lover and his lass take on the no less
dramatic mantles and the enhanced stature of the world and his wife.

In this issue of DNL we draw special attention to the achieve-
ments of the documentary method in two other media — the theatre
and radio. Montagu Slater writes of the creative treatment of
actuality on the stage and Laurence Gilliam deals with feature pro-
duction— that side of BBC work which has paralleled the develop-
ment of the documentary film more closely than is generally realized.

The documentary film has learned from both these other media.
The 'Living Newspaper' stage technique which made its debut in
New York in the second half of the nineteen-thirties today demon-
strates its persisting influence in such films as World oj Plenty and
Land of Promise ', just as the multi-voiced commentaries of docu-
mentary and the unrehearsed screen interview are not oblivious of
the achievements of the cameraless microphone.

Stage and radio, too, have borrowed from screen documentary and
have often employed almost identical stones ; and this is as it should
be. (n\en adequate purpose in the theme, the particular medium
employed can be lefl to dense from material circumstances.
Aesthetes may object to this insistence on the pre-eminence of pur-
pose, hut let them in that case read the I \ I S( ( ) programme. Here
is a job to be done, urgent enough, exciting enough and potentially
rewarding enough to encourage us to postpone tor a while >et OUT
trip to the L-nA of the rainbow of art tor art's sake. au^\ to get busy

instead with the employment ol the documentary method wherever

it is appropriate; and tor social purposes which cannot wait for the
arrival of the Muse.

66

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

NOTES OF THE MONTH

The Role of Documentary

in the Cobb Lecture to the Royal Society of Arts (part of which we
reprint on a later page), Sir Stephen Tallents referred in his con-
cluding remarks to the present position and significance of the
documentary film. Amongst other things he made the following
points, which we feel to be worth wider circulation:

'The outstanding factor is the growing importance of docu-
mentary. This is no place to discuss, in any but a few sentences, why
the arts of public interpretation have in the last decade suddenly
assumed such importance. There is no need in the closing months of
1946 to stress the extreme need for better understanding between the
world's peoples. The opening words of the constitution of UNESCO
put it well — "Since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds
of men that the defences of peace must be constructed". Within the
British Commonwealth the need for better interpretation is surely
even more urgent today than it appeared to the EMB when it
started its work twenty years ago last May — and is still inadequately
faced. Within our own coasts we have to meet the demand for help-
ing a greatly increased electorate to understand what is being done,
and what is proposed to be done, in their name and for their benefit
by central and local government; to understand, too, the co-
operation that is required of them. I am not clear that this need is
even now clearly and imaginatively grasped in Whitehall. In local
government, if you had met, as I did last Whit Monday, some 700
members of the National Association of Local Government Officers
for a discussion of public relations, you would have understood how
great was the need and how keen the desire to meet it among those
who serve our local authorities. We still have the problem of making
the fruits of scientific research more promptly available to those
who should profit by them. We have unlimited opportunities of
visual education and training. Each of these broad territories could
be broken up into many specialized fields. In every one of them the
documentary film, so largely independent of differences of language,
so compelling to all of us who depend upon the eyes and the imagin-
ation, has a unique part to fill.'

Relations with Czechoslovakia

in film circles generally and certainly for those British personnel who
were present the outstanding professional event of 1946 was the
Festival of British Films in Prague. The understanding and hospi-
tality with which the British representatives were received has al-
ready become legendary and it is likely that the positive results
achieved will be found to have significance outside the field of films.
Plans are far advanced to hold in London a festival of Czech films
and, although we are unlikely to equal the magnificence of the
earlier occasion, it is to be hoped that the British Foreign Office
and the film industry will realize that they are operating in the fertile
and fateful field of international public relations.

Tyranny of the Dollar

'can the French film industry survive the agreement between the-
French and American Governments, and remain as an instrument
of national expression for the French people?'

This question was raised by Hollywood's Screenwriters' Guild as
soon as the terms of the French-American loan agreement were made
known in July, 1946, and formed the basis of a very instructive cor-
respondence between the Guild and Eric Johnston, president of the
Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America. The follow-
ing points emerge. The agreement passed a heavy sentence on French
film-making, a fact that has received far too little publicity. French
producers who asked for additional protection in the home market
in the post-war period have in fact been given less than before. Be-

fore the war they produced some 1 20 feature films a year ; they even
managed to turn out 70 films a year during the occupation. Now they
are screwed down to a probable maximum of 48, while Hollywood
is free to bring in every American film dubbed into French. In re-
turn the wide open spaces of the United States are made as easy of
access to the French as the moon. So much for Johnston's statement
that 'the moving purpose behind the agreement was the desire to
promote the ideal of world unity by removing some of the restrictions
which isolate one nation from another'.

The violent reactions which the agreement produced in Fraace
have been equally inadequately reported in the press. The Screen-
writers' Guild in their letter to Johnston quote a number of leading
French film people, condemning the agreement and calling for its
immediate revision. They did not mince their words. 'Hollywood has
obtained from the representatives of France what the Nazis would
never have dared ask of us during the occupation.'

Acts and Action

the new Films Act is due at the end of this year. The various
sections of the film trade have already prepared their several pro-
posals for new legislation, while Hollywood is doubtless devising
its stratagems. In the meantime the Board of Trade continues its
attempt to improvise stop-gap measures. One of the principal pro-
blems is to give independent producers, of documentary as well as
feature films, greater access to the screens. Whether steps like the
recent setting up of a Government sponsored film selection board to
arrange circuit distribution for 18 independently produced feature
films a year, will have any real effect remains to be seen. At least it
shows that the Board of Trade is alive to some of the implications of
monopoly, so fully analysed in the Cinematograph Film Council's
Report of 1944 on Tendencies to Monopoly. The least satisfactory
aspect of such arrangements is the way they are made to depend on
the courtesy of the big film combines. The agreement which Dalton
concluded with the circuits in 1944 limiting their further expansion
was purely a gentlemen's agreement resulting from an exchange of
letters. When challenged on this point Government spokesmen have
repeatedly stated that further and more definite action must wait
on the introduction of more comprehensive legislation when the
new Films Act is framed. Now then is the time to be taking them at
their word and to be thinking of the measures which can be
introduced in 1948 to ensure that the public has more opportunity
of seeing in the cinemas the better films that are or can be produced.

D.N.L. Changes

Documentary News Letter welcomes to its Editorial Board Sinclair
Road, organizing secretary of the Federation of Documentary
Film Units. Road belongs to the younger generation of documentary
workers but already has made his mark. He is respected both in the
counsels of the important documentary production companies of
which his Federation is composed and amongst the officials of the
bodies with whom the Federation negotiates. He has recently pub-
lished some effective articles on documentary problems which add
freshness to the more tradition-ridden effusions of his older col-
leagues.

At the same time we must reluctantly remove from our list of
Board members the name of Arthur Elton who retires, temporarily
we hope, to pursue his Film Centre duties in Germany. Elton, acting
on behalf of the Central Office of Information, is to take charge
of film affairs in the British zone of Occupied Germany. For the
greater part of 1946 Elton was representing Film Centre in Copen-
hagen w here he was invited to advise the Danish Go\ eminent in the
production of a group of documentaries which will shortly be
available for international distribution.

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

67

UNESCO S WORLD PLANS

Programme of work in the Mass Media — Films, Radio and Press

Unesco's plans for film, radio and Press have been evolved with
due regard to two essential factors. Firstly, an admittedly slender
budget, and, secondly, the incontrovertible fact that no international
organization can succeed unless it is backed fully and on the most
practical level by the Governments of the member States and by
groups and organizations within the member States.

The programme is therefore divided into three sections:
A: Projects for 1947 (in order of priority).
B: Stimulation.
C: Direct Services.

A: Projects for 1947 (in order of priority)

(1) 'As a first and pressing measure', the appointment of three
Commissions on Immediate Technical Needs, to find out what is re-
quired as regards raw materials (film-stock, cameras, projectors,
radio transmitters and receivers, printing machinery, pulp, paper,
etc.) by countries in Europe and the Far East which have been hard
hit by the war. These Commissions will report by June 1947, with
proposals for immediate action, and long-term plans for ensuring
continuous improvements in the supply to ''Have Not' countries of
equipment and technical personnel.

At the same time UNESCO will institute a scheme under which
countries with the best technical resources in the Mass Media will
help the less-favoured countries by training guest-personnel in the
various fields. The host countries (or, if they refuse, UNESCO
itself), will do this by means of fellowships set up either by Govern-
ment or non-Government bodies.

(2) A comprehensive report on obstacles to the free world-flow
of information and ideas. This will be carried out in co-operation
with the Commission on Human Rights, and will deal with 'all
restrictions on the flow of information and ideas across inter-
national boundaries, and with the suppression and distortion of
information and ideas by any influence.'

(3) Surveys of the Mass Media. A UNESCO-appointed Com-
mittee of Experts will study — according to the real needs of all
peoples — the current proposals for a World Radio network.
UNESCO will also undertake a 1947 Survey on Press and Films,
making a factual analysis of their present world structure. As re-
gards films, the Survey's terms of reference will include (a) Themes
and distribution of films, both features and shorts; (b) Content and
subject matter of newsreels; (c) Recent techniques for using films,
film-strips and related visual media, with special emphasis on educa-
tion, on the discussion of social relationships, on the appreciation oj the
arts, and on rural needs; (d) Possibilities of improving the sound film
so as to overcome language difficulties.

(4) A comprehensive study of copyright problems, with special
relation to the proposed world copyright conference in 1947.

(5) UNESCO will collect ideas of international significance and
will stimulate their use in feature films, radio programmes and Press
features. It may encourage awards (made by outside organizations,
not UNESCO) for successful features based on these ideas. This
project will, in effect, be an International Ideas Bureau. There is also
to be a World Feature Stor> Project, by w hich UNESCO will arrange
for leading research men, writers, radio and film producers to co-
operate in presenting a major story of world interest and importance
in all the media simultaneously. Possible subjects already listed arc:
The education of children in a war-stricken COuntrj (in terms of inter-
national co-operation); the 'TV. A.' scheme for India; the Moscow
Art Theatre; and, later, the proposed Amazon development scheme.

The International Forum will be a scries of discussions on inter-

national.subjects by well-known figures from all over the world
syndicated throughout the world in the Press and on national radio
networks.

A special scheme for radio, to be called the World L'niursin of
the Air. In this UNESCO, by consulting with national broadcasting
bodies, and making the necessary arrangements (including the pro-
vision of texts and transcriptions where needed), would arrange a
world-series of talks by the greatest authorities in the fields of
education, science and culture.

(6) UNESCO will co-operate with UN in the proposed World
Conference of Journalists, with special reference to the unification of
journalistic rules and practices, and to the status of foreign corres-
pondents.

(7) UNESCO will, of course, press for the universal acceptance
and ratification (by non-member as well as member States) of the
new Convention for ensuring the free international passage of ap-
proved educational, scientific and cultural films.

B: Stimulation

(1) UNESCO will stimulate (a) the supply of suitable films to
deficiency countries in relation to their needs, and (b) a conference
called to aid the reconstruction of educational broadcasting.

(2) UNESCO will concern itself with the international aspects of
Press and publications generally, including particularly organized
goodwill tours by journalists, children's papers, standard classes in
journalism for children and teachers, and the production of genuinely
international publications.

(3) The formation of Institutes of Scientific Information is en-
visaged in the member countries. UNESCO will in due course act as
clearing house between these Institutes.

(4) Similarly, National Visual Councils will be promoted, whose
job it will be to ensure film and film information services for educa-
cational and other commodity organizations. They will also express
the needs of these organizations to producers at home and. through
UNESCO, to producers overseas.

(5) In co-operation with existing International Film Bodies
UNESCO will help to form an International Film Council, repre-
senting film interests of all kinds in all countries.

C: Direct Services

(1) In order to prevent overlapping and to ensure economy
UNESCO is helping to form a United Nations Film Board, which
will co-ordinate all the film work of the special agencies o\' I N
(e.g. FAO, WHO. II O. etc.).

(2) UNESCO is to be a clearing house for basic materials on
UNESCO subjects for the world Press, and will pro\ ide information
and materials accordingly.

(3) UNESCO will similarly be a clearing house for radio informa-
tion, and will in particular collect information on programme
techniques and new developments.

(4) Again, UNESCO will be a clearing house for information
about films, film-strips ami other visual media, with special ■

to health, food, agriculture, social and economic problems, education,
science and the arts. It will promote in all countries common
methods of collecting and cataloguing information.
On this basis UNESCO will (a) provide each country frith facts and

information from all other countries, (b) organize (through national
bodies) demonstration exhibits which "ill slum the use being made of
the visual media in education, seienee and the arts; and (c) "ill show
producers what new films are required, and assist in their supplv .

68

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

WHY NO LABOUR FILMS?

DOREEN WILLIS, in this hard-hitting article, challenges the Unions, the Co-ops and

the documentary film makers alike

five years of DNL back numbers can produce
only a few column inches of space devoted to
films and the Labour Movement. The ease with
which an organized audience of eight million
trade unionists and nine million Co-operative
families has been ignored is almost breathtaking.

From a movement priding itself on its pre-
sentation of social problems and activities more
is required than observation and truthful por-
trayal. The 'creative interpretation of actuality'
implies more than photographing sweaty faces,
slum housing and the gyrations of machines. The
individual worker and housewife are now a fami-
liar sight on both theatrical and non-theatrical
screens and the earnest picture-goer may well
have amassed quite a wealth of information
about the work men do in this modern Britain,
from Grierson's herring fishers through to the
scientific worker processing DDT. But what of
the worker in the aggregate, in the millions-
strong movements which express his special needs
and aspirations? We've not seen him on the
screen yet — or at any rate only in the briefest of
glimpses.

Documentary has a proud record. Its films
have helped to orientate people to the complex
workings of industrial society while assisting
them in the fight for a better deal. Its best films
have been those which performed these func-
tions consciously and in which the film makers
had a real opportunity to grapple with a definite
problem, such as housing, malnutrition, etc.
Something of the strength and confidence of the
people in action has been assimilated into these
films, and it is this vitality (inspiration if you like)
which the Labour Movement can offer to all the
social arts, including documentary.

However, the economics of documentary, film
making being what they are, nothing so ephem-
eral as inspiration will suffice to ensure the pro-
duction of films with social validity. This hard
fact explains, though does not condone, much of
the apparent lack of interest in Labour problems
which shows through the columns of DNL.
Have not the unions, for example, ignored docu-
mentary just as consistently? Certainly few films
have been sponsored by unions, while the output
of the Co-operative Movement has been ludi-
crously below its potentialities. Again, can it be
claimed that the Labour organisations have ex-
hibited the interest in this new educational and
propaganda force that one would expect of a
forward-looking movement? Unfortunately no.
Financial problems have created for both users a
barrier which good sense and ideological con-
viction have hitherto failed to surmount.

This provides documentary with one of its
major problems. It might have been hoped that
the advent of a Labour Government would auto-
matically have solved it by opening out new
vistas of social film making and by illustrating
through its example the role which films can play
in the carrying through of a vast programme of
social reform. In practice the Government seems
happily embarked on a modest programme of
films dealing with the technical aspects of pro-
duction, instruction, reconversion, etc., which,

though valuable and necessary, cannot fail to be
pedestrian if viewed from the standpoint of social
documentary.

Can we afford, as citizens, to settle down to a
life of pseudo-peaceful reconstruction? Have all
the great problems and conflicts vanished with
the ending of the war and the election of a new
Government? One gTeat section of the people
doesn't think so anyway. Meeting recently, the
Trades Union Congress expressed strong feelings
on a variety of issues of acute interest to us all.
They weren't altogether happy about the pros-
pects of peace ; they were alarmed at the survival
of large remnants of Fascism; concerned about
the use of atomic power; and fed to the teeth
with being exhorted to increase production while
many elementary trade union rights are still
unrealized and the prospect of a world slump
grows.

Hasn't documentary something to say on these
questions? Of course it has, but the problems still
remain of how to get films of this type sponsored
and then how to show them to the people most
interested and responsive. A beginning has been
made in the trade union sponsorship of films,
first with the Amalgamated Engineering Union
film, Unity is Strength, and more recently with
those commissioned by the Electrical Trades
Union and the National Union of Tailors and
Garment Workers. The ETU film is particularly
important because it is attempting to tackle a
subject wider than its own work — the social im-
plications of electricity. It will be good to see
what the electrical workers feel about this subject
and the proposals they have to make for the
development of this type of power. But many
other equally fascinating subjects present them-
selves. Recently we have seen a Crown film deal-
ing with the railways as a career for young
people, and the competent, objective handling of
the material compelled our admiration. But the
idea which remained in our heads long after
seeing the film was horror at the low wage rates
being offered to men on whose skill and judg-
ment the lives of the travelling public depend (a
living wage appeared to be paid only to those
responsible for the handling of the financial side
of the railway service!). What do the railmen
themselves think of their calling as a career?
What will they demand of a publicly owned
transport system? We ought to have a film about
that. And so we could go on, listing the films we
should like to see but which only the Labour
Movement can sponsor.

Superficially it appears that the Co-operative
Movement has gone further, but comparison be-
tween its \ast resources and its actual output of
films presents a different picture. We have had a
spate of short advertising films of indifferent
quality, but few films of a fundamental character.
Sureh the time has come for the building up of its
own documentary unit b> the Co-op and for the
turning out of a series of films on social subjects
close to the interests and ideals of co-operation.

But sponsorship of films by the Labour (Move-
ment u.w\ come onlj if the individual worker is
com meed o( the value o( the film. No union

executive will agree to the considerableexpense in-
volved unless it is confident that the expenditure
will be approved by the membership.

In bringing films to the unions there is much to
be learnt from Canadian experience. There is
nothing magic about the way in which trade
union circuits were built up over there: just a
good deal of thought and considerable organiza-
tion. Having appreciated the importance of this
audience, the first job was to sell the idea that
films could help trade unionists. This was tackled
with imagination and enterprise and resulted in
the production of some first-class publicity mate-
rial, including posters and a regular news sheet.
It was understood that union film shows must
not be stunts, for these would soon pall, but must
become an integral part of branch activity. So
films were woven into the normal fabric of union
educational work. and. with the co-operation of
the Canadian WEA, a technique of discussion
shows was developed. Out of this experience
came the production of special discussion trailers
in which ordinary trade unionists gave their point
of view on the main film and developed a con-
troversy which could be continued by the live
audience.

Trade union and co-operative interest in
documentary can only be achieved from a study
of their real needs and interests rather than from
abstract appeals or aggrieved bemoanings that
the Labour Movement 'doesn't appreciate
films'. As a matter of fact, when the unions, for
example, have been approached and told some-
thing about the films which exist and the free
distribution facilities, they have shown a marked
interest or even enthusiasm. This is expressed in
an increasing number of articles in union
journals and in the beginnings of branch film
shows. In Glasgow an interesting development
has been the formation of a Trades Council
Film Society, which is showing mainly docu-
mentary films. At least this is a start.

The Central Office of Information has also a
big opportunity to encourage not only the show-
ing of films in the union branches, etc., but also
the sponsorship by Government Departments of
films having a more direct reference to the prob-
lems of Labour. The establishment of the
National Film Association by the Co-operative
Movement is a significant step forward, though it
will need to break decisivelj with Workers' Him
Association traditions of planlessness. ineffici-
ency and preoccupation w ith profit making, if it is
to realize its vast potentialities. It is also to be
hoped that the International Labour Office will
now implement the decision to carrj out a pro-
gramme of film making which was held up b> the
war. One must not forget, in this connection, the
opportunities which lace the World federation
of Trade Unions in fostering the exchange of
films on national labour achievements and the
sponsorship of films dealing with common inter-
national problems.

These developments, though still in their first
beginnings, mean great possibilities for the
documentary movement. What is it prepared to
do about them'.'

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

69

At the Pasteur Institute in France amazing new techniques are used to him operations on organisms
so tiny that they have plenty of room to romp inside the eye of a needle. J. V. DURDEN here

gives an expert's view to these new developments in

FILMS AND MICRO-BIOLOGY

it is a pleasure to see fresh examples of the use
of the film as a tool in the hinds of biological
research workers. It is with the complexities of the
living processes, both in the Stud) of the plant
and the animal kingdoms, that the film really
comes into its own as the recording medium par
excellence. What is even more gratifying is to see
the supreme skill with which the difficult prob-
lems of cine-micrography nave been solved by
Dr. Comandon and M. de Fonbrune o\' the l)e-
partement de Cinemicrographie of the Pasteur
Institute, in the films recentlj presented at the
British Council by M. de Fonbrune.

The subject of this series of films is Micro-
biology, the microscopic study of some of the
smallest units of living matter. The object of the
research was the elucidation of certain little-
understood phenomena difficult to comprehend
by the more normal methods of visual observa-
tion. Seven films were shown:

( 1 ) Caryocinese.

(2) Amoeba Verrucosa.

(3) Phagocytose.

(4) Technique de Micromanipulation.

(5) Substitution de Noyaux D'Amibes.

(6) Champignons I'redateurs.

(7) Lankesterella.

In the first film we see time-lapse records of the
phenomenon of karyokinesis, the reactions of
the nucleus during the process of cell division. In
living material, as opposed to fixed and stained
micro-preparations, the nucleus is, in most cases,
by no means easy to see.

The time-lapse technique, coupled with bril-
liant photo-micrography, demonstrates conclu-
sive!; the extreme value of the cinema for this
type of investig ttion and record.

This sort of thing has beer, done before, not-
ably in the work of the late Dr. (ami and in
some of the films photographed by the late Percy
Smith; but never has the quality of the result
approached these new elforts from 'he workers
at the Pasteur Institute.

Feeding the Amoeba

The second film is an attempt to gain in;.
Hon on the mechanism of ingestion of food-
particles b) the single-celled organism amoeba.
It had long been thought that the food pene-
trated the protoplasm of the organism bv some
purelv physical means, such as capillary attrac-
tion. That this was not so was shown clearly
many sears ago in a film b) Percy Smith in which
amoeba was shown itself to displa) the most
energetic activity in the matter of eating its food,
the pseudopodia advancing round and trapping
quite active micro-organisms. In this Pasteur
film the amoebae were led with quite large
algae, man) times longer than the amoebae
themselves. I he protoplasm of the amoeba was

clearl) shown to exert a considerable force on
the alga, appearing to pull it from within as a
pseudopodium advanced along it, and coi
the threadlike alga up like a spring within the
cell: so great was the tension of this spring that.
in some instances filmed, it exceeded the cohe-
sion of the protoplasm and burst out of the
amoeba on the opposite side to that on which it
was ingested. This sudden eruption in no wa)
incapacitated the amoeba, which was able imme-
diately to go on feeding on another alga.

Blood Football

The third film in this series is a spectacular de-
monstration of the bacteriocidal activities of the
white corpuscles in the blood. It opens with a
time-lapse shot of blood showing the normal
state of the leucocytes in which they wander at
random amongst the red corpuscles.

Then small aggregates of bacteria are intro-
duced into the blood; immediately the leucocytes
cease their aimless wandering and converge on
the interlopers like the players converging on the
ball on the football field. They ingest the bacteria
and then disperse once more.

The technique of darkground illumination is
particularly good in this film causing the white
corpuscles to stand out clearly and in brilliant
contrast to the red corpuscles. It should be
pointed out that to achieve such a striking pic-
ture as is presented here, the blood must be
treated so that it contains a higher percentage of
white corpuscles than normal.

Too Many Clocks

It is a pity that the time-lapse sequences in all
these films arc marred by the introduction of a
clock face recording the degree of speeding-up
of the observed action. This device, used many
times before, has always been a source of dis-
traction to the viewer and adds nothing to the
value of the scene. While realizing that the timing
of the recorded phenomena is of vital importance
to the research worker, we feel that it would be
preferable, and not difficult, to photograph the
timing dev ice on the portion of the film normal!)
occupied by the sound track so that it would he
masked off durin" projection.

I Ik- Micro Forge

I he second part of this extremely interesting
Show was devoted to the exposition o\ another

specialized technique used in micro-biolo

namclv micro-manipulation. It is possible
perform delicate operations on microscopic or-
ganisms by what is known as micro-dissection.
I this work, two ingenious instruments have
been devised b) M de Fonbrune, the mi<
forge and the micro-mampulatoi ; the former is
Kikmu the required tools and the lattei foi

using them. Both these instruments were demon-
strated in the next film. Unfortunately the filmic-
exposition was not too good, and one was left
with a rather hazy impression of their mechanics
and operation. However, the section dealing
with the making of the extremely line implements
used in micro-dissection, which is actually done
under the microscope, was very clear and gave a
good idea of the potentialities of the micro-forge.
The three remaining films were of subjects
which could only be tackled with the help of the
micro-manipulator, first came the removal of
the nucleus from the liv ing cell of an amoeba,
showing the subsequent reactions of the organ-
ism; its normal activities are inhibited and it be-
haves quite irregularly, being unable to move
properlv, feed, or reproduce. Nevertheless it re-
mains alive for some considerable time after this
drastic operation. More remarkable still is the
implanting of another nucleus into a disorganized
amoeba w Inch has been deprived of its ow n some
hours previously ; incredible though it may seem,
the cell recovers and the creature resumes its
normal behaviour as if nothing whatever had
happened to it.

A Strange Fungus

A strange soil-dwelling fungus provides the
subject for the second example of micro-manipu-
lation. This organism, given the right conditions,
develops peculiar rings on its tiyphae with which
it can snare minute but active nematode worms,
there are not many plants w hich arc carnivorous,
and they are all amongst the higher plants ; never-
theless this microscopic and lowly fungus man-
ages to equal their skill in trapping active p

It is shown in the film how nutation oi (he
inner surfaces of the three cells o\ which the
hyphal rings arc composed, causes immediate
expansion inwards of the cells then Iting

the central aperture o\' the n- tation is

laced artificially by rubbing with a micro-
needle.

When the same irritation is caused naturally
In the nematode entering the ring, the worm is
caught bv the sudden constriction of the aperture
and is eventually digested.

This phenomenon, which one might wan
to observe naturally, was brought about for the
purposes of the film bv holding the worm
micro-pipette and inserting the creature into the
deadly noose.

I he last film shows the puncturing of the
les of the blood
li/ed bv the organism lankesterella Die lib*
tion o( the parasite is seen. M\d vith

which it penetrates the tough envelopes of other
corpuscles.

I) ( omandon and M de I onbrune are to lv
pratulated on their efforts, and it is to be

hoped that we shall sec mote work ot the cal
of these films in the future

70

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

BRITISH MEDICAL FILMS

A study of the evolution of the medical film
in this country

by Brian Stanford, M.R.C.S., D.M.R., F.R.P.S.

cinema and roentgenology both became a prac-
ticable proposition at about the same time, and
both were applied to medicine early in their
evolution; in 1895 roentgenology was discovered
and immediately applied in medicine, and in
1897 Schuster recorded the movements of some
of his patients while walking in an attempt to
analyse their defects. (It is interesting to remem-
ber that Muybridge in 1872 made the first at-
tempt at cinematography in order to analyse the
leg movements of the galloping horse.)

Yet cinematography in medicine did not catch
on, for it was of no such value in diagnosis as
was roentgenology, and it was not until the early
1920's when the cinema had become a univers-
ally accepted ancillary of modern civilisation that
medicine again looked at this medium and tried
to use it for itself. This renewal of interest was
facilitated by the popularization of the sub-
standard gauge film (9.5 mm. was introduced in
1912, and 16 mm. in 1923) which allowed the
camera to be made sufficiently small to be
handled by one man,, and the cost of film to
come down to the range of one man's pocket.
Films had been made before this by individual
surgeons, but projectors were expensive and so
the films were rarely used. Another equally im-
portant cause of the re-awakening interest was
the increasing use of non-inflammable film (intro-
duced in 1909) which enabled the private indi-
vidual to give film shows in his home or school
without taking the extensive precautions needed
for projecting ordinary nitrate film.

Two Groups

Broadly speaking, two groups of practitioner
became enthusiastic supporters of this new
medium; the surgeon who wished to demon-
strate repeatedly and at ease techniques which
he performed only rarely, and the teacher of
physiology who preferred the certainty of a film
demonstration of an experiment to the vagaries
of his biologic material for a demonstration — the
subsidiary consideration that a film demonstra-
tion saves an animal for another experiment was
probably not so important as it might seem.

Now these two classes, who make films for
much the same basic reason, do so in different
circumstances; for the physiologist can take
surgical risks, can neglect the finer shades of
aseptic technique, can repeat the experiment un-
til an adequate record is made, and can person-
ally supervise the cameraman. Not so the sur-
geon ; he must place the safety of his patient be-
fore everything else, and he must give his un-
divided attention to the operation, leaving it to
somebody else to make the film. And so we have
today a number of amateur films which show
physiological experiments crudely (in terms of
photography) but satisfactorily in terms of teach-
ing; while the corresponding amateur surgical
films are in the majority of cases worthless for
teaching purposes simply because the cameraman
did not know what he was recording — what was
significant and what he could leave out.

Physiologists, we have seen, bought their
cameras and their film, made their records, and
were content. Surgeons bought their camera and
their film, were unable to make the record them-
selves, were discontented with the results other
men made for them with their apparatus, and so
turned to Messrs. Kodak, who had supplied their
equipment, for help. In 1929 the Kodak Medical
Film Unit was established to make photographic
records for surgeons. This pioneer unit, under
the direction of Mr. W. Buckstone, did valuable
work and made a large number of films. But it
suffered from the lack of a medical man on the
staff; the records were all made by photographers
who learnt medicine as they went along, who
were ignorant of what they wanted to photo-
graph, but who were assumed by the surgeon to
know their job. Effective liaison between sur-
geon and cameraman was rare, and the records
they made are mostly poor quality; the area of
interest in the picture is usually too small to show
adequate detail, for the cameramen, feeling ill at
ease in an operating theatre, preferred to hold
their cameras in their hands than to place them
rigidly on a tripod, and were therefore precluded
from using long-focus lenses; for the same
reason the pictures are often out of focus, .and
continuity further destroyed by the film being
made from a number of different angles, selected
at random. Nevertheless, with purchases from
other countries, the Kodak Medical Film
Library grew until it is now the largest specialized
medical collection in the country, and by the
early 1930's substandard cinematography was
sufficiently widespread for several drug houses
to found small libraries of films which they
loaned out to medical meetings, often supplying
a lecturer as well.

Catalogues

In 1933 the League of Nations Health Organi-
zation, at the suggestion of the International
Institute of Educational Cinematography (form-
ed at the suggestion of the Italian Government
in 1928) decided to prepare an international
catalogue of films. Great Britain, a participant
member of the International Institute, went
ahead with this work, and in 1936 the British
Film Institute published its first catalogue of
medical films, with a supplement issued in 1938.
Unfortunately, the rise of Fascism prevented the
full programme of the International Institute
from maturing, but this B.F.I, catalogue re-
mained until very recently the only available
catalogue listing films held by individuals or
small groups in Britain (it is now out of print).

The Royal Society of Medicine, which had in-
stalled a 35 mm. projector as long ago as 1912.
acquired substandard projectors in 1930; and by
now it was becoming fashionable to illustrate
an address to a medical audience with films.
Looked at today they appear to have been
made, one cannot help thinking, to show surgical
skill almost as often as to demonstrate tech-
niques; for instance, there now exist at least four-

teen films illustrating the operation for Caesarean I
section, not one of which shows sufficient detail I
for training a student. It is a spectacular opera- I
tion with an obvious return for one's work ; and |
was probably chosen in many instances as a trial I
by a surgeon to see what cinema could do, but
the results are certainly discouraging. Yet this f
experimentation was not without value : lunch- j
table talk must have roused the interest of the
physician, for neurologists were quick to see the |
value of this medium for teaching their students. ,

Getting Going

The films they made are often crude, but better
than the surgeons, for once again they have time,
can supervise the cameraman, and can take a
repeat shot if the first is unsatisfactory. A num-
ber of useful films were made in this way, both at
Edinburgh and Sheffield between 1930 and 1938.
And now we are in the immediate pre-war years ;
colour film is becoming reliable, and students
interested in photography are beginning to take
active interest in producing films for teaching
themselves and their colleagues. Experimental
units at Ashford and Manchester, financed for
the most part by a surgeon, staffed and equipped
by the students themselves, are producing better
films. They know what they are recording;
theatre ritual and technique holds no terror for
them; they have discussed in detail just what
they want to show, and coached the surgeon
to make sure he shows it ; and just as they are
all set to produce valuable films, it is already
1939.

The War Years

Now the whole picture alters. Film stock for
amateurs is scarce, time scarcer, facilities nil ; the
amateur, just feeling his strength, is eclipsed,
qualifies hurriedly, and is called-up. But in war-
time, the health of the nation is important;
"health" films — dealing with vitamins, creches,
canteen problems, first-aid — are wanted to in-
form the public quickly and in an attractive
manner of the facilities that are available to them.
Professional film units are called in to make these
films, and they find the subject interesting, make
good films. Almost overnight it becomes obvious
that many if not most of the films previously
made for medical training are obsolete. The
British Council in 1943 finances at great expense
two excellent films on medicine, carefully made
by film experts collaborating closely with doc-
tors. But the purpose of these films is not clear;
beautifully made, they have little use, and the
British Council instead of profiting by the ex-
perience and going ahead, makes little progress
in this field. But I.C.I, sees the value of good
film technique coupled to good medicine, and in
1944 sponsors a series of eleven films on anaes-
thetic techniques, designed for medical students
and nobody else; and now the page is finally
turned: there can be no going back: medical
films will in future 'be judged bv the standard of
these Realist Film Unit productions, until an
even better series is made. The film profession
has invaded medicine, and medicine has invaded
film, and that is where we are today.

What will follow'.' films of this type are expen-
sive; very expensive by the old standards. A
thirty-minute talkie will cost £5.000 at the very
least. No individual can afford that, and no
group exists to administer joint funds. Some co-
ordinating scheme must be produced on a
nation-wide basis.

(continued on page 79)

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

71

FILMS IN MALAYA-

alongside OTHER Governments the newly
formed Malayan Union has set up its own Film
Production Unit under the control of the Depart-
ment of Public Relations. The event is an im-
portant one in documentary film historv, par-
ticularly because of the wide geographical and
racial coverage which the unit can achieve.

The Malayan population is admittedly a mere
eight million, but it is divided into three main
racial groups: Malay, Indian and Chinese. Other
races are represented, including European, and
the population is therefore widely representative
of the whole of South-East Asia. It is not too much
to conclude that films appealing to any particular
race in Malaya w ill also appeal to the country of
origin, e.g. China, India, Indonesia, and if they
appeal to all three main divisions then thej will
be assured a showing throughout South-East
Asia. In fact, although the Malayan Film Pro-
duction Unit may be known as such, it will
really have the status of the South-East Asian
Unit, and potentially it is capable of exercising a
wide influence.

A short time ago Information Films of [ndia
led the held in the area and their production out-
put was very considerable. Unfortunately the
Indian Government has not been able to sec its
way to continue film-making and so IFI has to
all intents and purposes closed shop. It is more
than probable that the unit will be set up again
when the mistake has been fully realised, but for
the time being MFPU is left as the only unit
capable of serving South-East Asia.

Even with IFI in full production its output
did not satisfy the demand and by far the greater
bulk of films shown in the area were made
through European motive. Although the com-
mentaries were adapted to the various langu-
ages, the Asiatic still lost a certain amount in that
he had perforce to look at foreigners on the
screen. Although the films certainly got a show-
ing and were appreciated, the occasional film
made from the Asiatic point of view and dealing
with Asiatics got an appreciation one thousand
per cent greater, even if it was technically not so
good.

Added to this, of course, there are a vast num-
ber of subjects that have never b;en and can
never be dealt with by European units, either be-
cause the European cannot appreciate the Orien-
tal outlook and make full use of film as a medium
or because there are not units enough to cover
the subjects waiting.

The Malayan Film Unit should answer both
these problems in part. The formation of the
unit opens up a new vista of film material and
the fact that the staff will be chiefly Asiatic
means that films will be made from their point of
view. A small number of British film technicians
have been taken in to ensure that the Asiatic-staff
gets the best possible grounding in documentary
film production, but it is hoped that in the course
of a few years they will take over and run their
own unit.

In Malaya, the idea of a documentary film
unit is a new one and it is difficult to find trained
personnel because very few films of any descrip-
tion have been made here before the war. The
output of finished films for the first >ear will be
small, but as the technical skill of the staff im-
proves, teething troubles are overcome and the
idea is proved, the volume of production will
increase accordingly. A nucleus of equipment has

been purchased from the American Army Film
and Photo Section, and may be classed among
the finest. In time, the unit will he entirely self-
contained with its own processing plant, record-
ing channels, stage and animation studio.

Most films will be made in Malay, Chinese,
Tamil and English, and additional language ver-
sions will be recorded for other countries in the
area so that showing will not be reserved for
Malaya alone. Films will be also made to cater
for individual races in Malaya but usually they
should have a general appeal. It is important
that the idea of the three races living in harmony
together should be preserved and fostered.

The unit will be run as a public service and its
aim will be to improve the standards of living
and education in the area. Literacy in Malaya
stands at 40 per cent and it is lower still in ad-
joining countries. The circulation of printed
matter is restricted to a fraction of the popula-
tion; radio is hampered by the scarcity of re-
ceiving sets. It will therefore largely be through
film that knowledge and information will reach
the people.

Side by side with the formation of the film
production unit in Malaya, the development of
non-theatrical showing is going ahead even
faster. Shortly there should be a number of six-
teen and thirty-five millimetre projectors on the
road daily, giving shows all over the Union. It is
hoped that they will achieve a yearly audience
figure to compare favourably with those obtain-
ing in the United Kingdom ; and there is reason
to suppose that they may even prove more
successful, because they are not hampered by the
size of a village hall or by rival attractions in the
same way that we are in Europe. Showings will

be made chiefly in thekampongs (villages) and out
of doors where the size of the audience is only
limited by the output of the speakers and the
size of the screen. If the non-theatrical develop-
ment in neighbouring countries keeps pace with
Malaya's, the field open to the Malayan film
Production Unit will be very considerable.

No mention has yet been made of theatric d
showing and here we can expect a verv large
addition to the yearly audience figure. Although
there is no intention to rival commercial interests
in film production and films will never be made
for direct monetary profit, there will be a definite
programme of films made with a view to getting
theatrical distribution. Every co-operation from
the distributors can be expected. In this way the
townsman will see the unit's productions in the
public theatres as well as in the schools, the lec-
ture halls and the market place, while the
country folk will be served with non-theatrical
showings.

Besides making films specially for distribution
in South-East Asia, productions will be put in
hand for distribution in countries outside the
area. It is time that the people of the East were
better understood by the rest of the world, and
the idea — so tenaciously held by the Western
mind — that the Far East is a savage place full
of Dorothy Lamours in sarongs, venomous
snakes draped over every branch and jungles
made of red-spotted fungus and aspidistras, be
finally and for ever shattered. The Malayan Film
Unit's function will largely be to help the popu-
lation of South-East Asia to lit more securely
into the pattern of modern world economy and
to bring about a better understanding between
East and West. In Malaya it has been proved
over the last century that four races can live in
harmony together. Here is a perfect background
for a documentary film unit.

-AND IN EGYPT

as is well known, the marvels of modern civili-
zation make it possible to take a tram from
Cairo to the Pyramids of Giza. The same tram
will take you to Egypt's Denham, where almost
in the shadow of the Great Pyramid stand the
stages and laboratories of the MISR studios —
the largest and best-equipped in Egypt. (MISR,
by the way, is the banking and financial organiza-
tion which has an interest in most aspects of the
country's trade and general economy, including
the very efficient airlines.) At the MISR studios
you will find one large stage, one small, a fully
equipped sound department with a recording
theatre and a dubbing theatre, and all the usual
appurtenances of film-making. Owing to the war,
it has been difficult to renew and repair much of
the essential apparatus, and a lot of ingenuity on
the part of the staff has been necessary. But today
a certain amount of new apparatus is being in-
stalled or due for delivery.

These studios arc rented out as well as oper-
ating on their own account. At present renting is
in the ascendant, and is a reflection of the
astonishing boom in Egyptian films which is now
at its climax. It is computed that there are over
140 film production companies in Egypt at the
moment, and even allowing for the fact that
many of these arc one-picture concerns, the out-
put per year is colossal. Someone in Cairo said
that at the moment some 150 feature-length films
are awaiting release.

As lar as one can make out, average produc-

tion time for a feature is four to six weeks. The
bulk of the costs seem to go to the stars, who re-
ceive anything from £5,000 to £12,000 for a
month's work, according to their popularity.
(There is virtually no income tax.)

In fact, there are all the symptoms of an
impending slump.

Background to all this are some salient tacts
which count. The Egyptian industry is only about
fifteen years old. Its rapid growth has taken place
largely because no other producing country was
(or is) making Arabic dialogue talkies for the
audiences of the Near and Middle East. The
Arabic speaking peoples are, in general, ardent
and certainly indefatigable movie-goers, and the
market is much larger than you might expect. A
further and more recent factor has been the
passing of a law by the Egyptian Government not
unlike our own quota law. I'his encouragement
for home-made films has led to the multiplicity of
production companies and the over-production
already mentioned.

Broadlv speaking, there are two main t\
Egyptian features, first, the presumably m-
ev liable— attempts to make social dramas and or
comedies in imitation ot' the Western type of

feuilleton storv. second, action pictures based
cither on Arabian legend or on contemporary
life. In these the Western is largely the model used.
Ouahtv. with certain exceptions, is In no
means high. I veil a brief acquaintance with

'ntinued on page 77)

72

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

RADIO AND THEATRE

Documentary is not the copyright of the film people. The method is in fact appropriate to any medium
which reaches many people simultaneously. On these pages, two well-known figures in broadcasting
and drama examine documentary ideas as they affect their own work. We begin with Laurence Gilliam :-

the career of the documentary radio or 'fea-
ture' programme in British broadcasting offers
many parallels to the course of the documentary
film. Both had their roots in the realist move-
ment that followed the first world war and at-
tracted so many active and curious minds to ex-
plore the mysteries and excitements of a new
medium of expression. Both drew inspiration and
strength from the 'social awareness' that per-
meated the thinking and feeling of so many
young artists, thinkers, leaders and talkers of the
twenties and thirties who passed out of the
middle-class schools and universities, or pushed
their way from uncongenial desk jobs or peda-
gogic backwaters to the more exciting forms of
expression offered by the microphone and the
cutting bench. Documentary radio, as well as
documentary film, recruited its writers and direc-
tors from this new, impulsive and purposeful
class of young people with ideas. Both forms have

on the whole, I suspect the people of these two
worlds know little about each other's work.

The history of the 'feature' programme, which
is what radio producers in documentary call their
product, falls easily and inevitably into three
parts. Part one — 'Early Struggles'; part two —
'War'; part three — 'Back to Peace'. These divi-
sions may suggest a parallel to documentary
films. I wouldn't know. The story of the early
days was one of struggle for recognition; for
incessant hammering at a pleasure-crazed world
that the drama of fact was more exciting than the
gilded butterflies of the drama of make believe.
With rare exceptions, the pleasure-crazed world
was not convinced. The exceptions were interest-
ing, because they pointed the way to future suc-
cesses. There was Job to be Done, a dramatized
exposition of American boom and slump which
opened many eyes and ears; that was an Ameri-
can production by Pare Lorentz and Bill Robson

DOCUMENTARY RADIO

by LAURENCE GILLIAM

Feature Programme Director of the
British Broadcasting Corporation

drawn with profit on the talents thrown gener-
ously and enthusiastically into their service.
Writers, both poets and journalists, composers
and painters, architects and actors have all
found score for experiment and the satisfaction
of fulfln ent in both these fields

There have, in the past fifteen years, been ex-
amples of intermingling of talents between docu-
mentary film and radio. But in the main the two
groups have followed parallel lines without meet-
ing. 1 his. I think, has been mainly due to the
exigcrc ies of the job, and, more recently, to the
inhuman pressures of the war, rather than to
any icc| looted differences. I don't know how
mat.'. < : mentary film people listen seriously
to rat id features. ! do know that radio producers
are, as a 1 ody, avid film-goers. I remember, some
years ai o, with the aid of Basil Wright, trying to
arrange a regular get together of film and radio
docun erlary people, but it soon fizzled out.
More concrete evidence ol radio interest in docu-
mentary films has been the various instances of
outstanding documentaries adapted for broad-
casting. There was Western Approaches and
Humphrey Jennings' Welsh village reconstruc-
tion ol 1 idice, and several others. Soon a radio
version of Jill Craigie's The II ay II <■ Live will be
presented in the Home Service. I ilms as a whole-
are being treated in 'Picture Parade', the film
maga/me in the Light Programme, and docu-
mentary matters get their share of attention. Hut

for the Columbia Workshop. There was Twenty
Years Ago, a radio report on the cause of the
first world war. There were experiments by Olive
Stapley and Francis Dillon and others in the
field of actuality, showing the new possibilities
of sound and speech recorded in its own setting
and its own rhythm. And, as a matter of history,
there were the special hook-up programmes for
Christmas, the Coronation and the Jubilee,
which really did convince the widest audience of
the interest and entertainment possibilities of
actuality. But, on the whole, features before the
war were tentative and experimental, a true work-
shop for determined believers in the an of radio.
With the war. as with documentarj films, the
situation changed dramatically. Now fact was in-
disputably more exciting than fiction. The ex-
perimentalists of 1939 became the 'prioritj one'
propagandists of 1940. The recording car which
had browsed happily in the hop-fields of Kent
was now smothered with dirty brown painl and
sent to browse among the sickening ruins of the
Old Kent Road. I arlier. the documentary
method was used to dramatize and personalize
the enemy in the series Shadow of the Swastika,
which immediately captured an audience oi mil-
lions. The Christmas Day 'hook-ups' continued,
but the radio magic that had linked homely
families all over the I mpire was now used to
demonstrate to a dubious world that Britain was
still able to celebrate t rtristmas, even 'under tire'.

I don't think I shall ever forget the flat Lancas-
trian voice of Geoffrey Bridson over the line from
Manchester saying that I 'couldn't have the
Merchant Navy Club because there are four land
mines round it". So it went on. Cecil McGivern
made an outstanding name for himself among
wartime radio writers for his telling of the R.A.F.
story, and later the Mulberry story, and later the
Radar story. Robert Barr, John Glyn-Jones, and
Gordon Boshell brought a new combination of
journalistic attack and theatrical flair to the
topical war magazine feature 'Marching On'.
Month by month, year by year, the documentary
feature grew in importance. Writers new to radio
like Louis MacNeice, learnt a new technique in
the service of war documentary. Promising new-
comers like Jennifer Wayne and Nesta Pain
served their apprenticeship in these vears. Pre-
war experimentalists like Stephen Potter and
Geoffrey Bridson revealed unsuspected versa-
tility under war conditions. It was a tumultuous,
exacting and exciting time, and it has left its
mark, for good and ill, on the post-war practice
of documentary radio.

There was one wartime programme 'War Re-
port' which outstripped all theories of docu-
mentary, and by matching many broadcasting
techniques to the speed and pressure of events
produced something which blazed with topi-
cality. From D-Day onwards, by means of a
combined operation between commentator, fea-
ture producers, and news men. British radio gave
a daily sound picture of the war. unique in re-
porting history. Reporters and engineers risked
their lives every day to get their microphones to
the scene of action. The fighting services co-
operated magnificent!) with transport, com-
munications and fast censorship facilities. The
last link was the intricate editing organization
which put 'War Report' on the air every night.
red-hot from the front line. This job could not
have been done without the experience painfully
gathered by the experimental pioneers. It set a
standard which peacetime broadcasting will find
difficult to match.

Radio documentarj faces the peace with a re-
cord of solid apprenticeship and honourable war
service. Its practitioners have passed the stage of
experimental measles. Thej no longer stop the
recording car to enshrine the golden untouched
speech of every fisherman and shepherd they
meet. Indeed. the> drive faster, for the danger
today is that the radio-wise rustic will now stop
them and demand to be put immediate!) 'In
Town ronight' or 'Countrj Maga/me'! The
peacetime set-up of the B.B.C. offers docu-
mental) producers a practicall) unrestricted field
for their craft. I he Regional stations, after a
period ol enforced rationing, are bursting into
new life. Such programmes as 'The Naturalist'
and 'All are Welcome' from the West. Town
Meeting' and 'Have a Go' from the North, are
evidence that the documentary spirit is no 1 on-
don prerogative. The London producers are ex-

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

73

ploring new fields too. With the end of the war.
B.B.C. feature men have been ranging across
Europe with recording cars to bring back
authentic sound pictures from France and
Sweden, Italy and N ugoslavia, Belgium, Holland
and Denmark, for the series 'Window on
Europe' in the Home Service. In the I ight Pro-
gramme a new popular audience has been found
for documentary, provided the subjects dealt
with are of general interest and the presentation
popular. A new series, 'Focus', is attempting to
put the spotlight on such subjects as 'Drink',
'Gambling'. "Coal'. 'Housing'. The aim is purely
Objective; to present facts, opinions, and ! ads
in such an easily understandable and entertaining
way that no literate adult could fail to catch the
drift. A similar job was done on the post-war
crime wave by the two series 'It's Your Money
They're After' and 'There's no Future in It'.
Then there is the Third Programme, only two
months old as I write, and already the feature
programme as practised by Louis MacNeice,
Rayner Heppenstall, Douglas Cleverdon, Stephen
Potter, and Nesta Pain, has proved equal to the
rarefied atmosphere. True, features in the I bird
Programme tend to be mainly literary in char-
acter but a pointer in the opposite direction was
provided by the outstanding success of Hiro-
shima, John Hersey's 'New Yorker" narrative,

which scored a new high in appreciative reaction
from the listener research poll, Incidentally, the

two greatest post-war successes in documentary
radio have both been war stones, Hiroshima
and The Man from lichen. I eonard Cornell's
reconstruction of the experiences in a concentra-
tion camp of the Jersey schoolmaster. Harold le
Druillenec. It is my own belief that the current
reaction against stones of the war both m radio
and films has been accepted fai too uncritically.
I believe that the war has been such an over-
whelming experience in the lives of our genera-
tion, that its distillation into all forms of art,
radio and films included, has not seriously be-
gun. What we have seen and heard so far have
been but sketches, hurried dispatches from the
threatened outposts of present experience. There-
fore. I believe that the apparent confusion and
frustration among writers and producers whose
war has been taken away is a transient phase.
There is no easv way 'back to peace" and thei
no quick and easy path 'away from war'. Docu-
mentary producers in all fields would clear their
own minds if they avoided the catch phrases of
the box-office prophets of 1946 as pointedly as
thev ignored the wishful headlines of 1939. There
is only one way ahead for documentary. The
slow, steady, mapping of the jungle of ignorance
and prejudice.

DOCUMENTARY THEATRE

by MONTAGU SLATER

Playwright, Librettist and Novelist

recently Michel Saint-Denis was telling me
how Andre Obey wrote Le Viol </< Lucrece. The
writer — he is now the chief of the Corned ie I ran-
caise — had joined Saint-Denis and his company
somewhere in provincial France where thev were
playing in small halls and barns and getting a
more direct contact with the audience than a
conventional theatre could then attain. Obey
visited them at some performance — it must
have been in the late "twenties — and because he
felt this way of working with the audience was
important he threw in his lot with the Com-
pagnie ties Quinze, and wrote for them \ <><■".
lucrece and La Bataille du Marne.

Lucrece (1930) is one of the formative plays
of our time. It used cinematic notions. Anyone
who saw Aman Maistre in the miming sequence
of Tarquin's walk through the corridors at mid-
night is not likely to forget it in a hurry. But its
main innovation was the introduction of narra-
tive and comment in the persons of the chorus,
a man and a woman, I e Recitant and La
Recitante. who are not only the interpreters be-
tween the audience and the play but become in
the end the duel characters.

The notion came I think more from the com-
pany than from the author. 1 oi a long time Obey
found himself unable to write these parts. I can
feel these people but I cannot hear their words,'
he said. One day with Saint-Denis he listened to
the radio description bv two narrators of the
Davis c up final. Now I know how to do it," he
said, and wrote the play.

What has this to do with documentary*? \ lull

account would take more space than I have.
but two aspects stand out: the sense that n was
urgent to revivify the relation ol audience ,\xw\
artist, and the appearance of new techniques —

radio and sound film — come at the same time
and spring from the same soil. Both affect the
stage. The result is not only a new conception of
realism but the return of poetry to the stage, the
radio and the film.

I iv e years later it is impossible to keep
autobiography out of these things — the Com-
pagnie des Quinze reached England and con-
sciously under the influence of Lucrece I wrote
what I called 'a documentary play' taster 1916.
1 his was the lime of i and Night Mail.

The word documentary was becoming known
but I at any rate was using it in a narrow sense.
I meant that although the play was m verse as
well as prose and tried to use all the resources o\'
the theatre it was based in the literal sense on the
documents, just as Lucrece had been.

Meanwhile in the I mted States the writers in
the Federal Theatre Project had invented the
'Living Newspaper'. Power and One Third of a
Nation convinced the most cynical dramatic
critics that a new force was coming into the
theatre. English documentarians were quick to
that the 'Living Newspaper' technique
had much to offer to the screen as well as to the
Paul Rotha .m^\ Miles Malleson (whose
' // oj Dorset, sent on tour by the II (
m 1936, was a pioneering play seeking a new
audience it not a new technique) studied atten-
tively the scripts as well as the perform an
the I ederal Theatre diving Newspapt
London, I nit) ITieatre put on Busmen (1937)
about the London bus stnke. a Living
paper' which was too preoccupied with the
particulai instance to 51 Itl

next vear. during the Munich ciisis. I nit)
authors wrote a 'Living Newspaper overnight
on ( ;ci hoslovakia.

I he lnsttruits of Paul Rotha's studies m the
technique were seen during the war in H
Plenty: later in Land oj Promise, with M
Mallcson's collaboration, he went even nearer
i he stage form.

Towards the end of the war W.I Williams,
\U( \. anxious to use everv method
interesting (he soldiers in current all i
suaded Michael MacOwan to produce an
\IK'A play unit tor the presentation of
I ivmg Newspapers'. Several plays were put on
with success, the outstanding pair being
Great Swap (a too optimistic account of I end
lease) bv 1 ed Willis and Jack Lindsay, and
Where do we go from hoc' ion full employment
and planning) by the same (wo writers plus
Bridget Boland. After the war .lack I
and Bert Coombes wrote I lu
duced at the Scala m that year bv "Theatre
about the nationalization of coal and its prob-
lems. It is worth noting that the ABCA unit
dropped the title 'Living Newspaper', finding it
was misleading, and called their productions
'Documentary Plays'.

In film, the word documentary extends from
films set to poems like Our Country, l the

Men. Green Mountain Bi ick Mountain (all
Dylan Thomas), through films that are part
poetry like Night Mail (in which Auden was the
poet) and Song of Ceylon, through films which
are the screen variants of 'Living Newspaper"
like World of Plenty and Land of Promise, and
through all sorts of other variants to the straight
instructional like The Care ami Maintenance
the Tractor. The vague phrase I have just used,
'all sorts of other variants' covers in fact the
great body o\~ documentary and some of its
major achievements. Le propre de ce qui est
vraiment generate est d'etre fecond.

The interaction of stage and screen is a large
subject and one to be treated generally. I began
with Saint-Denis and Obey and 1 believe the re-
call of poetry to stage and screen is one of the
grand achievements of what we call document-
ary. I could make a case for a paradox that would
replace the classic phrase, "the poeirv is in the
passion' with '(he poetry is in the document':
but this is only because the passion and the
poetry are both exposed in the fresh!) discovered
detail, the apparent!) small but significant fax
image which, as any interpreter o\' dreams will
say. is cardinal. This again arises because docu-
mentary rediscovers a living relation with the
audience, whether the simple relation like 'You
tractor drivers will be interested in this
it tells how to maintain your t' "i oil

mothers will be interested in this becaus
how to cue lor your children's the

more complex relations established bv films like
Diai th) and / 8 »me-

thing manifestl) more important than (he l<
meal corollaries like attempts on the stagt
break out of the picture I'm: I hornton

\\ ildei ' ■ <

In these too the audiencc-n the im-

portant thing. I he stage dev ict
are more or less successful means to an cn<\ I
end is. I think, to bring back p
bv a deeper, more intimate sense and

not onl) this intensity bul

sen wider world on i

Hence the use o\ narrative (Shakespeare em;
si/ed its importance in the ehon
Henry I i hence the u

p.K-trv. and the emph \ d in

74

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

NEW DOCUMENTARY FILMS

Pool of Contentment. Public Relations Films for
C.O.I. Director: Richard Massingham. Photo-
graphy: Shaw Wildman. Distribution: C.F.L. to
Government Departments only. 20 mins.

The Treasury, that ominous body which so
often arouses fury in the breasts of documentary
film makers working on Government contracts,
is to be congratulated on presenting a witty film
on an apparently dull subject. To let Massingham
loose in a typing pool was a temptation that
might have been resisted. Fortunately, it was
not, and the result is a film that provides much
good fun in its description of how and how not
to utilize the services of a centralized pool of
shorthand writers and typists.

The 'How Not' sequences inevitably make
better material than the 'How', but the awful
examples of people mumbling, stumbling, mut-
tering, smoking, chewing, peering in desks and
paying attention to everything and everybody but
the wretched typists who are trying to get it all
down, will at least provoke a cheer from the
girls and possibly shake the dignities of a few
executives who regard themselves as perfect
dictators — of letters.

Or will it? Nobody ever sees himself in a film
unless the image is favourable, so perhaps not.
But the film was worth making if only to heighten
the morale of the unsung workers of the pencil
and typewriter who would be excused battery
and assault, and much worse, if they ever took
it into their heads to revolt. Photography, casting
and general production values, all contribute to
a useful and entertaining film for internal use in
Government offices.

The Single Point Fuel Injection Pump. Shell Film
Unit in collaboration with B.O.A.C. and Rolls-
Royce. (Aircraft Engineering Series.) Director:
John Shearman. Photography: Stanley Rodwell.
Animation: Francis Rodker, A. J. Shaw. Techni-
cal Adviser: Ivor Lusty. Production Consultants:
Film Centre. Distribution: Non-T. Shell Pub-
licity Dept. 22 mins.

There have not been many films like this one.
Expositional techniques apparently attract very
few technicians. When films of this kind are
required, all too often producers give them to the
junior directors to cut their teeth on, or more
experienced personnel bash them out without
proper thought. Deplorably few directors are
really at home with animation, and patience —
even in cameramen — is a rare virtue.

One would like to believe that this particular
example of the type might come as a shock to
many people — a salutary shock of realization
that a subject as involved as this can be put
across so succinctly. But one feels, depressing
though it may be, that in too many quarters —
apart from those for which it is intended — it will
be greeted with indifference.

The film is designed to explain the working of
the modern fuel injector required for high-
performance power units in aircraft. John
Shearman has done this by relating the formulae
of pure physics to the practical interpretation of
them achieved by the engineer. In other words,
his film translates a set of letters and symbols
visually into swash plates and aneroid capsules,
pistons and levers. Every second increases one's
anxiety that the thread of the exposition is about

to break, or that one will have to cry 'Pax'! —
but, miraculously, it never happens.

Shearman, Rodker and Shaw have used the-
animation bench to give the film originality of
expression and Stanley Rodwell continues in the
tradition he initiated for the Admiralty Asdic
Care and Maintenance series and contributes the
beauty of mechanism in close-up to a film which
concentrates your attention for nearly twenty
minutes on a piece of equipment not much bigger
than a carburretor. There is, by the way, also in
the film a working model of the injector which is
a masterpiece of crudity. Undeniably it does its
job effectively, but it is horribly out of key with
the high technical quality of the rest of the pro-
duction.

The expositional film relies on a precisely con-
trolled visual logic. It is difficult to write (so
tempting at the scenario stage to rush delightedly
into a welter of technical jargon) and exacting
to make, for technical carelessness shows up
more clearly than in any other kind. By these
standards John Shearman is a welcome addition
to the 'back-room boys' of documentary.

The Bridge. Data Films for C.O.I. Producer:
Donald Alexander. Director: Jack Dean Cham-
bers. Photography: Wolfgang Suschitsky. Story:
Arthur Calder Marshall. Distribution: C.F.L.
Non-T. 39 mins.

Far too few films have been produced about the
problems of reconstruction in Europe. Those
that have reached the screen have done so after
many difficulties; usually they have been made
from dupes from scenes shot by outside crews
in a hurry and for no obvious reason. These have
had to be adapted to a policy laid down by the
'Ministry' and shaped in the cutting rooms.

The Bridge, a four-reeler recently finished by
Data, is one of the rare exceptions to this un-
stimulating process. A unit was sent specially to
Yugoslavia to shoot an inspiring little story, of
how in a remote village, devastated by war, men
and women have worked together to build them-
selves a necessary bridge, not for motives of
individual profit, but for the common good. On
this location each sequence was well directed
and photographed.

The completed film is not likely to be shown
publicly in the cinemas. This is a sorry reflection
on our industry when we remember the short
films now receiving wide distribution which are
bringing disrepute to the word 'documentary'.
Yet the very proper complaints on this score have
attracted a weight of attention to The Bridge
which it would not otherwise have achieved, for
it is in the reviewer's opinion an extremely
disappointing film.

However good an original idea is, and however
well each scene is played, a story must be well
told. This film is too long, taking thirty-nine
minutes when a quarter of an hour would not
only have been ample, but far more effecti\e.
Instead of being clear and occasionally exhilarat-
ing, it is diffuse and occasionally boring. These
faults are due mainly to bad construction. There
are no climaxes, only a series of anti-climaxes.
Time after time we reach the end of a sequence,
the film makes its point, fades out to start again,
making the same point at the same tempo.
Unfortunately, though it is well recorded. The

Bridge is not helped by its sound tracks — effects,
music or commentary- Odd noises appearing at
infrequent intervals add nothing to realism but a
great deal to irritation, and on one occasion at
least to unconscious humour. The music, if
listened to with eyes closed, is probably fine, yet,
alas, is divorced completely from anything seen
on the screen. The commentary sounds as if it
reads well, but as spoken is merely repetitive and
tiresome. This is not because Valentine Dyall
speaks it badly — just that there is no warmth in
the written words. As we listen to him repeat
again and again: 'The bridge must be built. The
bridge will be built', we can only wish it would
be so — and quickly, too. Obviously the job must
have taken a long time — so long that the unit
seem to have been called back before it was
finished.

If only the film had achieved a sense of human-
ity, all its other faults could have been over-
looked so easily. There is no black sheep in the
village — everyone behaves too perfectly. Admit-
tedly the film throughout follows a group of
people and never a single person for long, but the
same could be said about The True Glory, or
Desert Victory. Surely war documentaries need
not have a monopoly of feeling. With this lack of
humanity there seems also a certain lack of faith.
Probably in an unsuccessful attempt to obtain a
commercial release, the political part of the film
is played down. It certainly does not try to be
impartial — only one case is put forward, but so
half-heartedly that the story's strongest point —
its simplicity — is almost lost.

It is sad to give such a poor report on this
film. The unit rightly must have gone with such
hopes to Yugoslavia and had even higher hopes
when they saw their rushes. Purely factual and
training films undoubtedly perform a service for
the community, but it is the occasional film
with an idea, such as The Bridge, that film makers
want to welcome — all the more so. if the idea is
disturbing. New films on the world's urgent
social, economic and political troubles can be of
immeasurable value, but only if they are made
imaginatively and made well.

Good Neighbours. Production: Greenpark for
C.O.I. Producer: Ralph Keene. Director: Hum-
phrey Swingler. Photography: Ray Elton. Music:
Patrick Harvey. Distribution: C.F.L. and
theatrical. 15 mins.

The war-time community feeling that grew up
around the air-raid shelter and the civil defence
post, the gun-site and the aerodrome, is not easy
to translate into a peacetime setting. Our plan-
ners have talked rather cold-bloodedly about
redesigning the pattern of urban life on the basis
of the neighbourhood unit. But it has needed
someone to show us where the human beings
come in and to put some real life into the plans
for new communities.

This film, describing how the initiative of one
or two people in a small Scottish town resulted in
the establishment of a community centre, goes
some way to till this deficiency. Its description of
the mechanics of how one organizes a campaign
to get the interest of one's neighbours is admir-
able. We see schoolchildren pushing leaflets
under doors, fetes to bring in the cash, assistance
from the Director of Education, and so on. At
this practical level it will undoubtedly bo of con-
siderable value and it is encouraging to know
that there is to be a shorter version as one of the
monthly releases to the theatres. One can only
regret that the film is not as moving as it might

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

75

have been and that too little of the vitality of a
strong sense of community finds its wav on to
the screen. Perhaps this is because the director
tried a little too hard to capture the emotional
content of the struggle for the Centre and found
himself instead with a slight feeling of melo-
drama. But these are small criticisms beside the
essential value of the film and the important role
it will be able to play in the work of extending
community enterprise.

North-East Corner. Production: Greenpark for
C.O.I. Producer: Ralph Keene in association
with Film Centre. Director: John Eldridge.
Photography: Martin Curtis. Music: Kenneth
Pakeman. Distribution: C.F.L. 22 mins.
Seeing a film b> Greenpark is rather like sitting
in a bath slightly too hot; one gets lulled into a
state of happy relaxation in which only the senses
count. North-East Coiner (in the Pattern of
Britain series) is very much in this tradition. Its
beautv is irresistible, and rests upon a subtle
blending of visuals and commentary. Some of
the shots are memorable in their exploitation of
the photogenic qualities of Scottish landscape
and coastline. It is a pity, though, that the sound
is not up to the standard of the cameca work.

However, the main limitation of the film is that
it lacks people. The central character, an old
fisherman, exists as a character only through the
commentary. Visually he is an unexplored per-
son. Throughout, it is natural or inanimate
things which hold the attention, and one's intel-
lect is untouched by the urgent posing of social
problems. Of course, North-East Corner does deal
with the farming, woollen, and distilling industries
of the area, but the approach is so lyrical that it
is difficult to come away with anything more than
a vague impression about these enterprises.
Other aspects of the social organization of north-
east Scotland are ignored completely. Oddly
enough, this preoccupation with natural things
comes out most sharply when the film deals with
Aberdeen, the main town in the area. Apart from
a lovely shot from the sea. the camera fails to do
justice to the stern and individual beauty of the
town or to the Aberdonians themselves. One
feels that Eldridge quails before the dourness of
the place and is anxious to get back to the lovely
coast line and pastures.

North-East Corner will be successful because
of its beauty and restfulness, and it deserves wide
theatrical distribution. But however necessary it
may be to maintain the lyrical side of documen-
tary film making which this and other films in the
Pattern of Britain series do so admirably, one
misses the sense of social importance.

Turn It Out. Production: Greenpark for CO 1.
Producer and Director: Ken Annakin. Photo-
graphy: Charlie Marlborough. Distribution:
C.F.L. 10 mins.

This film sets out to deal with the problem of
exports from the point of view of the industrial
worker, and is intended primarily for theatrical
distribution. It aims to show that an increase in
the availability of consumer goods depends upon
increased production of export commodities.

Annakin's main intention has obviously been
to introduce humour and humanity into a subject
which is rapidly becoming hackneyed to the
point of boredom. He has used the method of
personal reporting, and the audience is treated
to shots of Annakin at the factory, at the docks,
in the queues, interviewing housewives and shop

(continued on page 78)

The Overlanders. Ealing Studios. Producer:
Michael Balcon. Written and directed In
Harry Watt. Photography: Osmond Borradaile.
Music: John Ireland. Distribution: Eagle-Lion.
89 mins.

When Cedric Bel f rage was the film critic on the
Sunday Express he could tell after seeing the first,
lew minutes of a film the rest of the story in
detail. There are most likely a few critics who
could do the same today, for of the thousands
of films that are made few vary but superficially
from the standard four-finger exercises. Don't
blame the technicians, the writers and directors
— blame rather the renters who would about as
soon fill in their income-tax returns correctly as
risk anything that was new — anything without a
precedent. The renters of course ultimately con-
trol which films are made and which are not. It
is rumoured that the renters of The Overlanders
were very glum after they had first seen their
charge. Not only did they think the film was
poor, but they were quite sure that audiences
would agree with them and stay away in num-
bers. A big-shot renter makes anything up to
twenty or thirty thousand a year and is paid this
large lump of dough because he knows what
kind of films people want to see. You can draw
your own conclusions, but The Overlanders will
be one of the first ten British money-makers of
1946. It deserves to be, because everything about
the film is fresh and new, it is a good story and it
is told humorously, excitingly and convincingly.
This is the first time you have seen people or
heard people like Chips Rafferty and Corky, the
girl and her father and mother. They are not the
usual old studio clothes-horses playing yet

Apology. R. E. Tritton, Director of the Films Division of the Central Office of Information,
points out that two films reviewed in the last issue of D N.L., Old Wives' Tales and Your Children
and You, should have been credited to COT. as sponsor as well as distributor. We apologise.

another part, in yet another costume. The over-
landers are individuals with recognizable human
qualities. They are not just good or bad. Some-
times they are low in spirit and are willing to give
up their project out of sheer despondency. Some-
times they are full of spirit and the obstacles seem
easy. Sometimes they hate each other. Sometimes
they love each other. Two characters in particu-
lar deserve special mention, Jackie and Nipper.
Usually coloured people are treated in films as
either comic, stupid or wicked. In this one they
are in many ways the brains behind the journey.
When difficulties are met they are always con-
sulted and it is usually their advice that is taken.
Between them and Chips RafTerty there is under-
standing, and. when other members of the team
are uncertain, the coloured men back Chfps's
confidence with good sense.

With one or two very minor exceptions the
film is a winner, but after seeing it you will won-
der at the terrific amount of hard grind that must
have gone into it by the director and everyone
else concerned. Every sequence is covered so
completely that, although the editing must have
been a pleasure — the shooting, what with cows
and horses and heat must have been a major
labour. Despite all the handicaps the film is as
polished and smooth as any studio production;
with special mention for photography.

Perhaps the most important thing though that
The Overlanders has done is to open up an
entirely new type of film-making. Everywhere
there are similar stories waiting to be made, but
made in the same way that The Overlanders was
made, not dolled up with artificial story and stars,
but made with real people on the spot.

EAST AFRICAN
SOUND STUDIOS LTD.

BUCKLEYS RD., NAIROBI, KENYA
HAVE THE FOLLOWING FACILITIES AVAILABLE

■ SOUND-ON-DISC RECORDING

M.S.S. Studio and Portable Equipment

■ CINEMATOGRAPHY

35 mm: B & H "Eyemo" Cameras
synchronous — 400 ft., magazines
16 mm: Cine-Kodak "Special"

■ STUDIO ACCOMMODATION

76

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

THE FIRST DAYS OF DOCUMENTARY

By Sir Stephen Tallents, K.C.M.G., C.B., C.B.E.

These extracts from the Cobb Lecture, de-
livered at the Royal Society of Arts in
November, 1946, are reprinted by per-
mission of the Editor of the Society's
journal. In them Sir Stephen Tallents tells
for the first time the inside story of the be-
ginning of documentary. It is to Tallents
that documentary owes the greatest debt,
since it was through his efforts that
finance, facilities, and, .above all, freedom
to experiment were achieved. His descrip-
tion of the earlier battles in Whitehall will
make interesting reading in parallel with
Forsyth Hardy's book, Grierson
Documentary'.

on

no movement, I should be prepared to wager,
has ever had a more clearly defined birthplace
than that of the British documentary film, and
the nursing home in which it first saw the light
was Mr Amery's room at the Dominions Office
on the morning of April 27th, 1928. Six men were
present at that accouchement, of whom five are
still living — Mr Amery, Mr Walter Elliot, Sir
John Craig (now Deputy Master and Comp-
troller of the Royal Mint and Engraver of His
Majesty's Seals), Mr John Grierson and IjNone
of them it is safe to say, saw just what would
come of that meeting. But some of us at least

felt that it was important. I — partly because it
had amused me, but partly also because I felt it
was significant — made a detailed note of it at the
time ; and, as I have seldom done with the record
of an official meeting, I kept the note. I will de-
scribe what passed at the birth presently — and
this is perhaps the moment to warn you that my
talk will deal more with the history of the early
documentary film movement than with its latest
developments or its future prospects. It is always
better to speak of what one knows first hand. But
before I tell the story of the birth, let me recall
briefly how that bedside meeting came about.

(Mr Amery was Chairman of the Empire
Marketing Board. Mr Walter Elliot was Chair-
man of its Film Committee. I was the Board's
Secretary. Very early in our work we had been
impressed with the opportunity, which cinema
presented, for bringing the Empire alive to the
imagination of the public. One summer afternoon
in 1926 — the first summer of our work — I had
driven to lunch with Mr Rudyard Kipling in his
house at Burwash. Mr Kipling, who had so far
fought shy of the films, confirmed our belief in
the possibilities of cinema and held out hopes
that he would himself guide the making of a film
for us. This seemed to me a magnificent opening.
I had little difficulty in persuading my Board to
pursue it. I had much more difficulty in selling
the idea to an extremely sceptical Treasury. In
the end, however, I got leave to employ a man

PHOTOMICROGRAPHY

A new production Unit

specializing in cine-biology

J. V. Durden in charge of Production

Producer— John Taylor

PHOTOMICROGRAPHY LTD WHITEHALL, WRAYSBURY, BUCKS

named by Mr Kipling as particularly suited to
work with him ; and we embarked on a film of
fancy called One Family, which began gloriously
with shots of society ladies impersonating the
different Dominions in the Throne Room at
Buckingham Palace and ended its career less
happily after a week's run in the Palace Theatre.
In justice to its maker, I should add that he pro-
duced, as a by-product of his big film, a particu-
larly charming short film, Southern April, which
Miss Lejeune praised on its appearance as an
example of 'what lovely things can be done with
a camera and a microphone by a man both of
sensibility and idea'.

While One Family was still in embryo, a man
called at my office one morning with a letter of
introduction from Robert Nichols, the poet,
which described my caller as having ideas in
harmony with those which I had discussed with
the writer. My caller gave his name as John
Griersonjl found that, after service in mine-
sweepers during the war, he had gone out to the
United States as a fellow of the Rockefeller
Foundation and had there studied psychology
in terms of American cinema. He had never as
yet himself made a film. Q took to Grierson at
once, and felt that here was a man that we
needed and must enlist in the service of the
EMB. I cannot say with equal truth that I fully
grasped at that first interview the theories which
he expounded to me^For their full comprehen-
sion I would refer you to that interesting book,
Grierson on Documentary, which Mr Forsyth
Hardy has lately edited and in which he has
gathered Grierson's writings and talks from 1926
till almost the present day. But I think I can
briefly summarize what Grierson was thinking at
that time. He was shocked at the meagre content
of community life everywhere. Its enrichment de-
pended, he thought, on a better understanding of
the stuff of which it was compounded. That
better understanding could not be secured by the
orthodox methods of academic education.
'Education,' he was to say of the public a few
years ago, 'has given them facts but has not
sufficiently given them faith.' It was necessary
to touch the imaginations of the people — not
merely to impart facts to them ; and their imagin-
ations could best be touched by eliciting and
presenting to them in a dramatized form the
exciting material which he found in the real life
around him.

With One Family on the stocks. I could not
hope to get the Treasury at that stage to allow
us to emploj a second film officer. But one of the
great virtues of the EMB was that we had a
certain discretion to spend mone> for experi-
mental purposes. 1 therefore commissioned
Grierson to prepare a series of memoranda on
the use of the film in other countries. He pro-
duced memoranda showing in particular how
the non-theatrical distribution of films was going
ahead m France and German) . He also suggested
that we should arrange, in the cinema that the
1 MB h.ui lately installed at the Imperial
Institute, a scries of private showings of signifi-
cant films.

Grierson bj now was thirsting to trj out his
ideas in the actual making of a film. We, our
minds convinced bj his conversation and our
eyes opened bj what we had seen at the Imperial
Institute, were anxious that he should have that

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

77

opportunity. But the Treasury sought to over-
rule a recommendation of the Board taken at a
meeting at which they had nol troubled to be
represented. Mr Amery rebelled: and the resull
was the meeting in his room which I mentioned
at the outset.

Our plans for this film had nol been laid with-
out guile. It was, by common consent, time that
the EMB did something for home fisheries.
Grierson had served during the 1914 war in mine-
sweepers. Mr Arthur Michael Samuel, the Finan-
cial Secretary to the Treasury, had studied the
histor> of the English herring fisheries, and had
committed his learning to a hook. The Herring:
Its Effect on the History ol Britain. Mr Samuel
opened our meeting with a salvo. As a director of
Apollinaris, he knew much about advertising;
and he could assure us that it was sheer waste of
money to think of increasing the sale of I mpire
^products by films. Mr Walter Elliot and Mr
Amery, in that order, explained that this was to
be a background film, designed to create an
atmosphere by presenting English life and char-
acter. Then we dangled our herring bait in front
of the financial Secretary. Mr Amery explained
firmly that responsibility rested with the EMB
and with himself acting after he had received
their advice. The meeting ended with Mr Samuel
genially offering to help us with his deep know-
ledge of the history of herrings and ourselves all
warmly welcoming his offer. The voice of the
official Treasury insisted, as a postscript to our
conference, that one "semi-expert' and one office
man should be sufficient for our needs.

It was a very modest enterprise on which we
thus embarked. But then, as Grierson once
wrote — 'If the Civil Service or any other public
service must have its illegitimate infants, it is best
to see that they are small ones'. But thi* decision
to embark, you will have noted, involved two
top-rank Cabinet Ministers; and the making of
the film created, I am sure, agonies as sharp as
ever attended the making of, say, Eisenstein's
Mexican film or Caesar and Cleopatra. A drifter,
the 'Maid of Thule', was hired at Stomoway,
chiefly on the strength of her crew's supposed
photogenic quality. John Skeaping designed a
cabin set, which was erected near the harbour.
A fisheries protection cruiser obliged with power
for the lighting. The under-water scenes were
supplied by dogfish chivvying small roach about
a tank on the Plymouth Marine Biological Sta-
tion. Then the 'Maid of Thule' couldn't find
the herrings, and operations had to be trans-
ferred to another drifter at Lowestoft. Next the
chairman of the company, with whom a contract
had been made for the film's production, turned
up in my room one evening with a long face to
declare that it was a predestined flop and had
better be abandoned. That was one of the real
crises of my official life. But I left Grierson to
deal with him. Production was resumed. On
November 10th, 1924, the film Society put on
Drifters in a programme with Potemkin, and it
won much applause in the theatre and praise
thereafter from a number of the critics.

We might at this point have embarked Gricr-
son on a succession of tilms m the manner of
l)nt iirs. We were certainly tempted to do so.
In fact, on his advice, we refrained. We set our-
selves to build up a schoofof documentary pro-
ducers and to develop a non-theatrical swem ol
distribution

{Reprinted from the 'Journal of the Ro\al Soi iet)
of Arts'. December 20th, 1946.)

Hz vr I L l {continued from page 1\)

Egyptian features makes it obvious that too little
time is spent on story . on shooting script and on
preparation. This criticism is made. too. by the
best Egyptian directors and producers, anil it is
worth noting that Egypt's finest director, Ustaz
Niazi Moustapha. has not onlj made a closi*
study of film techniques as developed in Ger-
many and Russia as well as America, but also
devotes an immense amount of time to scripting
and preparation. But he, and a few others, are
exceptions.

It is difficult for an outsider to judge acting
quality, since an Arab audience is likely to have
different tastes and standards from our own. One
factor emerges, however, as a parallel to some
aspects of Hollywood, and that is the immense
popularity of the singer (whether he or she can
act or not). There is a great deal of singing in
Egyptian films, and at this time there is, too, an
interesting development in style, by which East-
ern and Western music is being combined in a
not unattractive manner. For the rest, a few visits
to Cairo cinemas provide too little evidence about
general techniques. The impression received was
that actors tend to be either over-melodramatic
or too stilted in voice or gesture. But again there
are notable exceptions such as Amina Nour el
Dine, who, given a first-class story and director,
could challenge a large number of Hollywood
females very successfully.

Most people in the Egyptian industry are con-
vinced that the present boom must inevitably
break, and very soon. The general opinion is that
the best production companies will weather the
storm, and that in a market free from glut there

will be an all-round improvement in story, style
and technique.

Amongst these forward-looking groups are a
numbei of people who would like to see a tie-up
with Western production on an exchange or
mutual-service basis. With this in mind thes look
to Fiance, and possibly England, rather than to
the I nited Slates.

There is virtually no documentary production
in Egvpt I he reason for this is not unusual.
There is no commercial basis; and neither Gov-
ernment nor private enterprise has yet entered the
field of sponsorship.

On the other hand, the interest in documentary
is very great. It is nol without significance thai at
least three Government Departments— Public
I lealth. Social Welfare and Education — are using
visual aids, including films, and are deeply anxi-
ous to expand their activities, since in a country
like Egypt, with a high percentage of illiteracy,
the film can do much in functional and urgent
campaigns in, say, the combat against bilhar/ia,
tuberculosis and malaria. So far, however, very'
little money has been granted from public funds,
and work has been limited accordingly.

Given the right financial basis, however, there
is no doubt that documentary films could play a
big part in the Egyptian Government's present
campaign 'against poverty, ignorance and
disease'. Taking an overall view of the industry,
with its large productive capacity, its young and
growing army of technicians, and the endless
subject-possibilities of the country, it looks as
though Egypt, whatever current problems may
have to be faced, is likely to become a film-
making force of considerable importance

REALIST FILM UNIT

Producers of
Educational,
Instructional and
Documentary Films

Producer— John Taylor

REALIST F I I M 1 N I I LTD I it I v I CHAFII - I u I I I W 1

MEMBERS OF THE FEDERATION OF DOCUMENTARY FILM UNITS

78

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

DATA

Annaum-vs rompletion of
ih 4- rvnmintlvr of its 1946
progrtinimt* (all films
inert* photographed by
Susehitzli if)

'COTTON COMEBACK'

An all-dialogue short-story film of Lancashire mill-people thrashing out
their industry's future. Directed by Donald Alexander.

'FAIR RENT'

The Aberdeen Rent Tribunal and people of that city show how to beat
the problem of unfair furnished sub-lettings. Directed by Mary Beales.

'CHASING THE BLUES'

Jack Chambers & Jack Ellitt make whoopee with the statistics of
money spent on welfare and improvements in Lancashire cotton mills.

'APPLES FROM YOUR GARDEN'

Straightforward information to amateur gardeners on how to plant
more apple-trees this winter. Directed by James Hill.

DOCUMENTARY TECHNICIANS ALLIANCE LTD., 21 SOHO SQUARE, W.l, GERRARD 2826

snsic Finns

announce

•TWENTY-FOURSQUARE MILES'

(formerly 'Country Survey')

An analysis of rural conditions based on the
book 'Country Planning' — a report by the Agri-
cultural Economics Research Institute, Oxford.

Directed by KAY MANDER
Available from the Central Film Library

Also completed recently:

•Type 170* (Bristol Aeroplane Co. Ltd.)

'Take Thou' (Evans Medical Supplies Ltd.)

'Precision Echo Sounding' (Marine Instruments Ltd.

BASIC FILMS LI M ITED

18 SOHO SQUARE LONDON. W.l

GERRARD 7015

NEW FILMS .

(continued from page 75j

stewards, and in general acting as a sort of 'Alf"s
Button' genie, wafting the audience from location
to location in pursuit of his argument. Purists
will say that the direction of this film owes more to
'Hellzapoppin' than to the documentary tradi-
tion, and they may be right. In at least one
sequence Annakin goes too far and becomes
ludicrous rather than amusing. Nevertheless the
instructional sequence on the relation between
exports and consumer goods is clear and con-
vincing. A further important aspect of the film
is that it does not beg the question of increased
production but poses the need for equal pay, the
necessity for the continuation of joint production
procedure, etc.

This should be a useful film to show in the
cinemas. Some of us may be disturbed by the
sight of Ken Annakin's homely face appearing
through a pair of gaudy curtains and, sur-
rounded by tennis racquets, haranguing us on
why we should produce more. But, maybe, that
just indicates an oversensitivity about the dignity
of documentary directors.

This Modern Age series. No. 1. Homes for All.
No. 2. Scotland Yard. Producer: Sergei Nolban-
dov. Associate Producer and Literary Editor:
George Ivan Smith. Distribution: G.F.D. 20
mins. each film.

J. Arthur Rank's latest contribution to the screen
takes the form of a topical monthly review, the
first two issues of which have now been released.
The standard they have set warrants a sincere
welcome to the series.

Homes For All is a detailed study of the hous-
ing problem and of the progress being made
towards its solution. While not an exciting film
to look at, it compensates for somewhat dreary
pictures by the invigorating honesty and con-
viction of its argument. Scotland Yard, a drama-
tized essay on how the police are coping with the
crime wave, is a much more lively film to watch
;'nd retains the honest treatment of Homes for
All. Apart from showing the machinery' and
methods used by the police, it brings home the
point that the responsibility for increased crime
rests to a large extent on those citizens who
patronize the black market.

In presenting a series dealing with topical and
controversial subjects the producers have taken
upon themselves a social responsibility of great
importance. If they maintain their present out-
spoken policy it will provide a very useful service
for the cinema-going public.

The Railwaymen. Crown Film Unit for Ministry'
of Transport and C.O.I. Producer: Alex Shaw.
Director: R. Q. McNaughton. Photography:
Teddy Catford. Music: Temple Abady. Distribu-
tion: C.F.L. Non-T. 23 mins.

This is another film in the "vocational guidance'
scries, and, as its title implies, it shows the
numerous jobs that are available on the railways.
The contributions of drivers, firemen. plate-
Livers, stationmasters, porters, signalmen, and
many other grades are fitted into the general
pattern of railway organization and some attempt
is made to indicate wage Kites, conditions and
chances of promotion. When n deals with the
latter considerations the film seems a little un-
happy, as well it might, for railwaj wages arc
not such as to create a stampede for jobs. Per-

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

79

haps because of this difficulty, the film tends to
dwell more than necessary on the thrilN and
romance that trains invariably excite in most
people. The small boy collecting engine numbers
is finally kicked off the station by a porter who
has the same vice (presumably it takes his mind
off his wages!).

The Railwaymen possesses the overall technical
competence we associate with the Crown 1 llm
Unit. There is one particular!) good sequence oi
the workshops and the musical score is first rate.
If it fails to attract new workers to the railways,
that is not the fault o\' the film, which docs its
particular job to the best of its ability.

MEDICAL FILMS

(continued from page 70)

And what of the amateurs, eclipsed in 1939?
The indications are that they are coming back
to pick up the threads where they left off, but
greatly strengthened by the wide demand for
films which this war has brought about. They
used to be doubtful of themselves— films in
teaching were an experiment— but the war ex-
perience has justified their enthusiasm, for what
soldier has not been taught complicated tech-
niques by films, and don't they know it? And
what is more, their opinion is backed by scien-
tifically designed psychological testing experi-
ments. A technique so useful for soldiers will be
equally useful for students. But slapdash tech-
nique is dead : impromptu camera-pointing is
gone for ever. Hospitals and universities are al-
ready officially supporting these small film units,
run bj enthusiasts who know their photography,
their medicine, and their curriculum . units
which are going to make films to meet the local
demand, and send copies to other centres if asked.

But so far we have only considered produc-
tion ; the film when finished must be made avail-
able as widely as possible, for the hospital-unit
film will often cost £50-£250 even if the time of
the staff involved is left out of account, and it
will be impossible as well as wasteful for any one
centre to make itself all the films it needs. A
centralized catalogue is necessary, giving details
of all the films already existing, and kept con-
stantly up to date as new films are made ; this
work is now being undertaken by the Royal
Society of Medicine in conjunction with the
Scientific film Association, and publication is
expected to begin early in 1947. A central library
is needed to house the finished films, for it will be
immediately obvious that it is more convenient
to borrow films from a central point than from
a number of scattered places. But that, a matter
of convenience, is of no great importance; what
is far more important is that the film, both before
and after projection, should be examined and.
when necessary, cleaned or repaired; for if the
film is not properly looked after, its life is
shortened and it may break during projection,
which causes much annoyance to the audience.
This 'film-maintenance' is a skilled job requir-
ing specially trained staff and machinery, and the
expense of keeping up such a stall" is not justified
inasmall library. So it is in the interest of all sm ill
libraries to pool resources to maintain an ade-
quate inspection service for their films. It seems
likely if they prove to be in great demand the}
will be passed over to the Central Film Library

The Horizon Film Unit

(In association with the Film Producers' Guild Ltd.)
has completed the following films in [946:—

'Picture Paper' (C.O.I.— Informational, abroad)

'Calling All Drivers' (Pans 1, 2 & 0 (c.0.1.— instructional)

'Plan for a Foundry' (Ford— Informational)

'Gold Coast Journey' (Cadbury— Background educational)

'Tools for the Job' (Ford— Dealer instructional)

•
PRODUCER: MAX MUNDEN

•

The Horizon Film Unit is at present producing
films on a variety of subjects including fijing,
agriculture and industry.
•

THE FILM PRODUCERS' GUILD LIMIl
Guild House, Upper St. Martin's Lane, London, W.C.2

announce further
films completed

Fro

: " The Technique of Anaesthesia " Series
Intravenous Anaesthesia Pari '2.
Signs and Stapes of Anaesthesia.
Carbon Dioxide Vhsorption Technique.
Respirator) and Cardiac Arrest.
Operative Shock.
Handling and (are of the Patient.

(Available to approved medical audiences only.)

From: « The Health of Dairy Cattle " Series

Hygiene on the Farm.

From the " Soil Fertility " Series
Factors of Soil Fertility.
Lime.
I, tnd Drainage.

PENICILLIN

The storv "I it~ i|i-..i\.t\ and development,
and the nse oi penicillin on u.ir casualties

Other films in production \<.ill 1»«' announced when completed.

Applications for the loan of these films should be made to t he

Central Film Library, Imperial Institute, London, S.W.7

80

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

for distribution ; for the CFL has special
facilities for distributing large numbers of copies
of any one film (it is well to remember that they
hold the largest collection of general medical
films in Great Britain, for the Mol, MoH, British
Council and ICI films are there).

So much for distribution. No\ we nome to
planning. First, a survey of the film available
must be made; this is being done at thi SM
as has already been mentioned. Next, thev must
be reviewed and their teaching value assessed ;
this task is already being undertaken by the
SFA. After that, an attempt must be made to
discover what subjects teachers most desire to be
covered by films; this has been done by the
Medical Committee of the Scientific Film Associ-
ation, whose report has been published. Lastly, a
system must be brought into being to ensure
that, wherever possible, no two units are making
a film of the same subject without being aware of
each other's activities; this problem also is being
tackled by the Medical Committee of the SFA
who invite units contemplating making films to
notify them well in advance; when two units
are found to be overlapping on the same subject
they are, if they agree to it, notified of each
other's activities and so enabled to co-ordinate
their production scheme to the benefit of both.

That, very briefly, is the history of the medical
teaching film in Great Britain. I have shown that
it is only in the last few years that film has re-
ceived more than our passing attention and
accordingly the number of good films at present
available for teaching is small. I have shown that,
nevertheless, the demand is increasing from
within the profession rather than from outside

pressure, and that, indeed, outside production
sources are so sporadic and uncertain that our
profession is spontaneously setting up small pro-
duction units of its own. It now remains to see
how this experience compares with that in other
branches of teaching and learning.

It can be said immediately that our experience
is not unique. Film as a method of teaching is in
demand in all walks of life. It seems certain that
the use of the film for teaching soldiers, fire-
guards, dockers and aeroplane builders in the
war years has shown both teacher and pupil that
here is a powerful technique. But it is equally
certain that, whether the war experience has
intensified this experience or not, it has certainly
not caused it ; the demand from the public before
the war years was steadily rising ; any factual film
could be certain of enthusiastic reception from a
rapidly increasing audience, and this demand is
real and spontaneous to the extent that in spite
of reaction from possibly a majority of teachers,
the use of film in schools is now talked of as an
accomplished fact, awaiting only the manu-
facture of sufficient projectors. There is, there-
fore, a wide field opening before us. In medicine
the only subject on which there is already a
usable selection of films is anaesthesia, so we start
with a virtually clean slate. We should make
sure that in our enthusiasm we do not respond
with a flood of worthless films, many duplicating
each other. The demand is great, the resources
small ; we must use them to best advantage, We,
should avoid dictation ; we should avoid the
superplanners stifling our enthusiasm and initia-
tive ; we should above all ensure that unpopular
or unproven techniques can still be published in

film form, we must in fact, maintain the 'free-
dom of the cinema'. But we should also be in-
telligent in our desire to maintain freedom; we
must co-operate. We should pool resources,
technical and financial, and we should make our
results, the films, available to all who need
them, regardless of whether they are a rich school
or a poor one. We need a block government
grant, administered by the teachers, to which is
added the financial resources of smaller groups
and from which any group may draw funds to
finance a film programme which a majority
agree is needed. It seems reasonable to do this
on a regional basis ; for a given university to
draw up a film programme covering a broad sub-
ject area — say, elementary midwifery or medical
(as opposed to surgical) disorders of infancy;
another university would draw up a comple-
mentary programme, e.g. advanced midwifery or
surgical disorders of infancy : the two universi-
ties would criticize each other's, programmes,
eliminate overlap, add sections that the other
requires, and then these integrated programmes
would be submitted for the approval of the
financing body. They would be integrated on a
broader basis, into obstetrics and gynaecology
or paediatrics, and then the money allocated and
production undertaken regionally by the Univer-
sity Film Unit for simple films or by a profes-
sional unit for the more complex films. Such a
scheme would prevent much overlap, duplica-
tion and worthless production; but it need not
hold up production; for it is immediately ob-
vious that films on some subjects are impera-
tive, and for these the finance body could allo-
ate a grant immediately.

Halas & Batchelor

MEMBERS OF FEDERATION OF DOCUMENTARY FILM UNITS

CARTOONS
DIAGRAMS
MODELS

1945

1946

HANDLING SHIPS
TOMMY'S DOUBLE TROUBLE
THE BIG TOP
OLD WIVES' TALES

TRAIN TROUBLE
RADIO RUCTIONS
BRITAIN MUST EXPORT
EXPORT OR DIE
EXPORT, EXPORT, EXPORT
KEYS OF HEAVEN
MODERN GUIDE TO HEALTH

10a SOHO SQUARE W.l GER 7681-2

THEATRE

(continued from page 73)

mentioning music I am reminded that Lucrece,
the play from which this article started, gave the
basic text for his most recent opera to Benjamin
Britten, the composer in Coal/ace and Night
Mail.

The attempt to bring a wider world on the
stage is the clue, I think, to the influence of docu-
mentary in the theatre. Just as the important
effect of documentary on the feature film is seen
best in films like Millions Like Us, The Over-
landers and The Way Ahead, which bring new
matter to the argument, new breadth to the
camera's vision, new stories to the screen, so I
suspect we shall see documentary's influence in
the theatre in more subtle ways than the extension
of the 'Living Newspaper' technique. My own
guess for what it is worth is that the future is not
with the 'Living Newspaper'; its weakness is im-
plied in its name, it takes too general a pur\iew
to be long-lived. Films and plays are long-term
media : the short-term and the topical are best
left to the radio, except in circumstances that
may, of course, recur, like those in which the
ABCA play-unit flourished. This unit has in-
deed been recently touring Reunion Theatre's
generalized 'Living Newspaper." Exercise Bowler
in Germany; and an ambitious company of
players and dancers from the North, Theatre
Workshop, has had some success with a dance-
mime and documentary plaj I 'ranium 235. Thus
there is evidence against mj guess, but 1 stick to
it. I believe the influence of documentary in the
theatre and elsewhere is to turn the attention of
writers to new stories and sharper ways of telling
them, 'with this special observance, that you
o'erstep not the modest) oi nature".

WORLD WIDE

START 1947 WITH THESE SUBJECTS IN HAND

For Local Authorities:

Completing
Scripting

For Industry:

Completing

Shooting

Shooting

For Trade Unions;

Completing

For War Office:

Editing

Part Editing

Part in Production

Scripting

'Waste Water Harnessed'
'Local Government'

'If The Cap Fits
'Factory Method '
'Our Export Trade'

'A Power in the Land'

'Air Tran -port Support'
> 'Combined Operations'
'92 Gun'

For Central 41 f fire of Information:

Scripting 'Scientific Instruments'

WORLD WIDE PICTURES LTD.

LYSBETH HOUSE, SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W.l. Gerrard 1736)7 j8

Member of the Federation of Documentary Film Units

Talking About F////1 Strip

. . . and we talked a lot about it in 1946 — to clubs, societies and education
authorities, on the BBC, in the Press, to industrialists and so on. Much
of that talking has borne fruit. Our studios are busy on work for industry
and the Services. We have successfully launched our Unicorn Head film
strips for schools and educational bodies. Soon we shall have produced our
first colour strip 'Light into Colour' for this series. Our EDP Projector is
being used in increasing numbers — it was one of the two chosen for the
Britain Can Make It Exhibition. We have built a team of visualizers,
scriptwriters, cameramen and artists who are proud of the work we produce.
And we're finding larger premises to cope with our 1947 programme.

. . . and talking about M? lllTXS — we have three documentaries in
production now.

There are some who would say this is good going— we are inclined to that
view, too, but continue our efforts to be prepared to meet the growing
demand for our work.

•Jo/m Curthoys

Managing Director, IXritish Industrial Films lAd
183 King's Road, Chelsea, SW3 *l,\xman09ii

SEVEN-
LEAGUE

FILM UNIT

DOCUMENTARY

AND

SCIENTIFIC FILMS

INSTRUCTIONAL
FILMS FOR
CHILDREN

WORLD WINDOW
TRAVEL FILMS IN
TECHNICOLOR

In charge of production:

II. M. NIETER

Production Dept.

26 D'Arl.Iav Street

London, \\ . I

TELEPHONI : Gl R.RARO 3566

Member of the Federation of

Documentary I ilm Units

THREE MORE

Greenpark Films

*Good Neighbours 1^^

The story of the establishment of a community centre

Directed by HUMPHREY SWINGLER ScriPt: JACK COMMON

; Editor: HENRY KIRBY

Photography: RAY ELTON
Assistant Director: ERICA MASTERS Music. PATRiCK HARVEY

Theatrical version : AFTER SIX O'CLOCK ( i reel)

*North East Corner 2^)

A description of the countryside and industries of the north-east corner
of Scotland

Directed by JOHN ELDRIDGE ScriPt: JOHN ALLAN

Photographed by MARTIN CURTIS ^.^ ^E LEE^

at n.ad^.tc Music: KENNETH PAKEMAN

Assistant Director: AL MARCUS

*Turn it out (. 3$

An illustration of the interdependence of full employment and full pro-
duction

Directed by KEN ANNAKIN Editor: CARMEN BALAIEFF

Photography:

a • t^. c™*„a c^itu CHARLIE MARLBOROUGH

Assistant Director: EMMA SMITH

THE FILM PRODUCERS' GUILD

GUILD HOUSE ■ UPPER ST. MARTIN'S LANE ■ LONDON ■ W.C.2

DISTRIBUTED BY FORE PUBLICATIONS 28-29 SOUTHAMPTON STREET LONDON WC2 -SHENVAL PRBSS, LONDON AND HERTFORD I

EWS LETTER

APRIL-MAY 1947

ONE SHILLING

this issue: New Light On An Old Film by a Psychiatrist;
Canadian Initiative by Isobel Jordan ; Critics in Conflict ; Non-
rheatrical Distribution by a Technician ; Notes of the Month ;
Film and Book Reviews ; Correspondence

*m

FILM STRIP
IN MEDICINE

The possible development of the use of film
strip in medicine has occupied the minds of
responsible authorities for some considerable
time. Research has shown that the assimila-
tion of factual knowledge requires the use
of numerous text books and references by
teachers and students which makes study
a lengthy and laborious affair.

Standard lantern slides have been used
considerably but are fragile, heavy to carry
about and relatively costly to produce.

Film strips, on the other hand, are light
and compact. Nearly 500 pictures may be
reproduced on 30 feet of film weighing less
than an ounce.

Our latest film strip in the Unicorn Head
Series is a visual explanation of the problem
and how it may be overcome. It shows the
versatility of the medium and the treatments,
line diagrams, continuous tone drawings,
photographs, radiographs, etc., which can be
adopted as circumstances demand for both
amateur and professional production.

The final frames of the strip show how
pictures are linked together to illustrate a
subject — in this case the diagnostic procedures
in relation to epigastric pain.

'Film Strip in Medicine' was used as a
demonstration strip at a recent joint meeting
of members of the Royal Society of Medicine
and the Scientific Film Association. The
Unicorn Head 'Flotation' strip was also
shown to demonstrate the advantages of film
strip for teaching.

UNICORN HEAD FILM STRIPS
a JOHN CURTHOYS production

BRITISH INDUSTRIAL FILMS LIMITED
CHELSEA SW3 FLAxman 0941

f'i I in s a n d j ' i I in s t r i p s

for
education and industry

WORLD WIDE

JANUARY, FEBRUARY 1947, COMPLETED:

•A Power in the Lanil*

Electricity in the modern world

•Taken for Granted*

Main Drainage in West Middlesex

•If the Cap Fits'

For motor dealers in good service

WORLD WIDE PICTURES LTD.

LYSBETH HOUSE, SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W.l. Gerrard 1736 7 8

Member of the Federation of Documentary Film Units

EAST AFRICAN
SOUND STUDIOS LTD.

BUCKLEYS RD.. NAIROBI. KENYA

HAVE THE FOLLOWING FACILITIES AVAILABLE

■ SOUND-ON-DISC RECORDING

M.S.S. Studio and Portable Equipment

■ CINEMATOGRAPHY

35 mm: B & H "Eyemo" Cameras
synchronous — 400 ft., magazines
16 mm: Cine-Kodak "Special"

■ STUDIO ACCOMMODATION

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

Editorial Board: Edgar Anstcy, Geoffrey Bell, Sinclair Road. John Taylor, Basil Wright

APRIL-MAY 1947 VOL 6 NO 56 PUBLISHED BY FILM CENTRE 34 SOHO SQUARE LONDON Wl

81 INFORMATION— PLEASE

82 NOTES OF THE MONTH

83 SPONSORSHIP

84 ODD MAN OUT

85 WHAT HAPPENS AT THE MOVIES?

86 CANADIAN INITIATIVE

87 NEW LIGHT ON AN OLD FILM

Annual subscription 6s. (published six times a year)

88-89 NEW DOCUMENTARY FILMS

90 NON-THEATRICAL DISTRIBUTION

91 GRAPHICS IN CANADA
92-93 CORRESPONDENCE

94 NOT GOOD ENOUGH

95 BOOK REVIEWS

96 THE RECEIVING END

Bulk orders up to SO copies for schools and Film Societies

INFORMATION— PLEASE

Touring World War II this country pursued a policy of public
■^information and enlightenment which was based on a simple but
fundamental thesis. This thesis was that people must have some-
thing worthwhile to fight for, not merely something to fight against.
The annus mirabilis of the war saw not only \ la mem and Stalingrad,
but also the Beveridge Report.

The Labour Government today is facing the consequences of
failing to take proper account of the importance of public informa-
tion. The fuel crisis of February found the citizenry at large unpre-
pared, uninformed and therefore bewildered if not resentful.
Practically no one knew why there was no coal, or why, all of a
sudden, the productive capacity of this country was being curtailed.
This, mind you, after an intensive if superficial campaign to plug
the 'Export or Die' story.

The Peace Effort

The plain fact is that speeches by Cabinet Ministers — in or out of
the House of ( ommons are nowhere near the answer to the specific
problem. Just as in 1940-45, so today, people must have something
to fight for, some future target of good living and the good life against
which to weigh hardships and disillusionments which they are bound
to suffer in the post-war world, whatever the complexion of the
Government in power.

Knowledge is Strength

What is needed mainly is clear and sensible explanation. No pep-
talks or exhortations can be really successful unless people under-
stand present problems and the method by which they can be
solved. As it is, the opposition rejoices in a field-day of negative
bombardments and the replies of Ministers and Cio\crnment spokes-
men appear to be no more than a reciprocal barrage of doctrinaire
tomatoes.

Yet our present Government has a cast-iron majority, and was
presumably elected because people in this country believed that it
alone could put into practice the very ideals on which the war was
fought and won. What people are not getting is a sense of understand-
ing and a sense of leadership. They could get some measure of this it
the machinery of public information was giving an output similar to
that which, for all its faults, it achieved during the war.

Films, radio, Press, lectures, exhibitions — geared to an overall
plan, not of political propaganda, but of explanation, enlightenment
and, above all, of informed discussion, could clear the lines within a
few months. That the present Government realizes this in theory is
obvious from the fact that the Central Office of Information exists
(the Tories might well have dispensed with it i. and from the fact that
Francis Williams has his own set-up at 10 Downing Street. Hut the
means of public enlightenment are not being used with skill or with
vision. The people of this country are not being given the feeling
being in on a great experiment designed to bring a better life to
them and to ordinary folk everywhere.

Information plus Fnthusiasm

It is time that Mr. \ttlee and his colleagues realized that the
modern State cannot function without an informed and enthusiastic
public any more than it can exist without the necessities of physical
life. The two things are part and parcel of each other: and, despite
other preoccupations, the ( ahinet should, before it is too late, turn
its attention to this essential need to inspire the need to ghrC that
leadership which rests not just on a foolproof majorit\ hut on (In-
active consent, goodwill. Intelligence and el tort of a united nation.
Otherwise how can we. let alone the other I nited Nations, gel anv-
where '

I I I I s II \\i \ PRODI i [TON DRJV1 l\ I'l HI U
INFORMATION RK.III \V\ \v

82

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

NOTES OF THE MONTH

The cover picture on this issue is a production still from 'Instruments of the Orchestra'
made by Crown Film Unit for the Ministry of Education. (Reviewed on page 88)

Carl Mayer

we draw the attention of all our readers to the Carl Mayer Fund
which is mentioned on the inside front cover of this issue. Mayer
was, and still is, one of the great figures of world cinema. To us in
this country, more particularly, it was not only his contribution to
such films as Caligari, New Year's Eve, The Last Laugh and Sunrise
which we remember with gratitude. Nearly all documentary workers
owe him much, for he lived his last years in this country, and spent
himself generously, indeed over-generously, in practical work and
general advice on the making and shaping of the factual film. The
proceeds of the Fund will be devoted to settling Mayer's estate and
to erecting a suitable stone to him over his grave in Highgate Ceme-
tery. An industry which pays scant tribute to its real pioneers has
here an opportunity to express a lasting tribute to one, the most
distinguished of them.

The British Film Institute

elsewhere in this issue is an article which calls attention to defects
in the reviewing and appraisal methods of the monthly Film Bulletin
issued by the British Film Institute. This article is by no means the
first we have published in criticism of the Institute's methods and
policy during the past ten years. But we have every hope that it will
be the last. We do not propose here to recapitulate what has ap-
peared wrong, but rather to welcome (with any appropriate hatchet-
burying which may be necessary) the recent announcements regard-
ing the Institute's future. It would appear that under the new and
able chairmanship of Patrick Gordon Walker the Institute is now to
be given the scope and opportunity to become that alert, active and
constructive body which we all hoped for on its inception and which
all will agree is sorely needed today. It is understood that more ade-
quate (though not yet perhaps sufficient) finance is being made avail-
able— the new grant is nearly double the old — and that an inquiry is
to be held to determine the range of the Institute's activities in the
future. Some of its present activities may be found to be redundant;
for instance, much of its educational work which was begun at a
time when the then Board of Education sniffed at films, may now
well be transferred to the Ministry. Other of its work may now be
expanded and enlarged. It is- to be hoped that the reconstitution of
the Institute will make it the focal point for all special activities in
the world of film, that it will have a good-sized projection theatre,
and that it will be housed in a building large enough and suitable
enough for a policy of measured and confident expansion.

Ooh — mind my corns!

A chap we know was complaining the other day about how docu-
mentary was being oversold. He said every periodical and book he
picked up was plugging it and the radio prattled of nothing else.
Okay, but another chap we know went down to a west country
debating society and found nearly a hundred people believing that

a documentary was something which solicitors used to furnish their
offices. It appears that a loud noise in Soho Square is heard only
faintly at Land's End.

A Sad Loss

the death of Leon Schauder in a Dakota crash at Croydon is a
matter of distress to all concerned in the progress of documentary.
Schauder first became known here before World War II when
Gaumont British circulated his notable film Nonquassi. From then
on his work in developing his personal techniques (he was a camera-
man as well as a director), in presenting African problems in human
terms was of great value, not least during the war period. It is a
tragedy that he should have been killed just at the moment when he
was embarking on new and ambitious projects which, had he lived,
would we are sure, have established new channels of understanding
between Africa and the rest of the world.

Coinings and Goings

alex shaw has resigned from the Crown Film Unit, and his place
has been taken by John Taylor. All who know him will feel him to be
a worthy successor to Shaw, who did a most admirable job at the
Unit. Taylor is one of the veterans of documentary. He joined the
EMB Unit at the age of sixteen, and worked on most of the major
productions of documentary during the 'thirties, including a year
with Flaherty on Man ofArran. For the past nine years he has been
in sole charge of Realist Film Unit, and the high reputation of this
Unit is largely due to his efforts and guidance. Taylor's place at
Realist has been taken by Brian Smith. who has been responsible
for a number of its most successful directorial jobs during the past
few years.

The Films Act — Round Two

having submitted their proposals for the new Films Act in January,
the various trade bodies have now been called in by the Board of
Trade for individual discussions. The producers, backed by the
unions, favour legislation that will assist the rising standard and
quality of British production and eliminate the cheap and nasty. On
this very issue the old battle with the renting and exhibiting side of
the industry is, however, rejoined.

To give the cinema public a better balanced and more entertaining
programme of films means today improving what is commonly
called the 'supporting programme". This in turn means giving the
producers of documentary, cartoon and other specialized films
greater access to screen space and better renting conditions. The key
question this raises is whether the exhibitor and the renter are wise.
let alone justified, if they put the short-term considerations of the
increased expense this will involve them in. before the long-term
prospects of a live and developing British industry and better cinema'
entertainment. The way in which discussions at the Board of Trade
appear to have developed so far is not encouraging on this point.

Readers will notice that this issue of 'Documentary News Letter'' has been called April-May instead of March-April. The
cause was the intervention of the Fuel Crisis. The power cut disrupted the activities of the printer and 'D.N.L.' had to take
its place in the going-to-press queue. Next issue will be June- July and, fuel crisis willing, will appear early in June.

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

xl

— or

SPONSORSHIP

Films Don't Grow on Trees

the vast majority of British documentary films arc made at the
expense of Government Departments or industrial undertakings. In
short they are sponsored. Long-established sponsors like the Shell
Oil Group, the Gas Industry and M.O.I, (now C.O.I.) have recently
been joined by local government bodies and certain trade unions,
but such desirable developments do not affect the basic fact that
documentary production is unable to stand on its own financial feet
and to recover from distribution revenue sufficient money to meet
production cost.

It is easy to exaggerate the disadvantages of sponsorship. Most
documentary films made today are not suitable for production on a
non-sponsored or 'voluntary' basis. They form a legitimate part of
the public relations or educational policy of some industrial, govern-
mental, or 'social-purposed' organization. Their primary object is
not entertainment, and the audience whose needs they are designed
to serve, is not so constituted as to afford a financial return.

Let us, however, consider the position of any short documentary
production w hich is intended primarily to entertain cinema audiences
in terms which are not the concern of any available sponsor. Prior
to 1939 the cost of such a film is likely to have been in the region of
£1,500 per ten-minute reel; today the equivalent figure, due to in-
crease in labour and material costs, is more likely to be £3,000. And
the producer has still to face the basic problem of securing theatrical
distribution. If he is fortunate enough to do so he may hope for a
return, after deduction of distribution costs, of something in the
region of £250 a reel — one-tenth of his production cost.

Too much emphasis cannot be placed on this disparity. It lies at
the root of all current documentary policy. The short film (and often
the second feature) is regarded by cinema exhibitor and distributor
alike as mere fill-up material to be obtained at nominal cost. The
original cause of the trouble was the virtual giving away of American
supporting material, dance-band shorts and so on, by American dis-
tributors. This material had perhaps already earned its production
cost in America, and could in this country be thrown in as a make-
weight to help salesmen dispose of an expensive feature. The result
has been that British shorts and second features produced to com-
pete in this market have had to be made for a few hundred pounds a
reel, and, as a consequence, have almost invariably been so lacking
in quality that a fully civilized community would scarcely have per-
mitted their exhibition. Yet only a product so cheap and inadequate
could hope to recover its production costs.

It should perhaps be mentioned in passing that many of the
makers of these films, content to cling to their precarious livelihood
on a virtually unprofessional level of operation, have not hesitated
to attack the competitive distribution of high quality sponsored
films, on the grounds that the cinema is being used for commercial
advertising! We need not probe further into this odd concern for the
common weal which sees the public good served by some monstrous
collection of badly photographed scenic views, strung together at the
maximum possible length and condemns Target for Tonight, Song of
Ceylon and World of Plenty as 'advertising'. It is obvious to anyone
not blinded by his own commercial interests that public needs must
come first and that if, in present economic circumstances, these are
better served by the sponsorship method, then the source of the
production, finance, becomes a secondary consideration.

Yet the fact remains that great difficulty attends the theatrical
distribution of high-class documentary films whether sponsored or
otherwise. It is this which accounts for the high hopes attaching to
the recommendations now under consideration for the revision of
the Quota Act which in its present form shortl) expires. Previous
versions of the Act have done little for the documentary and short

film producer, but the hope is that the Board of Trade will see fit to
introduce clauses which will ensure not only that American short
and second feature footage is balanced by a high ratio of British made-
films in the same categories, but that eligibility to rank as quota shall
be contingent on a reasonably high level of production expenditure.
In brief the Act must contain a minimum cost clause for such films.
Documentary and specialized film-makers through their appropriate
organizations and with the support of many other powerful sections
of the industry are pressing for legislation to this end, and it is very
much to be hoped that what is generally admitted to have been
Britain's outstanding contribution to world cinema will shortly be
available on British screens. For the cynic might well argue that the
documentary film has two main characteristics — high quality coupled
with rare visibility!

But whatever the nature of new legislation, we must not lose sight
of the fact that if the production of documentary films were to be
put on an economic basis in the normal commercial sense, the need
and justification for sponsorship would by no means have passed.
This is not simply because films to be used for purposes other than
entertainment are likely always to require subsidy (notably in the
field of education) but that even films intended for theatrical dis-
tribution may appropriately express the point of view of some group
in the community, and that sponsorship finance may properly be
made available for the purpose. The film is perhaps the outstanding
instrument of group expression and provided entertainment stan-
dards are reached, the screen may well be used for public relations by
local governments, trade unions, public utilities, or the Government
itself. This practice is in line with modern democratic practice which
requires that every community group which renders a public service
should play its appropriate part in public enlightenment.

Indeed, there is much to be said for the view that ideas of social
value are more likely to originate from community groups operating
outside the cinema than as the result of the individual inspirations of
a film-maker — especially in view of the fact that the individual film
producer or film director is almost always answerable to a financial
group which may have no roots in the public service. For all films
are 'sponsored' in the sense that they must somehow acquire finance
in advance of production, finance which will not come back from
the box-office for months or even years. And the source of such
finance may well exert a direct or indirect influence on the nature of
the product. The idea of overcoming this difficulty by setting up a
State-controlled finance corporation or film bank for the provision
of initial production capital and anv other similar steps in the general
direction of the nationalization of the industry do not completely
dispose of this criticism unless important safeguards are provided.
For a film bank can hardly be quite free from an awareness of what
is in the interests of the existing structure of the State. \nd if we are
not to fall into the current errors of totalitarianism we must be careful
to watch that in escaping from the present financial stranglehold we
do not fall into another which may be equally oblivious of the
claims for self-expression of minority groups

The answei is. of course, that the onlj safe sponsor of documen-
tal \ films is the public itself acting through its commercial and p

fessional groups. 1 air mai keting conditions will, in effect, enable the
cinema-goei to act as an indirect sponsor but there will still remain
many films which derive from the need for self-expression o\ the

public in roles other than that of cine I he doctors will want

to have then sa) ; the postmen through their trade union perhaps, the

women's guilds, the local government officers, all ma> wish to reach
their fellow-citizens through the screen fheir power to do so should

be limited onlv hv their ability to hold the interest of an audie;

84

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

ODD MAN OUT

CRITICS IN CONFLICT

Members of the 'D.N.L.' Board normally contribute anonymously, but when 'ODD MAN OUT'
proves to be BASIL WRIGHT'S meat and EDGAR ANSTEY'S poison the Editorial 'We' is split

'A MASTERPIECE-
WRIGHT

Before going on record as saying that a film is a
work of art, and a fine one, a cautious look-
around is essential. In an industry where rasp-
berries are reckoned in superlatives the critical
eyes and ears are in danger of being clouded and
bemused. Anything which rises above the level
of mediocrity gives one a kick, and often one is
liable to overpraise.

Odd Man Out, however, has that something
extra the others haven't got. Exercise your
critical judgment as vigorously as you like, this
film does what no other British feature film has
ever achieved. It rings the aesthetic bell with as
loud a clang as do acknowledged masterworks
like Greed and Kameradschaft — to take two
widely-spaced examples.

Sense of shape, sense of drama — yes, including
the unities. Command of technique so skilled and
precise that it seems hardly possible. Impeccable
direction of impeccable actors. Absolute cer-
tainty of purpose. These qualities director Carol
Reed, whom we hereby salute with three times
three, possesses in full measure.

But it is in the richness of conception of the
story he has chosen to tell that Reed is streets
ahead of all but a few contemporary directors.
He certainly ranks with John Ford at his best.

Like Ford, Reed has not depended on an
original screen story. Indeed he challenges direct
comparison with Ford. Odd Man Out, like The
Informer, is based on an Irish novel. But, again
like Ford, Reed seems to have been helped, rather
than hindered by developing his work from the
novel-form. The transmutation is completely
successful. The novel, as it were, no longer
exists, but has been changed to something new
— something perhaps better. Incidentally, F. L.
Green, the author of the book, worked on the
script with R. C. Sherriff.

Anyhow, Odd Man Out is that rarest of things
— a film about human feelings and thoughts and
motives, all of which arc real and recognizable,
and touched with true pity and terror. It would
have been so easy to make nothing more than
a cracking good thriller out of this story of a
hunted, wounded fugitive from justice who
evades capture for eight hours in the city of Bel-
fast. But Odd Man Out is in no sense a thriller.
On the contrary, Reed has devoted himself, with
an integrity and intensity unique to the real artist,
to probing deeply into the human heart. In a
film surging with characters (literally hundreds,
some only glimpsed for a second, but remembered
longer), he depicts the diverse reactions of all
sorts and conditions of people to the hunted
Johnny.

Johnny has — not deliberately — shot an inno-
cent man during a robbery. Johnny is badly
wounded. Organized society is mobilized to hunt
him down. But Johnny is also a leader of a

political party — of the underground, as it were.
The robbery was planned to obtain funds, not
for gain. So all the people who come up against
the fugitive, and all those who are seeking him,
whether as enemies or friends, have secret
thoughts, secret motivations — and their secrets
are made plain by their words and actions, or in
their faces.

To all this Reed adds a lovely fresco of child-
ren— pathetic in the true sense of the word. Slum
children, bourgeois children (the little boys at
the snowy window for instance), all of them
weaving in and out of -the sombre story rather
like the child characters of Dostoievski. The little
girl with one roller skate is in my opinion one of
the loveliest images in movie since the dancing
peasant in Dovshenko's Earth.

Again, this is one of those rare films which
makes a genuinely creative use of sound. Technic-
ally it is one of the finest tracks I have ever heard.
Imaginatively, it uses all the sounds of a big city,
sometimes for emphasis, sometimes in counter-
point. There is a sequence where Johnny's girl,
seeking to throw off a plain-clothes man, goes
through a dance hall full of jitterbugging people.
The band reiterates, fortissimo, a brief, inane,
ugly phrase. She emerges. The plain-clothes man

is still with her. She walks down a street to the
priest's house. The plain-clothes man is still with
her. And with us too is the repetitive, grinding
echo of the dance band which never ceases till
the priest's door closes behind her. Then there is
the barking dog and the alarum bells as Johnny,
deserted by his pals, starts off on the run. And
throughout a delicacy of dialogue in undertones
and whispers — better, or at any rate, as well done
as in The Grapes of Wrath. Linking all is William
Alwyn's music — a fine score which is clearly
designed to be an integral part of the whole
sound pattern.

But above all it is people one remembers. Not
types, people. We can understand them because
they are real and ordinary — or, if, as with the
raving drunken artist, they are extraordinary, we
find in them the fantasia of our own sub-con-
scious.

With Odd Man Out British cinema has at last
come of age. In Carol Reed we have, in my
opinion, one of the finest artists the screen has
produced in any country.

The film must have cost the earth. Unlike some
other British productions, it is worth twice what
it cost, whatever the price. For you cannot set a
price to a work of art.

4A JEREMIAD— ANSTEY

Now I hope I am not one to use the critical
sledge-hammer to crack a nut, nor are my visits
to the cinema devoted exclusively to the pursuit
of social significance ; but I cannot escape the
conclusion that Odd Man Out is a shocking film.
Not so much in content or in manner as in the
fact that it has been made at all. And then again
less shocking in its making than in the eulogies
with which it has been received. For more than
one critic has acclaimed it as Britain's greatest
film of all time; and this means greater than Love
on the Dole, Song of Ceylon, In which We Serve,
and Brief Encounter.

Cast your mind back to Germany after the last
war. In those days the morbid screen drama of
the helpless individual struggling against malign-
ant circumstances was high art. The incessant
rain, the dark vice-ridden cities (The Street. Tin-
Joyless Street) provided a setting for the tortures
of sensitive souls hopelessly damned by man-
made civilization. The action moved from sordid
bedroom to disreputable cafe to brothel. And
through it all loomed the agonized face of
suffering Man.

It took us a few years to realize that we were
seeing in these technically admirable pictures a
symptom of post-war defeatism. They represented
the individual in escape from the hard facts of
European life. Man had destroyed his own world
and here was an attempt to scrape aesthetic satis-
faction from the destruction. It was the hey-da)

of schadenfreude, of happiness wrung from bitter-
ness. A few years later still we saw that this com-
paratively harmless use of the film carried grave
dangers. One had always been aware of the
adolescent satisfactions to be got from luxuriat-
ing in the sense of defeat of those woe-begone
productions (at twenty I still enjoyed every
moment of them). But later it became clear that
the mood which they represented, and indeed
fostered, provided an ideal spring-board for
coming totalitarian theories. The individual was
defeated : what could be more enjoyable than for
him to lose his individuality in some great, dark,
authoritarian force'.'

Is it unfair to consider Odd Man Out against
this historical background and to find a parallel?
It can scarcely be denied that at a time when the
country is exhausted by war the film wallows in
the hopeless plight of almost all its characters.
Although the purpose of the revolutionary raid
with which the film opens is to seize urgently
needed money for the "Organization' and, al-
though a large sum ofmonej is in fact stolen, the
film carefully ignores the positive achievement,
makes no reference to what is done with the
money and concentrates us attention instead on
the fact that the hero has lost faith in what he set
out to do. The plot is careful to permit him no
satisfaction, psychological or physical, of even
the most minor order. The fact that his girl dies
with him does not abate his tortured grimaces,

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

S5

nor does the girl find any noticeable Fulfilment.
The 'Organization' is left in despair, most of the
characters expose their smallness of spirit (it is
not without significance that only the priest
comes across as a character complete in him-
self) and the rain gives place to snow. Nor can
the film claim the diplomatic immunity of High
Tragedy. The incompleteness of the supporting
characters destroys hope o\' that. No true tragic
issue is allowed to mature. At the best it is Ham-
let with no one but the Prince.

I am here less concerned with detail than with
the over-all conception of the film, but the fact
must be faced that the rather alarming sympathy
which most critics have felt with the mood of this
picture, has blinded them to an exasperating
unevenness. There is some extraordinarily poor
acting (notably from the policemen) and levels

of characterization and accents of speech arc so
variegated that we have no consistent atmosphere
of Bellas! or any other real place. The sequence
Vi i ill the mad painter and the disreputable doctor
(a half-character this, if ever there was one)
belongs in another film — or perhaps constitutes
another short film in itself. For suddenly at this
point all attempt at realism goes by the board
and we nave a stvli/ed setting which might
almost have come from The Cabinet of Dr.
Caligari. And why has there been no reference
(in any review 1 have read) to patches of dialogue
couched in the embarrassing terms of cheap
sentimental melodrama? Mr. Mason does all
that is asked of him and my expectations were
keenly aroused by his early appearances as the
rebel leader. There were signs here of humour
and depth of feeling. But once he is wounded

he has to become a vague, inhuman religious
symbol and the brief dicker of healthy vitality
which he had given to the film dies out. Indeed
I maintain that there is only one thing in this
devitalized film desen ing the adjective 'great' and
that is Alwyn's musical score.

To sum up. The idea that Odd Man Out can
be regarded as a sort of Hymn to Charity is so
much mumbo-jumbo concealing the real truth
that it is an escape' film in the profoundesl sense.
In itself that is not important. But let us watch
carefully to sec that in periods of cold, discourag-
ing weather we do not too readily accept the view
that the defeat of all humanity's aspirations is not
only inevitable but aesthetically admirable. If
we are to have here in post-war Britain our own
particular brand of Jean-Paul Sartre's Existential-
ism, let us at any rate recogni/e it for what it is.

WHAT HAPPENS AT THE MOVIES?

we readily assume that the film occupies a large
part of daily life. Evidence obtrudes on all sides:
miles of queues, acres of posters, the fan maga-
zines on the bookstalls with their tittle-tattle of
the stars, and the daily conversations of millions.
But until comparatively recently little of this
evidence has been collected and examined with
real sociological intent.

Because cinema-going is heaviest in the Eng-
lish speaking countries, it is appropriate that
the sociological study of the film should have
originated in the U.S.A., and been developed more
recently in this country'. Eaber & Faber are to be
congratulated on their new series of film studies
on this subject which started with Margaret
Thorp's America at the Movies. This book, first
published in the U.S.A. in 1939, is one of the
best of its kind. Brimming over with facts which
must have cost a great deal of effort to collect, it
is well written and extremely entertaining. It sets
out to follow the sociological ramifications of the
film in America, primarily at the level of its
influence on dress, behaviour and personal habits
and opinions. It presents an astonishing variety
of information which is ready to hand about the
incredible doings of film-fans on the one hand
and the Hollywood film companies on the other,
about film morality, the Hays Code and the
lobbyings of sectional interests of the American
public eager to thrust their idea of what is right
and proper on the rest of the world. Since Holly-
wood films still occupy two-thirds of the world's
screen-time, much of this is of immediate rele-
vance to us all. Most revealing is the picture given
of the star-cult. There are straight commercial
aspects such as the fact that the sale of skates in
America went up 150 per cent when Sonja Henje,
the skater, became box-office, or the advertising
of this star's hair-style, or that star's way of
dressing and of such things as 'Judy Garland
dresses that will give any voung Miss the "swing
and smartness" of this famous M.G.M. star'.
Then there's the evidence of how millions of
Americans dress, eat, decorate their rooms a la
Bette Davis or Clark Gable. How millions more
solemnly lap up the emotional wash prepared by
the fan magazines. 'Gary Cooper is so darned
humble and honest about himself he still to this
day doesn't believe he has a thing any other guy
hasn't', and similar touches of common or un-
common humanity. The best thing about the
book is this evidence which it provides of how
films and in particular the stars in them have
givrn a badly needed focus to the hopes, desires

and ideals of at least one continent of emotion-
ally starved humanity. At the same time one
should remember that there is another side to this
influence. If a film can raise the standards of dress
and make-up and send people to the public libra-
ries to read the books on which various films are
based, the achievement is a positive one.

J. P. Mayer's Sociology of Film goes a step
beyond the superficial effects of the film on the
outward forms of behaviour and attempts to find
out a little more about the mass-psychological
influences at work. He is not content to collect
existing evidence. His book is made up for the
most part of specially prepared documents
detailing the individual reactions of a selected
number of children, adolescents and adults to
films. The work originated in the first place from
an inquiry which Mr. Mayer undertook in 1944-5
on behalf of the Rank Organization into Child-
ren's Cinema Clubs. The result is however, dis-
appointing. Despite the author's excuses in the
introduction, the book is unnecessarily heavy and
undigested. The opening chapters expound the
theory of the film as a popular art with copious
side references to the Elizabethan and Greek
theatre. But is it really necessary to parade such
an array of learning to convince us? When the
author at one point quotes Tacitus and insists
that 'we could fill many pages, if not a whole book
with similar quotations from Cicero, Livius.
Plutarch, Polybius, and many other Roman
classics' one's instinct is to duck and rush wildly
for cover. Quotation of this kind is also adduced
in support of the contention that the cinema is the
modern version of the 'bread and circuses' phase
in a society's development. Then follow a col-
lection of essays by a class of schoolgirls, replies
to a questionnaire put out by the Picturegoer and
various other reactions obtained from working-
class children. A certain amount of this material
is of undoubted psychological interest. It also
makes one wonder how literate people really are
in this country. But as a method of trying to
represent a mass phenomenon it is of question-
able value. The documents arc not sulfide
representative of the various classes, occupations,
age-groups, etc., for any findings to be at all valid
as a sample survey. On the other hand the
not prepared in a sufficiently imaginative or

interesting vvav to pass as individual social docu-
ments in the sense that Pilol Papers, foi example,
or even certain documentary films, irv to present
a mass problem in the light of one individual
example. It is difficult therefore to see how \ti

Mayer can justifiably go on to draw conclusions
from his evidence and propound various reme-
dies such as State censorship, State distribution
of films, etc. These may well be the correct
solutions, but we do not need to read through
200 or more pages of unrepresentative reactions,
to agree with him.

Despite these limitations in the methods he
has chosen to use, Mr. Mayer is nevertheless
doing useful work if he can succeed with this
book and with the second volume which is
promised, in drawing attention to the need for
developing the sociological study of the film. At
the same time there is another line of approach
which has not been tried to any great extent.
Elsewhere in this issue there is a study of the
French film, La Grande Illusion, by a Dutch
psychiatrist. He approaches the problem of the
film's mass psychological effect via an analysis of
the film itself. He attempts to show how a film
which ostensibly sets out to create new social
attitudes, in this case anti-war feelings, in fact
falls a victim to the old attitudes against which it
tries to evoke resistance. In certain respects, La
Grande Illusion, is an exceptional case. Few films
can equal it artistically and few set out so
obviously with positive social intentions. Never-
theless, it is true that the majority, if not all, films
do have quite concrete social relations of this
kind. In themselves and in the people, situations,
or things that they depict, they are at all times
either confirming or rejecting current social
values and attitudes whether they set out to do
so consciously or not. And it is of considerable
importance to realize that we are being 'got at' in
a social and political sense, in moments when we
are most relaxed and unsuspecting.

Through the analysis of actual films, through
the investigation o\' individual reactions and
through the collection of the more easily acces-
sible facts which Margaret I horp has drawn
attention to. it should slowlv be possible to build
up a rather more coherent picture of what all this
cinema-gomg is about And do not let us under-
estimate the importance of work of this kind. It
is not only essential to our understanding of the
business of making and showing films; it is also
intimately bound up with many of the problems
of present-day society.

America at the Movies by
(Faber and Faber. 1 2 -
Sociologj of i -iim bj i P Mayer

I illhl . I V)

M ret 'I horp

86

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

CANADIAN INITIATIVE

ISOBEL JORDAN writes of an important first step towards
the international co-ordination of the class-room film

the production of educational films to meet the
school curriculum has always suffered from the
severe economic handicap of unco-ordinated
curricula in different areas of the English-speak-
ing world. To obtain a common denominator,
certain agencies in the United States, Canada and
Great Britain have recently begun to conduct
negotiations. Mr. W. R. Speight, a member of the
Audio-Visual Aids Committee of the British
Ministry of Education, paid a two months' visit
to the National Film Board of Canada and
brought back a selection of Canadian films to be
adapted for use in British schools. Among the
films chosen were Canadian Landscape, a film
showing the Canadian artist A. Y. Jackson at
work; Salmon Run, a film describing the migra-
tion of salmon in the Fraser River; Life on the
Western Marshes, the story of how bird life is
protected on the prairies; and Great Lakes, a film
about shipping on Canada's inland water-way.

British Films Used

In reciprocation, the Canadian Film Board has
undertaken to distribute certain British films in
Canadian schools. Two such films at present
being shown to schools by the Board's mobile
units are Man: One Family and Your Children's
Eyes.

Meanwhile, one of the leading U.S. 16 mm.
distributors is conducting negotiations for the
adaptation to the U.S. curriculum of a series of
school films produced by the educational unit of
the National Film Board. The films will be made
with the documentary rather than the textbook
objective in mind; they will not attempt to give a
visual exposition of a particular lesson in
science, geography, mathematics or other topic
of a set curriculum, but will strive to acquaint the
child with aspects of life related to his own experi-
ence in his community, his country and his world.

The first group of films, the Junior Com-
munity Series, for example, has been designed for
primary grades. It will show the child what part
is played in his life by such familiar figures in the
community as the postman and the policeman,
and will describe how such everyday services as
water and electricity are brought to the child's
home.

Local Variations

There are several reasons why the National
Film Board of Canada decided to produce school
films of this broader kind. The first is the fact
that the Board is an agency of the Federal
Government, while education in Canada, as in
the United States, is largely under the jurisdic-
tion of the regional authorities. It has therefore
been found uneconomic to produce films dealing
with specific topics of a particular curriculum so
long as local and regional variations in the
curriculum make such co-ordination impractical.

Documentaries for Children

The actual pattern of these films has been
based upon the Board's wartime experience in
conducting film showings in schools. While the
Board did not make films specifically for school-

children during this period, being chiefly con-
cerned with producing material for adult show-
ings to rural and urban audiences, it did show its
programmes in rural schools. These programmes
included documentaries like Salmon Run, Great
Lakes and Life on the Western Marshes. It was
found that if these documentaries were presented
after the teacher had been supplied with back-
ground material, lesson guides and class-room
questions, they were not only readily adaptable
for direct teaching purposes, but capable of
stimulating the children to engage in discussions
and to embark on projects related to the themes
of the films.

Visual Units

Now that the Canadian Film Board has under-
taken the production of school films, it is adapt-
ing this lesson to the production of a complete
visual teaching unit made up of a film, filmstrip,
wall sheet and teacher's manual. In one of these
units, dealing with the function of the postman
in the community, for instance, the film describes
the work of the postman and the post office
through a meeting between a little boy, Bobby,
and the postman who brings a letter to his home.
The filmstrip gives an account of stamp collecting
and touches upon the geography of countries
from which stamps come. A silent segment is
included showing Bobby writing a letter. His
mother shows him how to address and mail it
properly. The wall sheet depicts the people who
speed the mail to its destination, the sorters and
dispatchers in the post office, the rural mail
carrier, the engineers on the trains and the pilots
who fly the planes. A second wall sheet describes
the correct way to address and stamp envelopes
and parcels. The teacher's manual provides a
lesson guide and discussion questions.

Advisory Committee

In order to ensure that the films produced will
be of proper pedagogical standards, the Board has
enlisted the support of the Canadian Educational
Association, a body reflecting the interests of
education in each of the provinces. The C.E.A.
has set up a Film Adv isory Committee composed
of teachers, Directors of Visual Education in the
provinces and members of the National Film
Board. The Canadian Teachers' Federation and
Provincial Ministers and Deputy Ministers of
Education have also been consulted.

Policy

The educational production unit in charge of
the scries has drawn up its editorial policy which
reads in part as follows:

'The curriculum is not our doctrine. We accept
its facts but remain free to interpret it with the
freedom allowed to all teachers. In approaching
each subject we will remember human needs,
human ambitions and human achievements in
that order. We will place our camera on the
inside of every subject and look outward with its
people. Our thinking will be in terms of people;
the family unit in relation to the larger com-
munity ."

Guidance for Film-makers

The Film Advisory Committee laid down a few
guiding rules for technical treatment which may
be summarized thus:

(1) Technical treatment should be simple since
a child is bewildered by fade-outs and similar
photographic devices.

(2) There must be continuity in the story as a
child tends to remember things in the order in
which he sees them. Flash-backs are to be avoided
as confusing.

(3) Scenes must not be too short nor follow one
another too quickly — the tempo must be slow.

(4) Major characters in films should be children
as a child is interested in other boys and girls of
his own age.

(5) Commentary should be used sparingly at
points where it is essential; the visuals should tell
the story.

(6) The musical score and sound effects should
be kept to a functional minimum.

(7) Each film should contain a recapitulation
at the end.

Appraisal by Teachers

The second task of the Film Advisory Com-
mittee has been the preparation of film evaluation
sheets for use with each film which will be
screened by an evaluating panel of teachers.
These sheets will ask for a grading of each film
indicating its suitability for primary, elementary,
intermediate or senior high school; they will
request an opinion of the sound and photography,
and seek comments as to the film's teaching
value. The sheets will also contain a synopsis of
the film, its curricular classification, the name of
producer and distributor, and the date of pro-
duction, a description stating whether it is black
and white or colour, sound or silent, and a state-
ment of the length and price.

Tie-ups

In conjunction with this project, the educa-
tional unit of the Board has undertaken to corre-
late its own films as well as British, American and
other foreign films in its possession with the
curricula of each of the nine provinces. The Brit-
ish film Your Children's Eyes, for instance, is
being classified thus: suitable for Grades VIII
and X in Saskatchewan and Prince Edward
Island, and for Grade IX in Ontario.

Master Catalogue

In addition to this classification scheme, the
Educational Division of the Distribution Depart-
ment of the Board is preparing a master catalogue
of all the school films, from Government, private
and international sources that are available in
each of the nine Prov incial Department of Educa-
tion libraries. Provincial Directors of Audio-
Visual Education have been asked to forward
copies of their catalogues with the films suitable
for teaching that have been in frequent demand
appropriately marked and graded. These film
titles will be catalogued alphabetically with pro-
ducer, length, grading and price indicated to-
gether with a listing of the provincial libraries
where thej maj be obtained. W hen completed.
this catalogue will have classified all the backlog
of school films in Canada, and will be the first
project co-ordinating the work of all Canadian
provinces in anv field in the sphere of education.

If work of this sort can be adapted to a still
larger area, the plan of an international school
film exchange may well become a feasible pro-
ject.

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LEI I I U

87

NEW LIGHT ON AN OLD FILM

A Psychiatrist analyses La Grande Illusion

[This abridged study by C. van Emde Boas, ai
leading Dutch psychiatrist, was first published
in 'Freie Katheder', a Dutch literary periodical last
year. It is one of several sociological studies
which he has made of selected films.]

La Grande Illusion is accepted as one of the
most perfect productions of pre-war French film-
making. It is also a film » ith a purpose, preaching
the fraternization of peoples with such fervour
that it is frequently considered unsuitable for
public performance. What I am concerned with
here is not its artistic quality, but whether it is
really an anti-war picture and whether its effect
on the average cinema-goer is such as the pro-
paganda pretends it to be. Although my own
initial reaction on seeing it was one of deep
emotion, I cannot help on reflection considering
it politically a complete failure. Despite its
artistic qualities and its superficially humanistic
intentions, it has, I feel, a strong reactionary
undercurrent.

To assist readers who did not see or do not
remember the picture a short summary of its
contents will be necessarv .

The Story

In the war of 1914-1918 a French plane flown
by Lieutenant Marechal and Capt. de Boieldieu
is shot down by the famous German fighter-
pilot. Cavalry Captain von Rauffenstein. The
German, the prototype of .the well-educated
aristocrat of the old school who knows how to
beha\e towards his defeated adversary, welcomes
the prisoners most courteously and offers them,
according to the rules of the game, an excellent
lunch in the officers' mess. The Count de Boiel-
dieu, in particular, who is his social equal, is
treated with all the consideration he could ask
for. The French are then brought to a prison
camp and soon they begin to dig an escape tunnel
from the dormitory to the open field. We see life
in the prison camp, the Prussian officers and the
jovial militiamen, all portrayed in the sympa-
thetic light of an ennobling humanism, of the
relationship of 'man to man'. The old guards are
mild and human, full of understanding for the
prisoners. Then comes the disappointing transfer
of the prisoners on the day the tunnel was to ha\e
been used. By chance the principal figures meet
again in an old castle in the mountains, specially
arranged as a camp for prisoners who have tried
to escape. Von Rauffenstein is the commander,
a job he loathes, as he admits to Boieldieu, but
which enables him after all to serve his country.
Again an escape is planned, this time it goes off
successfully, due to the self-sacrifice of Boieldieu.
He succeeds in distracting the attention of the
castle garrison by playing the flute on the highest
tower of the castle, but has to pay for it with a
bullet in his stomach from the revolver of the
commander who shoots him 'with a bleeding
heart', 'doing his duty', when Boieldieu refuses to
come down. Marechal escapes with 1 ieutenant
Rosenthal, the son of a rich Jewish hanker, and
both try to reach Switzerland. The) Bnd shelter
in a farm near the frontier where a young peasanl
woman has been left alone with a little girl. All
the men are gone, killed. There is a wonderful

■ • i-; when she points to the portraits: "I iege,
Tannenberg, our greatest victories.' Again the
film demonstrates how important the relationship
is between human beings: the German farmer's
wife and the French pilot fall in Io\e and the
German child is cared for by the enemies of its
country. But when Rosenthal's foot which has
been injured is healed, the escape proceeds.
Marechal promises to come back after the war 10
fetch I Isa and then they vanish into the night to
reach Switzerland safely.

Conscious Motive

From this short summary it should be clear
even to those who have not seen the picture, that
what we might call the conscious, or the higher
motive of the film is a pre-eminently ethical and
humanistic one which moves us deeply and can-
not be overlooked by a single spectator. The act
o\' fraternization remains the leading theme
throughout the whole film. When von Rauffen-
stein asks the captured staff officer whether he is
related to the military attache in Berlin and they
start talking about Mile Fifi at Maxim's and
about Oxford, the individuals are at once set free
from the group (i.e. German or French in this
case) which kills every tender feeling. They have
achieved a common human basis on which a new
relationship is possible. And that same motive
comes in repeatedly: whether it is the sympathy
shown by the German guard for the French
lieutenant who goes crazy in solitary confine-
ment, or the attachment of the French farmer's
son to the farm and the way he speaks to a Ger-
man cow as if it were a human being. The fact
that love overcomes all national antagonisms,
that the charm of a little girl and the magic of the
Holy Crib bridge all differences of language, all
this enables us to accept a picture, so 'human' in
the best sense of the word, as a whole. "On
n'apprend que de celui quon aimeY

The Dangers

But this is just the thing which makes this film
so terribly dangerous. Right next to these anti-
war passages, but much less visible and more dis-
persed throughout the whole story, we find
elements which may easily reconcile us to the
idea of war unless we can succeed in dissociating
them from their deceptive cover of honour,
chivalry, patriotism and duty. The pathos of the
scene of the defeated French pilot being lunched
in the German officers' mess and the chivalrous
idea of the wreath dropped by the German squad-
ron leader in honour of his dead French adver-
sary, are perhaps the least dangerous. Anv cinema-
goer can see through this false show as long .is
he remembers Rotterdam, Warsaw and London.
\tiei the murderous air battles above Berlin and
the atomic bomb on Nagasaki aerial warfare Ins
ceased to be a tournament for modern knights d
la von Rauffenstein. But Renoir himself could
not possibly think of that in I93S and therefore
it should be considered his special merit that he
even then attached this element of empty war

romance exclusively to an effete aristo

Much less transparent is the cited ol the Outburst
of patriotism introduced quite oaturallj when
the Fort Douamont near Verdun changes hands

several times, it is only on careful reflection that
one realizes that the glamorous and stirring tune
of the Marseillaise, gripping not only the French
on the screen but e\en the spectator in the
cinema, is one of the refined means by which
more 'kriegsbereitschaft' is let loose on the
spectator than all the other anti-war tendencies
in the rest of the picture, can keep in check I ven
less apparent and less intense, but more perma-
nent and uninhibited by any contradictory feel-
ing, the pro-war tendency works via our inevit-
able sympathy with the prisoners and their
repeated and finally successful attempts to escape.

'La Patrie'

The effect of a film as well as of a drama is
based upon our identification with the persons
on the screen or on the stage. The anti-war
tendency, preached openly and quite honestly
by Renoir, is, however, entirely undermined by
this identification. F or, why do these men try to
escape? Why do they repeat their efforts in spite
of solitary confinement, transfers, and all sorts
of drawbacks and dangers, with an obstinacy and
a courage deserving a better cause? Because they
are fed up with the war and military rigmarole?
Because they are longing for the peace and com-
fort of Switzerland, the neutral modern Canaan?
Not at all! All these grown-up men are moved
only by a single idea, a single ideal which is not
called 'home' or 'wife' or 'work' and 'child' but
'La patrie'. Rosenthal, the 'sale juif expresses it
when he says towards the end of the film that he
is going back to his guns and Marechal to his
flying. For here lies the greatest weakness of the
film — or, from the point of view of the ruling
ideology its greatest strength: war is portrayed
throughout this whole anti-war picture in a
special way. We feel its threats, we undergo
force as an evil working from a great distaiK
tragically inevitable fate coming over mankind.
Everybody mourns for it, everybody suffers but
no one is guilty. Outside death rages mercilessly,
but nobody is responsible for it.

All the factsweheard after 1918 about profit-
eering, imperialistic cliques, trusts, international
carte? arrangements and so on, are entirely tor-
gotten in the intoxication of nationalistic feelings.

Beneath the Surface

In short, under the cover of fraternization and

a humanistic ethic the fatal inclination to look
upon war as something inevitable visiied b)
higher powers upon a guiltless world, is activated
bj this film. In this way it unwitting!) strengthens
the passive attitude of men and women towards
this human evil and stifles the inclination to
resisi which it pretends to call up. If this picture

is shown todav m a special performance as fre-
quently happens, it should be introduced and
explained and not onlv praised for its artistic
values. We should always ask. not onlv wh
the artistic quality of the art presented to us but
also what is its effect upon us and in which d
tiOD does it pull us. We should learn to ■
below the surface and to understand vsi
Renoir could not help himself; unless we want to

ome the victims of the verj dimes we are
pretending to light against,

88

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

NEW DOCUMENTARY FILMS

Instruments of the Orchestra. Crown for Ministry
of Education. Producer: Alexander Shaw. Direc-
tor: Muir Mathieson. Photography: F. Gamage.
Music: Benjamin Britten: played by the London
Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Dr. Malcolm
Sargent. Distribution: M.G.M. (Theatrical) and
C.F.I. (Non-theatrical). 21 mins.

There has been much controversy about this
film which belongs to the Ministry of Education's
experimental series of visual units. Instruments of
the Orchestra sets out to explain to children the
various instruments, the contribution each makes
to the ensemble, and the way in which the
various sounds created are integrated into one
harmonious whole by the composer and con-
ductor. Crown Film Unit has enlisted for this
purpose the aid of Benjamin Britten, Malcolm
Sargent and the London Symphony Orchestra,
on the very proper assumption that only the best
is good enough for children.

Some people have quibbled about the expen-
siveness of this production and have claimed that
as much, or more, could have been taught for half
the cost. It is true that this production has a cer-
tain luxurious pace about it and that is far re-
moved from many of the over-earnest and un-
imaginative classroom efforts we have seen. It is
equally true that other means might have been
used. For example, we might have had a solemn
film in which each instrument was much more
painstakingly explained and illustrated, after
which one might feel certain that no reasonably
intelligent child could possibly confuse a piccolo
with an oboe. Nobody would claim such results
for Instruments of the Orchestra.

Does that mean that this film is a failure — or
that perhaps it had a larger purpose? It must be
assumed that the other media in the visual unit
will stress the individual characteristics of the
instruments and perhaps show something of the
technique of scoring. The sound film, which is
the highspot of the visual unit, should integrate
this knowledge and consolidate it in the mind of
the child by the combined impact of aural and
visual illustration. (Care must be taken, however,
to ensure that a high quality of sound reproduc-
tion is achieved in the 16 mm. version.)

The film does in fact do its job of integration
superbly, and in so doing brings to the forefront
the implied motive behind the visual unit — the
development of the aesthetic senses of the
children. They can now see what all this study is
really about — the creation of beauty and expres-
sion of ideas. Here Benjamin Britten achieves a
triumph. His fifteen variations and fugue have
everything required; charm, melody and, above
all, simplicity. And Malcolm Sargent deserves
special mention, too, for his introduction of the
instruments in terms of unpatronizing homeliness,
though it would have been happier if he could
have been introduced and his function briefly ex-
plained as conductor. Instruments oj the Orches-
tra has received commercial distribution and this
raises certain questions regarding the Ministry of
Education films. In this case it would seem a sen-
sible decision, for the film has much to offer adult
audiences and should be popular. However, it

would be an undesirable development if classroom
films were made with an eye to theatrical distri-
bution, however tempting this might be from a
financial point of view.

Return to Work. Merlin Films for C.O.I, in con-
junction with the Ministry of Labour. Producer:
Michael Hankinson. Director: Gilbert Gunn.
Photography: Cyril Bristow. S/orv: Robert Waith-
man. Composer: Norman Fulton. Musical Direc-
tion: Dr. Hubert Clifford. Distribution: C.F.L.
and theatrical. 18 mins.

The purpose of this film is to show how the
Ministry of Labour trains disabled men so that
they can resume their place in industry. After
periods of training at special rehabilitation centres
even the most apparently hopeless cases gain
sufficient confidence and skill to earn their living
in jobs most suited to them.

The subject is an absorbing one but, unfor-
tunately, the presentation leaves much to be
desired. The film has at times a most objection-
ably patronizing tone, particularly when an
instructor lectures the disabled men on the
necessity for them to cultivate the qualities of
conscientiousness and honesty. Casting, too, is
careless and, at the cinema where the reviewer
saw the film, the audience was convulsed with
laughter at the antics and mannerisms of one of
the Ministry interviewing officers.

Apart from the photography the film is technic-
ally poor. The inordinate use of fades give it the
appearance of a succession of isolated episodes;
the spectator is constantly reaching for his hat
under the mistaken impression that he's had it.

In view of the resistance within the trade to the
showing of documentaries in the cinemas, it is to
be hoped that both C.O.I, and the producing
companies will devote more time, care and skill
to their films than is evidenced in this one.

A City Speaks. Films of Fact for the Manchester
Corporation. Producer: Paul Rotha. Associate
Director: Francis Gysin. Photography: Harold
Young and Cyril Arapoff. Music: William
Alwyn played by the Halle Orchestra conducted
by John Barbirolli. Maps and Charts: Isotype
Institute. Distribution: Not yet announced. 65
mins.

There is a beautiful reel in this film in which
Rotha and his team take Wagner and the Val-
kyries for a ride in a big way. The music is pro-
vided by Barbirolli and the Halle Orchestra. The
visuals, cut perfectly to the music, are of Man-
chester at play — football, dance halls, fun-fair
switchbacks, speedway-racing, wrestling and the
rest. This sequence has a big punch, and it comes
at the right moment — the moment indeed when
you are beginning to wonder if you aren't going
to be slowly smothered (perhaps not unpleas-
antly) in lsotypes and civic consciousness. The
skill of Rotha and his associate Francis Gysin is
indeed notable throughout the film in that the
didactic or the tendentious is never allowed to
overbalance the human interest for too long.

Faced with the not entirely enviable task of
cramming all Manchester into a little over an
hour, they have devised a system of cross-section-
ing the different aspects — organizational, histori-
cal, sociological, personal — in blocks, rather than
attempting an impressionistic synthesis. While
this method inevitably leads to lengthiness as far
as the film's total structure is concerned, it does
make for a clear presentation of the basic argu-
ment. This argument is that any citizen — as it
might be you or me — considering the community
in which he lives, must look at it from not one,
but a series of points of view; only by doing so
can he get a clear understanding of the overall
situation and problems at any given moment.

The film is so devised as to be a 70-minuter for
Manchester and other interested cities of the
Midlands, and, by eliminating the centre reels, a
45-minuter for general circulation. This ingenious
approach gets rid of what otherwise might have
been a major criticism, that the trend of the film
is too parochial. The reels dealing intimately with
Manchester's more particular problems can be
taken out without destroying the main purpose of
the opus, which is to delineate the principles of
local government (in big city terms) as a whole.

Photographically it is superb, with credits to
Hal Young and Cyril Arapoff. William Alwyn
contributes what is quite certainly his best score
since The True Glory. The editing — quite clearly
by Rotha himself — is brilliant, although certain
sequences, particularly early in the film, could
lose a fair amount of footage.

Apart from the later reels, this film lacks some
of the emotional impact of World of Plenty and
Land of Promise. Whether its expositional values
make up for this is something which only public
reaction can decide. In the meantime one may
salute a sincerely made film of major dimensions
which breaks no new ground but certainly builds
surely on a proven basis.

Cotton Comeback. Data for C.O.I. Producer:
Jack Holmes. Director: Donald Alexander.
Photography: Suschitsky. Distribution: Non-T.
C.F.L. 25 mins.

Few directors would envy Donald Alexander the
task of presenting a constructive and optimistic
picture of Britain's cotton industry. Now that
mining is on its way to becoming an efficient and
productive enterprise, cotton probably merits the
dubious distinction of being our most chaotic,
out-moded and unproductive industry. In the
words of the recent Working Party Report: 'The
time has come when all concerned must make up
their minds that they must move towards a major
transformation . . . unless they are willing to see
the industry drift into a period of prolonged
trouble and eventually shrink down to the size of
a minor British industry." This is the challenge
that Cotton Comeback puts on the screen.

The film centres around a Lancashire working
class familv ot'w hich the father has left the cotton
industry after vears of unemployment to work
in engineering. His two daughters have gone to
work in a modern and well-equipped null and are
anxious to persuade him to join them. The young
man of one of the daughters shortly to be de-
mobbed, brings the problem of his future career
into the familv discussion. A Town Meeting on
the future of cotton provides the focal point for
the thrashing out of these problems.

It is difficult not to compare this film with
The li\i\ I) < Live. In both cases one sees a family
group grappling with an important social issue.
But there the similarity ends. These are real cotton

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

8s>

folk, shrewd and sometimes obstinate, hut warm-
hearted always. They have a sturdy realism that
makes the Plymouth family seem like ghosts. In
a film where the naturalness of all the characters
is outstanding there is still room for a special
mention of the refreshing charm of the mill worker
and her boy-friend. (Unlike the sophisticated
miss of The Way We Live she will assuredly not
end up with a feature contract!)

It is ditlicult to deal with the policy questions
touched upon in Cotton Comeback, largel)
because the Working Party Report (to which
considerable though cautious reference is made)
has not yet been adopted, let alone implemented.
In these circumstances one cannot blame the
director for having depended a good deal on
exhortation. Stress had to be laid on the responsi-

bility of employers and workers alike to join in
the solution of the industry's problems, and this
means on the one hand the modernization and
rationalization of production and on the other
the taking up of employment in the mills.

The film struggles manlullv with these issues,
but it has pitifully little to go on. True, it is
pointed out, and even shown, that some en-
lightened employers are going to great trouble to
attract labour, but the key question of wages is
neither in fact nor, therefore, in the film, faced up
to. (At one point it even appeared that the
employers would do anything for the workers
except pay them a living wage!) But these are
small criticisms of an otherwise interesting, con-
cise and human film, of the type which the
average cinemagoer will welcome.

No. 5. Thoroughbreds for the World

Thoroughbreds for the World provides twenty
minutes of snob-appeal (Lord Derby, his home,
lis horses, Ins trainer, his stud groom), love-of-
animals appeal (racehorses from the Ciodolphin
Barb to Airborne, and from foalhood to matur-
ity), appeal to business instincts and patriotism
(bloodstock an important Mulish export), appeal
to sporting instincts (The Derbj and a rapid tour
of the world's classic horse-races), no sex-appeal.
two or three moments of great beauty (riderless
horses in movement », Britain's most meaningless
music track to date, and (almost certainly) one
yawn from the commentator between sentences
It is ve'l photographed, not \ery well directed,
and no more than competently cut. My guess is
that somebody broke his heart padding it out to
two reels, but it is all very picturesque and
tranquil to the point of boredom.

'THIS MODERN AGE' SERIES

Distribution: G.F.D. 20 mins. each film.

No. 3. Tomorrow by Air

Tomorrow by Air is an adequate survey of British
Civil Aviation from the pioneers of flight to the
jet-research Lancastrian. It contains a wealth of
good material — the historical stuff of early
aeroplanes is fascinating all by itself — and gives
a decent account of current developments. We
get a look at all the major civil aircraft types now
in service or under construction; we glimpse
research and development work in progress; the
Anglo-American jet race comes in and so do a
lot of other interesting things. Apart from a few
bits of mis-timing, a pointless musical score, and
a commentator who recites his stuff as if he didn't
know what it meant, didn't care what it meant,
and would rather be in bed anyway, this ought to
be a good film, but unfortunately it fails. It fails
because it is not exciting. Its fundamental fault
is that it poses no problem; there are no internal
tensions; it does nothing to the audience save
assure it that all is, and always has been, well
with British Civil Aviation.

Now, aviation is full of problems, both techni-
cal and social; air pioneering was a ditlicult, ill-
supported, haphazard business; public owner-
ship of airlines is a fine debating point; the fact
that flying is still attended by certain risks is
present in all our minds today; the problem of
technical achievement outstripping social advance
gi\es us all to think — in short the whole subject
bristles with fascinating intellectual exercises.
But no, instead of something which would arouse
discussion, get a reaction from its audience and
make people go through the motions of thought,
'This Modern Age' gives us a soothing cup of
warm cocoa — the very best cocoa, made with
real milk, but not the stuff to jerk the cinema
addict up in his seat; not the stuff to set the
customers arguing in the aisles, and not the stuff
to bring them back next week asking for more.
I his is a pity. The 'This Modern Age' series
set a high standard with their housing film, and
the Unit now have a big chance to lay about
them with vigour, vitality and gusto. Let them
tilt at a windmill or two, they have excellent
lances and a free right hand; let them attack with
violence or present some reasoned arguments,
let them have a hearty crack at doing something
and aiming somewhere. Enough of this over-

optimistic 'Pippa passes' business, with skill and
craftsmanship in an industrial heaven, and all's
right with the world. We know we're good, now
let's hear how we might be better.

Actuality is not enough — it's got to be creative
handling of actuality, and creation is a shocking,
vitalizing, disturbing affair, quite different from
warm cocoa.

And there ought to be a legal way of banning
the line 'Then came — war! (boom — boom)' from
commentaries for the next ten years.

No. 4. Fabrics of the Future

Fabrics of the Future succeeds because it does
what Tomorrow by Air and Thoroughbreds for the
World (especially Thoroughbreds for the World)
fail to do — it poses a problem. In fact it poses a
whole row of problems, and so it makes you
listen and watch.

Through the Middle Ages, it argues, Britain's
prosperity was built on wool, and in our own
time the Dominions are big exporters of wool to
Britain. A widespread and important economic
set-up exists to deal with the world's wool. Now,
along come synthetics — textiles made from wood
pulp, dead fish, glass or what have you. Where do
we go from here? Can the wool trade fight back ;
ought it to fight back ; do we want it to fight back?
Can it cope with its internal problems — labour
shortage, bad factory conditions and so on?
What is it doing to improve its product? The
film doesn't supply all the answers, nor should it
— it awakens interest in what is evidentK a verj
real problem, and it does so in an honest, work-
manlike fashion.

Considering issues 3, 4 and 5 of the 'This
Modern Age' series together and in the light of
the earlier issues {Homes for Ml and Scotland
Yard) it is apparent that the Unit still has a good
deal to leai □ about sound-track — what to put on
and how to time it with the shots; how to achieve
some sort of synthesis so thai tracks and \isual
fuse up into a lihn: and a lot to learn about how
the facts which they photograph so well can be
made intellectually or emotionall) exciting. The
public cinema screen in this country is wide open
to the 'This Modern Age' series, and the age is
full of problems and perplexities for the public
cinema audience put these two tacts together
and watch them Hare up into something line.

No. 6. Palestine

The subject of Palestine and its political prob-
lems is for many of us these days an incentive to
reach for the bromide, prepared to swear that
any piece of film speaking on the subject is going
to have its message countered by the next piece.
'This Modern Age' manages to hold back the
sedative-craving arm just long enough — and
then to say quite simply, 'There are two sides to
this question; we will take them one at a time.
First, the Jews'. It proceeds to do so. It then does
as much for the Arabs. Though one has the im-
pression that less space is devoted to them, the
balance struck leaves each side equally deserving,
each equally blameworthy. The whole approach
is feeling and sincere, with a pleasant quality of
restraint which colours both commentary and
visuals.

'This Modern Age, No. 6' is another attention-
holding production whose qualities — particularly
photography— lead one to hope we may soon
forget to compare it with earlier products of the
same genre. It will be interesting to see whether
the fretful stridency of the March of Doom
catches the ears of world audiences more firmly
than the reasoned, warmer tones of this latest
film periodical.

No. 7. Coal Crisis

This is by far the best issue of 'This Modern \ .
so far It bears every e\ idence of careful scripting,
and of skilled shooting to the script. It is a diffi-
cult and tricky subject which might easily have
been spoiled by timid handling; fortunately the
editorial approach adopted is both couraei.
and clear-headed Points o\ fact and points of
argument arc fairb and squarel) presented, and
.is a result the cinema-going public at large has
the opportunity to gel a clear understanding o\
the basic long-term issues behind the fuel crisis.

Ii is gratifying also to note a great improve-
ment on previous issues as regards (he sound-
track. The commentary is brisk and incisive, and
the music is not onl) appropriate but also spar-
inglv used, lis absence when points of major
emphasis are made is extreme!) effective, and
certainly much more so than the usual blan
trumpets beloved o\ screen journal

1:1 his Modern Vge' can keep up to this stan-
dard it will be the best series of its type anywhere.

[continued ;•

90

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

INSIDE INFORMATION ON

NON-THEATRICAL DISTRIBUTION

scarcely ever does one sit down in a theatre to
listen to some sound rushes, or hear a commenta-
tor's voice coming out of the monitor room loud-
speaker, or see a rough-cut at the C.O.I, theatre,
but somebody raises the old query: 'Yes. But
how will it come over on 16 mm.?'

The documentary movement is rapidly getting
itself all confused over 16 mm. sound. The few
people who have bothered to attend non-
theatrical shows have generally come away full of
blackest despair. And rightly so. They have circu-
lated horrible stories of invisible picture and in-
audible sound. They have possibly sworn that
something must be done about it. They have per-
haps written to the C.O.I. They have almost cer-
tainly blamed the unfortunate recordist who shot
the track. But for all the good that has resulted
they might just as well have stayed at home.

During the war we had to put up with the best
that circumstances could provide. It was a pretty
poor best, but conditions were certainly difficult.
But now I am convinced that it is high time we all
adopted a clearer outlook on this most vexed and
most important problem.

From the point of view of a technician I should
like to air my views on my side of the affair. I feel
fairly strongly about it because when an unin-
telligible sound track accompanies the visuals at
a non-theatrical show, it is invariably the sound
engineer who gets the blame. And it is generally
not his fault.

To begin with, I want to emphasize that, given
a fair break, the 16 mm. sound track can be, for
all practical purposes, every bit as good as the
35 mm. version. And I shall be only too happy to
prove it to anybody.

But before this can happen every stage in the
long, tortuous chain of events must be given at
least as much care as the standard film gets. The
16 mm. film has to cope with a rather different set
of conditions from the standard cinema. These
conditions do not necessarily make it more diffi-
cult to produce, but jt is not fair to project any
one of a large batch of doubtful optically reduced
prints on a glorified toy of a projector in a room
with the acoustics of a public lavatory — and to
expect perfect reproduction.

What actually does happen? Let us assume that
the studio has done its work perfectly. A first
class combined print is delivered to the C.O.I.
Nobody has any complaints about the sound. If
dialect has been used, it has been used intelli-
gently. If there are music or effects, they do not
clash with the spoken work. The track is well
modulated, and for once the laboratory has hit
on the correct density. Everybody is happy and
two hundred prints have got to be on non-
theatrical circulation by next Monday fortnight.

Somebody orders some combined fine grain
prints to send to the optical reduction people.
Docs anybody examine these prints? Perhaps two
or three labs, will produce their quotas of 16 mm.
prints in the specified time. Does anybody exam-
ine these prints? The C.O.I.'s own film Shown by
Request proved conclusively tli.it they don't.
They arc numbered, filed, canned, indexed,
labelled, sorted and dispatched. But I am darned
sure that nobody bothers to take a look at each
print to sec that the lab. has been behaving itself.

by a TECHNICIAN

And even if they did, is there anybody there
who knows what to look for? Does the C.O.I.
possess a densitometer? And could anybody read
it if they did? Does anybody bother to check with
the recordist as to what the print density should
be? Or tell him which lab. is to be used so that he
can take some precautions himself? Does any-
body at the Central Film Library know the
difference between a gamma and a gadfly?

I have seen prints on circulation which have
been so light that the track is almost invisible;
tracks so hopelessly under-exposed or under-
developed that they had no hope of being intelligi-
ble through sheer distortion. Such prints, we
know, should never have left the laboratory. But
what laboratory is going to bother to be parti-
cular when the customer is not?

But let's be generous again. Suppose a good
print does find its way into circulation. What
happens then? It will be projected by some over-
worked projectionist in a village schoolroom.
Does he attempt to treat the acoustics of the
room? When a recordist has to record dialogue
under such conditions he takes with him enough
felt or other acoustic material to absorb some of
the unwanted reflections from the walls and floor.
He cannot make a studio out of it, but he can
make the difference between usable sound and

useless sound. But the projectionist is not
equipped with enough material often to black-out
the hall for the feeble light from his projector to
reach the screen. He cannot possibly turn the hall
into an acoustically perfect theatre for perhaps
one show, but at least he could make the attempt.

And what of his projector? Many of the
machines now in use can fairly be described as
robust and w ell-made playthings. But as precision
machines intended for the education and instruc-
tion of thousands who have no other access to
the cinema they are a monstrous and iniquitous
waste of money.

A 35 mm. projector in a normal cinema is
heavily and rigidly constructed. It is not carted
from place to place in a lorry. It does its work in
a building intended solely for the purpose. In fact,
it has every advantage. But even then it has to
have regular servicing. Frequent tests are carried
out by competent engineers to see that it is
always in perfect condition. But the 16 mm. port-
able is virtually ignored. It is allowed to go until
it stops. Then it is sent back for repair. The pro-
jectionist is not provided with the elementary
equipment for keeping the soundhead in correct
focus or proper alignment. No standard test film
is issued to him. He does his best under absurd
conditions, but there is no real need for these

announce further
films completed

From: "The Technique of Anaesthesia" Series

Intravenous Anaesthesia Part 2.
Signs and Stages of Anaesthesia.
Carbon Dioxide Absorption Technique.
Respiratory and Cardiac Arrest.
Operative Shock.
Handling and Care of the Patient.

(Available lo approved medical audiences only.)

From: « The Health of Dairy Cattle" Series

Hygiene on the Farm.
•
From the " Soil Fertility " Series

Factors of Soil Fertility.
Lime.

Land Drainage.

PENICILLIN

The story of its discovery and development,

and the use of penicillin on war casualties.

Other films in production will be announced when completed.

Applications tor the loan of these films should be made to the

Central Film Library. Imperial Institute, London, S.W.7

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

<>l

conditions to exist at all. We cannot expect all at
once to have brand new high class machines issued
all round, but there are certain elementary pre-
cautions which could be taken to see that the
show gets half a chance. But nobodyseems to care

That is what seems to me to be so terribly
wrong with the whole business. Nobody cares.
They say they do. They give pep talks about the
enormous social importance of the shows they
organize. They haver about the hundreds o!
thousands of people who see the light of modern
social progress through the medium of the non-
theatrical cinema. But they don't seem to have
the nous to employ a technically efficient depart-
ment which could give this cinema the chance it
deserves. Get the films out in sufficient numbers.
See that the copies go to the regions on time.
Drag bored people out of the wet into the \ iilage
hall. Then we've all done our duty. It doesn't
matter whether anv one has the faintest idea what
the film is all about. The attendance figures look
good on paper.

But this is all assuming that the studio has done
its work well, and that a good print has managed
to tiller through. What happens when the studio
has filled the track up with impossibly broad dia-
lect, with a music background so heavy that even
on standard projection the dialogue is hard to
follow? Or when the laboratory has produced an
almost black sound track with the track area
well out of alignment'.' What happens? Well, just
you wander along to the next C.O.I, show in your
nearest village. You'll see the vicar and his wife,
three labourers who have come in because the
local's out of beer, two couples taking advantage
of the darkness, and half a dozen children. That's
what we're making films for. I know that when
two or three are gathered together . . . and so on.
But is it really worth while?

GRAPHICS IN CANADA

by GRAHAM McINNES

Co-ordinator of Graphics Division — National Film Board of Canada

wim i the spearhead of any educational or in-
formational him project remains the sound
film, its value both to sponsor and producer —
to say nothing of audience -can be greatly en-
hanced by its considered correlation with other
visual media. This at least is the conclusion we
have reached in Canada; and if the fact that the
National Film Board is equipped to produce all
the visual media, more or less under one roof,
has had a bearing on that conclusion, the need
lor well-rounded exposition first showed itself
in the field : in the grass roots.

As growing sponsorship by Government de-
partments brought with it a need of guaranteed
and specialized distribution, there also arose a
demand for a wider and more lasting presenta-
tion than was possible through the film alone.
The key to the fulfilment of this demand lay
with the establishment of a Graphics Division
and the setting up of a Liaison Department.
Both sections were set up under Grierson's
regime, but their function and scope have been
greatly enlarged and geared more closely to the
film programme by his successor, Ross McLean.

It is now the duty of each member of the
Liaison Department to become an expert both
on the needs of a group of government depart-
ments and on the various visual media which the
Film Board can produce. As the Board is
partially dependent upon sponsorship for its
operating costs, the task of the Liaison Officer

FILMS OF GREAT BRITAIN LTD

&

SCRIPTURAL PRODUCTIONS

Under the Direction of

ANDREW BUCHANAN

//•»,,/ Offices

PARK STUDIOS, PUTNEY PARK LANE, S.W.15 Putney 6274/4052

red Offire

CLIFFORDS INN, E.C.4

Cult

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Holborn L855

Gerrard 8519

takes t)ii at times a poignant urgency. He must
maintain the closest contact with Ins opposite
number in agriculture or national health, and
with the producers concerned ; and the midwife's
cares weigh heavily upon his shoulders. On to
his desk come all the producer's troubles, yet
he docs not at any time come between the pro-
ducer and the sponsor when direct contact is
necessary. In a sense, however, he protects both
producer and sponsor from arbitrary claims
advanced by either side, and is responsible for
all the contact work which might otherwise
occupy the unit manager.

1 1 is also through him, as often as not, that the
various film and non-film producers are brought
together with the sponsor round a table and
matters of media thrashed out. The Graphics
Division of the Board is equipped to produce
still pictures, film strips and slides, displays and
small exhibitions, wall-sheets, posters, photo-
gelatine sheets, maps, charts and certain publica-
tions. The task of convincing a sponsor that what
he needs is not 'a film' or 'maybe a small paper
display', but a considered combination of
possibly several media, falls initially to the
Liaison Officer. But he in turn is greatly assisted
by co-ordination between the various production
units. Though this often means committee
meetings and memoranda in quintuplicate rather
than the careless rapture of ad hoc production, it
also means that the individual producer, while
holding prime allegiance to his own medium, sees
the informational programmes and problems of
the Board as a whole.

A film producer, in a conference, is just as apt
to suggest a filmstrip or a wallsheet as a display
producer is likely to suggest a film. Thus we all
take in each other's washing and the result is that
the sponsor can be assured of his message re-
ceiving wide and continual attention, and is, in
the long run, more likely to avail himself of the
Board's services. There is the further point that,
no matter how many media he may wish to use.
he is dealing with a single organization and, ex-
cept during production, often with a single man
— the Liaison Officer.

Such an arrangement has naturally led us in
the direction of the visual unit, and our first
pilot model, produced for classroom use with
the advice of the 1 ilms Committee of the Canada
and Newfoundland Education Association, is
now being tested in Canadian schools. The theme

1 he Policeman' and the unit consists .
one-reel sound film, a half-reel silent film, a
film strip in colour and four wall-sheets It has
been designed to appeal to schoolchildren be-
tween the ages of six and nine dnd. if successful,
will be followed by others.

Another venture, sponsored by the Polymer

i Crown* companv producing

synthetic rubber consists of a film, stills cover-

oi the processes involved, a travelling display,

newsreel coverage, a booklet . . . and a (. hristmas

card. In the past ve.it of consolidation, which has

involved a certain amount of shortening sail, we
have found that nearh all is grist that comes to the
\l M mill l urther, the sponsor finds that, unlike

the mills of God. we grind them out pn

1 Stale-owned.

92

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

CORRESPONDENCE

sir : Why No Labour Films? draws attention to an
important field of work. Doreen Willis's article
poses the problem and I hope that DNL will not
let it go at that. The next two questions are,
'What is to be done?' and 'Who shall do it?'. If
the decisions reached and the actions arising out
of them are to be realistic it is necessary to be
aware of things as they are at present and the
reasons for them. 'It might have been hoped that
the advent of a Labour Government would auto-
matically have solved it by opening out new
vistas of social film-making . . .' Perhaps that is
what a lot of people connected with documentary
films thought, but why? Nothing ever happens
automatically in human society and there is very
little evidence in the history of the Labour Move-
ment to suggest that such a thing would happen.
Documentary offers a new technique in educa-
tion especially suitable for the subjects which
concern the Labour Movement, but the Move-
ment has shown little interest in education of any
sort within itself, much less in new techniques of
education. By 'education' I here mean the educa-
tion of the people in the history, problems and
tasks of the working-class in all its aspects, politi-
cal, economic, social and cultural.

The very success of such documentaries as
Housing Problems and The Londoners is at present
a stumbling block to the use of film by the
Government and something of the reason why is
hinted at in Doreen Willis's remarks about The
Railwaymen when she says 'But the idea which
remained in our heads long after seeing the film
was horror at the low rate of wage beingoffered. . .'

And what about the working conditions, which
in the case of the railway workshops are not
regulated by the Factory Acts? How much the
same could be said of road and sea transport,
iron and steel, brick making, building and tex-
tiles. Even in the case of the mines, wages and
conditions are still a matter of promise rather than
performance. There is still a lot to be done
before honest films of these industries can show
a prospect that can make a practical appeal to
the man who has a home to build or a factory to
maintain. Until it is, one can expect a certain
amount of diffidence on the part of the authorities
who should be sponsoring them. All this does
suggest that there is room for short discussion
films on these subjects if only their natural spon-
sors, the Labour Movement, could be induced
to embark on them.

If the makers of documentaries still regard
film as a pulpit in the service of the people they
must be prepared to show initiative in making it
so and get down to detailed activity in conjunc-
tion with the increasing number of groups and
individuals in the Labour Movement who are
interested. Nor should they forget that there is
considerable TU activity within their own in-
dustry whose knowledge and experience should
be valuable. Any such activity will almost
certainly start in London, but London is not
England and they will travel faster if they get
things moving in other parts of the country as
soon as possible.

Regarding films made or making for the AEU,
ETU and NUT & GW, are they going to be
shown outside their respective unions and, if so,
to what extent? It may not be possible to supply

REALIST FILM UNIT

Producers of
Instructional and
Documentary Films
Since 1937

Producer— Brian Smith

REALIST FILM UNIT LTD t) GREAT CHAPEL STREET \YI
GERHARD I958

MEMBERS OF THE FEDERATION OF DOCUMENTARY FILM UNITS

separate copies for showing by other unions. In
that case will invitations be given to leading
members of other unions to be present as guests
at every show? Are shows going to be given to
Trades Councils? Over and above these questions
a specially conducted drive would greatly increase
demand for the regular use of film as a recognized
form of TU activity. It would then be possible
to introduce and build up a demand for the
regular making of films for the purpose. Films
designed to recruit new members and to stir to
activity the great mass of dead membership (the
'card-holders' who are the bane of all the active
workers) would be widely welcomed. A couple
of short films pointing out the possibility of doing
this might be prepared by the pooled resources
of the documentary industry with the assistance
of the trades unionists within its own ranks.

Not so much attention has been given to the
Labour Party or the Co-ops. The latter are the
more likely starters. But documentary has to face
up to this: it is not a large organization com-
pared with these three (Labour, TU and Co-op)
and to cover them all it would have to spread it-
self thinly and so it must give careful attention
to how much ground it can cover and which is
the most promising to tackle first. Marked success
in any one of these is bound to have a deep
influence over the others.

As far as the Labour Movement is concerned,
a great deal of the future of documentary is
bound up with it and the approach to it must not
be by chance and haphazard but must be care-
fully worked out and as carefully put into practice.
Yours faithfully,

A. E. SCARR

In view of the manner of Mr. Scarr's interesting
approach to his problem the Editorial Board
feels that members of the documentary move-
ment would wish us to point out that document-
ary, although by its very nature inevitably
interested in matters political in so far as they
affect social progress, owes exclusive allegiance
to no single political party, be it Conservative.
Liberal, Labour or Communist.

documentary reviews — continued from p. 89

Fair Rent. Data for C.O.I. Producer: Donald
Alexander. Director: Man.' Beales. Photography:
Suschitsky. Distribution: Non-T. 12 mins.
This film manages to pack a deal of good sense
and humanity into one reel. It is the simple story
of how a poor Aberdeen couple succeed in frus-
trating the sharp practices of their landlady, with
the assistance of the Rent Tribunal.

One might have expected that the need for
compression would force a superficial treatment.
In fact the couple emerge as real characters and
their attitude to the Tribunal, to the landlady, and
to their neighbours is com eyed in its changing.
de\eloping and conflicting reality. Most people
who see this film (and it is to be hoped that it
achie\es theatrical distribution) will yet a big
kick out of the defeat of the landlady. Many, like
the neighbours of these Aberdomans. will begin
to get ideas themselves, thus making life in-
creasingly difficult for the profiteers in homes.

I he Scottish Office is to be congratulated on
dealing with this subject, and one would only
wish that it had been prepared to make a longer
film. It would have been interesting to see the
actual procedure at a public session of the
Tribunal, and it is a pity the opportunity was
missed.

!)()( I MINI \R\ M W s [ I ITER

•M

CORRESPONDENCE— count.

sir: It is seldom one reads a thoroughly jaund-
iced review in DSL, or one which fails utterly
to present a constructive assessment of the film
in question. In the last issue, however, appealed
a review of The Bridge that can be best described
as querulous and at worst as irresponsible.

Your reviewer, Mr. X, has gone to some
trouble to belittle every aspect of this film. We
are to believe that it is technically inept, has an
impossible commentary poorly spoken, lacks
humanity, and (final crushing argument?) dodges
the political issues. I do not propose to deal here-
with these points, for my technical knowledge
would not be equal to the task. In any case, in
his destructi\e zeal Mr X has so contradicted
himself that in some cases this is not necessary.
But I do want to make one point about The
Bridge.

This film was made to do a job. That job was
to show to people here the ordinary folk of
Yugosla\ia facing up to the problem of recon-
structing their country. That implied, too, the
conveying of the new spirit and social set-up of
the country and the basic political and subjective
attitudes of the people to the job in hand. The
film could be judged successful if, in giving an
honest account of these things, it at the same
time made a contribution to international
co-operation and increased the sense of respons-
ibility and solidarity of the British people as far
as the people of Yugoslavia are concerned.

Judged on this basis the film has already
proved itself. I have been present when it has
been shown to four very different audiences: to a
group of technicians, to the London Scientific
Film Society, to Unity Theatre, and to an audi-
ence of 300 Birmingham citizens. It is interesting
to see how the reactions of these audiences dis-
pose of various aspects of the criticisms of Mr.
X. The LSFS membership has pretty high
technical standards and is particularly vsatchful
for lack of integrity or false values in films, yet
The Bridge was extremely well received. Unity
Theatre audiences are probably the most politic-
ally advanced that can be found, yet the one w Inch
viewed The Bridge (and the place was packed) did
not feel, with Mr. X, that the political point had
been neglected. As a matter of fact it was felt
that here at last was a clear picture of the way of
living of one of the new European democracies
which would be of immense value in combating
the stories of the yellow press.

However, the reactions of the Birmingham
audience are probably the most important, since
they were the people for whom the film was
really made. Did Mr. X say the film lacked
humanity, that there was no warmth in the com-
mentary? I'd like him to have heard the throat
clearings at the emotional climax of the film, or
the horrified gasp when the commentator drew
attention to the fact that Serbia must be \er>
prosperous because the dogs were still alive. At
the end there was a long silence — and some
surreptitious work with handkerchiefs then a
woman got up and said that she didn't think
people would want to discuss the film because it
had been too overpowering. A loud murmur of
agreement showed that she was expressing a
general feeling, but some people did speak, and
all stressed how affected thev had been and how
important it was that they should be able to see
such films as The Bridge in the cinemas. The
Chairman, a member of the Co-op Education
Committee, wound up by saying that she thought
the film should be shown throughout the Co-

operative Movement, and in particular to the
Youth Clubs. It would do much to bring home
the responsibility we all had to the people of
Yugoslavia, and of Europe generally, and to
strengthen the friendship between peoples that
can make future wars impossible.

'If only the film had achieved a sense of
humanity', wails Mr. X. If only Mr. X had
achieved a sense of proportion!
Yours, etc.,

VAL WALKER

sir: Cine-clubs, to use the French term for film
societies, obviously play a large part in non-
commercial cinematograph activities, in supply-
ing a critical public with historical and aesthetic
documents, in awakening a critical sense in a
widening public and, through this influence, in
eventually raising the standards of production.
The post-war cine-club movement in France is
strong and has a growing public and, perhaps
more important for its future development, has
a centralized organization in the Federation
Frangaise des Cine-clubs (formed in 1944) and
in the resources of the Cinematheque, the official
film institute which was already working before
the war.

The Federation Frangaise des Cine-clubs has
moral and slight financial support from the
Ministry of Education and from the Centre
National du Cinema and this support controls
its strictly non-commercial character. An annual
general meeting of representatives of the separate
cine-clubs elect an administrative council which,
in turn, elects the four directors — the 'Bureau'.

Cieorges Sadoul is now the secretary and the
president is Jean I'ainlcve who is now with
UNESCO. The membership is over 100,000 and,
oi' the 100 clubs registered, 95 are actually func-
tioning now. The role of the I ederation's office
is. to supply films asked for by cine-clubs though
in practice the choice is limited by the existing
stock of Cinematheque whose offices are in the
same building. A journal is planned and desired
but barred by financial difficulties; projectionists
have been given a special week's training course;
a National Congress is planned for June, 1947,
and the Comite de Federation International des
Cine-Clubs hopes to meet in April and repre-
sents, among other countries, Belgium, Poland,
the United Kingdom and the United States.

The individual clubs are constantly growing
and are especially strong in Paris. About nine-
tenths of then leaders are teachers and Bordeaux
has the only woman leader. A few clubs, Tunis,
Casablanca and Tours among them, run their
own reviews. The variety of clubs is tempting and
bewildering — perhaps it is lucky that their pro-
grammes have less variety. There are clubs serv-
ing different communities and tastes — from that
of the railwaymen of Hcllemes and the industrial
workers of the Renault Works and of Bolognc-
Billancourt to that of Montmartrc (which tries to
revive a music hall atmosphere), the University
and the Club Voyage et Aventure which special-
izes in 'open-air films'. L'Ecran Francois pub-
lishes weekly cine-club programmes and reports
special activities.

(continued p. 94, col. 3)

REALIST FILM UNIT

Producers of films

for the classroom

Supervision— Dorothy Grayson BSc

Alex Strasser FRPS

REALIST FILM UNIT LTD 9 GREAT CHAPEL STREET Wl
GERRARD 1958

94

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

NOT GOOD ENOUGH

the British Film Institute issues a Monthly Film
Bulletin which is supposedly an authoritative
periodical designed to assist all those concerned
in the educational, appreciative, and cultural use
of the film medium. This bulletin is in fact the
only document of its kind published in this
country, and one should be able to look to it, not
least because of its source of publication, as an
authoritative and accurate document.

Following various complaints we have received
from readers of the Institute's Monthly Film
Bulletin, we have asked two separate and uncon-
nected individuals (concerned in the use of films
for educational and general non-theatrical pur-
poses) to examine the film reviews in the Bulletin
over six issues, from July to December, 1946.

As a result, it would appear that there is a
great deal wrong with the Institute's system of
appraisal and reviewing. There seems to be a lot
of confusion over the Institute's much vaunted
specialist panels (one would like to have details
of how often, and in what numbers, they attend
projections) and even greater confusion owing to
reviews arbitrarily written by individuals. It is
indeed difficult to see what actual reviewing and
appraisal system the British Film Institute adopts.
In the interest of film users we give below some
critical observations on the Monthly Film
Bulletin.

We note, for instance, that the films entitled
Flowers, Roots, Stems, are dealt with under the
classification 'Botany' (p. 104). But Fruits (p. 118)
is included under 'Science' while Leaves and
Pollinations come under 'Natural History'. All
these films, bless you, were reviewed by the
Natural History Viewing Committee. All of them,
bless you again, are catalogued by the producers,
G-B.I. under 'Botany' which seems sensible
enough to us. Why, oh why, the confusing cross-
references?

Then again, take some overseas films. Mam-
prusi Village (p. 144) appears under 'Geography'
but is viewed by the Educational Panel. Achimota
(p. 159) appears under 'Background Films' and
is viewed by that Committee. Hausa Village (p.
179) appears under 'Documentary and Interest'
and is reviewed by an individual. Apart from the
fact that Mamprusi Village and Hausa Village
belong to the same series, one wonders what the
Bulletin boys are really up to, especially when one
finds that films on Bali and Trinidad are reviewed
by the Geography Panel while Sisal and Tree of
Wealth are reviewed by the Educational Panel.
Incidentally, Tree of Wealth is described by the
Educational Panel Viewing Committee as 'the
best Indian film the viewers have seen'. But over
a period of eighteen months they've only seen
three — so, one asks, what weight does such an
assessment carry?

Now let's take Man — One Family. On p. 119
it is reviewed as a 'documentary and interest
film' and is praised as authoritative, with the
phrase (we quote) 'cannot fail to make an im-
pression upon every type of audience'. Later,
however, it is rc\ iewed as a background film, and
in this case it is remarked that 'though it should
certainly be appreciated by abler members of
youth clubs and senior schoolchildren, a good
introductory talk would make it easier to
assimilate". That may be true enough, but why

obfuscate the reader with two separate assess-
ments?

Enormous fun and games has been had by
someone over Instruments of the Orchestra. This
is an official Ministry of Education film made
for schoolchildren. It has also been theatrically
released through M.G.M. because, not perhaps
unnaturally, it has 'popular appeal' (adults are
inclined that way the same as children). On p. 162
this film is reviewed by an individual under the
heading of 'documentary and interest'. There is
a note to say that at a later date it will be re-
viewed 'in the Education Section by a panel of
music teachers'. Will they review it as a 'docu-
mentary and interest' film, or what? In any case
the existing review was clearly written by some-
one who knows nothing about music, which
seems a pity, but there it is. No musical chap
could solemnly write 'the orchestra plays ex-
cerpts from the Fugue by Benjamin Britten on a
theme by Purcell'. The film, in case you haven't
seen it, presents 15 variations and a fugue on a
Purcell theme.

All we would like to know is — why is there,
apparently, no coherent planning of reviews in
the Bulletin, and why, in particular is the B.F.I,
so self-satisfied about it. In its Annual Report it
claims that it has 'almost reached the limits of
what it can undertake with reasonable efficiency'.
If it comes to efficiency, it looks as though the
'limits of what' area is already out of sight.

CORRESPONDENCE— continued from p. 93

The clubs are, therefore, flourishing and
popular but the programmes are perhaps less
encouraging. There is much less opportunity to
see scientific films than in London even though
the pioneer films of Painleve are given occasional
public showings and the resumed annual con-
gresses of the Institute of Scientific Cinemato-
graphy, at Paris, are reported as excellent but only
reach a small international audience. The ordin-
ary programmes consist of one feature film not
in commercial release accompanied by a short.
There is a repetition and a lack of variety. This
was probably inevitable in the early days and
with the limited resources of the Federation and
there has been some improvement in the past
year. The great majority of films shown are
French and include several early films of Carne
(it was amusing to detect in them Jean-Louis
Barrault, now brilliant in Les Enfants du Paradis).
The foreign films come from Russia, Mexico,
Denmark, Italy, Germany, Britain and America.
The greatest and most obvious gap is that of
documentaries. It is a pity that the progress and
change in British documentary' during war-time
should be almost unknown here and that such
films as Night Mail and Drifters should be the
only examples shown. Apparently there are cer-
tain difficulties which might be eased by UNESCO
and by co-operation from the British producers.
It is certainly to be hoped that something will be
done to bring more recent British documentaries
to France and to enable them to be seen by the
French cine-clubs.

Yours, etc.,

RUTH PARTINGTON

{continued p. 95, col. 3)

THE HORIZON

FILM UNIT • •

An Associate of the Film Troducers Guild Ltd

A Unit of seven people who during the
past two years have made eight films for
Government Departments and Industry, for
informational or instructional purposes.
They specialize in, and are experienced in,
the writing and film technique of helping to
communicate people to each other in different
aspects of citizenship.

THE HORIZON FILM UNIT

(producer: max m undi n i
guild house, upper st. martin's lane, w . c . 2

DOCUMENTARY NEWS I I I II K

93

BOOK REVIEWS

Film. Roger Munvell. Penguin Books (New

Edition). Price Is.

Twenty Years of British Film 1925-1945. Michael

Balcon, Ernest Lindgren. Forsyth Hardy, Roger

Man veil.

Contemporary Cinema. Published in association,

with the Church of England Films Commission

and the Film World. Editor, The Rev. G. L.

Wheeler, 'Contemporary Cinema", The Vicarage,

Thornton-le-Fylde, Blackpool, Lanes. Monthly,

price 6d.

The new edition of Manvell's Film is welcome for
two special reasons. It should go some way
towards satisfying the enormous demand for the
book aroused by earlier editions and — for the
critical reader of the original work — there is
much satisfaction to be derived from the mani-
fold changes which have been made in the text.
In documentary news letter's review of the
first edition our reviewer dealt somewhat harshly
with a book full of the best intentions towards
documentary. He found a spate of textual in-
accuracies and an over-intellectual attitude to-
wards the functions of the factual film. But in
his new edition Dr. Manvell has made handsome
amends. The chapter on documentary has been
completely rewritten with the assistance of new
material which has lately become available and
now presents a first-rate account of this section of
the film field. The new stills are good and the only
major criticism is the abbreviation of the indices
of film titles and names. Surely, for the sake of a
few extra pages, a full index would have more
than justified itself as a guide to the exploration
of what is now — amongst many other entertain-
ing things — a valuable work of reference.

Twenty Years of British Film is a beautifully
produced book from the Falcon Press. There are
a hundred excellently reproduced stills, many of
them being refreshingly new scenes from the old
familiar films (the 'stock' still has become some-
thing of a menace in the cinema's critical works).
Unfortunately, the text scarcely reaches the level
of the rest of the book. Michael Balcon, Ernest
Lindgren, Forsyth Hardy and Roger Manvell
are over-conscious of their weary passage over
old ground. Only the last-named attempts some-
thing more than unadorned, uninterpreted his-
tory. You may not accept his analysis of the
special characteristics of the modern British
feature film and it may well be over-optimistic to
talk about 'a cinematic poetry peculiar to British
films'. But many of Manvell's observations on
the wide variety of subject-matter and treatment
emanating from British studios were well worth
making. It may be that we are insufficiently
conscious of the flexibility which the medium has
found in British hands.

Contemporary Cinema makes a modest start
with tacts and opinions (in part from Michael
Balcon) on the relationship between the cinema
and the church. This new maga/me will need
courage if it is to probe fearlesslv into the ques-
tion of what each of these two 'mass media' has
to offer the other. But the job must be done
some day and there has ne\er been a better time
than the present. Contemporary Cinema will
regularly contain reviews of feature and docu-
mentary films contributed by Roger Manvell.

The Factual Film. {Oxford University Press,
lis. bd.)

In its own restrained way this is rather a frighten-
ing work. To begin with it looks so darn cold and
official. The careful blue of its impeccably laid
out cover, the quiet type and the wording, 'The
Arts Enquiry. The Factual Film. A Survey.
Oxford University Press', could, except for the
terrible vulgarity of the word Film, grace a
report on further discoveries at Knossos or the
incidence of left-handedness among the Pre-
Raphaelites. The book sets out to report on the
factual film and this job it docs admirably, but
what it also docs is to show you that you can
never be too careful ; a maxim more suitable for
a nineteenth century copy-book than for a docu-
mentary film maker's credo. Maybe Grierson
knew he was starting something that would one
day be the subject of 'A Survey', but it is doubtful
if all the people who followed him with De Vry
and Newman Sinclair thought that one day their
work would result in an Arts Enquiry. It is
probably just as well that they did not; the com-
ing e\ent might have cast a rather ponderous
shadow over the rushes.

The documentary or, if you will, the factual
film movement is still a living thing and what this
valuable work does is to freeze it for a moment
so that those who wish may have a look at it.
If, in this pose of unaccustomed immobility, it
looks at times faintly ridiculous so also does a
still shot of Wooderson running or a once lively
salmon stuffed on the parlour wall. But if you
wish for information about the factual film, here
it is. Its subject index ranges from the Aberdeen
Film Society to Lady Yule, evidence that its
interests are wide, and its film index takes us
from one war to another via A. B.C. A. and
Zeebrugge. Between its covers you can find
information about the factual film in war, in
education and in the cinemas. There are sections
on the news film and on the international use of
film and among the four appendices there is a
useful section on the British Film Industry as a
whole.

It must be admitted that the work suffers a
little from the fact that it went to press in
October, 1945, and was not published until
January of this year. Many things happened in
this fourteen-month period and of necessity
some of its contents are a little out of date while
some of its recommendations (conceivably
because of their private circulation before publi-
cation) have already been put into practice. It is,
also, a little difficult to understand whj 'the
group of experts' who are the authors of the
report are quite so coy about then names being
attached to it. The I oreword savs that, "As some
have held official or semi-official positions it was
agreed that members of the group should remain
anonymous'. Now why this hiding of lights, this
reluctance to admit parenthood? ^s" reporl is
ever quite unbiased and it is only right that the
reader should have some chance <>i assessing the
value of the more controversial paragraphs In
knowing the names of the people who wrote

them. It is silly to look as though you are trying
to burv the body when in fact you are only
feeling terribly modest.

\pirt from this //., Factual film is a most
useful work and, indeed, one of great value. But

no documentary film maker should be allowed
idit, Making history, on whatever scale, and
wining about it aie two \ery different things and
present day factual films will be none the worse
for their makers being unconscious of the tact
tliat one day their titles may appear in the index
of a chastely produced book.

16 Mil. Film User. Published monthly by Cur-
rent Affairs Ltd. Edited b) Bernard Dolmar. I. v.

This little monthly is an excellent publication fil-
ling a gap between the popular film magazine and
the trade paper. It caters for the needs and inter-
ests of all 16 mm. users whether as individuals or
in clubs, schools, or churches. Well classified
lists of reviews are given and there are valuable
articles on the actual technique of projection and
on various developments in the realm of the
16 mm. film. The writing of the articles and the
choice of the subjects are on a high level and each
issue contains a very catholic selection of mate-
rial. Apart from the cover pages the layout is
pleasant and the illustrations are chosen for their
instructional value rather than simply as pictures.
In fact, 16 Mil. Film User,\n spite of its ghastly-
name, is a really useful publication w ith the addi-
tional factor (and how important a factor) of
making quite good reading.

CORRESPONDENCE— continued from p. 94

sir: MARG: A Magazine of Architecture and
Art, Bombay, carries an interesting 300-word
note under the above heading in Vol. 1, No. 1.
Kalpuna is the first film of Uday Shankar, and is
in production now at the Gemini Studios,
Madras.

Many people will remember Uday Shankar's
London season, when he and his company per-
formed so brilliantly in the Karthak and Karth-
akali dance idioms, dispensing almost entirely
with stage-properties, their imaginary presences
and uses being intimated through the use of an
expressive mimicry. This makes particularly in-
teresting Marg's note, which includes:

Shankar has evolved a brilliant and original
technique of his own, which will be something
startling and revolutionary in the film world
In interpreting Ins story, he depends more on
the delineation of every shade o\ feeling and
emotion through facial expressions and ges-
tures than on dialogues, which are reduced to
the minimum.

A great part of the story is interpreted
through a \aricty of dances which number as
many as 80— represerujeg all the oiassical and
folk forms. The masterly way in which they
have been photographed, with a skilful mani-
pulation of light ami shade, gives them a three
dimensional effect, with a realistic background
.'t beautiful and varied landscape's, which
makes one forget that the) have been shot
within the lour walls of the Gemini Studio.

The classical dance-forms of India would seem
to be particularly suited to the making of such a
film as Kalpana, which is intended to be a
vehicle of Shankar's 'ideals of life and art', since
the) involve expression through the whole '•
of the dancer: a stvli/ed code of mannerisms and
gestures, not difficult to understand, bl

experience within the grasp of the
Indian dancer that remain wholly alien

(continu, /. 2)

96

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

THE RECEIVING END

L. Helliwell protests against

the inadequate distribution of

Documentaries

when, oh! when is more attention going to be
paid to the distributive side of documentaries?
Much human endeavour, much brilliance and
sincerity is put into the making of a film; one
would suppose that equal endeavour and sin-
cerity would be employed in getting it to the
people who would enjoy and appreciate the effort
made. However brilliant a film is, its value lies
only in the influence it brings to bear on those
who see it — the finest film ever made, unless seen
by an audience, is not a film. This surely must be
appreciated by the creators, and yet, despite the
tepth of thought and wealth of talent employed,
interest seems to die at the moment of comple-
dion.

I like documentaries. I live in a city of nearly
300,000 inhabitants, but can I see a representative
selection of 'reality' films? No! Occasionally one
is included in the cinema programmes but it is
never an attraction per se, and is only utilized in
a haphazard and time-filling capacity. You can
almost hear the film magnate's 'If you must have
your 2^/3 hours show, you'll have to sit through
this'. Is all this (to use the DNVs phrase)
'creative interpretation of reality' to remain for
ever in such ignominy?

In this city of 300,000 people you can see
feature films at the local cinema, or join the city
film society to learn film technique and apprecia-
tion— both occupations which I heartily enjoy.
To a lover of the documentary, however, the
latter is like having the after-dinner liqueur with-
out having had the dinner.

1 said above I like documentaries. 1 do more :
it is one of my duties to arrange a winter session
of documentary and interest films. This is frankly
an 'education through interest' movement by
aligning films, speakers and books on a theme,
together, at the same time. Normally, I use 2, 3 or
4 films of differing subjects but capable of being
associated together to develop the theme, the
speaker enlarging on the primary aspect, or pro-
viding the necessary cohesion between films.

Anyone familiar with the film movement will
immediately perceive the difficulty of 'partnering'
films for thepurpose in view and the, usually, im-
possible, task of replacement if the desired film is
not available. In this way each winter 1 use
approximately 50 documentary and interest films
of lengths between 10 and 40 minutes. You may
say — 'No easy task!' Indeed, it is not.

1 lere we reach the whole crux of my problem
and, I believe, the testing point of all uses of
the documentary. Films are made to earn a profit.
With that statement there can be no argument,
but are the makers of documentaries satisfied with
the method by which this return is obtained ; that
their creative artistry is casually accepted as a
regrettable but necessary obligation; when the
whole conditions of showing tend to destroy the
inherent value of the film? What can be good in
one setting can be wasted in another. Does not
a producer of documentaries ever say to himself,
'Is it worth while?' when he sees his work, not
thrown away, but failing to get the full reception
and appreciation it deserves?

1 said above that films are made for profit —
and to obtain this profit they must be given the
wrong setting. To exhibit them in their most
useful surroundings is not an economic proposi-
tion. From these two facts there seems to be no
divergence.

My programme is not the best way of showing
documentaries, but it is better than casual inclus-
ion amongst feature films. 1 have a strongly
appreciative public, but economically speaking,
I am much too small fry to receive due considera-
tion from the big film distributors, who, reason-
ably enough, are little interested in non-theatrical
exhibitions, which bring small returns.

There, above, are two aspects of the same
problem — a private citizen's inabi'ity to see the
films he wishes and an official's difficulty in
obtaining the films to exhibit. You may protest
at once that the one outrules the other. That is
true to a certain extent — but it is incidental.

Briefly stated, that is the situation at present.
What of the future? If the documentary film is to
have the success it deserves every town and city
of appreciable size will have a documentary
cinema or club on the lines of the present film
societies, but before this desirable end is obtained
the distribution of the documentary will have to
be simplified.

Now that producers have associated them-
selves in the Federation of Documentary Film
Units, is it not possible to have a similarly cen-
tralized distributing agency? This would greatly
simplify the work of any club organizer and
would be a boon to anyone whose duties are
similar to mine.

Regarding the other trouble, the cost of hiring
documentaries, is it not possible to have one or
two copies of each film kept strictly for non-
theatrical shows at considerably reduced fees?
The immediate loss of income would be com-
pensated by the wider distribution and the satis-
faction of getting the film to the public it deserves
and the public who welcome it. This suggestion
will be viewed with scandalized amazement by
film magnates, but the fact remains that docu-
mentary is still fighting for its merited apprecia-
tion, and will continue to do so whilst its energies
are dissipated in the casual bookings of today.

CORRESPONDENCE— continued from p. 95

Russian-trained dancers. This, combined with
the minimal use of dialogue to which Marg's
reviewer refers, makes Kalpana a film which
could profitably be brought within the experience
of the West. London exhibitors, and film socie-
ties are beginning to grow out of the idea that
'foreign' films must be Hollywood, French, or
German, and are screening the productions of
other countries. If London could support a
Russian season of more than four years at the
Tatler, and can keep the first Danish talkie we
have ever seen running for months at the
Academy, it is surely not too venturesome to
suggest that Kalpana might enjoy a short season
here? Indian films must someday be screened,
for enjoyment and criticism, in London, and, if
eventually why not now? This seems from its
advance publicity to be as good a film as any,
and better than most, to start with.
Yours, etc.,

P. J. DROWN

SIGHT
and
SOUND

A cultural Quarterly

MONTHLY FILM BILLETI.\

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It had been hoped to publish in this
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hold in the Scala Hheatre on Sunday,
\pril 1 jtli.

Unfortunateh much ol the publicity
material for the performance, including
this advertisement, was hold up h\ the
fuel crisis and it is feared thai the re-
ceipts, which are being devoted to the
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s< 1 iousl) alloc ted.

It is hoped that mam ol those prevented
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with
contributions \>\

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and a full list ol Carl Mayer's works, may be

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In its third year, DATA is working on
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DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

Editorial Board: Stephen Aikroyd, Donald Alexander, M.i\ Vndirson, Kdgar Anstey, Ceoflrey Bell, Pan] Fletcher, Sinclai] Road, John Taylor, Grahame Ilurp. Baafl W

JUNE-JULY 1947 VOL 6 NO 57 PUBLISHED BY FILM CENTRE 34 SOHO SQUARE LONDON W I

97

LABOUR PAINS

98 NOTES OF THE MONTH

99 THE BRITISH CINEMA AT THE GALLUP

100-101 SHAKESPEARE ON THE SCREEN AND
ON THE AIR

102 CZECH FILM FESTIVAL

103 HISTORY ON FILM
104-105 FILM REVIEWS

Annual subscription 6s. (published six times a year)

106 MONSIEUR VERDOUX

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110 SCIENTIFIC FILM NEWS
111-112 CORRESPONDENCE

Bulk orders up to SO copies for schools and Film Societies

LABOUR PAINS

Confusion in the public information services is becoming worse
confounded. While a punch-drunk COI staggers round the
ring, boxing its own shadow and failing to avoid a hail of adminis-
trative uppercuts, a rival ring appears to be being erected for a
demonstration round by the Information Officer for the Production
Campaign under Sir E. Plowden.

The aimlessness of our public information services today may be
directly traced to the failure of the Labour Government to realize the
basic necessities of those services. True, they did not abolish the
Government information organization as the Tories would have done.
But in getting rid of the Ministry of Information, which, for all its
faults, had succeeded in providing the right mixture of stimulus and
information over a period of six difficult years, a fundamental error
was made. The Information Services were deprived of status, of
ministerial representation in the House, and, to a large degree, of
those immediate powers of initiation and creation without which it is
almost impossible for them to survive.

The principles of public information demand, firstly, the estab-
lishment of a working relationship between creative workers and
administrative workers, based on mutual understanding of pur-
pose and method ; secondly, a simple channel through which direct-
ives and policy mav reach the information people, and, thirdly, the
provision of the maximum freedom (having regard to the need to
check carefully all expenditure of public moneys) for the creative and
technical experts whose job it is to translate information into terms
of the mass-media of communication.

There are two main methods by which these principles can be
achieved. The first is by the creation of a specific department with a
Minister of Cabinet status under whom it directly works. This was in
essence the wartime method. The second is by the creation of a
National Board, representative of the Government, the administra-
tive machine, and the public, with at least one Minister as a member
and chairman, who again would be the spokesman of the information
services m the House. This is, in essence, the method adopted by the
Canadian Government.

The status of the Central Office of Information represents an
uneasy and almost cowardk compromise between these two methods
and as a result it is unable to fulfil the three principles of information
either with speed or with efficiency.

Structurally, it is unwieldy. Its job is to fulfil the informational
needs of Government Departments, and of Downing Street, vis-d-vis
the public at large, but the machine is so full of cogs and pulleys
many of them duplicated — that it is reminiscent more of Heath
Robinson or Rube Goldberg, than of the technological age. Its
domination by two committees of PROs and two Ministers — the
one concerned with overseas, and the other with home matters — is
bad enough. Worse still is the general effect of watertight depart-
mentalization at a time when most major public issues cannot be
regarded as the perquisite of any single department, but rather as a
reflection of the activities of whole groups of departments.

Psychologically, the COI suffers acutely from its status a
'Agency'. Although this word can be regarded as active, rather than
passive, in intent, its interpretation under the existing set-up is
likely to be in the direction of passivity, both internally and from the
point of view of the user departments. Information budgets, like all
other budgets, are limited. Departments are compelled to use the
COI for their information programmes (quite rightly, since otherwise
chaos would ensue), and are therefore inclined to press violently for
maximum attention to their own programmes. On the other hand,
the COI, finding itself torn between thirty or so separate pro-
grammes which are bound to total something much in excess of the
overall budget, has no direct court of appeal other than the un-
wieldy structure at the top. which, incidentally, includes tl
sembled PROs of all the departments concerned.

Moreover, the creative aspect of information demands the initia-
tion, by the ( <>l itself, of specific plans and programmes; and for the
reasons already stated this important aspect of its work seems
being pushed more and more to the wall.

The whole question o\' public information must be examined
afresh. If oecessar) the COI must be written off as a costly experi-
ment, and a fresh start made. This is a task to which Mr Herbert
Morrison might well turn his immediate attention. I oi a start, he
might re-read the recommendations of the Arts i nquirv Rep.
the I actual I ilm. the constitution of the Canadian Wartime Infor-
mation Hoard and National 1 ilm Hoard, and. not least, a COTJ
tial document, believed to have been drawn up for him hv John
Grierson in 1946, when the constitution o\ the ( oi was under
consideration. In an) case, something must be <.\<.>nc. and
quicklv.

98

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

NOTES OF THE MONTH

The cover picture on this issue is a production still from the Czechoslovakian Puppet film
Mr Prohouk's Conversion which was shown in London at the Festival

The New Board

the alert reader will observe that the size of DNL's Editorial
Board has considerably increased. The new names listed on our mast-
head include some which are familiar outside as well as inside the
documentary film movement, and all have been linked with import-
ant achievements in their field. The expansion has been decided
upon as a means of increasing its representative character and of
adding to the number of documentary groups whose view-point
DNL will seek to express. It has for some time been felt in Film
Centre and amongst the older members of the Board that means
should be found of putting DNL at the disposal of the maximum
number of documentary film-makers to form a link between them
and the public which they serve. The extension of the Board can be
regarded as a step in this direction.

Silent Slaves!

sometimes the film industry takes our breath away. There are certain
sections of it which appear to be of the opinion that the big world is
just an alley off Wardour Street and that those benighted people un-
fortunate enough to be denied a habitation in the Street itself must
on no account venture to lift an eyebrow in criticism of what goes
on in that resplendent gunman's grotto. We are thinking particu-
larly of the recent suggestion that certain BBC scripts should be sub-
mitted to Wardour Street before being broadcast. The idea that the
film critic should regard himself as a servant of the film industry
is not new but things are coming to a pretty pass when the public
itself is moved into the same category. Or can it be that some of our
friends in Wardour Street really do think that the primary function
of the British public is to present itself in the guise of a flock of sheep
to await, in all docility, the Wardour Street shearing?

The National Theatre Club

the royalty theatre in Dean Street, disused for many years, has
been purchased by National Theatre Club Ltd., a new non-profit-
making company. Chairman of the Company is the Rt Hon Alfred
Barnes, present Minister of Transport, who, it will be remembered,
was first Chairman of the People's Entertainment Society, until
his resignation on his appointment to the Government.

Plans have already been completed for the entire reconstruction
of the interior of the building as a modern theatre -cinema, with
restaurants and other club services, including residential accom-
modation. It is planned to present orchestral concerts and dances for
members, in addition to films and stage performances of every type.
The policy of the Club with regard to films is not yet decided, being
dependent on the decisions of the membership, but it seems likely
that it could be made available as a very convenient venue for film
society shows and other private performances.

It is hoped that club facilities will be available by the end of this
year. The date for the re-opening of the theatre is not yet an-
nounced, being dependent on building difficulties, but no great
delays are expected. The growth of this new entertainment centre in
Soho will be watched with great interest. Membership is already

available, at three guineas a year for London members, and one
and a half guineas for those living outside.

Cambridge and Film

Cambridge university now has an Educational Film Council. Set
up at a meeting in February, the Council has just issued a leaflet
stating its aims and objects. Cambridge has always taken a keen
interest in films, and it is right and proper that it should be the first
major University to form such a Council. In addition to stimulating
the use of films in Cambridge, the Council aims to link up with
people interested in visual education in other Universities. A great
deal can come from the lead which Cambridge has given.

Information, please

we learn from John Curthoys that he is planning a book on 'The
Development and Technique of the Film Strip as a Visual In-
structional Aid'. He says it is to be the first standard work on this
subject and tells us that information on the earliest days of this new
aid to learning is exceedingly sparse. We have promised to pass on
to him any information which our readers may have on this subject.

The Survey of Surveys

for some time now DNL has been irked by the embarrassing fact
that it is at present conducting no questionnaire. All reputable or-
ganizations should today be ready to cross-examine the public on
any and every subject of outstanding, moderate or no interest, and
we propose to remedy our own lack at the earliest possible moment.
We have wisely decided to devote some considerable attention to the
framing of the questions. We are given to understand by expert
practitioners in this field that only by the most skilled wording of the
question, can one be confident of the satisfactory nature of the
answer. So far, we are only completely happy with two of our own
question-framing attempts and we feel that our readers will not
abuse the confidence we place in them when we reveal that the public
of Great Britain and Northern Ireland will shortly be in\ ited to let
us have the benefit of its opinions on the following matters:

(1) If you are looking for a film brilliantly imaginative in theme
and incredibly polished in treatment would you prefer to see

(a) An intolerably bad second feature film, atrociously photo-
graphed and edited, with an imbecile commentar> ?
or (b) A spanking documentary which is both brilliantly imaginative
in theme, and incredibly polished in treatment?

(2) Which do you believe to be of the greater importance and
social significance

(a) An important and socially significant documentary?

or(/>)An unimportant and socially insignificant non-documentan r?

We feel that the answers to these questions will Leave the world in
no doubt whatsoever as to the wide extent and overwhelming nature
of the demand for an increased showing of documentaries in the
cinemas.

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LET I I R

y>

THE BRITISH CIIVEMA AT THE GALLI'I1

■eachers and sociologists in this country have at last begun to take

serious interest in the cinema and the part it plays in public lite.
)ne can instance the storms which have blown up in educational
ircles over Saturday morning Children's t inema Clubs, and the
■arious sociological inquiries which have been conducted recently.
vJow it is the turn of the film industrj itself to lake note of its public,
ind to observe its shifting moods.

Most important is the news that Dr Gallup is to come to this
:ountry. His mission, apparently, is to give British film-makers a
esson in how to be scientific about judging the tastes and opinions
>f the cinema-going public. One remembers that Mr Eric Johnston
who has taken over the well-known Hays office) visited Britain only
i few months ago to give similar instruction in Hollywood's idea of
norality in the cinema. Between Dr Gallup and Mr Johnston the
Mimrose path which the British producer is being asked to walk
jromises to be distinctly uncomfortable. In the States the film indus-
ry has always been concerned with keeping on the right side of its
?atrons for reasons best known to us all. Today, mounting pro-
duction costs have accentuated Hollywood's fears, and one of the
•emedies it has flown to is scientific audience research. Without
.vanting to throw any doubts on the methods of sampling used (Dr
3allup has a number of accurate forecasts to his credit, particularly
n the last few Presidential elections), one cannot help wondering
vhat will be the result if such methods are applied willy-nilly to tilm-
naking. After all, film-making is an art and art so often resides in the
inexpected. Carefully formulated prescriptions for the would-be
;reative worker, w hether they issue from the art academy, the corres-
pondence course or Dr Gallup's "pulse chart', are never very sure
guides. But after all it isn't art which Dr Gallup is concerned with,
ior even the public pulse, it is first and foremost the public pocket.
The Kinematograph Weekly for May 1st reprints a very illuminating
article from the American journal The Screen Writer. It deals with
:he Gallup method of measuring the box-office value of films and
:ontains this statement among others by Dr Gallup:

'Our reports rate "audience reception value" — that is, report the
proportion of those who like the story idea and those who do not.
Always, the likes and dislikes are in proportion to the amount of
money each group normally spends at the box-office, by age, by sex,
by income group, etc.

'Audience Research cannot tell a producer whether or not a story
s worth S:0,000, SI 00,000, or S500,000, but ARI can point out that
:his story starts with initial interest equal to, greater than or less than
3ther properties which were sold for S20,000, SI 00,000 or S500,000.'
Nothing could be more explicit than that.

The other public inquiry which has received attention recently is
the Bernstein Film Questionnaire. It differs in many respects fronrDr
Gallup's Audience Research Inc. Whereas Dr Gallup aims to Wke
account of public reaction to films in the producer's interest, Mr
Bernstein's Questionnaire sets out to discover the public's reactions
as they affect the exhibitor. Mr Bernstein is the owner of the Granada
ircuit of cinemas and the questionnaire (which is the sixth in a
series first started in 1927) was circulated to the patrons o\' his
Cinemas. According to reports in the Press 217,400 questionnaires in
all were answered. At first sight this may seem quite a substantial
sample. On the other hand, no evidence has been provided in the
Report about the distribution of the people replying, according to
sex, age, occupation, income-group, etc. The fact has also to he taken
into account that of the 36 cinemas in the Granada Circuit, 20 arc m
suburban areas in London and the Home ( bunties, 4 in Shrewsbury .
2 each in Bedford. Rugb) and Mansfield. With little or no representa-
tion from the Midlands and North and with pooi regional distri-
bution generally, one must weight the findings accordingly. The

questions asked cover a fairly wide range, though a number are of
small general interest. Compared with the last Bernstein Question-
naire o\' 1937 it is perhaps interesting to note that British stars for
the first time head the list of favourite actors and favourite actresses,
i.e. James Mason and Margaret Lockwood. More relevant are the
expressions of taste in the matter of types of films and programme
length and composition: 70 per cent want 3-hour programmes; but
only 20 per cent are in favour of a single-feature programme, though
it is possible that people do not quite realize the kind of variety
which could be introduced into the supporting programme. The
question about single-feature programmes is framed as follows:
Do you prefer one long film, news-reel, short and organ solo? This
does not appear a particularly clear question, and it is fogged by the
introduction of the organ solo. (A later question shows that t!
who prefer a short film out-number those who want an organ solo
by 50 per cent.) This of course raises the problem, on which so many
questionnaires come to grief, of exactly how questions should be
worded. It is very difficult to frame a question in such a way that it
will ellicit the type of answer required without biasing that answer in
advance.

The report has some interesting reactions about cinema-going
habits. 50 per cent say that they go to the cinema regularly, choosing
the one with the best film, and 21 per cent go for particular films —
which indicates a higher degree of selection than one might have
imagined. 66 per cent say they go to a particular cinema because it
has the best film. But it is a human failing to want to give the impres-
sion of acting at all times from deliberate choice, however untrue
that might be.

As for actual films or types of films, the answers show a marked
preference, in feature films, for drama, followed by adventure and
crime. Strong dislikes are expressed of horror and cowboy films and
of full-length cartoons. In the case of short films, cartoons, news
magazines, travel and sport head the list of likes, and social develop-
ments and science the list of dislikes. It is difficult to know whether
the various categories used to describe features and shorts are explicit
enough. Superficially the answers would suggest, among other
things, a strong bias against documentary films. On the other hand,
when a further question asked which of 36 selected films were
considered to be the best, one finds that the list is headed by The
Way to the Stars (a story-documentary). The Captive Heart (another
documentary type picture) is third, and True Glory (a pure docu-
mentary made by the combined US and British Service I ilm I nits)
is sixth. At the same time all three films were convincing and well-
made, which suggests, as one would imagine, that it is the quality
and authenticity of the film which appeals and not the eaicgory into
which it falls.

That is yet another o\' the difficulties which those who draw up
questionnaires must face, and one of the most important. Statistical
inquiries can provide a greal deal of useful information, particularly
of a quantitative kind, but the\ cannot assess quality, nor the power
of ideas or imagination. Whatever Mr Bernstein's questionnaire or
Dr Gallup's pulse charts mav sav . some films will succeed ami others
fail for reasons winch cannot be pin-pointed ow a chart. In as I, ii as
the making and show mil; o\' films is an industrj . market research is a

verv necessary activity. But one is Ported to remember how limited
is the choice and type o\ film at present offered to the public in the
ordinary commercial cinema. Bv comparison the much criticized
BBC . for example, prov ides a great richness and varielv ofentei i.iin-
ment. One should therefore beware o( the techniques o\ market
research being employed not to widen the scope of cinema entertain-
ment hut to restrict it even further to the conventional film forms and
to accepted (hemes, with no real thought for the public interest.

100

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

SHAKESPEARE on the SCREEN

AND ON THE AIR

it is hardly possible to write about the presenta-
tion of Shakespeare without being controversial.
With all proper apologies, therefore, I propose
to begin with two categorical statements about
Cinema and Radio, which must serve as my
basic terms of reference in this article. Here they
are:

First, the Cinema is an art. It is the first and
only new art form to be discovered by man
within recorded history. He could not have
discovered it earlier because it is the child of the
industrial revolution. It is the one positive
creative discovery of the machine age, for it
depends for its existence on machinery, chemical
processes and electricity. It is an art because it
represents the end of that quest for representa-
tion of life in movement which began when the
cave men of Altamira painted those leaping
figures on the walls of their caverns. Despite the
sound track, it is an art because it is visual.

Second, Radio is not an art form — though I am
sure that with the development of television it
will become so — for with visuals it will take on
the basic creative attributes of the film. But at
present it is mainly the transmitter of other art
— music, and, as we shall see, in a way special
to itself, of drama.

With this preamble — all too categorical
because it must be all too brief — I would now
like to put before you some ideas about the
method by which, through radio and film, the
work of the world's greatest poet and dramatist
can be brought to millions who might otherwise
never know or understand him. For film and
radio are mass media. They can reach everyone
all the time. So, whatever the problems of
technique and of interpretations, no one can
argue against the need to use these media to
bring Shakespeare to the world.

We can best see the problem by starting from
the written word.

I suspect that the average reader of Shake-
speare's plays is impressed more by the poetry
than by the drama. Many people have ordinary
natural limitations to their imagination, to seeing
in their mind's eye. And a Shakespeare text is not,
like a text by Shaw or Barrie, plentifully gar-
nished with explicit stage directions. Poetry, and
the drama arising from the interplay of character
— these are easily obtainable from reading Shake-
speare— but for the rest, surely all of us would
confess that to see a Shakespeare play performed
for the first time is, quite precisely, a revelation.
The physical and spatial characteristics have not
been fully imagined by the reader. On the stage
something quite new appears.

Topick up the text of Love's labour's Lost and
read it for the first time may be confusing and
rather disappointing to anyone who is neither a
scholar nor a person of the theatre, nor endowed
with an exceptional imagination. To read the
same play with the assistance of Harley Granville
Barker's preface is in itself a revelation — for he
speaks largely of the living play — that is, how it
can be staged and how, in terms of the theatre of
his own day, Shakespeare expected it to be staged.

This article is the substance of a lecture delivered
to American and English teachers at a Shake-
speare study-course organized by the British Coun-
cil at Strat ford-on- Avon in April 1947.

Finally, if you have the good luck to see it well
performed, then it is magic ; and there, at last, is
Shakespeare's work itself. From now on you can
re-read the play with your mind's eye clear and
focussed.

Now the technique of radio, despite its lack of
visuals, does provide an opportunity of enlarging
appreciation and understanding. Shakespeare's
words are, after all, written to be spoken, and the
interplay of fine voices speaking fine lines sup-
plies a means of interpretation, and of heighten-
ing the emotions. This holds true, only if the
powers and limitations of the medium are under-
stood. Radio producers and radio actors have to
remember that the images they are creating in
the listener's imagination are changing like
waves on the sea. Each listener is seeing a
different picture, which he draws for himself
under the stimulus of the spoken word — that is,
from what is said and the way it is said.

But there is not a common stage picture,
shared by all the audience, such as you have in
the theatre. The rumbustious or the rhetorical —
effective if you can see in propria persona the
scene, the actor, and his gestures — become, as
often as not, idiotic through the loudspeaker.

And so the production of Shakespeare on the
air must be regarded as analogous more to the
performance of a symphony than of a stage play.
Some listeners will have their eyes shut, and will
be picturing to themselves faces, gestures, rooms
and landscapes. Others may be following the
work in the score, as it were — and they, too, will
be seeing something beyond the printed page.
The voices of the actors therefore must be
related to this situation, and not to the stage of
an imaginary theatre packed with an imaginary
audience. Otherwise they will find that their
words have vanished 'into the air, and what
seemed corporal melted as breath into the wind'.
In fact, to present Shakespeare on the radio
depends on a complete understanding of the
diverse nature of the listener's imagination. As
one sort of listener I object violently to the use of
descriptive commentary to explain the action. On
the other hand, I do not in any way object to the
use of sound (be it music or otherwise) to add
perspective to the scenes whiefft am 'imagining to
myself. But another listener may hold exactly the
opposite views. And neither producer nor actor
has any opportunity of knowing, or feeling, how
this multifarious audience is reacting.

I am not a radio man, and must speak with
deference, but I believe that Shakespeare on the
radio is best when the producer devotes all his
energy to the speaking of the words by the right
voices, and uses the other means at his disposal —
commentary, effects, music, to the minimum. For
him, Shakespeare is the imagist more than any-
thing else. Images created by words— as for
instance the description of Cleopatra's barge, and
of Antony in the emptied market place.

This is the very point at which we may turn to
the film. What a shooting script is to be found
in that famous speech! You can imagine it in
Technicolor, directed by Cecil B. de Mille. It

would be the climax to a previous sequence showJ
ing Caesar and his friends making 'the night ligM
with drinking' — 'eight wild boars roasted whola
for breakfast' and 'much more monstrous matted
of feast' ( — a challenge to de Mille there!) Then
the golden and purple barge, the cupids, tbq
mermaid-gentlewomen, the multicoloured fansj
the enormous crowd surging from the market-]
place to the river banks ....

There would in fact be only two things missina
— the 'strange invisible perfume", and the poetry J

Of course this approach to filming Shakespeare
is a reductio ad absurdum. It would lead us into!
surrealist madness with a similar Technicolor
technique being applied to Macbeth's:

'this my hand will rather
The multitudinous seas incarnadine,
Making the green one red".

The whole point of the Cleopatra speech id
that it is a description of something which has
happened (lifted from Plutarch and transmuted
by Shakespeare into pure poetry), and the film
producer's problem is not to translate what i:
describes into visuals but so to present it that both'
its poetry and its dramatic relevance to the\
story are emphasized and pointed.

Now , in the film, we have the genuine image,
observed in common by all the audience, and
not the mind's-eye image of the radio. Thereford
the filmic approach basically is to Shakespeare
the dramatic. But this must not be taken to mean
that a film performance of Shakespeare can be*
considered as equivalent to a stage performance.
That idea would lead us to put the actor on a
stage, and place the camera in the middle of
the stalls, and thus merely to record what the
audience in a theatre would see. But that is no^
cinema. The whole quality of the film resides in
the fact that it creates its own geography and its
own time. That is, the spectator's viewpoint is
constantly changing, and his temporal sense can
be elongated or shortened according to the
editing of the various strips of celluloid of which
the film is made up.

The perfect film is, of course, conceived right
from the start only as a film, and not as a transla-
tion from another form of expression. But it is a
young art, and people like Vigo and Mayer, who
could conceive things in screen terms only, and
without reference elsewhere, are still rare. More-
o\er, there is no reason why Shakespeare should
not be translated — I would almost prefer to
say transmuted — to the screen so that all his
poetry, all his drama, remain intact. Indeed. I
discovered the other day when re-reading the
Poetics, that Aristotle and Mr Samuel Goldwyn
would find themselves in almost complete agree-
ment on the former's thesis that 'Lvery tragedv
. . . must have six parts, which parts determine
its quality — namely, plot, character, diction.
thought, spectacle, song'. I said 'almost' because
the fourth quality might give Mr Goldwyn a
moment's pause.

However that may be. I think we can all agree
that the problem before the film-maker is to
strike a balance between the form of Shakes-
peare's work and the elaborate possibilities
inherent in the film medium.

It is agreed that just because Shakespeare often
wrote in images w hich the stage could not ph> sic-
ally reproduce it is not necessary for the film,
which could reproduce these images, to do so.
What then are the positive contributions it can
make'.'

Speaking first on a severely practical level, it
can provide the movement and paeeantrv which
Shakespeare himself demands. Two stage direc-

"

.-

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

101

:sho

itlii 5*
win
mat

is, I
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811

licol

ons taken at random will explain this point.
'hey are both from 'Coriolanus'.
The first: They all shout and wave their
words; take him up in their arms, and cast up
icir caps-.

The second : 'Titus Lartius, having set a guard
pon Corioli, going with drum and trumpet to-
ard Cominius and Cains Marcius enters with a
eutenant, a part) of soldiers, and a scout.'
Now it is perfectly true that you can get away
'ith this sort of thing lavishly or shabbily —
CCOrding to resources — in the theatre. But there
; no doubt whatever that the scenes in question
'ould benefit dramatically, and with Shakes-,
eare's full approval, if the) were presented with
le realism, and the scale of action, which can be
0 easily and vividl) achieved on the screen.

Pursuing this thought a little further, let US
ake Macbeth, Act V, from Scene II onwards.
n 279 lines the scene changes five times (one
cenc is only ten lines long), and the action in-
olves the approach of the English army to
iunsinane, the death of Lady Macbeth, and the
mal issue between the two armies and between
.lacbeth and Macduff. This act is always the
>ugbear of the stage producer — but gives the film
roducer a wonderful opportunity to keep the
low of action going, and to present it on a scale
.hich, because convincing, would throw the
rama of Macbeth's fall into proper relief. One
I night even be bold enough to sa> that only on
he cinema screen would it be possible to carry
•ut the intention of Act V of Macbeth. And I
hink similar examples will readily occur to all
f us.

Hitherto there has not been enough filming of
'hakespeare to provide sufficient experimental
lalerial by which theory and practice can be, as
he examination papers say, compared and
ontrasted.

As far as I know , the only Shakespeare plays
o b • filmed have been these: The Taming of the
yirew — a very early talkie, with Mary Pickford
nd Douglas Fairbanks. This I onl) recollect
jther vaguely, but I remember enjoying it very
luch. And in any case The Shrew, with The
ferry Wives of Windsor, is likely, by its own
ature. to be a wholly unrepresentative example,
hen there was A Midsummer Night's Dream,
roduced by Max Reinhardt. Although it had
any faults — not least its preoccupation with all
he trickeries of film technique for the fairies,
had some lovely things in it — including a very
oung Mickey Rooney as Puck, played, not as so
ften on the stage as an extra-effeminate Peter
;'an, but as an earthy, dirty urchin. Then again
'here was the I nglish production of As You Like
t, with Elizabeth Bergner, of which one can only
ay, with Regan, 'Good sir, no more; these are
insightlv tricks'. There was Romeo and Juliet,
Vith Norma Shearer and Leslie Howard, drown-
ed in an inconceivable elaboration and em-
iroidery of crowds and superscttings. Of this [
emember as good only John Barrymore's
vlercutio- and he played it as a straight stage
'art with no concessions to camera.
And finally, Laurence Olivier's production of

V.
This remarkable work does in itself provide a
termon on the filming ol Shakespeare. I his film
vas most carefully thought out —obviously in
new of the challenge of the Prologue:

'can this cockpit hold
The v. isi-. fields oil ranee? or ma) we cram
Within this wooden O the vciv casques
That did affright the air at Agmcourt?'
Shakespeare's answer was lo ask his audience

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to use their imagination and that, with Ins help,
is not always too difficult as witness the great
Prologue to Act III describing the I oglisfa fleet
holding course for Harfleur.

Now Olivier and his colleagues realized that
there must be a middle course between the limits
Of the Stage of Shakespeare's dav and the almost
limitless powers of the film camera. Thev saw, too.
that the play could be translated to the screen
through achieving a perfect symmetry of shape
in space and time rather like a water lily which
Opens at dawn and at evening closes 'all us
sweetness up'. So they began and ended the film
by reconstructing a performance of the play in the
Elizabethan theatre. In between they modulated,
as it were, from a stylized approach into absolute
realism — the night before Agincourt and the
battle itself — and then back, through stylization,
to the theatre.

There is no time to analyse further the many
great qualities, and the faults (not a few i of this
remarkable film. But f think that it is a revelation
of what can be done in screening Shakespeare by
artists of intelligence and integrity. But note that
it does not prov ide a cast-iron formula. The shape
and six lc adopted for Henry V arose from the
internal qualities of the play itself. They should
not, necessarily, be imposed on other Shake-
speare films — each play must be recreated in
screen terms according to its own special soul.
What the film of Henry V has proved is that this
can he done to the benefit, and not the detri-
ment, of Shakespeare's supreme art. Olivier's
new venture — a film of Hamlet — is of the
bravest — an Everest climb after a trial scramble
up Snowdon. But of that, no more until it is
shown.

To sum up> — the essential problem of filming
Shakespeare is to use the special qualities o\' the
film medium to point the essential qualities of
Shakespeare's poetry and Shakespeare's sense of
theatre. His own qualities being universal, it is
the film-maker's job to control and limit the
more obvious possibilities of the medium in or-
der that the real stuff of Shakespeare is not con-
fused or smothered by the elaborate, the spec-
tacular, the finicky, or the falsely pretentious. It
is his job, too, to try, in interpreting Shakespeare
to cinema audiences, to match his exuberant
imagination in kind.

Here are some tentative examples — merely de-
signed to indicate how the special, the unique
medium of cinema can be legitimately used to
enhance and not to hinder Shakespeare's work.

I list the speech I have already referred to —
the description of Cleopatra's barge. Here the
problem, in film terms, is for the picture to en-
hance the descriptive poetry of the sound track
We have already suggested that to film what is de-
scribed would be ludicrous. Other than that
there are two possibilities. The first would in-
volve an absolutely static and continuous shot
of Enobarbus speaking the lines. His gestures
would he cut to a minimum, and the effect would
1 e ol i uned by the beauty of his voice land no
background music please) and by the powei ol
his eves and his facial expression. I he second
method would he the method of abstraction.
That is. one would evolve shapes m motion
which would match, rather th ie the

words, and which, perhaps, would help to distil

the words. (I assume, of course, that

the film would he in colour.) I el I noharhus
start his speech with the camera named on him.
But almost immediate!) it would move away
on to some object of ornament. The scene, we
must remember, is a room in I epidus's house, and

ii ma) he presumed to be richly furnished. As the
camera reaches this object a piece of rich
material, oi a fl tgon, or something of the sort,
the focus would he altered so that it became a
coloured blur a shape and no more. I hen, item
hv item of i nol irbus's description, the camera,

always moving, would weave patterns relevant
in an abstract, not a tactual way, lo what was
being spoken of, out of the blurred, soil outlines
of the furnishings of the room. Well, it might
work, it might not. Unless it is one dav done we
shall never know.

Two more ideas— both from Macbeth: I irst
the representation oi the witches. I take Act f,
Scene L Fade in. A desert place. A thunderstorm
raging on a bleak moor. Rain lashing across the
grey tussocks of grass. A sky racing with clouds.
\ud what are those — arc they three thorn trees
swav ing and bending in the wind? Or three weird
sisters dancing fantastically in the storm'.' The
latter perhaps — for out of the screech of the
wind comes the screech of voices — and now
the) are turning widdershins — or is it that we are
moving (with the camera) around them'.' Perhaps
we shall never be certain — but there is no time
to think further, for with a final clap of thunder
everything clears and we arc in rain-washed
windy sunlight outside Duncan's tent, and the
story is beginning . . .

Second : Act V, Scene V. A vast stone hall in
the castle of Dunsinane. Seyton has just told
Macbeth: 'The Queen, m> Lord, is dead'. Mac-
beth sits down slowly — on a stool near the huge
fireplace. The camera is close to him, looking
down on him from a little above him. He begins
to speak in a low voice — 'She should have died
hereafter . . .' and so on. When he gets to 'To-
morrow and tomorrow' the camera starts to
move slowly and steadily backwards and up-
wards, though the sound of his voice remains at
constant volume, and by the time he comes to
'told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying
nothing', he is a tiny figure, seen from a great
height, alone in the vast cavern o\' his castle.
Thus, T think, we can point the universality of his
speech by a withdrawal, rather thanb) a search-
ing out in close-up of the expression on his face,
Then — as he says 'signifying nothing', a second
tiny figure appears running across the great hall.
It is the Messenger. At this moment the camera
dives down again with inconceivable rapidity, SO
that by the time he is kneeling at Macbeth's feet
we are close to both of them, can see the sweat on
ihc Messenger's face, the quick rise and fall of his
breast, can hear his breathless words we are
haek in the world of grim action — so that when
Macbeth strikes him it is like a blow in our own
faces . . .

These examples I have given are perhaps un-
fair— they are extracts from films ol Shakespeare,
and not plans for entire productions of his work.
Much has been left unsaid in this article. No
mention, for instance, of the British Council
films of excerpts from Shakespeare's plavs.
which have been special!) designed for students
overseas. Nor of the academic possibilities of
the idea of filming performances of all the plavs
in the most exact possible replica of the theatres
o\ Shakespeare's dav ilns enormous scheme
would be designed, ol course, for the Shakespeare

addict, not lust for the general public, though

many of the plavs might serve both purposes, it

we remember how vividlv the camera could, ic-

veal the close, intimate relation between player

and audience in Shakcspcaie's dav.

Basil W richl

102

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

Edgar Anstey on the

CZECHOSLOVAK FILM FESTIVAL

This article consists of excerpts from a recent BBC Broadcast

in all my film-viewing in Prague I have seen only
one film which seemed unsuitable for export. My
own opinion — for what it's worth — is that the
average le\el of Czechoslovak feature film pro-
duction is certainly not below that of Britain or
America, and is superior to such Soviet work as
we have been able to see lately. Now this 1 recog-
nize is a bold claim. It doesn't mean that Czecho-
slovak films yet include a great work of genius.
What it does mean is that their total product in-
cludes little or none of the banal, third-rate non-
sense which still forms an appreciable part of
American and British output.

During the course of the Festival British
cinema-goers have been able to see Warriors of
Faith, Stolen Frontier, Men without Wings, The
Warning, The Strike, Dead among the Living, and
The Violin and the Dream, together with shorts
ranging from the delightfully eerie mystical
legend Animals and Brigands to the fine dignity of
Church of St George — a documentary of ecclesi-
astical architecture full of the national spirit of
Czechoslovakia.

General Conclusion

It is not my place here to review these films in
detail. But I do want to draw certain general con-
clusions as to overall content and style and I
think the best way to do this is to tell you about
the most memorable thing that happened to me
during my last visit to Czechoslovakia. We had
been invited to a small town called Duba, which
had been chosen for the premiere of Warriors of
Faith because it was from here that Rohac, the
hero of the film came five hundred years ago. A
party went from Prague for the occasion, led by
Mr Kopecky, Minister of Information. One part
of the ceremony was the re-naming of a street
in honour of the film and, after the speeches had
been made, the official party moved oft" through
the crowds towards the hotel for the rest of the
proceedings. Now the Minister of Information
is a native of this district, and it was not long be-
fore he had been halted by shouts of greeting
from men and women who once had been his
schoolfellows. They started to ask him questions
about the state of the world and the hope of
peace. He began to answer them — slowly and
carefully at first — in terms which 1 recognized,
when they were translated by a neighbour, as
being homely and yet shrewd and realistic. The
discussion — on a level of man to man equality
with no obsequiousness or timid deference —
went on and became more and more complicated,
and more and more lively and stimulating. It be-
gan there in the street and went on during most
of the rest of the day. From time to time, Mr
Kopecky would disappear from the formalities
and later would be found at the centre of a knot
of eager, inquiring citizens of Duba.

Here was in fad a Minister of Information Lik-
ing advantage of a fleeting opportunity to do his
job, not through his staff, or through the Press, or
through the radio, but directly with the people of
whom he was a leader and yet a servant. It was.
as I said, a memorable experience.

Democratic Realism

But what has this to do with Czechoslovak
films? The answer I think is that the average

Czechoslovak film demonstrates a particular
kind of democratic realism. Their films are con-
spicuously free from social or indeed intellectual
distinction between groups and levels of people.
They really seem to begin with the assumption
that all men are equal. Then, as to realism. Even
in Warriors of Faith where some people have
found the plot over-complicated and difficult to
follow, few of you will quarrel with the back-
ground of medieval town and castle and with the
costumes or decoration. Certainly in the films of
war and occupation like Stolen Frontier and Men
without Wings, the settings are documentary in
manner. For example, the industrial sequences of
Men without Wings were shot in a real factory
and not in the studio. Perhaps without im-
modesty, we may claim to find signs here of
British influence, probably transmitted by
Czechoslovak film-makers who worked here dur-
ing the war.

Another quality of Czechoslovak films is the
readiness of characters to discuss in serious
adult terms the underlying political or philo-
sophical implications of their story. The raising
of such serious issues in the dialogue is not re-
garded with the horror that it would arouse in
many British and American film distributors and
exhibitors. Mind you this sometimes lets in a bit
of direct propaganda — generally, and naturally
enough perhaps in this nationalized industry,
against the Germans and the Hungarians. But
the propaganda is never over-obtrusive.

Now, since we've got to it, what about
nationalization? Whatever the dangers of propa-
ganda and censorship which it may bring,
nationalization does mean that the making and
distributing of films is not merely a matter of
commercial relationships between different finan-
cial groups each concerned with its own section
of the industry; instead the nationalized industry
can concentrate as a whole on providing a public
service. And I particularly noticed amongst our
visitors that whilst there was a great deal of dis-
cussion about what is a good film and what isn't,
the question of what the public wanted — of box-
office — was never once raised. For the verj
simple reason that the film-makers did not see
themselves as being a different kind of person
from the people who go to the cinema. If a film
was good — and they meant good as art and
entertainment, not as propaganda — then the
public would like it. And that is a theory which
no one has yet succeeded in disproving — at any
rate to me (provided always of course that public
judgment is not deliberate!) unbalanced in ad-
vance, as it so frequently is here, by enormously
expensive publicity campaigns designed to per-
suade the public that a film known by its makers
to be bad, is in fact good).

I should like to speak briefly about other as-
pects of the festival besides the showing of films.
And I am not referring to the hospitality pro-
vided by the Foreign Office, the Rank organiza-
tion and other film industrv bodies. Of perhaps
more importance have been lectures given by
people like Mr Nezval, the leading poet of
Czechoslovakia, on 'Poetry in the Film', h> Mr
Brichta on 'The History oj the Czechoslovak
Film', by Dr Hejny of the Czechoslovak Ministry
of Education on 'The Scientific Film', and by

Mr Kolda on 'The International Distribution of
Films'. Some of these lectures have been given
for the public, some for specialized groups in the
British film industry. But each of them has repre-
sented a valuable exchange of experience. Then
the documentary makers of both countries have
got together to plan an agreement for the ex-
change of films and facilities. And the critics to
examine common problems of critical standards,
and resistance to unfair influence, be it political
or commercial.

From the British side we have heard Mr
George Tomlinson, Minister of Education, speak
on the importance of the documentary film in
the international field. Mr Herbert Morrison has
wittily drawn attention to the great moderation
the Labour Government is showing in — as yet —
proposing no nationalization for the British film
industry. Mr Fielinger, speaking for Czecho-
slovakia, has reminded us in moving terms of the
close bonds built up both on the personal and the
national level between our two countries during
the war period. Indeed one has not, I think, been
over-optimistic in feeling that there does exist on
both sides a deep determination that this cultural
exchange shall be the first of many — exemplified
best perhaps by the presence of a group of three
British Cabinet Ministers at two of the Festival's
ceremonies.

Results

What does this Festival mean for the man and
woman in the street (or in the cinema)1 To begin
with, it's surely an advantage that those people
responsible for art and the communication of
ideas in all countries, should meet to see whether
in their chosen calling they may not find a com-
mon interest and a common aim which have
escaped the statesmen and the politicians. And
for cinema audiences, the Festival surely can bz
regarded as a step in the direction of a wider and
fairer exchange of films with foreign countries.
It's no coincidence that a most encouraging
agreement for the distribution of British films in
Czechoslovakia should have been concluded
during the period of the Festival. Let us hope that
those cinema-goers who have seen and enjoyel
the Czechoslovak films at the New Gallery, the
Glasgow Cosmo and other cinemas will do what
they can. individual^ and through any organi-
zations they belong to, to encourage the distribu-
tion of the films on a normal commercial basis.
I oreign dialogue undoubtedlv is a handicap,
even with sub-titles, but this can be more than
balanced by the atmosphere and feeling of I
foreign country which its films carry. Beyont
their story, their plot, there is a background, an
atmosphere, a philosophy, if you like. h> which;;
countrv can communicate its qualities and
characteristics to the world more effectively than
through an} other medium. It may do so honesth
or dishonestly, and this must be taken care of b)
the film-makers. But if thej do an honest job-
and most of them w ish to do nothing else -and i "
the public insists on seeing tfuir work, then the;
work of the film-maker in all countries ma) vvel
prove to be the most important means we have oil
breaking down the international barriers which|
grow out of ignorance and suspicion.

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

103

HISTORY ON
FILM

Bv Peter Baylis

the Pathc Company have produced a newsreel
twice a week since the earij years of the centurj
and a cinemagazine once a week since the earb

twenties. And each week from home ami over-
seas, the News and the Pictorial gather in some
8,000 feet o\' film. After their all-too-brief tour
of the cinema circuits, the reels and the mass o\'
unused material are transferred to the Library.
Occasionally, odd sections of film are dusted oil'
to be incorporated in a biography of a departed
personalis, and at the close of each sear the
News Editors dig down lor bits tor their review
of the past 12 months. The remainder of the film
shot, in all probability . ne\er again sees the light
of the projector arc. Here, then, is material un-
limited. From it films can be compiled on every
possible subject — politics, sport, aviation, scien-
tific progress, everything from international
affairs since World War I, to 40 years of football.

The first film we put in production was a 4-reel
compilation for theatrical distribution. One of
the most popular series of feature broadcasts has
been the Scrap Book programmes written by
Leslie Baily. We considered that if. in some way,
we could combine the two techniques, radio ana
film, we might be able to achieve an illusion of
a past era which would surpass in nostalgia any-
thing which has yet reached the screen. We called
in Leslie Baily who enthused over the idea. The
main question was — just how far back should we
go. It had to be far enough back to provide
colourful contrast with the present day, and yet
not so far back that the better part of the cinema
audience could not enjoy a fair modicum of
nostalgia. Finally, we decided on 1922 — just a
quarter of a century ago — a year strong enough
in post-war influence to invite interesting and
significant comparison with 1947. And it so hap-
pened that 1922 was chock-full of exactly what
we wanted; history and nostalgia unlimited, ft
was a year of international unrest, the fall of a
British government, civil war m Ireland, the Inst
days of the BBC, Suzanne Lenglen and Jack
Hobbs. Bonar Law and Bottomley, Sarah
Bernhardt and Stanley Lupino, 'normalcy' and
night-clubs, Felix the Cat and "Beaver!"

So, step by step, Scrap Book for 1922 is coming
together, ft is a job calling for prolonged re-
search and infinite patience, but we are con-
vinced that something different will be the result.

So much for our attempts to slip into the now
fairly distant past; but what of the time that is
only nowr slipping into history?

We had in mind a film record, in topicality
somewhere between a newsreel and a March of
Time, which would present the events of a given
period with some semblance of explanation He-
cause of the time which must inevitably elapse
during production, our period had to be of some
considerable duration. So we cut our cloth to a
one reel quarterly, which would be entitled
Summing Up. With one eye on the schools, we
chose as our subject international affairs. This
was to include, also, those events which can he-
considered as having distind international sig-
nificance as. for example, the international search
for a lost Dakota in the Alps. or. an American
coal strike affecting production vital to world re-
construction. The whole was to be an inter-

national lev iew which would be a solid plug for
world unity . The film's immediate use was to pro-
vide background and atmosphere lor teen-age
lessons on current affairs. Its long-term use
would be as a permanent historical record.

The material with which we had to work had
very distinct limitations. Often coverage con-
sisted ol onlj a handful of shots and frequently
these shots were cut extremely short. A style of
commentary and presentation had therefore to
be adopted, which would tell the story in the
simplest possible terms. The commentary could
not expand or expound at will :t had to be con-
fined to exceedingly short bursts. Opticals we
shunned, because, as we were working on
dupes, there would have been an unbearable loss
of quality. To punctuate the film and to provide
breathing spaces, we adopted the March oj Time
style of continuity titles (which, on reflection,
seemed to be used by Mart h oj lime for exactly
the same reasons' I

When the first two editions of Summing Up
reached the schools, complete with teaching
notes, we invited criticism. We certainly got it.
Sequences were too short, commentaries were
either too newsy or too emotional, we linked
events on film which had no real link in real life,

and so on. ami so on. But, by and large, the re-
ception has been encouraging. We would like to
extend the use ol Summing I !> as lai into the non-
theatrical field as possible, and, may l->e, into the
il field Here, however, arise questions of
release and topicality. When does delayed news
material cease to be oul-of-date news and become
an historical record?

In the dramatic form of presentation adopted
nming I p. I admit to indulgence in a pet
theory with regard to instruction by film. I con-
sider that instruction on history and current
affairs can best be achieved by dramatization;
that by using forceful commentary, appropriate
music and polished editing, we can show children
and students that the events taking place around
us aie as dramatic and as exciting as anything
that Hollywood can contrive. We wanted to im-
press upon them that Trieste is not just a spot on
a map, a name to be bandied about over confer-
ence tables, but is a living community of men,
women and children. We wanted to show them
that an atom blast at Bikini, a conference in
Moscow, a civil war in China and a strike in
Balham were all part of one great story — the
story of mans tight lor existence and world
unity.

AUDIENCE REACTIONS IX SCHOOLS

three new Road Safety films for children, re-
viewed elsewhere in this issue, have just been re-
leased by Petroleum Films Bureau. They aim to
be something more than the usual traffic-light
and careful-crossing type of film, but both their
makers and the distributors regard them as
something in the nature of an experiment albeit
an experiment thought out with care and a sense
of responsibility. They endeavour to use the
child's love of fantasy to teach him good road-
behaviour— to teach him more through his
imagination and his love of make-believe than by
dinning a concrete idea into his head until it loses
meaning.

Adults vary greatly in their reactions to these
films — some think they arc too fantastic; others
that they are not fantastic enough. Some think
they will be above the heads of children; others
that they talk down too much. But the important
thing is — how do children react. ' "I hey have been
made for children and what matters is whether
they influence their behaviour in the desired way.

The Tavistock Institute ol' Human Relations
was called in, and the suggestion made that an
audience reaction test should be carried out
amongst some schoolchildren. The Local Educa-
tion Authorities in Harrow were very co-opera-
tive and made arrangements for two of their
schools to receive a team of investigators.

As Playing in the Road was not finished at the
time, only Puddle Muddle Riddle (for the seven
and eight year olds) and The Ballad ol the Hol-
lered Bicycle (nine and ten year olds) were tried
out. The classes, of about fortj children and pro-
viding different age groups, weie split into
sec l ions ol ten children each Section A did free
drawing for twenty minutes, then saw the film,
then drew again lor another twenty minutes. It
was hoped to find something of the content o\
the films being brought out in the second lot of'
diaw ings. I hese pictures were all stored, with the
rest of the lest material, (o be examined later

Section B, with two observers, did .\\\ oi.il

ompletion. < )ne observer started them on a
hen cadi child in turn added bits to the
s he or she liked I his observer kept the

ball rolling and made general notes on the be-
haviour of the group. The other observer had the
job of taking down everything which was said by
all the children in detail. After twenty minutes
the story was left in mid air while the film was
shown and then another story was started which
had some parallel meaning to that of the film.
Again, every word and action, as far as possible,
was noted down.

Section C in the three older age groups did a
written story completion both before and after
the film. These stories were taken away and
examined later. (Fn the case of the sev en y ear olds
Section C did the same as Section B I

Section I) was the play group. They went out
of doors with one observer to direct the play and
another two to do all the writing of the conversa-
tions and general actions o\~ the group, ft was
suggested to the children that they should make
up a road game and play at crossing and being
buses and cars. After they had seen the film it was
suggested to them that they might like to act it
out and to put in anything which they felt might
improve the film. Again, everything they did or
said was noted down.

Each film was shown to the four sections at
the same time that is. to the seven year olds
Sections \. B. C, and D, and so on through all
the age groups. As the schools were large ones it
was possible to have an "average' class in each
age to avoid either the very bright children or
the dul lai ds During each showing of the films all
the observers were on the alert to note down the
laughs, the bits which held the attention best, the
bits which were obviously boring and the bits
which seemed to be beyond the children and dur-
ing which they started to fidget.

The next day every child who had seen either
of the films was asked to write an essay on the
film and these ess, is s cere collected by the

teachers and sent on to the Institute to add to the

piles ol drawings, stories and notes which

were already assembled there foi interpretation

I he results will take some while to work out,

and until that is Aonc it is ol course impossible

to draw anv well-founded conclusion.

104

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

NEW DOCUMENTARY FILMS

Chasing the Blues. DATA Films for the Cotton
Board. Music: Jack Parnell's Quartet. Dancers:
Alan Baker, Donald Britten. Optical Super-
imposition: Studio Film Laboratories. Distribu-
tion : T and Non-T in Lancashire. 6 minutes.

Whenever films are made to propagate policies
there arises the difficulty of flushing the shy living
things that lurk in the undergrowth of official and
semi-official phraseology. Typewriters chatter
through the Hampstead night as directors and
\cript-writers devise methods of making columns
of statistics walk and talk, or of imparting attrac-
tive flesh-tints to a stack of white papers. When
their devices are successful, which is not always
by any means, it is an occasion for warm
congratulation.

Chasing the Blues undertakes the task of en-
couraging cotton-mill managers to pay more at-
tention to the welfare and comfort of their
workers, and giving them a few ideas on how to
go about it. The DATA technicians have avoided
ponderous exhortations and wordy argument.
Instead they have produced a kind of film ballet
which makes its points almost entirely in music
and movement. The technique derives, partly at
any rate, from Len Lye's abstract film posters of
the 1930s, and it fulfils its purpose to admiration.
Experiments of this kind are as welcome as they
are rare, and it is to be hoped that both sponsors
and producers will explore further the land of
fantasy. They will find it an invaluable base in
their war against the Great Ho-Hum.

Puddle Muddle Riddle. Seven League for PFB.

Distribution: PFB. 12 mins.

Playing in the Road. Public Relationship Films

for PFB. Distribution: PFB. 12 mins.

The Ballad of the Battered Bicycle. Seven League

for PFB. Distribution: PFB. 8 mins.

In this country the production of entertainment
films for children is still in its infancy and little is
yet known about the effectiveness of this medium
for conveying ideas. The Petroleum Films
Bureau is therefore to be congratulated upon
having sponsored a series of experimental story
films on road safety, each having been made for
a particular age group.

It is not easy for an adult to appraise films
made for children. They must clearly be of a
slower tempo than those for adults, and are there-
fore liable to seem boring to us. The humour
must be broad and rather obvious, and not of the
type to which we are used to responding. The
camera must move quietly and deliberately, mak-
ing its points explicitly rather than by reference to
symbols, significant close-ups, cross-cutting, etc.
The children and grown-ups must appear as they
do to children. But having said that we have said
very little, and the only real test of such films
is the influence they have on behaviour. We un-
derstand that the Tavistock Institute of Human
Relations is undertaking some research on
children's reactions to these films. This should
yield sonic extremely interesting results.

Of these three films, the least successful was the
one designed for the youngest children, Playing
in the Road. From the adult point of vic>\ it is a
delightful film — well shot and neatly edited,
amusing and interesting. But it is very doubtful

whether small children would follow much of it.
It moves very quickly, the dialogue is sophisti-
cated and spoken rapidly, and the points are
emphasized too subtly. The most suitable film is
the one for children of over 10 years, The Ballad
of the Battered Bicycle. The commentary is in the
style of Stanley Holloway, who speaks it. It is the
tale of a boy who, breaking every rule of the
road, rides his bike to its death. It is a clear and
simple story, straightforwardly told, and should
appeal to the juvenile road-hog.

Puddle Muddle Riddle is difficult to assess,
since its humour is not intended to appeal to
grown-ups and it depends on humour to make
its point. It is the story of Puddle Muddle, where
there were no traffic rules, and of the various
types of rules devised by the grotesque Town
Council when the chaos became unbearable.
Eventually some sensible people step in and work
out the rules we use today, and they appeal to the
children to co-operate in carrying them out.
There seems every reason to believe that the main
point will get over to the children, even if they do
not follow the transition from the Puddle
Muddlians to the sensible folk who put every-
thing right.

Whatever their result, the making of these films
was a step forward. We want more of every type
of film for children, but we especially want more
research and experiment into the entertainment
film for juveniles. Is it asking too much for the
Ministry of Education to give some consideration
to this question alongside its work on educational
films?

A Power in the Land. World Wide for Electrical
Trades Union. Producer: Ralph Bond. Director:
Terry Bishop. Camera: Arthur Graham. Dis-
tribution: Full-theatrical. GFD. 40 mins.
This film has been made in two versions, a three
reeler for the theatres, with an extra reel to be
added for showing throughout the trade union
movement. The main body of the film deals with
the uses of electricity. Through the membership
index of a trade union office we are introduced
to the work that has to be done in electrical
supply undertakings, in factories making electri-
cal fittings, in steelworks where the machinery is
electrically controlled, on board ship, etc. Before
our eyes pass electric irons and cookers, generators
and scientific timing machines, X-ray apparatus,
an encephalograph, and finally a cyclotron (with
a brief introduction to atom-splitting). The com-
mentator works up to a high-sounding peroration
on all these marvels of electricity, to be inter-
rupted by an ordinary electrician doing his every-
day job repairing somebody else's wireless set,
with a timely 'A fat lot of use you'd be without
me'. It is a very necessary reminder. The ETU
has a couple of hundred thousand members; on
their work and skill depends the supply of many
services we take for granted.

The extra reel gives a brief description of the
ETU, its organization as a trade union, how it
functions, and the wide range o\ activities it is
concerned with. It seems a pity that this should
be the section which is omitted from the theatrical
version. It is the general public, rather than the
trade union movement, that needs to be informed
of these things, particularly as the film does a

good job of explaining union organization.

The film is competently made, though rather
slow-moving at times. One could have wished,
in the theatrical version, for more emphasis on
people, on the electricians themselves. The fact
that the film is to get theatrical distribution is
particularly important. It will be the first time a
trade union viewpoint about a major industry
will be presented on the cinema screens of this
country.

Out of the Ruins. Canadian National Film Board
for UNRRA. Distribution: N-T. CFL. 30 mins.

This film made in 1945 tells the story of the relief
work undertaken immediately following the
liberation of Greece. Today it might well be
written off as out of date, were it not for the fact
that its implications are profoundly topical.

As its title suggests, Out of the Ruins prov ides
a picture of the devastation of Greece and of the
pitiful situation of its population at the time of
the liberation. Such scenes are still salutary, even
after our own wartime experiences and the dis-
comforts of the recent fuel crisis. The work of
UNRRA makes an inspiring theme, with its wel-
come by the ordinary people, its preoccupation
with providing the homely but important things
of life (such as mules), and its concern to draw
the Greek people fully into the work of re-
construction and replanning.

The director has made the most of the oppor-
tunities provided. The Greek peasants are brought
close to us and we are impressed by their courage
and their simple dignity. The beauties of the
countryside — surely a sore temptation to the
cameraman — have been utilized without artiness
or artificiality. There is a very effective and
moving sequence depicting the Resistance in
symbolic terms. As it stands, this film is a fitting
tribute to all that was best in UNRRA and to
the ideals of disinterested relief which have
received such setbacks since its premature
demise.

But Greece is the centre of world political
battles and is torn by civil war. Any good film
must therefore be expected to reflect in some way
the underlying reasons for this. Within the limits
set by the subject Out of the Ruins does this. It
shows for example, the contrast between the
standard of living of the rich and of the poor, the
expensive shops crammed with luxury foods
while the mass of the people live on. or over, the
starvation line. It shows the demands for democ-
racy of the ordinary people. It shows foreign
troops on patrol in the heart of Athens. We can
draw our own conclusions from these facts.

The real topicality of this film lies, however, in
what it does not show. \\ hen it was shot it was
apparently still possible to be optimistic about
the future of Greece. The film breathes confidence
about the reconstruction of the country, about
the participation of the common people in this
work, and about the re-estahlishmeni ot' the cul-
tural and democratic heritage o\ Greece. N et,
two years later, with UNRRA at an end. civil
war raging, and thousands o\ the ordinal) folk
exiled, imprisoned or seeking sanctuary in the
mountains, one can onb feel shaken .\^J shamed
by the frustration of all the ideals and plans so
enthusiastically portrayed in the film. The
Canadian film Board have turned out a good
film, but thev have done more than that. Perhaps
inadvertently thev have challenged the con-
sciences ol' the freedom loving peoples of the
world.

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

105

Very Dangerous. Sixteen to Twenty-six. Pro-
duced by the National Film Board of Canada
and Crawley Studios for the Division of VD
Control, Department of National Health and
Welfare. Each 2 reels. 16 mm. colour-sound.
Distribution: Canadian National Film Board.

These two colour films from Canada are a useful
addition to existing films on venereal disease.
Using the device o( a lecture by a doctor, each
film shows the cause, symptoms, method of
transmission and cure of gonorrhoea and
syphilis; Sixteen to Twenty-six dealing with the
diseases in women. Very Dangerous in men.
Given this method of presentation little fault can
be found with either film. Both are straightfor-
ward competent productions, although some of
the diagram work, particularly that showing the
incidence of VD compared with other common
diseases, could be improved upon: and the
colour in places is unnaturally lurid.

From a propaganda point of v iew both films
present the same combination of medical fact and
moral exhortation, which is followed by VD
publicity in this country. Whether this line will
ever achieve any reduction in the incidence of
the diseases is too complicated a question to be
discussed here; at the same time it must be said
that surely the time has now come for an ap-
proach to the subject from a more positive point
of view. The wartime increase of VD, which still
continues, is only one example of a complex
breakdown of the social system, a breakdown
which shows itself in increasing restlessness and
dissatisfaction with work, in a rise of juvenile
delinquency and armed robbery, in an erratic
birth rate and a phenomenal rise in the number
of divorces. Rooted in sociology there is a major
task of film making to be undertaken, which will
tackle the problems of VD constructively against
the whole background of individual and family
life in the modern world. Until that time, lec-
turers in Health Education will find these two
films of considerable, if limited, value.

New Faces Come Back. Produced by RCAF Film
Unit and National Film Board. 28 mins.

There is one point about this film for which every
doctor will be grateful to the producers: that in a
subject full of potential 'drama', they have re-
mained calm and dispassionate. For they had a
difficult job to do, and the temptation must have
been great. Briefly the idea behind the film was to
enlist the sympathy and understanding of people
in Canada, far from the reality of bombs and
their consequences, for those who returned from
the war maimed and disfigured.

The film tells how a young Canadian flight
engineer, badly burned in a plane crash, is sent
to the Plastic Surgery Centre at I asl Cirinstead,
for treatment. Here he gets his 'new face'. The
course of his recovery is followed and we see
how with the help of hospital staff and local
friends he gradually returns to a normal altitude
to life. In its earlier part the film moves fast.
Although in places the continuity wavers, there
are moments of skilled film craft which are a
pleasure to watch. In the latter part, however,
the story breaks down. More than sell-conscious-
ness, the haunting feai of these men is sexual
failure; the girl's casual refusal to dance,
although it symbolizes this fear, does not be-
come a reality . I he film tails to com ince that Jim
would have taken tins incident so much to heart,
particularly as he does not seem to lack for other
outside 1 1 icnds. I ven less are we convinced hv his
subsequent reactions. Sublimation, symbolized

In an interest in music, again appears too simple
for reality. The film here never quite makes up its
mind what it is Irving to get over: eventually it
gives up the struggle, Jim recovers Ins balance
and goes happily home, Icav ing us w uh the theme
that the rest is up to the people there.

The superficiality of the pan dealing with the
tips and downs of readjustment is a pity, because
it inevitably nullities the permanent value of the
film. The problems of psychological adjustment
alter injury arc complex and deep I hev cannol
be He. tied in a film which is obviously looking
over its shoulder at the theatrical distributors. As
events proved, even in this form, it was uiaccept-
able to the theatres, and an opportunity for
making a real study of the problem, which would
have a permanent value, has been lost. Neverthe-
less this is a competent film, which has a value
for general audiences as an introduction to some
of the problems of rehabilitation.

Penicillin in Medical Practice. Realist for COI
and Ministry of Health. Producer: John Taylor.
Director, J. Massey. Camera: Ronald Gardner.
Distribution: CFL. 35 mins.

Technical films for medical audiences arc still all
too rare, it is therefore the more regrettable to
have to record this long awaited film a dis-
appointment. Undoubtedly its value would have
been much greater if it could have been released
before Penicillin was generally available. Today
when all doctors have had experience of its use.
much of the point has been lost. Even so it is
difficult to understand what it was hoped to
achieve vv ith the film in this form.

In theory the shape is sound. From a beautiful
opening shot of the mould in growth, the film
reviews in succession the properties of penicillin,
including the agents by which it is inactivated,
shows the form and methods of administration
and the limitations of use. The latter part shows
some of the principal applications of penicillin to
medicine, surgery, ophthalmology, venereal and
skin infections. This is no superficial treatment,
yet at the end we have learned little and will
remember less.

The fact is that this is one of those omnibus
films that confuse the mind with a mass of
material and give no time for reflection and ab-
sorption; yet at the same time in covering too
much, leaves much unanswered. This is the more
annoying because much of the detail. is con-
cerned with hospital treatment and surgical tech-
niques, which are unnecessary and which could
have been omitted to allow the inclusion of the
simpler practical information and guidance for
use needed by the general practitioner in his
daily work. Of many omissions, the most serious
is a lack of stress on the dangers of underdosage.
Undoubtedly there is much here that is useful
the sequence showing continuous intramuscular
drip, for example, is excellent, and tips, like the
inclusion of Novocaine to minimize the pain of
injection, invaluable bul these tend to get lost
in the remaining material. I he film unit have
been badlv advised. This was a subject calling for

a fundamental analysis of aim and purpose, and
should clearly have been dealt with in a series of
films.

On the technical side the film is in general
much below the standard we expect from this
unit. While many of the difficulties are inherent
in present day 16 mm. colour production, a
slower tempo through a more liberal use of cut
aways and camera movement would have helped

the method ol presentation.

Modern Guide to Health. By Halas and Batchelor

for COI and Ministry of Health. Product
Director: John Halas. Script: Joy Batchelor.
Camera: Percy Wright. Distribution: I and

Non- l<ll in mil

A guide to Health: A tall order in ten minutes,
forget the title; here are some first-rate tips
on good posture, fresh air and exercise, sensible
clothing and sound sleep, presented in a simple
style which contrives to be both instructional
and entertaining. I lementary, but none the
worse for that. We have had too many over-
stuffed films. Cartoon technique proved its value
for health education in the armed forces during
the war. In a world engaged on forgetting all war-
time lessons this film is an encouragement. Bul
why is it not labelled No I? A planned series is
needed.

Scabies, 1946. Merlin for Ministry of Health.
Direction: Robin Carrulhers. Production: Mich-
ael Hankinson. Camera: H. N. Ed well. Distribu-
tion: CFL. 34 mins.

This re-cditcd version of the Scabies film made
for medical audiences in 1943 is a considerable
improvement on the original. With the removal
of the unconvincing sync dialogue sequences, and
the insertion of a new section showing the rela-
tive merits of various sarcopticides. the film now
presents a completely satisfying account of
scabies infestation. Now for a film on the louse,
please.

Food Manufacture. Production: World Wide for
Army Kinema Corporation. Producer: Jai
Carr. Director: Graham Cutts. Camera: Ronnie
Anscombc. Story: Ted Willis. Distribution: C I I
and all services. 27 mins.

This is one of a series of films portraying life in
various key British industries for the guidance of
members of the forces returning to civ Mian jobs.
The food industry bristles with difficulties from
the point of view of the film maker. It is a medley
of craft processes, and machine minding, poorly
organized and indifferently paid. Despite its
social usefulness it is not an industry which is
likely to attract the ambitious or enterprising
worker.

World Wide have been well advised to use a
severely factual approach and it was good to
hear the commentator facing up to realities He
explained frequently that prospects of promotion
were poor and that in certain sections of the in-
dustry there was little opportunity of learning a
trade. He was brutally frank about the low level
of wages and the monotony of much of the work,
but this is all as it should be in a film which sets
out to present a true picture of an industry.

In this series there have been a do/en or so
films depicting various industries where labour is
required, [f they are all as painstakingly honest
as this one the average chap in the forces should
have found them very helpful in choosing his
future job. On the other hand, one can ima
his confusion if each film had tried to present its

subject as the most alluring and lucrative industry .
I his review may give the impression that the
film is dull and earnest on the -
interesting. Iivelv and amusing. It is well and
imaginatively shot, briskly edited and the m
is apt and witlilv arranged. I he film ^-in profit-
ably be shown in adult education, to sch<

leavers, and to social scientists as well
of interest to film society audic

106

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

LE CANARD ENCHAINE has kindly given us permission to reprint
this interesting article on

MONSIEUR VERDOIIX or
CHARLIE CHAPLIN versus THE REST

New York — April

i have just been seeing Monsieur Verdoux, the
new Charlie Chaplin film. Or should I say the
new Chaplin film, for the little man with the
bowler hat and bamboo cane isn't in it? Instead,
there is a new character, a very elegant gentleman
with silvery hair. The moustache alone reminds
us of the old Charlie.

The story of Monsieur Verdoux — a Comedy of
Murders is simple. For 30 years, Verdoux, a
humble French bank clerk, has looked after
other people's money. One day he gets the sack.
The worm turns. Verdoux has an invalid wife
and a small son. He must have money. To get it,
he commits bigamy with rich women whom he
immediately kills off. Posing first as an explorer,
then as an Army captain, and finally as an an-
tique dealer, he seduces his female victims with a
flowery and passionate eloquence. Don Juan
lives again — metempsychosed into Crippen!

And then one day Monsieur Verdoux's house
of cards collapses. His invalid wife dies; so does
his son. He is hammered on the Stock Exchange,
Sick of it all, he throws in his hand, and gives
himself up, to justice and the hangman.

Is there any comedy? Yes, of course. There is
the scene where he counts the takings from the
wives he has killed, wetting his finger and flicking
the notes rapidly as bank clerks do, the world
over.

There is the scene when he makes desperate '
efforts to drown one of his wives, and it is she
who finally rescues him from a watery grave.

And another, when he makes a passionate
avowal of love — with a cup of tea in his hand.

But these moments are rare. There are not
many laughs. On the contrary, it is a film of such
bitterness and melancholy that it took my
breath away.

What have the American critics said?

'We just can't recognize our old friend Charlie.'

"What has happened to the little guy in the
bowler hat?'

"Way down, it's the same Charlie, but this
time he's really old, grown disillusioned and
cynical. No more moonlight and roses. Things
have got too tough.'

To which Monsieur Verdoux bitterly replies
'The world is a jungle.'

When Monsieur Verdoux appears before the
judge who condemns him to death, he makes a
little speech. 'The prosecution has credited me
with intelligence. Thank you. For 30 years I used
this intelligence of mine for honest ends. And
then suddenly, one day, they didn't want it. You
call me a criminal? On the contrary, I'm only an
amateur. The mass murder of women and chil-
dren is done scientifically these days.' And he
adds mockingly — 'See you soon, gentlemen, verj
soon.'

A reporter who comes to interview him in his
cells suggests that 'Crime doesn't pay.' 'Don't
you believe it,' says Verdoux, 'a great many
criminals become millionaires. I'm just un-
lucky.'

A priest visits him in prison. 'God have pity on
your soul,' he says. Monsieur Verdoux smiles —

'Why not,' he says, 'after all, it belongs to him.'

In this extraordinary film, there is no sweetness
or light and no hope. The characters are ugly,
greedy and quarrelsome. The women are fools,
naive fools, avaricious fools. The most sym-
pathetic character is Monsieur Verdoux himself,
the murderer, the Bluebeard.

As in all Chaplin films, there is a young girl.
But this time the young girl is a thief, the mistress
of an armaments king. ('That ought to have been
my racket,' murmurs Monsieur Verdoux.)

Do you remember the last shot in Modern
Times? Backlit, Charlie walks down a long road,
hand in hand with Paulette Goddard. Monsieur
Verdoux walks alone, between two policemen,
alone to his death, and it is almost as though he
is saying 'At last.'

Do you remember The Circus, The Gold Rush,
and a dozen other films in which Charlie timidly
and adoringly makes love to pre-Raphaelite
young girls.? Monsieur Verdoux whispers apt
cliches to middle-aged women, with an eye on
their bank balance.

If this film distressed and saddened me, it is
not because of Monsieur Verdoux, who after all
is no more than a symbol of our time, a character
who amateurishly attempts to compete with the
atomic big shots. No, it's not because of him. It is
because of Charles Chaplin.

For if ever a film reflected the bitterness and
despair of a human spirit, this film does. How
blind the American critics are! 'The film is
amusing,' they have said, or 'bewildering'. They
have uttered their pious hopes that Charlie will
be back with his bowler hat in his 'next'. None of
them say 'There speaks a man's soul.'

Why is Monsieur Verdoux so lonely, so anti-
social, so shatteringly cynical? Because he is
Charles Chaplin.

The reason is not far to seek. No matter what
American paper you open, for years Chaplin has
been the butt of all the bigots, hypocrites, jingo-
ists and nitwits of the entire American continent.

Columnists who can find nothing to say, be-
cause they are dead from the neck up. can always
attack Chaplin, and throw mud at one of the
greatest artists of our time. Chaplin is sensitive.
Chaplin is creative, Chaplin will never hunt with
the hounds. Down with Chaplin!

'Are you a Communist, Mr Chaplin?' 'What
did you do during the war?" 'Why won't you have
anything to do with American politics?' 'Why
have you never become an American citizen,
after having lived here for 30 years?' 'What's
your opinion of the USSR?' 'Why? How?
When? Where?'

These are only a few of the questions with
which he was bombarded at a press conference
the other day. He replied: T have never become
an American because I am not a nationalist.
Politics don't interest me. I pay taxes here, de-
spite the fact that 70 per cent of my income
comes from abroad. The USSR'.' In mv opinion,
the Russians fought bravely during the war. If
you think that makes me a Communist, well and
good.'

The Press conference went on. becoming more

and more like a court of justice, with Chaplin in
the dock. 'Mr Chaplin, in the name of our
Catholic comrades, who fell in the war . . .'

'Mr Chaplin, you have taken our money and
yet you refuse to take out nationalization papers

A pack of hounds, and they never let up. And
the voice of Monsieur Verdoux echoes — 'The
world is a jungle."

Before the conference ended, an intelligent
critic with- a genuine love for film, asked the fol-
lowing question — "Mr Chaplin, what is your
opinion of a country, which, in the name of
liberty, expects an artist to account for his be-
liefs, his private life, the manner in which he con-
ducts his private business, and subjects him to a
press campaign which amounts to public black-
mail?'

Chaplin looked at him a moment and said two
words — 'Thank you.'

While all this was going on. and the dogs were
baying at his heels, a telegraph boy came in,
tired, blase, chewing gum. He delivered a tele-
gram to somebody and, raising his eves, sud-
denly saw, in the middle of the room, a most
distinguished and elegant gentleman with white
hair. He stared, thunderstruck, then bolted cut
of the room. And through the closed door we
heard his voice, full of disbelief and delight,
shouting — 'Say. it's Charlie!"

Translated from an article in 'Le Canard
Enchaine' dated April 23rd, 1947, and
signed ' Donald Ducky.'

COI BULLETIN

Monthly Review. No. 5. February 1947. Issued by
Information Department, Films Division. COI.
COI Films Division should make a point of
circulating their house-magazine to contracting
units. This is issue number five, and the first time
your reviewer had ever heard of it. Baffled pro-
ducers, directors and production managers, for
whom the letters COI spell only 'financial prob-
lems', might have their morale uplifted by the
knowledge that enlightened comment of this kind
(yes, actually about film, not merely about paper-
work and figures) regularly percolates to the
darkest recesses of the Central Office. Here in this
issue are a review of the 'Factual Film", a report
from Paris by Helen de Mouilpied, notes on re-
cent productions, on film literature, on what the
studios are doing, and. as a tailpiece, E to G of a
'Glossary of Film Technical Terms and Abbre-
viations'. Carry on COI! We ma) not always
love you. but this is beyond reproach.

CORRECTION BY LETTER

sir: There is a little conspiracy of identical errors
in your April-May issue. On p. 88, in the review
of the film Instruments of the Orchestra, we read
of Britten's 'fifteen variations and fugue', and on
p. 94 the observation is made again (b> another
wiuer?) that 'the film presents 15 variations and
a fugue on a Purcell theme."

Actual!) the film presents 13 variations, for (1)
flutes and piccolo. (2) oboes. (3) clarinets. (4)
bassoons. (5) first and second violins. (6) violas.
(7) 'cellos. iS) double-basses, (9) harp. (10)
horns. (11) trumpets. (1?) trombone and bass
tuba, and (13) percussion. 1 hese are succeeded
b) the fugue, and preceded b) siv statements of
the theme, tor i\) full orchestra. (2) wood-wind.
(3) brass. (4) strings, ni percussion, and (6) full
orchestra again.

Yours, etc..

11 VNS M 11 1R

!)()( I Ml \ I \m \| \\s I I INK

107

WORM'S EYE VIEW on

A POSTWAR RECRUIT LOOKS AT DOCUMENTARY

MICHAEL CLARKE

».'

looking back at a year in the industry and a
year's issues of DNL, it occurs to me that the
documentary movement is inexplicable and con-
fused. When I read about documentary in books
and articles, years ago, 1 learned how vital a
medium for public information and social im-
provement it could be. I realized that our films
could, in the crudest terms, be a weapon on the
side of truth. I also learned that one of the chief
tasks o\ the documentary worker was to nego-
tiate wider manufacture and better distribution
of the product, in order that the broadest social
effect might be realized.

What do I find.' from the old guard, all too
often merely complaints —that the industry is
commercialized, that £17 a week is somehow
worse than £5, that there is no longer the 'spirit'
of the old days. This at a time when more docu-
mentaries are commissioned and made than
ever before in peacetime.

It isn't sense: but of course it is understand-
able. For with the wider use of factual films, there
have entered the industry many technicians who
have no sense of dedication. But it is not their
fault that they don't feel like missionaries, nor
does it matter if, as often, they are technically
very efficient. There isn't any more the feeling of
a happy band of pilgrims; the party is too large.
Nor is there a large quantity of films with a
radical social message being made. (Not that
there e\ er was ; but they are the ones that people
remember. )

To this extent, the spirit of documentary must
have changed; and it is true that the movement
is completely disorganized, if indeed it is still a
movement at all. I don't think this is because it is
too large; for there is still a number of technicians
who ally to a love of film the conviction that
human health, happiness and values are supreme-
ly important, and that our medium can help to
tight for their recognition. But main ol these
people have entered the movement since 1939;
they find that documentary, is shapeless, and that
there is no channel through which their energies,
enthusiasms and varied abilities can be canalized.

Most of the complaints about the present, and
the esoteric comparisons with 'the old GPO
days', come from those whose long service and
experience should have led them to keep the
movement on its feet. It is these senior tech-
nicians of the movement who, I suggest, are re-
sponsible for its decline into individualism; it
was their task to give leadership, to develop their
juniors, or rather so to encourage them that
their best talents were matured to the service of
documentary. There used to be. one hears, a
tradition of this kind: but nowadays most of the
people whose task it is are doing other work.
Public relations, propagation of the documentary
gospels, all the related jobs are vital!) important.
and must not be obscured. But if the} mean that
real connection with film-making and film-
makers is abandoned, then those who perform
them lose their touch: ami leadership is reduced
to the SOU! complaint that things are no longer
as thev were. It is no coincidence that most
sense is usually spoken bj those of the lust
generation who still make films.

However discrete the documentary movement

appears to be. there is still a common factor con-
necting most of its units. That factor is the tech-
nicians who believe actively in the original pur-
poses of the medium. But, with so many people
employed, it is no longer possible to preserve and
build on that unity by chance meetings in the
pub; if we arc to tight what Grierson, I believe,
called the 'carpel-slipper mentality', we must find
something more suitable than the Highlander or
the Dog and Duck. There seems to me to be an
important place for an organization catering
solely for documentary workers; we are in a
period of great change, in which we have to ad-
just our methods and objectives; at the same
time, there are numbers of junior technicians who
need to be developed and made familiar with the
movement in which thev work. No existing
organization can achieve fhis. The FDFU. with
the chance of a lifetime, nevertheless remains
almost solely a producers' body, albeit a valu-
able one; the ACT has a far wider scope; while
Film Centre takes no advantage of its power and
opportunity. At the moment, DNL is the only
point of contact for documentary workers; and
you can't belong to a magazine. Let us therefore,
since the doyens of the movement have done-
nothing to crystallize it, attempt to focus what
energies and talents we can assemble in a new
body of documentary workers, at once social and
professional. Of course, you cannot achieve

miracles simply by forming an organization : but
it dues provide a basis on which to work.

It is at the same time very necessary to clear up
the large question of our attitude to the suit of
films that are being made. It is quite irrelevant
to complain that we are no longer produi
films of the radical nature of Today We Live and
the like. The external situation has completely
altered, and in fact documentary is doing more
useful work in a practical way than it eve-
One hears the complaint that too much lime is
spent on making educational films, alleged to be
easy meat for the skilled director. Too much
lime, the miner may think, is spent in hew
coal. Surely it is a tribute to the place docu-
mentary has earned for itself that it has been
given so much of the responsibility for this work.
If we have a progressive aim, it is time for re-
joicing when even a part of it comes to be
realized. Documentary has called so long and SO
loud for the use of film in all kinds of education
and enlightenment that those who sneer at in-
structional become themselves immediately sus-
pect. For now we have actually to perform some
o\ those tasks which, earlier, were only the sub-
ject of agitation. Nor is it so easy to make
teaching films. In fact, we have to go a long way
before establishing a proper theory of educational
film; we must study the problems of fore- and
background films more deeply, examine the
varied needs of special audiences, and find a way
of making this important medium cheaper and
more accessible.

There is as much a place as ever for the

general interpretive film : indeed in some senses

we are at an advantage over pre-war days, and

are certainly assured of a wider audience. If films

{Continued page 111, top col. 1)

WOKLII Willie

*A Power in the Laml*

(The story of electricity in the modern world)

Has been acquired by
GENERAL FILM DISTRIBUTORS LTD

for theatrical distribution

WOIU !> WIDE PICTURES 1/r l>

LYSBETII HOUSE, SOHO SQl \KK. LONDON. \\ I Gerrurd 1736 7/8

[Member of t}u Federation of Documentor) Film ' nil*)

108

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

FILMS ON THE MACHINERY OF DEMOCRACY

By
ALEC SPOOR — PRO, National Association of Local Government Officers

since 1918, practically every man and woman
over 21 in Britain has had a vote in a Parlia-
mentary election, and since 1945 the same
franchise has been extended to local government
elections. We are, therefore, a complete democ-
racy enjoying government of the people, by the
people, and for the people, both nationally and
locally.

But are we? In 1935, a National Government
was elected by the votes of 39 per cent of the
electors. In 1945 a Labour Government was
elected by the votes of 36 per cent of the electors.
On each occasion, one voter in every four neg-
lected to vote. At the county council elections in
1937, only one in 18 of the electors in Devon
and only one in 14 of the electors in Cambridge-
shire cast their votes. In the six annual elections
between 1933 and 1938, the percentages of elec-
tors voting for South Cambridgeshire rural dis-
trict were 8-4, nil, 1-2, nil, 1-5, and nil respec-
tively. And of a sample of 21 boroughs and
county boroughs in 1938, the percentages voting
ranged between 63 -7 and 6-9 — with the majority
between 10 and 40 per cent. This is scarcely
government by the people.

Is it government for the people? It can be that
only if the people as a whole know what they can
get from government, and see that they get it.
But today not one person in a hundred could

tell you what a county, borough or district coun-
cil does or might do, not one person in a hundred
takes any interest in the activities of those bodies,
understands the problems they are tackling, or
even knows the names of his own councillors.
And few councillors try to find out what their
constituents think on any particular topic.

In practice, then, our democracy boils down to
government of the people, by a handful of the
people, for a handful of the people — with the rest
entirely uninterested except when the rate de-
mand arrives or the dustman does not.

If we want a real democracy, we must replace
this indifference with constructive civic interest.
And there, I believe, the film can do much.

The man in the street and the woman in the
kitchen are bored by local government because
it is big, complicated, and apparently remote
from their personal concerns of home, food,
children, work, and play. But if you were to take
them behind the scenes, show them the new
houses being designed and built (and ask them
what sort of houses they wanted), the inspectors,
analysts and bacteriologists weighing, sampling,
and safeguarding their food, the nurses, doctors,
and teachers working to give their children a good
start in life, the surveyors, traffic experts and
police making better roads to speed them to and
from work, the council committees planning

INVISIBLE PLEASURES

PHOTOMICROGRAPHY is happy with crea-
tures, objects, phenomena too small to be
seen by the naked eye.

Plants and insects seem enormously obvious,
but when photographed in colour, and some-
times by stop-motion, their true character-
istics are often revealed in new, exciting
ways.

All this work is completely practical and
scientific — but why shouldn't scientists be
happy?

PHOTOMICROGRAPHY LTD

WHITEHALL, WRAYSBURY, BUCKS

IN CHARGE OF PRODUCTION: J. V. DURDEN

community centres, parks, swimming pools and
places for play, they would soon be interested —
and eager to say what they wanted.

You cannot take them all behind the scenes;
but the film can. Jill Craigie, in The Way We Li\e,
translated maps into terms of human happiness
and showed that even town-planning can stir the
blood. Paul Rotha in Waterworks takes us along
the pipe into the fascinating world of filters,
pumps, wells, aqueducts, reservoirs, rivers and
clouds that comes into our bathroom every time
we turn on the tap, and in A City Speaks demon-
strates how much the seemingly dull delibera-
tions of the city council mean to the citizens of
Manchester, at home and at school, at work and
at play. Such films as Our School, Double Thread,
Life Begins Again, and Twenty-four Square Miles,
give their audiences, in John Grierson's phrase,
'the civic eye' through which they can see inside
the walls and beneath the surface of governmen-
tal activities to the human values behind.

But we need many more such films — films that,
to quote Grierson again, 'can strike a living
spark across the gap between the administration
and the citizen', films that will elucidate the
mysteries of the rate demand note, simplify and
dramatize the problems of the committee room,
translate the medical officers' report into terms of
human sickness and health, misery and happi-
ness. There is here an enormous field for the
documentary film maker, a field bearing a rich
harvest of interest for the man with the imagina-
tion and enterprise to dig it out. And the men
who do that, and those who finance their work,
will be doing much more than make fine films:
they will be helping to turn British democracy
from an abstraction into a reality.

BOOK REVIEW

Going to the Cinema, by Andrew Buchanan.
(Phoenix House.) Is. 6d.

This book is dedicated to the 'adult cinema-goer
of tomorrow' and it fulfils its dedication by plac-
ing before its readers a clear exposition of every
aspect of film-making.

The author takes the film from its very incep-
tion through its shooting, editing, distribution
and final exhibition and in concise words and
simple terms he explains exactly 'what goes on'.
There is not the faintest suggestion of talking
down to the voting amateur — Mr Buchanan
makes use of plenty of technical terms but is
always careful to explain such terms in a manner
which will in no way innate anj reader who may
be at the age where he is slight!) allergic to any
hint of the school text-book.

There is a chapter on Documentary which
ought to catch the interest o\ those who have
never thought o\' the cinema in terms of an) thing
but the Big Picture. The making of cartoons is
clearlv explained and there is another chapter
about the news reel. The final chapter is an
invitation to the young reader to learn all about
the cinema and to set himself up as a critic of all
the films he sees.

DOCUMENT \R\ NEWSLETTER

1(W

FEATURE FILM MUSIC and the DOCUMENTARY

By MUIR MATfflESON

i mi influence of the documentary on feature film
production has become increasingly significant

during the last ten years. During the thirties this
tendency was onlj slight, manifesting itself in
pictures like the K.orda-1 lahertj film Elephant
Boy. World War If resulted in a rapid expansion
of the process, eventually producing pictures
which were known simply as 'feature-docu-
mentaries'. The ads cut o\ such directors as
Cavalcanti into the commercial studios brought
about a liaison of fact and fiction that made this
country's war films more realistic than those of,
say, the United States, where no large inde-
pendent documentary movement could be co-
opted to vitalize Hollywood output. It was on
these early fictional-documentaries that the new
British film industry was founded, with produc-
tions of the Forty-ninth Parallel and First of the
Few calibre, giving our film makers the morale
and prestige to attempt Henry V, The Way
Ahead, and Men oj Two Worlds. Such is the debt
that features owe to documentary

During the present transition from war to a
period of desperate economic recoverj the docu-
mentary influence remains. True, with the de-
parture of Churchills and Spitfires the purely fac-
tual aspect becomes less spectacular but the les-
son of the fighting days has not been forgotten.
As Harry Watt prepares to follow through the
triumph of The Overlanders with another out-
door story from Australia; as Ealing Studios
dispatch cameramen to the Antarctic to secure
backgrounds for Scott of the Antarctic; as
Shepherd's Bush studios shoot Rescue, a film
version of the factual story of the Dakota snow-
bound crash of a few months ago; so the value of
a realistic setting to commercial productions is
demonstrated far more clearly than it was before
the war. Social problems of the day are more
courageously tackled by film makers than before ;
again the documentary influence leads the way.

ft is also true that feature film music has de-
rived considerable benefit from the realm of
documentary . Apart from the fact that the raising
of the general standards of intelligence and sub-
ject matter in British films has inevitably given
more encouragement to composers to enter the
industry and that, having taken the plunge, they
have found dramatic material worthy of the
finest possible musical creative effort, there are
one or two special reasons why feature music is a
debtor to documentary music.

For good or evil, it has long been recogni/cd
that music today falls into two strongly divided
camps — the 'popular' music (dance music, jazz,
swing, light 'numbers' I on the one hand, and on
the other, serious music (symphonic music,
chamber works, opera and ballet). Despite the
fact that many more people are willing to change
camps today than they were ten years ago, the
two divisions remain— the 'Great Schism' as one
very famous musicologist called it. This has
meant that serious composers have tended to
draw further and further away from the general
trend, avoiding the musical pursuits of the mil-
lions and consorting with their fellow-intellectuals
with music th.it the> and very often only they —
understand. A 'vacuum' tendency set in.

When a composer of serious music turns to the

cinema the documentary film can be of tremend-
ous value in bringing the musician face to face
with reality. Documentarians as .1 race are

realists: composing music for documentary re-
quires realism. \ remember the case of Dr Ernst
Meyer and Cavalcanti's North Sea, The film was
about the sea and the fishing fleets. The directoi
sent his composer into the fishing towns, where
he went to sea with the trawlers and worked on
board among the fish and the nets. It must have
been a hectic business, but the result was the
realistic score that the director was after. At
Denham we have a similar instance at the
moment, for William Alvvyn (for many years a
documentary music expert) has recently been to
Ireland prior to the composition of music for an
essentially native production. Captain Boycott.
The move towards personal contact between
composers and modern society finds particular
expression in the factual field, and in this respect
the documentary aids the feature score by giv ing
musicians a chance to find their feet on the terra
firma of filmic reality before going on to the
stringent requirements of the commercial cinema.
The further point can be made here, that as
features gain more and more from the ("actuals,
realistic music becomes increasingly important.
In Men of Two Worlds, for example, thousands of
feet of native music were recorded in Tanganyika
by Thorold Dickinson's location unit: this was

brought back to this country and Arthur Hhss
was able to spend man. absorbing hours in ex-
amining it before proceeding with his s^.
of which was based on the native music. Thus he
had the opportunity, through the influence of the
documentary technique, to create realistic music
which had lor its background the colourful sound
of the jungle, vet w ithin the artistic conception of
the film allowed him to write music that was
satisfying to Western ears. Generally speaking,
the opportunity which films oiler for the musician
to avail himself of local folk tunes and to use
them as a basis for his composition is a very
desirable condition and one which, in its sphere.
adds further to the documentary flavour of
feature productions.

As a field for musical experiment, the feature
film maker again looks to the documentanan for
a lead. There is so little time and money available
in features for trial and error; everything must
go to a schedule and mistakes mean serious de-
lays. In documentary schedules are not so rigid
and the composer is not swamped by dialogue;
he has a chance to experiment, for the atmo-
sphere of documentary is more congenial to the
man vv ith new ideas than is the bustle ol the pro-
duction people Irving to achieve a delivery dale
for a publicized premiere. 1 or this reason a num-
ber of composers are seen at their best m factual
{Continued page 1 1 \,foot col. 1)

ETCETERAS ... 51

During the past 10 years, REALIST has made 20 films
about Agriculture, 17 on Medical subjects, 13 on Health,
11 on Industry and 51 about a wide variety of other
subjects, ordinary and extraordinary — 51 etceteras.

All kinds of facts, theories and stories have
been presented to audiences (ordinary and extra-
ordinary) in almost every Country in the World.

LIMITED

9 GREAT CHAPEL STREET, LONDON Wl

GERrard 1958

110

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

SCIENTIFIC FILM NEWS

By

MICHAEL MICHAELIS

'to promote the national and international use
of the scientific film in order to achieve the widest
possible understanding and appreciation of
scientific method and outlook, especially in rela-
tion to social progress'. Thus reads the first object
of the Scientific Film Association.

Scientific films are being recognized by daily
widening sections of the public for the valuable
contributions they are making to the social, in-
dustrial and educational life of the community.
The part played by the Scientific Film Associa-
tion in bringing about this recognition is of
major importance. With almost 450 corporate
and ordinary members, including Scientific Film
Societies having a total membership of about
ten thousand, the Association is the only body
in this country representing the interests of users
of scientific films. Its activities, carried out almost
entirely by voluntary labour, are very wide-
spread. Within the compass of this short article,
only some of the more important aspects of the
Association's work can be outlined. It is hoped
to enlarge upon these and to present further
Scientific Film News in later issues of this
journal.

Apart from the Scientific Film Societies, three
of the foremost users of scientific films, served by
the Association, are Industry, Medicine and
Schools.

Industry: A conference was held by the Scientific
Film Association in London on March 6th, 1947,
under the title 'Films in Industry'. Over two
hundred of the country's leading industrial con-
cerns sent delegates who were addressed by a
number of experts in the subject.

Mr R. K. Neilson Baxter spoke on the 'Indus-
trial Film Maker's Problems' and called for close
co-operation between industrial sponsor and film
producer.

Instructor Commander J. A. Burnett, RN,
dealt with the effective use of films and film
strips in technical training and gave some prac-
tical demonstrations.

Mr F. H. Perkins traced the film's contribu-
tions through the various stages of technical
instruction.

Mr D. R. O. Thomas spoke of the film as an
integrating medium treating imaginatively the
responsibilities of industry within the com-
munity.

An open forum for questions and a film show
concluded the conference, which was held under
the chairmanship of Sir Stephen Tallents,
KCMG, CB, CBE.

Valuable work is progressing on bringing up-
to-date the interim list, compiled by the Indus-
trial Committee of the Association, of 200 in-
dustrial films available in this country.

A scheme inaugurated by the Association for
joint sponsorship of industrial training films, is
approaching its practical working form. Under
this scheme, a number of firms jointly sponsor
films of interest to them all, thus reducing the
cost per firm of film production.

Medicine: A catalogue of medical films available
in Great Britain is being published jointly by
the Association and the Royal Society of Medi-
cine. Over 800 films will be listed, the result of
investigations by Dr Brian Stanford, hon. secre-
tary of the Medical Committee, working on be-
half of the Association under a special grant from
the Royal Society of Medicine.

The use of films in medical teaching has re-
ceived widespread attention through conferences
held by the Association last year. Lists of sub-
jects on which films are desired by teachers of
medicine have been published as a result of a
detailed questionnaire to medical schools.

The establishment of a Central Medical Film
Library in this country is being advocated as a
means of making widely available the pioneer
work of many individuals in this field. British
medical films lead the world and should be freely
available at least in their country of origin, if not
beyond.

Schools: In so far as all scientific films can be
said to be educational in the widest sense, the
special value of such films as an educational tool
is recognized by the Association. It is also appre-
ciated that other visual aids, such as filmstrips,
models and wall charts have a specific part to
contribute to a coherent lesson.

In consequence of these considerations, the
Association, through its Education Committee,
drew up plans for the 'Visual Unit' comprising
all these media. These plans, submitted to the
Ministry of Education, were accepted and pro-
duction of the first \isual unit on Water Sup-
ply is almost complete. It marks an important
step in the concept of visual education which the
Ministry has recognized by the recent appoint-
ment of the National Council for Visual Educa-
tion. Further memoranda on the production of
visual units have been submitted to the Ministry
and are receiving attention.

Film viewings for science teachers are now
held regularly and methods for the appraisal of
school films are being developed.

The collection of film data, appraisal of films
and publication of supplements to the Associa-
tion's film catalogues and film lists are proceed-
ing apace to keep abreast of the growing quest
for information from all parts of the world. In-
deed, to complete this short sur\ey, mention
should be made of the international contacts be-
ing developed. An interim report on Scientific
Films in Foreign Countries has been published.
The preliminary investigation covered 33 coun-
tries throughout the world, albeit briefly, and
additions will be made as more information be-
comes available. Conversely, too, the distribution
of British films in those countries is being in-
vestigated and actively encouraged wherever
possible.

Close contact is being maintained with
UNESCO at whose disposal the Association has
placed such services as its specialized knowledge
best fits it to perform. Finally, in collaboration
with l'lnstitut de Cinimatographie Scientifique
in Paris, preparations are being completed for the
forthcoming inauguration of an International
Scientific Film Association pointing the way to
free interchange of films and knowledge between
the peoples of the world.

The publications mentioned in this report are available
from the Scientitic Film Association, 34 Soho Square.
London, \\ I .

CAMERA HIRE SERVICE

PHONE: GER. 1365-6-7-8

All inquiries:

NEWMAN SINCLAIR MODELS 'A' & 'E9 W ITH
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DOC I \ll\l\in M \\s I I I I I K

ill

(Continued from page 107, col. 3)

with a deep social message are not being made, it
is sometimes a political failure : as often, the film
is commissioned hut subject to official delay
But, with a Labour Government, it is important
to realize that new problems arise, and that the
character of interpretive films must alter. It was
heartening to read in a recent />\/ a plea foi
more Labour films. The trade unions and co-ops
are the natural allies of the documentary move-
ment. and the good work done in their company
needs extending. I he task of pre-war was to pro-
duce films with a realist, human slant: today it
nas developed into that of fating documentary
'.o the new and wide functions that recent social
legislation demands. To this end. we must enlist
.he aid of the Labour movement to supplement
:he programme of the COL At the same time, it
s neccssarv to get into contact with audiences
Hid to widen them. In this two-way business, all
■chnicians need to be more closely in touch w ith
:he co-op guilds, union branches, film societies
md other organizations which make up the non-
.heairical audience. Lectures and publicity go
land in hand with film-making. Note, hand in
land.

But these tasks will not be achieved without a
:oncrete expression of the fundamental unity
jfiared by technicians from separate units. A
naga/ine is fine, but it's not enough : means must
X found to canal i/e the energy of individuals to
:he general advantage. And we must get straight
n our minds the question of what films are worth
Baking. You see, we face tasks vastly beyond
our capacity ; it will be many years before we can
satisfy the need for realist films of every kind.
Until then, there isn't time for invidious com-
parisons: the job is to improve the quality, not
•estrict the variety, of the product.

CORRESPONDENCE

sir : It would be more charitable to presume that
Mr Anste> has never seen the earl) ( ferman films
he compares Odd Man Out to, than that his
critical capacity lacks the necessary understand-

simple human emotions. Odd Man Out
sets out to be a study in pity. I'd sa> it very
largely succeeds but even assuming it did not, it
would still be a very far cry from the conscious
and 'purposeful' Nihilism of the German 1920s.
These post 1918 war films were inspired by
Kafka's discovery of God's indifference and even
enmity to the human race, and the last thing
they were concerned with was the portrayal of
emotion. They were logical statements of the
purposelessness of life as it was then conceived
by their German makers. Their heroes were more
often than not quite decent human beings (like
Kafka's hero in the Trial), who had never done
any thing wrong but were 'arrested' all the same.
The inevitability of an undeserved curse remin-
iscent of Oedipus Rex was the theme that the
German artists were most fond of. Now Johnny
was no Oedipus. He was a wrong 'un. His ideas
were wrong, his politics vicious and unpractical,
his ethics non-existent except as far (may be) as
his organization was concerned. He deserved
everything he got. He was an example of a very
nasty type of human being whose evil nature
found its fullest flower in Nazi Germany. And
yet even he was worthy of pity, because he was a
human being in adversity. Thus he became the
test by which we are judged. We and also the
bystanders who in the film came into accidental

contact with him. I he argument was not : "Look
at this world and see how rotten H is. so let's tear
it down.' I he argument was: 'look at this man
and pity him, because, like so many of us, he
knew not what he did.'

Unfortunately Mr Wright's praise is as
grotesque as \ir Anstey's comparison, odd Man
Oat was an average film. But among so much bad
a good average looks far better than it really is.
It was only after I had seen The Man Within that
f could account for the unsatisfactory patches
which mar Odd Meat Out. In The Man II ithin
Sydney Box has at last found the secret ol dress-
ing up the "highbrow' in "lowbrow' clothing. I
think Carol Reed was aiming at something simi-
lar. The adult ideas were to be masked under the
star appeal of James Mason and the old favourite
cops and robbers theme. An admirable idea
but unfortunately here and there Mr Reed could
not quite make up his mind on how far the
average audience could be trusted and was there-
fore guilty of playing down to the adolescent
minds which would require the flamboyant but
irrelevant artist to reassure themselves that it is
only a film after all and that this kind of thing
couldn't really happen in their own lives.

Overpraise is very' dangerous. Look around in
your own field, Mr Wright. British Document-
aries are supposed to be the best in the world even
when they are half an hour too long and talk the
audience to sleep.

Yours very truly,

VV VI II K SI I k v

(Continued from page 109, col. 3)

films; some of the best scores by Ralph Vaughan
Williams have been for such pictures.

Lastly, we have to thank the documentarians
for the splendid work they do in training com-
posers for the feature film world. Composing for
pictures is not easy; it is a specialized, highly-
technical procedure and cannot be acquired over-
night. With so many young musicians of today
feeling a desire to write for the screen, the out-
look would be poor were it not for documentary.
In the friendly atmosphere of the small unit, the
young composer has a chance to study film pro-
cedure in detail. He has a picture of some two
or three reels to contend with and is not over-
whelmed with the necessity to write 50 minutes
of music in about three weeks; the orchestration
is not so complex, for the orchestra is smaller: the
moods are more clearly defined in factual films
than they are in features; all this gives the
youthful writer his opportunity to acquire
confidence as a picture expert.

The feature film has always been the better in
this country lor the support given it by a back-
bone of documentarians. In all branches of
production, they have aided in the creation of a
living and realistic standard of picture. In the
case of music this is equally true. In bringing
about a new contact between modern writers
and the people, in presenting opportunities for
musical experiment and in training newcomers
to the industry, the documentary continues to
render great service to the feature film makers.

±ubltc

Relationship
t Urns Ltd

JXicli.iid IVLassiiioliam in charge of production

29 WHITEHALL, LONDON, S.W.I ' WHITEHAL1 |<>m>

112

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

TECHNICIAN'S ARTICLE ON

NON-THEATRICAL DISTRIBUTION
HAS PROVOKED THESE TWO REPLIES

sir: 'Inside Information on Non-Theatrical Dis-
tribution' by a Technician, certainly draws the
spotlight to a problem, or rather a set of prob-
lems, that has caused, and indeed still does cause,
much 'heartburning' among distributors of sub-
standard films.

The Army Kinema Corporation distributes,
and exhibits, more 16 mm. prints than any other
single organization and, whilst I cannot relieve
'Technician's' intense despondency by giving him
information of the COI's method of accepting
and distributing 16 mm. prints, I propose to give
a brief resume of the care and method with which
the AKC tackle this problem.

When placing an order with a laboratory, for
the bulk printing of an individual subject, a strict
instruction is given for a test print to be delivered
before the bulk order is proceeded with. This
print is carefully viewed by an expert viewer, the
track is measured by a densitometer (yes 'Tech-
nician', I am happy to inform you the AKC does
possess a densitometer, and we know how to
read it) and on the result of this print it is decided
(a) if the print can be accepted as a criterion for
the remaining prints, (b) what adjustments by the
laboratory are necessary to achieve this purpose;
note a further test print may be called for after
such adjustments, before permission is granted
to proceed with the bulk order, (c) to stop dis-
trbution of the subject on 16 mm; this is only
decided after consultation with the laboratory
has revealed that no better result is obtainable.

The AKC Distribution Department at Wemb-
ley is equipped with four excellent 16 mm., in
addition to two 35 mm. viewing theatres, and, it
is in these that the prints of bulk orders are care-
fully examined by viewers especially trained for
the job. An inquiry from any laboratory mana-
ger will confirm that the AKC insist on a high
technical quality in their 16 mm. prints and,
further, that when prints are rejected, intelligent
technical reasons are given for such rejections.'

Referring to 'Technician's' article again, we
have now reached the stage when a good print has
found its way into circulation, and, it is here
quite frankly the AKC benefits considerably from
the experiences gained during the war by the
Army Kinematograph Service. During this period
it was discovered that, although prints of the
highest quality were used, the results on the
screen, both picture and sound, were frequently
disastrous. This was due almost entirely to the
fact that although service engineers had a good
general idea of the necessary adjustments needed
from time to time on the projector, they did not
possess a good medium to carry out such adjust-
ments. As a result a technical panel was formed
comprised of army personnel who were acknow-
ledged experts in each section of their particular
branch of the film trade. From this panel came
two most comprehensive test reels (screen and
sound) for primary use when making adjustments
to mobile projectors. These test reels are now
used extensively by AKC service engineers in
order that the best possible results should be
obtained from the projectors in use. Further, as
far as acoustics arc concerned, in all courses held
by the AKC for projectionists, etc., periods are
set aside for special instruction and practical
guidance is given on this matter.

It will be seen, therefore, that the Army
Kinema Corporation is very alive to the prob-
lems affecting 16 mm. presentation and one must
agree with 'Technician' there are many. How-
ever, we have proved that providing each indi-
vidual does his, or her, part, the result on the
screen can be comparable to that obtained by the
use of 35 mm. prints.

Yours faithfully,

L. S. BAKER

Distribution Manager
Army Kinema Corporation

DEAR SIR,

As 16 mil. operators of considerable experi-
ence we were interested in the article on 'Non-
Theatrical Distribution' by a technician in the
April-May issue of your journal.

With what 'Technician' writes about the
quality of most 16 mil. prints we must heartily
agree; with his categorical statement about 16
mil. projection we beg to differ.

We have, a week or two ago, taken over a vil-
lage hall which has been acoustically treated and
which, for the past year, has been served by the
former owner with twin 35 mil. projectors of
1938 manufacture.

When we acquired the hall we installed a
'single' Carpenter 16 mil. projector with some
misgivings as we were not at all sure how the
audience would react to the two 'breaks' in each
two-hour show, but the capital cost of twin pro-
jectors was a limiting factor at the time.

The results of this experiment are as follows:

(1 1 We have had larger audiences at each of the
nine shows we have given to date than the pre-
vious owner had at any time during the year he
operated; (2) we have been congratulated by all
on the quality of sound and picture and we are,
each evening, attracting people who did not pre-
viously attend the exhibitions; (3) we have been
visited by two local 35 mil. theatre managers and,
after seeing and hearing, both have reacted in
the same manner. (Well, if I had not been
present myself I would not have believed it.)

As to method: the sound is tested at least
twice weekly by running through both a gliding
frequency and a constant frequency test film.
Before each show the whole optical system is
throughly dismantled and cleaned. This is done
in a routine order so that nothing is missed. The
films are examined on arrival and between each
showing. After the renters had been saddled with
a few 'reverse charge' trunk calls for replacement
copies we now find they exercise greater care in
the choice of copies they send us! Records for
the non-sync are chosen to suit the feature and
no departure from arranged programme is per-
mitted.

The one factor on which we cannot rely is the
quality of the prints. On this point we are in en-
tire agreement with 'Technician'. Many times at
the start of the film the writer has, momentarily,
been certain that the shutter has shifted on its
spindle only to find that the 'ghost' has been
caused by the optical printer.

We cordially invite 'Technician', if he is ever
in this part of the country, to call on us and we .
will only be too pleased to let him see what can
be done with a 16 mil. outfit given a decent print.
Yours faithfully,

George Hair, Director
lnman Mobile Cinemas Ltd
Dumfries

Halas & Batchelor

MEMBERS OF FEDERATION OF DOCUMENTARY FILM UNITS

DOCUMENTARY CARTOONS FOR
INDUSTRY

EDUCATION

INSTRUCTION

PROPAGANDA

Artists: John Halas. Joy Batchelor. Allan E. Crick. Bob
Privett, Wally Crook, Vera Linnecar, Elizabeth Williams.
Christine Jollow. Victor Bevis. Brian Borthw.ck. Anne
Coulson, Edith Hampton. Stella Harvey. Patricia Heayes,
Peter Hobbs, Richard Horn, Ivor Kirby. William Long.
Constance Pope, Patricia Sizer. William Taylor

Camera: Percy Wright

Sound: Dr. Ernst Meyer

Associate composers: Francis Chagrin, Matyas Sciber

10a SOHO

SQUARE W.l GER 7681-2

t h i:

HORIZON

FILM UNIT

In association with the Film Producers Guild Ltd
have just completed

UNIVERSITY

OF FLMNV

a COI film for the Ministry of Supply about the Empire Test
Pilots' School, for showing abroad

THF HORIZON FILM UNIT

(producer: max mundfn)
guild h o u s f , upper st m a r t i n ' s lane, w . c . 2

IN PRODUCTION
FOR RELEASE DURING 1947

FOR SCHOOLS

PENICILLIN (Three Short Films)
AMMONIA LIME SALT

OXYGEN

(16 mm. Kodachrome)

FOR

INDUSTRIAL TRAINING

THE PAINTING OF BUILDINGS

THE TECHNIQUE OF SPRAY PAINTING

SHOT-FIRING IN COAL-MINES (16 mm. Kodachrome)

FOR VETERINARY AND
AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION

'HENOTHIAZINE PAYS A DIVIDEND
Parasitic Worms in Farm Animals)

KodachronvM

FOR MEDICAL EDUCATION Six subjects in 16 mm. Kodachrome

+ Release dates will be announced

IMPERIAL CHEMICAL INDUSTRIES LIMITED
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SIGHT
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A cultural Quarterly

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THE PATTERN OF BRITAIN

'CORNISH VALLEY' 'FENLANDS'

♦CROFTERS' 'GRASSY SHIRES'

•DOWNLANDS' 'NORTH-EAST CORNER*

'WE OF THE WEST RIDING'

and
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MIDDLE EAST: 'Cyprus is an Island' (completed)

INDIA: Two films about the
tea gardens of Assam

(now editing)

NEWFOUNDLAND: A

film of the people and problems
of Britain's oldest Dominion

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FAR EAST: A film covering

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EWS LETTER

AUGUST— SEPTEMBER 1947

ONE SHILLING

this issue: Welcome to Scotland; Improving Britain's Film
isiness; Scientific Film News; American Location; Film and

Book Reviews

THE 1511, SIX FILM UNIT

proudly announce-
THAT during tin- past three years
they bave produced fourteen
documentary sound films, five oi

which ar<- four reels or more in
length, and the remainder are all
two reelers.

THAT all these1 films have been
paid for by British industrial
organizations.

THAT we have never produced a
film for the Central Office of In-
formation but that nevertheless
the Governments in the USSR,
Australia. New Zealand. France.
Holland. Belgium and Czecho-
slovakia are constantly using our
films.

THAT the Czechoslovakian Govern-
ment are showing our five-reel docu-
mentary sound film, 'the big
six', in all the major cinemas in
Czechoslovakia, with the commen-
tary spoken in the Czech language.

THAT twelve of our documentary
sound films are about the British
coal-mining industry and that
several of our films about coal-
mining are consistently sponsored
by the National I nion of Mine-
workers.

THAT we have orders in hand from
leading British industrial organi-
zations which will keep our Film
Unit fully employed for the next
two years.

THAT our producer, edward cook.
has been producing Publicity, In-
structional, and Industrial Docu-
mentary Films since 1924.

THAT our Assistant Producer is
JOHN S. ABBOTT, jr.. who served
in His Majesty's Forces in the late
war for six vears (three and a half
years a prisoner of war).

THAT our Cameraman is eric
deeming who served in Hi> Majes-
ty's forces in the late war for six
years (four vears overseas in the
Army Film Photographic Unit).

Our Editing and Cutting Rooms
are at ^.~> Endell Street. Long
\i ;re, London. \\ ( .1 . Telephone No.
Temple Bar 7832.

THE BIG SIX FILM UNIT

is nw lied |>\
MRS VIOLET MAI l» MM K \ 1

and our office address is:

50 Godfrey Street. Chelsea, London.

SVC5

Telephone -FLAxman 4036

IN PRODUCTION
FOR RELEASE DURING 1947

FOR SCHOOLS

PENICILLIN (Three Short Films)
AMMONIA LIME SALT

OXYGEN

(16 mm. Kodachroma)

FOR

INDUSTRIAL TRAINING

THE PAINTING OF BUILDINGS

THE TECHNIQUE OF SPRAY PAINTING

SHOT-FIRING IN COAL-MINES (16 mm. Kodachrome.

FOR VETERINARY AND PHENOTHIAZINE PAYS A DIVIDEND

AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION (Parasitic Worms in Farm Animals)

FOR MEDICAL EDUCATION Six subjects in 16 mm. Kodachrome

*■ Release dates will be announced

IMPERIAL CHEMICAL INDUSTRIES LIMITED
NOBEL HOUSE - LONDON, S.W.I

DATA

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THE WORLD UNION OF DOCUMENTARY

and looks forward to increased opportunities for film to
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Editorial Board: Slcphcn Ackroyd, Donald Alexander, Max Anderson, Edgar Anstcy, Gooflrey Bell, Ken Cameron, I'aul Fletcher, Sinclair Road, Grahamc Tharp, Basil Wright

'AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 1947 VOL 6 NO 58 PUBLISHED BY FILM CENTRE 34 SOHO SQUARE LONDON Wl

113 BALANCE SHEET

114 WELCOME TO SCOTLAND

115 THE FILMS ACT

116-117 IMPROVING BRITAIN'S FILM BUSINESS

118-119 FILM REVIEWS

120 SCIENTIFIC FILM NEWS

121-124 CATALOGUE OF MOI AND COI FILMS FOR

1946

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125 CHILDREN'S FILM APPRAISAL

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132 BOOK REVIEWS

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I

BALANCE SHEET

wt ith a crucial year more than half spent, it is desirable to look
1 *'* around us and to examine the present characteristics of the
documentary scene.

Undoubtedly the brightest part of the picture is provided by
documentary's international efforts. Both in UNESCO and UNO
there is a consciousness of what the documentary film can do and
an anxiety to give it its chance. Documentary relations with these
two bodies are close and cordial. The plans being made lack
nothing in ambition : only a sense of urgency and of the need for
speed sometimes seems to be missing. Then there has been the
informal meeting at which was born the World Union of Docu-
mentary. Perhaps there has been no more stirring moment in the
whole history of documentary than this assembling around a table
in a Brussels hotel of documentary representatives and observers
from ten countries, ranging from Poland to Australia, workers
from all over the world sharing the common language of docu-
mentary purpose.

In Britain the picture is less encouraging. The Central Office of
Information move slowly and with confusion of purpose towards
an inadequate goal. It is allowing the vision of democracy's
promised land to disappear in a sunset of red tape. In the educa-
tional film field, inter-departmental jealousies and political reaction
appear to obstruct the development of official plans.

Also it is sadly clear in Britain that the marked influence which
documentary films were having in the last years of the war upon
the feature films is now most definitely on the wane. Indeed, to
some not unfriendly observers, it appears that the artistic and ti uly
creative hey-day of the Rank empire is already passing and that
The Way Ahead has led only to The Blue Lagoon. All is not yet
lost, but it appears probable that, if producers wish to counter the
present signs of defeatism, of escape into sadistic crime or puerile
romance, then they can do it best by a concentration upon the kind
of documentary techniques that Louis de Rochemont is so brilli-
antly developing in the United States and Rossellini in Italy in their
films Boomerang and Open City.

But perhaps the most alarming sign of the times is the wide-
spread adverse comment heard during the recent Brussels Film
• Festival upon the quality of the British documentary entries. All
planning, all long-term blue-printing is a waste of time unless it can

be assumed that films of adequate quality will be obtained to fulfil
the plan. And this assumption we feel is one which in the past has
been too easily made. In Britain today documentary films are made
too slowly and when they come they are often mediocre. Here is a
challenge which must be met and met quickly. In our efforts to
secure documentary's true place in the world today, let us make
quite sure that documentary remains fit to occupy it.

At its inaugural meeting the World Union of Documentary
adopted an impressive resolution calculated to make clear the
determination of documentary workers everywhere to ally them-
selves with progressive social forces. Such a resolution must be im-
plemented not with words and with speeches but with films. And in
planning films to assist the forward march of the world's peoples,
it is essential that the functions of documentary should be inter-
preted in the broadest possible terms. It is easy at this critical time
to become impatient with all work which does not appear directl)
to promote social change. It is easy to look back to an awe-inspiring
but quite imaginary documentary past when all energy was con-
centrated upon films attacking the problems of malnutrition, slum
housing, and unemployment. The plain fact is that memory has
telescoped documentary history and that between 1930 and 1939
the films of direct sociological purpose were fewer and further
between than they are today.

The time may well come when it will be held that document
most important contribution to social progress has been in re-
interpreting and integrating academic knowledge in the light ol the
methods and purposes of social organization. The documentary
medium is a political instrument only m so far as all ti no education
is political. The documentary worker who can feel passionate!)
only about films which make direct political part] propaganda
is most likely a poor or a jaded film-maker. If the honest political
opportunities (that is the cdiicition.il opportunities) are to he
grasped, then the) will he grasped by film-makers who feel as
passionately about the pure exposition in the civic interest ol BOme
technological problem as the) do about an election result. For
documental \ is a mattei of dramatic niter pi etation and exposition
operating on a plane above the level ol part) politics <>i to sum
up the position another way: the most effective propagandist is
in the long run the educationalist who is cons ioi S ■ >! social needs

114

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

WELCOME TO SCOTLAND

A thousand years hence, some zealot may sit down and write, with
all the simplifications that perspective gives, a Book of the Genesis
of the documentary film movement.

Perhaps he will be — as that earlier zealot was — an historian of
such clear perception, that he will be able to distil the whole revo-
lutionary proceedings into seven creative days. Certainly he will
be amazed by the revelation that so many of these days must be
sited not in Soho Square but in Scotland.

To carry this metaphor too far risks much besides blasphemy,
but at least it is time to remind the South how much has been
pioneered in the North.

John Grierson himself — that goes without saying. Drifters was
made in England? But who but a Scot would have shot his first
film about the herring?

Not the facts themselves, but the art with which they were pre-
sented was the secret of the early success of documentary. The
magazine which lifted public appreciation of film on to the level of
high art, and set the highbrows scurrying to see the latest EMB or
GPO product, was the Cinema Quarterly, edited and published in
Scotland.

Statistically, Scotland is satisfied, if she provides one item of
any kind to every ten from England. There are 44 million people
in England, only 41 million in Scotland. But start counting film
technicians, particularly documentary film technicians.

Scotland was the first nation boldly to present itself on the screen
in a planned series of films for all the world to see. The seven Films
of Scotland — about the people, economics, fisheries, sport, educa-
tion, agriculture, civics, were executed on a national scale by a
Films Committee of the Scottish Development Council, with the
aegis of the Secretary of State above it. That was eight years before
the accident of war finally gave us a peacetime Central Office of
Information.

For some years before the war, two Scottish Directors of Educa-
tion, Allardyce of Glasgow and Frizell of Edinburgh, were
developing visual education in schools. They had their own silent
films made, and these and many other films were collected into
the Scottish Central Film Library. Kensington's Central Film

Library only grew up during the war, and Committee A and Com-
mittee B are only just about to give us our first English programme
of planned visual material for schools.

When the war first started, it was a group of Glasgow school
teachers, using the resources of the Scottish Central Film Library,
who extracted sufficient money from the Treasury to pioneer the
first non-theatrical scheme for general rather than commercial
purposes. They collected motor cars, converted mains projectors
to batteries, and drove thousands of miles round the Highlands,
throughout one of the worse winters on record, so that their evacu-
ated schoolchildren could see films. If Thomas Baird (a Scotsman)
was able later to persuade the Treasury to finance the Ministry of
Information's non-theatrical scheme, it was largely because this
pioneer work had proved that the thing was possible.

Distribution is still being pioneered in Scotland.

The Highland Films Guild, which Alastair McNeil Weir has
organized, represents all the main interests (civic, governmental,
commercial) of the Highland Counties, and with help from St
Andrew's House and finance from the Carnegie Trust, is bringing
good single-feature programmes to villages which have never seen
a film.

And now we have the first International Festival of Docu-
mentary Films. The introductory leaflet points out that it is no
accident that the Festival is being held in Britain. Let us be honest
and admit that it is no accident either that it is being held in Edin-
burgh. There could be nothing more apt than to bring the whole
matter to a focus-point in the birthplace of so much that is funda-
mental to documentary's progress.

There will be four separate performances in the city's largest
cinema and supplementary performances in the Guild theatre.
Films to be shown: Paisa, Farrebique, A String of Beads, Indo-
nesia Calling, Cumberland Story, and shorts from France, Den-
mark, Poland, Italy, Czechoslovakia. Belgium, Australia and
Canada.

Naturally, this article was drafted by a Scotsman. But dnl
assures its readers that the Board is unanimous in its approval.
We wish the Festival every success. Welcome to Scotland !

NOTES OF THE MONTH

The cover still on this issue is from a Danish film Sclwolship

One Up to Belgium

everyone who went to the Brussels Film Festival was impressed
by the efficiency of the organization, the wide variety of the pro-
gramme and, not least, the helpfulness, courtesy and generosity of
the Belgian Government and the various Festival officials. One of
the most striking aspects of the Festival was the vast public en-
thusiasm for the more serious and specialized programmes. It was
almost impossible to fight one's way into the scientific film show,
which, incidentally, was held in a hall with large seating capacity
at the same time as the projection of an American feature film to
a rather sparse audience in a small hall nearby. The British film
industry, mainly via the BFPA, brought off a big scoop by put-
ting flags inscribed 'See a good British Film' on the bonnets of
most of the local taxis. There was also a British Information Centre
which attracted a large number of visitors, many of whom bom-
barded the staff with pertinent and serious questions. In this re-

spect the Centre left something to be desired. Despite the availa-
bility of a considerable number of roneoed handouts, there was a
definite lack of personnel for answering questions. Documentary
production was given too little prominence (possibly because in-
terest in this branch of film-work had been underestimated) and.
for most of the time, there was no one at the inquiry desk specially-
briefed for answering questions on documentary developments in
Britain; yet such questions accounted for a large percentage of the
daily queries. Nevertheless there can be little doubt that the British
Centre was very much more successful than its American counter-
part, which, in the words of a Brussels newspaper, 'resembled a
dance hall on a transatlantic liner'. Nor. film for film, did the US
industry manage to stand up to the product of this country, of
France, and above all of Italy which, with Sciuscia. Vivere in Pace,
II Sole Sorge Ancora and the superb Paisa. proved itself to be the
most important production centre in the world today.

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

115

THE FILMS ACT

TT^or twenty years there has been legislation to protect and
Ml develop the British film production industry. This year it is
due once again for revision. On the two previous occasions when a
Films Act was debated (in 1927 and 1937) the case for protection
was, however, not easily made. British production was small and
helpless in the face of Hollywood's numerical and technical
superiority, while economically its affairs were literally nobody's
business. There was little public realization of the power of the
film medium and of the need for making it part of the cultural and
economic life of the country.

In the main the case had, therefore, to be argued in a 'Buy
British' spirit in a desperate attempt to stem the Hollywood flood.

In the end, British films got a better showing, but they were bad
films for the most part, and the patriotic sense of the cinema-going
public was severely strained.

Today, circumstances are different. Although Hollywood is eco-
nomically as powerful as ever and remains the chief supplier of
the world's films, it has lost much of its technical and qualitative
superiority. British film-making, on the other hand, has gained
immensely in prestige and has shown, during the war years, that it
has both imagination and a sense of reality. The argument for pro-
tection and for guaranteeing the British film-maker more screen-
time in the cinemas has now shifted on to grounds of quality. It is
no longer a case of saying, rather wanly, this country could produce
films, too, if it had a chance. Today it can produce films that have
already made a contribution to film-making as well as sent the
coins rolling into the box-office.

This improvement in quality of entertainment is, however,
limited in extent. For feature films, which constitute the bulk of
British studio production today, account for less than half the
cinema programme. The remaining 1 \ hours are taken up by bad
American second features or equally noxious British 'featurettes'.
Occasionally a stray short is taken in like an orphan of the storm,
but it is rarely a welcome addition to the house. If the issue is to be
quality, then it is the supporting programme (the second feature
and the shorts) which needs the legislators' particular attention.

The main bone of contention is the fact that the low quality of
the supporting programme is not due to lack of talent in this coun-
try. The documentary and short section of the British industry
has earned a considerable reputation. It has also an extensive pro-
duction capacity. In the last five or six years as many feet of film
have come out of the documentary and short units as all the
feature studios together. Yet there is no market in the cinemas for
their productions. During the war, largely as a result of special
arrangements between the Government and the trade, a number
of films like Target for Tonight, Western Approm lies. Desert
Victory and World of Plenty did enjoy wide distribution in the
cinemas and proved box-office successes. But with the end of the
war the barriers have been raised once again. Yet the success of
the Rank-sponsored series, This Modern Age', over the post-wai
years proves that there is a market if the trade is willing. There is
the talent and capacity in this country to produce not only shorts
but longer story documentaries, to tike the place of the present
low-grade supporting films. There is also scope for cartoons,
comedies, short story and other types of film which could add
variety and balance to the cinema programme.

So long as the whole machinery of film renting, aided and

abetted by the existing Films Act, operates in favour of the cheap
and nasty, no improvement in the supporting programmes is, how-
ever, possible. The present Films Act introduced a cost test for
feature films as a guarantee of quality, but provided no cost test
for shorts. By artificially dividing films according to length into
two categories — long and short — it encouraged the production of
'featurettes', short films padded out to just over 3,000 feet to qualify
for long film quota. But it is above all the hand of the big renting
companies and of the three major cinema circuits which is at work.
It is they who determine what is to be the fate of the independently
produced film, whether it be feature, documentary or short. Tod
it is as plain as it has ever been that it is only the American film or
the British film produced by the big combines which has full
access to the cinema market. The inalienable freedom of the others
is the freedom to want.

The proposals submitted to the Board of Trade by the producers'
associations all agree in recommending measures to reduce further
American penetration into the production and exhibition branches
of the industry and to increase the screen-time allocated to British
films. They also agree on a new quota system based on a division
of films into first features, second features or intermediates and
shorts (instead of just long and short as in the past) which should
help to eliminate some of the shoddy productions encouraged by
the present Act. But this alone will not solve the problem of the
supporting programme. A reasonable cost test to ensure higher
quality for all categories is essential. It would prevent renters pay-
ing the ridiculously low figures they offer at present for short and
documentary films, a figure which does not even cover production
costs and is often an insult to the maker. The new Act should pre-
vent such films being bought for less than production cost and, if
they are rented, the producer should get a more equitable percent-
age of the receipts. A separate contract should be required for each
film to reduce the dangers of block-booking, the practice by which
exhibitors are forced to take films they do not want in order to get
the film they are really interested in.

It is also most important that producers should have better re-
presentatives on the Cinematograph Films Council which is the
body operating the present Films Act. At the moment onlj two
producers have seats, Mr Rank and Sir Alexander Korda, as
against four exhibitors' and two renters' representatives. I he docu-
mentary and short section has no representation .it all.

All these proposals, and the counter-proposals from the exhibi-
tors must, however, be seen against the economic background o\
the industry and of Britain's financial relations with America
Hollywood interests will lobby hard to prevent an) further
measures designed to raise the volume and quality oi British pro-
duction. The American companies' takings from abroad (of which
75 per cent come from Britain) represent the whole o\ then profits
They naturalk feai increasing competition. I here is the further
complication ot the Rank organization's own relations with Holly-
wood, and the carrot of increased distribution lot British films in
the States which suggests some arrangement with regard to the
future oi American films in Britain.

ihe successful development ol British film-making and the
quality ot the entertainment ottered to the cinema public depend
on the action which the Government will take Ihe new I ilms Vt

is one ot the ke\s to the problem,

116

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

IMPROVING BRITAIN'S FILM BUSINESS

B

y

IVOR MONTAGUE

The trade unions, that is, the organizations of the
workers, in the film business — the technicians and
non-technical craftsmen, the actors, extras, musi-
cians— have unitedly* presented certain opinions
on the protection and improvement of Britain's
film industry to the Board of Trade.

The self-interest of those who earn their living
in the film business naturally urges such char-
acters to decide that such a business should exist
and be encouraged. But here self-interest marches
with national interest.

Simply a squawk 'Preserve the film industry
for me to work in' could not be expected to com-
mand much sympathy among the wider public,
especially during a period when the man-power
needs of valuable industries are clamorous.

But Britain needs a film industry and an
expanded one.

Partly it needs it to save dollars.

However, expansion on the scale necessary
can't be achieved quickly enough. It would
require studio building and equipment manu-
facture on a scale impossible with the recently
existing queue of priorities. So, for saving
dollars now, some other means is necessary.
Voluntary measures won't achieve the trick,
for the British industry is overwhelmingly as to
retailing, wholesaling and production, domin-
ated either by direct US interests, or by big con-
cerns whose profit from American product (i.e.,
US indirect interest) is greater than their British
interest, hence who have no particular interest in
saving dollars. Hence the Chancellor's powers to
impose an ad valorem tax.

But still more Britain needs a strengthened and
independent industry because films are not soap.

Even if you could afford to pay for imported
films, it would not be a matter of indifference to
you whether you saw one film or another, as it is
whether you wash with one piece of soap or
another. After the latter, either way you're clean.
After the former, you will be left with a lifelong
different impression, according to whether you
saw film A or film B.

• Mr T. O'Brien, MP, of the National Association of
Theatrical and Cinematograph Employees, has stepped
rather sharply out of the ranks in a BBC broadcast. Mr
O'Brien's views arc his own, they do not differ widely from
those of his cronies, Johnson (of the Motion Picture Pro-
ducers of America), Walsh (of the IATSE), and Mr Walter
Fuller (of CEA). His organization (the NATKE) subscribed
with the other employees' organizations in the FIEC to a
common memorandum ivor Montague.

It cannot be a matter of national indifference
what films we see. Nor what is the general con-
tent of that big part of screen time that comes
from abroad.

Something like 80 per cent of British screen-
time falls to American films. Don't run away
with the illusion that the ideas in American films
and in British films are the same, because they
have a similar, or at least a mutually compre-
hensible language on the sound-track.

Some American speak the same idea-language
as some Englishmen; others, alas, speak a very
different one.

Take the TU language, for example.

Congress has just passed, over the President's
veto, anti-trade union legislation that would,
thank God, at any rate at present be utterly im-
possible over here. If such legislation existed in
Britain there is not one TU in the film business
that would not be put out of business. The union
shop would be out, such all-industry agreements
as the Studio Features Agreement, the Shorts
agreement, or the Labs agreement would be right
out. Any strike (such as that recently of the repair
and despatch workers) would be out if it could
be pretended that it were jurisdictional, and no
strike at all might take place with less than two
months notice. Any union could be outlawed
and any of whose officers were communists or
can 'reasonably be supposed to be' such.

These are not, thank God, British ideas yet.

Is there any reason to suppose that these or
similar ideas will seep into American films? Most
certainly there is.

On March 27 this year Eric Johnson, president
of the Motion Picture Producers' Association of
America, insisted in Washington before the
House Committee on un-American activities that
'the films are serving capitalism effectively as a
propaganda medium', and promised that this
service would be intensified.

At the end of April he stated, just before leav-
ing for Europe to try to increase showing time for
US films, that he had prepared for the expedition
by a private discussion with President Truman
on the importance of implementing American
foreign policy through film distribution.

There are several hints from Hollywood's past
on how this duty will be interpreted. MGM's

insistence on distributing the anti-working class
Comrade and anti-Soviet Ninotchka during the
war, not only in Britain (despite a request to de-
sist from the MOI) but also in Finland while
that country was fighting in Russia is one ex-
ample. Twentieth-Century Fox's false and lying
Chetnik is another; here exhibition was persisted
in despite official advice from the British
Government.

But there are clearer hints from the present —
e.g. the ugly scuffle among the major companies
to be first with the titles Soviet Spies and Iron
Curtain, etc., the declared intention to make a
film of the report of the Canadian Royal Com-
mission's report.

Note, it is the report that is to be used, not the
trials or appeals which have already acquitted
more than half those named as 'guilty' in the re-
port itself. Note also Hollywood is not making a
comedy — or tragedy — out of the Seattle spy
trial, where the case collapsed because, when the
FBI dictaphone record of the alleged 'Soviet
Agents' conversation was at last reproduced in
court, it turned out not to be about a secret
formula but about a cooking recipe.

But more significant than the positive indi-
cations are the negative ones.

The pen this side has reported something
of the witch-hunt started in Hollywood by the
un-American Activities House Committee, the
pose as sacrificial lambs, coerced into red
propaganda against their will, by Adolphe
Menjoy, Robert Taylor and Ginger Rogers
(per her mother). The atmosphere, and the
effects to be apprehended from this pressure,
may be gauged from two lists of subversive films
requiring investigation supplied to the said com-
mittee. First one includes Mission to Moscow.
Understandable? Song of Russia. Well — yeah.
Song to Remember. A bit odder. Why this one?
Do you not remember, this showed the artist
sacrificing wealth and devoting art not to love of
woman alone but to the liberation of his coun-
try. A subversive idea. Action in the Sorth
Atlantic. Momansk was the convoy's port of
destination; definitely bad. The seamen were
hired for their voyage as a trade union HQ; in-
excusable. Hitler's Children. So anti-Nazi that it
must have been inspired by Communists. Finally
— Strange Incident. An anti-lynching film. The
lists' compiler commented : 'It is not hard to tell in
what direction the propaganda is pointing'. Nor
is it hard to tell where objections to it are
pointing, either.

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

117

The second list of 'Red' films? Well, I will only
tote that it includes The Pride of the Marines,
Margie, and The Best Years of Our Lives.

I do not think it can be a matter of indifference
o us if a large part of Britain's American diet
:omes to us following this sort of 'screening'.

Please note, it is not anti-American to make
his point. All decent folk in Hollywood are find-
ng the courage to hit back. Thirty thousand at-
ended the Wallace meeting, where Katherine
rlepburn forcibly denounced these goings on.
i4edy Lamarr, Edward G. Robinson, Charles
'haplin, John Garfield, Emmet Lavery (Screen
Writers Guild president), are only a few of the
nany who have done so in writing. But if we
ihow what we think of such tendencies, it will
help the ones resisting over there. Their em-
iloyers will think twice if anti-working class,
inti-united nations, propaganda effect their export
revenue.

It is incontestable anyway (at least incontest-
ible by honest folk) that the British people need
:he screen medium for its own ideas. All the more
while it is threatened with the cited threats.

It needs it for more than entertainment. How-
ever important relaxation and diversion in the
•nidst of austerity may be — if they rate 80 per
:ent, 90 per cent, or even 95 per cent of screen
ime, they do not rate 100 per cent, which under
:he present exclusively profit-motived structure of
:he industry, tied and penetrated by American
export interest, is what Britain is getting.

Even radio has a third programme. And
where on any British screen (except the negligibly
few and tiny specialized cinemas) does any im-
ported film other than an American appear. In
Prague last year 28 cinemas were running British
films at one time. Every town and village was
running some. Find me one ordinary regular
British fan who has ever seen even one Czech film.

And what about the cinemas as news? Would
we stand for our newspapers being owned three-
fifths by Americans and two-fifths by one mag-
nate with American connections? And yet we
take exactly that situation in news film.

Is it conceivable that if cinema had been in-
vented even as late as broadcasting — cinema
with its infinite possibilities for national educa-
tion, national expression, international cultural
get-together and get-to-know-each-other — it
would ever have been allowed to get into the
largely foreign and exclusively profit-interested
stranglehold that grips it now?

That is why the unions are pressing their pro-
posals, which fall mainly into two categories.

Proposals for getting a fairer share of box-
office money and screen-time for the films that
are made; tidying up and enlarging quota, re
first feature and supporting quotas, bigger role
for shorts, changed booking customs — relaxing
of bars, increase of longer runs and return runs
for British films.

Proposals for strengthening independent pro-
duction as against the monopolies with their big
American interests; films bank, 4th (document-
ary) circuit, municipal cinemas, government en-
sured studio space, etc.

And a Films Council with strengthened powers
to oversee these measures and also to ensure
that the class-prejudices of the producers no
longer deprive the industry of the benefit of Joint
Production Committees.

But remember none of these things will come
willingly from the film business, dominated as it
is by interests keen on most of them not coming
to being.

And none will come spontaneously from a
government, facing copious problems, jammed
up with necessary prospective legislation, and
grasping at the chance to escape more trouble by
a line-of-Ieast-resistance patching job whenever it
can.

Only to the extent that public opinion — a
particularly organized forward-seeing opinion
with the TUC (that is, the non-film unions) in the
first place — can be brought to understand the
plain and simple fundamentals ar stake will the
government be moved. And remember, there will
be plenty of active publicizing scoundrels taking
refuge in the matchless intricacies of the struc-
ture of the film business (blinding 'em with
science) to damp down any feeling that changes
are needed.

So those who want Britain to have its own film business, and for that film business to play the worth-while role in the community that it

can, have a busy time ahead of them. Hard work, but that's the job.

A LETTER FROM CO I FILMS DIVISION ON NON-THEATRIC4L DISTRIBUTION

sir: The article by 'Technician' in the April-May
issue of dnl, claiming to give inside information
on non-theatrical distribution, frankly sets out
to be a one-sided statement. Broadly, Tech-
nician's view is that a film when delivered from
the hands of the production company may be
technically irreproachable ('let us assume the
studio has done its work perfectly' is the cheerful
hypothesis from which he starts) but that every-
thing is likely to go wrong from this point on.

It would be a fairer statement of the whole
case to say that the quality of 16mm. film shows
in England needs to be raised by the exercise of
greater care and thought at every stage of the
whole business. And it must start at production.

To do the production companies justice, we
are long past the stage at which everybody con-
nected with film-making sedulously avoided see-
ing (or hearing) films in 16 mm., and kept up his
self-respect by a fantasy that his films were being
distributed in 35 mm. There is still a long way
to go, however.

Meanwhile, we shall not make the journey
any quicker by indulging in all-round recrimina-
tions—the projectionists blaming the recordists,

the recordist blaming the laboratories and the
laboratories blaming the documentary pro-
ducers. We undoubtedly need in England more
opportunity for experiment in production for 16
mm., more up-to-date recording equipment,
better laboratory equipment, more first-class
projectors, and so on.

As to what COI can do to assist in the general
improvement, the answer is that several things
are being done, (a) COI is considering the possi-
bility that future contracts on films intended
primarily for 16 mm. use should have a clause
providing that they will not be accepted until a
16 mm. copy has been approved, (h) Proposals
have been made for an extension of the existing
system of viewing 16 mm. prints, on delivery from
the laboratories, (r) New projectors arc on order.
(d) A special drive to tighten up the technical
inspection of the mobile units is in progress.
Undoubtedly more could be done if COI had
more staff and more money, and if the flow of
equipment available for purchase were more
copious. Incidentally, if Technician's criticisms
had really done justice to the title Tnsidc In-
formation ' which his editors have bestowed

upon him, he would have admitted the difficulties
which his brother-technicians have to encounter
in securing equipment; and it is really unfair of
him to suggest that a COI projector is not
serviced until it has run to a standstill.

One final point: the implications of Tech-
nician's concluding paragraph is that all or most
COI shows arc given to rural audiences in \ illage
halls. The rural audience is, in fact, no more than
ten per cent of the total COI non-theatrical
audience and there has reccntK been a new drive
to cut out those rural shows which do not
attract satisfactory audiences. If Technician
could spare time to sec a Srst-clasa show. given
by means of a tip-top 16 mm. projector, in a good
factory canteen, or the assembly-hall o\ a school
where a vigorous parent-teacher association
meets to sec films on children's health, or even
in the best o\ the village halls, he might be con-
vinced that it is not onl) the production studio
which can, on occasion, do its work with sonic-
thing reasonably near to that perfection for vv Inch
his soul obviously lo

J R. Wit I I Wis

Film ■ . cot

118

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

NEW DOCUMENTARY FILMS

There has in the past been some criticism of the
DNL policy of publishing reviews unsigned.

To compromise with the divergent views on the
subject, therefore, a new system has been devised.

In the future all films will be viewed by a per-
manent panel selected from members of the edi-
torial board, who will take collective responsibility
for the views expressed. Each review will continue
as before to be individually written but, unless ex-
pressly stated to the contrary, this will have been
contributed by one or other of the members of this
panel. In the exceptional case where specialist
audiences are involved, the source of review will be
stated below.

May we again remind film units and sponsors
that we cannot publish reviews unless they provide
us with adequate information on films completed.

The names of the members of the reviewing panel
are as follows: Stephen Ackroyd, Donald Alex-
ander, Max Anderson, Paul Fletcher, Grahame
Tharp, Sinclair Road.

SUMMING UP No. 3

Pathe are to be congratulated on their initiative
in bringing to the light of day some of the in-
valuable film records of world events which the
newsreel companies amass over the years, but
generally keep hidden away and unused in their
vaults.

This series was described in the last issue of
dnl — History on Film by Peter Bay I is. It
attempts to give a pictorial record of the main
news events of each quarter and is designed
primarily for school use. No. 3 deals with events
of the first quarter of 1947.

One can appreciate the difficulty of collecting
material giving adequate coverage of world
affairs, but one's first reaction is to challenge the
statement in Issue No. 3 that the principal events
of the quarter took place in the British Empire!
The temptation to look at world affairs from a
domestic viewpoint is considerable. But parti-
cularly in a series designed for schools one ex-
pects wider perspectives.

This issue also has certain technical weaknesses,
the sound track is bad, and the commentary
rather ineffectual and badly spoken. Better
quality library material, too, should have been
available.

Summing Up could do a much more valuable
job if it had a stronger sense of what all this
motley of events is about. What is happening in
India is part of a whole pattern of development in
South-East Asia. Food crisis in Germany, the
coal crisis in Britain cannot be understood in
isolation. The problems of one world, trying to
adjust itself to new situations and to find new
relationships, are indivisible.

But, despite its shortcomings, Summing Up
has made a brave start. One should watch us
future development with interest.

Brush Stripping of Cards. DATA Films for the
Cotton Board. Producer: Donald Alexander.
Written and directed: Peter Bradford. Camera:
Stanley Rodwell. Distribution: Non-T. through
Cotton Board. 12 mins.

DATA films for the Cotton Board are making an
interesting series: here is one on industrial train-
ing, which will do much to justify documentary
talk on the subject.

It does not matter that few people outside the
industry will have any idea of what a card is or
what it does that it has to be stripped. What does
matter is that after seeing this film most people
could go straight to the machine with a very good
idea in their minds of how the job has to be done,
and that is what the film was intended to teach
the workers for whom it was designed.

Taking a single machine it first shows the
whole process of brush stripping carried out at
normal speed by the two men required. Next the
movements are tabulated and the same operation
is repeated in slow motion. Then in turn the
movements of each man are analysed in detail
and finally, to sum up the whole sequence of
movement, repeated again. The relationship of
this one machine to the others is, with one excep-
tion, shown by diagram in preference to actuality.
This is one of the few questionable points, for
the diagrams do not seem very clear. To the
audience familiar with shop layout this may not
be valid. One feels, too, that a more flexible use of
the camera might have heightened the interest.
Still, given the machine and the method, one
could ask little more.

Experience of the use of industrial training
films of this type is small, so that the information
it will provide on audience reactions will be of
considerable importance. One general comment
should, however, be added. This is such a serious
film. Instructional films must be coldly factual,
but surely just a touch of humour or human
interest would have helped to put the film over.
And, between ourselves Data, try reading that
opening title again — slowly!

Waterworks: Films of Fact. Producers: Paul
Rotha and John Wales. Script: Miles Tomalin.
Director: George Collins. Camera: Cyril Arapoff.
*

This film explains and describes the complex
organization behind the production of a glass of
water. It does this with considerable success and
it is also exciting to find such an example of
imaginative public relationship. It is therefore
tragic that the film does not quite click, for it has
a lifeless atmosphere of simplified technicalities
and carefully arranged facts. This is due in the
first place to the choice of facts emphasized. The
explanation of filtration is clear but does not get
very far. whereas more emphasis on chlorination
could have led us to appreciate the relationship

between the ratepayer and the technician, be-
tween the man who gets indignant if perfectly
good water tastes of chlorine and the man who
wants to hold his job.

In the second place, the method of explaining
is not always happy. An Isotype diagram which
shows clouds clanking their way out of the sea
may describe the Water Cycle but it can also lead
to a healthy childish exasperation; for it is an
example of a teaching approach which seems to
say 'This may not look convincing but you jolly
well ought to believe it anyway'. For, unfortun-
ately, such a method could be equally well used
to show how Father Christmas gets down chim-
neys. A livelier method could have avoided this
by using simple demonstrations, and a brighter
approach would have lessened the need to
decorate this packet of facts with romantic
clouds and accompanying music.

THIS MODERN AGE

No. 8. Sudan Dispute.

No. 9. Development Areas.

Distribution: GFD. 20 minutes each film.

It is probably part of the policy of the producers
of This Modern Age to allow to their directors as
much variety of approach as is consistent with
uniformity of presentation, and perhaps for this
reason the series shows as yet no sign of becoming
a monotonous succession of die-stamped articles
so similar in design that the audience knows what
to expect as soon as the main title appears on
the screen. Or perhaps the overall editorial policy
of the series is being allowed to form itself as
issue follows issue. Whichever may be the case,
there is a very marked difference in the way the
two latest issues approach their subjects.

Sudan Dispute undoubtedly fulfils the function
of giving us a picture of part of the world of
which most of us know little but for which we
are all to some extent responsible. But whether
the picture we are given is an accurate one is,
perhaps, more questionable. Is the Sudan really
the strapping, bnght-futured youngster that the
film describes? Is its Government actually such an
exemplar of enlightened, beneficial rule? Is the
possibility of Egyptian sovereignty in fact quite
as unpleasant as the vox ex machina would have
us believe? The answer to these questions may
indeed and in truth be ves. but the fact that they
are uppermost in the mind after one has seen the
film indicates something wrong with the way the
subject has been treated. Thii Modem Age sets
out to be an independent screen review. At all
costs it should avoid arousing the suspicion that
it is temporarily and honorarily serving as the
smooth-tongued spokesman of officialdom — or
indeed o\' any other section of the community.

Happily, an unbiased approach is the out-
standing characteristic of Development Areas;

DOC I Ml N I WRY NEWS LETTER

11V

and, even better, the maintenance of a true
balance between black and while does not result
in a lifeless grey. Well-scripted, well directed, well
edited, the film gives as complete a survey as one
could expect in twenty minutes of the growth and
present appearance of these stigmata of a mis-
spent national life. The treatment is forceful and,
compared with the mouselike timidity of many
films on similar subjects, as bold as a lion — a cir-
cus lion, anyway. It is on issues such as this,
rather than Sudan Dispute, that This Modern Age
should build a reputation as an adult, entertain-
ing, informative, reliable screen periodical.

Taken for Granted. Production: World Wide for
Middlesex County Council. Producer: James Carr.
Script and Director: Mary Francis. Camera: Cyril
Phillips. Distribution: Not yet announced. 20
mins.

'Before 1865 all the London sewers discharged
into the Thames, by some 64 separate openings.
They caused the river to stink prodigiously, and
also infected most of London's drinking water.'

That is not a quotation from the commentary
of the film, but from Sherwood Taylor's Century
of Science, in which, with an almost Elizabethan
robustness, he surveys our more immediate past
— what, it appears, might well be called 'The
Dirtiest Hundred Years in European History'.
Unfortunately, there is no echo of Sherwood
Taylor's forceful handling of his subject in the
treatment of this film. Well-made though it be,
and it is a competently directed and photographed
film, it yet lacks that imaginative treatment which
would take it out of the rut where so many docu-
mentaries of today are to be found.

This film, the story of the disposal of the
sewage of a modern urban community, gives the
impression of a painstaking preparation of its
subject. We are interested in it because this story
is unknown in detail to most of us, but never are
we stimulated into that rapt attentiveness which
overcomes hard seats or sends us out into the
sunshine at the end, if not with a mission, at least
aware that someone else has one. It is possible
that the reason for so much of the dullness of
documentary today, and to be quite fair this film
is lively compared w ith some others, lies in just
this very carefulness of research into subject-
material. Perhaps we must learn to throw the net
of our investigations wider.

Who would think, for instance, of reading or
(I hope) re-reading Hans Andersen's The Tin
Soldier and Charles Sale's genially Rabelais-
ian The Specialist as part of the necessary pre-
paration for writing a script about sewage-
disposal? But each of these would add a quality
lacking in the film as it is. The first would have
teminded us that gutters in spate are admirable
places for the sailing of paper boats (what worse
hazard than a drain?); and the second that the
foundation of all sewage systems lay very much
in the earth — for as Lem Putt said, 'It's a mighty
sight better to have a little privy over a big hole
than a big privy over a little hole'. Even without
such lively aids, surely the director, producer or
script writer at one time or another has lost
something valuable down a drain — maybe in his
or her distant childhood such a photogenic object
as a beloved goldfish or a tadpole? And where
are the rats?

In spite of this general criticism, however,
there emerges from the film a good sense of the
admirable public service which quietly deals w ith
this perpetual human problem, carrying out its

work, in this example, at the minute cost of
Ztl. per week per ratepayer. The control of sew -
age has progressed a good deal since the period
of the quotation from Sherwood Taylor. 'Down
the drain' is no longer synonymous for 'All is
lost'. Indeed, the by-products of modern sewage-
disposal methods, fertilizer for the land and
methane gas, properly used, are perhaps sym-
bolic of the general trend of today which seeks
to use our resources according to our needs
with an ever-growing insistence on the elimina-
tion of thoughtless waste.

Salt. Realist for ICI. Director: Max Anderson.
Camera: Ronald Craigen. 10 mins.

Ammonia. Realist for ICI. Direction: Bob
Anderson and Denys Parsons. Camera: A. E.
Jeakins. Diagrams: Diagram Films. 10 mins.

The increasing number of school teaching films
sets a reviewing problem. It is axiomatic that a
film designed for a particular audience should
only be judged by its effect upon that audience.
Films such as these two need 'reviewing' in the
school itself. But until some mechanism is devised
for routine class room testing they must continue
to be assessed by the minds of adults.

These points are stressed because the reaction
of an adult to these films is that they are dull. In
neither film is there a single memorable shot —
but is this true for children? Only practical use
will show.

Salt is a film designed for primary and lower
secondary school grades. It tells briefly of our
physiological need for salt, surveys the natural
resources — sea water, rock salt and underground
brine — and shows the method of large scale pro-
duction from each. It concludes by showing
some of the most important uses of salt itself,
and demonstrates articles of daily use in whose
manufacture salt plays a part.

Comment must be limited to a few of the ques-
tions that rise to the mind. Does, for example, a
survey of this kind mean anything to a child of
this age group? Children are completely personal
in their outlook on life; salt here never becomes a
reality in a personal sense. Are children inter-
ested in so much manufacturing detail? Does the
model showing the method of salt evaporation
convince better than a simple explanation of the
principle using a familiar dish or pan? Will a
child 'register' the fact that things such as glass
need salt in their manufacture unless some ex-
planation is given? Children want to know the
'why' about things. There is a barrage of ques-
tions in store for the teacher. And finally — the
crucial test — does this film in fact show anything
which the teacher could not equally well put over
without it?

Immonia is for a different age group — the
mstry and general science classes of school
certificate level. Ha 'Mows the same pat-

tern. Beginning by reminding the class of labora-
tory methods of making ammonia, it passes to a
short statement of its use in the home, tor re-
frigeration and the manufacture of a number of
essential products. The bulk of the film is then
taken up h\ a detailed explanation of the I label
Bosch method tor the manufacture of ammonia
from air and water on a commercial scale.

This later part the film explains well with
actn ram. Had it been called The

Manufacture of Ammonia' it could have been
given full marks. But it is not. and so again there
arc questions: Do shots of refrigeration spell

ammonia.' One short cross section diagram
would have driven the point home. Does this re-
cital of Objects produced through the use of am-
monia put its point over' Is manufacture really
so important except to the sponsor' I his pro-
cess does have to be learned, and the film is a help
in explaining it, but in a general film the propor-
tion of space given to it seems excessive.

Such reactions as these are coloured no doubt
by the hopes aroused by their arrival of some new
contribution to the urgent problems of visual
education. If these are not fulfilled it must in fair-
ness be added that these two films are much
superior to most films of this type, and that with
the limited range available today, teachers will
find in them much that is useful. Technically both
films are of high quality, a fact which explains
the level of criticism.

Teaching notes which elaborate many of the
points made in the films are being designed to
accompany them.

Take Thou. Basic for Evans Medical Supplies
in association with Film Centre.

Photography: Rod Baxter. Director: Kay Man-
der. Script: John Rhodes. Camera: A. Englander.

Distribution: Publicity Department, Evans Medi-
cal Supplies. 25 mins.
*

Documentary has been prone to regard a 'tour-
of-the-works' as beneath serious consideration—
as veiled advertising. Yet the activities of a large
business house can be fascinating to the outside
observer, and moreover, by integrating the work
of the individual into the group, can give meaning
to his apparently routine job (as the GPO Film
Unit has shown). Take Thou is, we hope, but the
first of many such films which while being un-
doubtedly a 'tour-of-the-works' carry no adver-
tising message. Here is surveyed in briefest out-
line the rise of the pharmaceutical industry, the
preparation on a vast scale of herb extracts, of
fine chemicals, of synthetic hormones, of animal
extracts and sera, and all the other drugs which
stack the shelves of our chemists' shops. But
manufacture is only the first part of the work;
these products must be tested for purity and
activity as well as for possible harmful inclusions,
and finally they must be packed and dispatched
in quantities of a tew milligrams or of many tons.
The film moves fast through the many depart-
ments and processes, being concerned more with
the broad picture than with any detailed proced-
ures. For so superficial a survey the commentary
is perhaps overloaded with technical terms, even
for a specialized audience: the English language
has some good simple synonyms tor long techni-
cal words which would have been more in
keeping with this record o( the working man
doing his job. Nevertheless Take Thou is a
straightforward presentation, having much in
common with Twenty-Four Square Wiles, for the
photography is completely subservient to the
subject-matter, the lighting is unpretentious, and
one nonces a commendable absence c<\' thai
beautifkation process which commonly precedes
the arrival of a film unit. Mere is a simple un-
pretentious film, which by direct demonstration
rather than cinematic virtuosity p
fully the widespread activities of JUSI one British

business organization.

* The two starred reviews were wriii

before the new Reviewing Panel ha.:

120

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

SCIENTIFIC FILM NEWS ON

THE INTERNATIONAL PROSPECT

Bv JOHN MADDISON

thetradition thatthe fruitsof research should be
freely exchanged between the scientists of all
nations is a long-established one. During the past
century, this international traffic in ideas has
played a vital role in the spectacular growth of
our organized knowledge about the universe.
Where scientific books, periodicals and records
of proceedings are concerned, an efficient world
wide system of interchange has been built up.
But in the case of the cinema, this new instrument
of research and communication, no such inter-
national mechanism of distribution exists.

There are, of course, reasons for this. Cine-
matography is only some fifty years old. Films
are industrial products, and relatively costly.
Trade restrictions and customs barriers prevent
them from travelling easily across national fron-
tiers. Yet the need for the freest and widest ex-
change of scientific films is urgent, if only on the
ground of their potential value in raising levels of
productivity in a period of almost universal
impoverishment.

UNESCO

The Scientific Film Association has from the
beginning recognized this need. The promotion
of the international use of the scientific film was
put high among its aims. The end of the war and
the creation of a Film Department at UNESCO
brought the hope that the international import-
ance of the scientific film might be more fully
realized. Already by 1946, the Association's
contacts with foreign countries were numerous,
and in the summer of that year, it set up a
special committee to handle its international rela-
tions. This committee was also meant to serve
as a means of liaison between the Association
and any national body the Ministry of Education
might set up for co-operation with UNESCO.

Preparatory Work

The Association's chief activity in this field
during the past year has been its collaboration
with the French Institut de Cinematographic
Scientifique in the preparatory work towards
creating an international scientific film organiza-
tion. The French had for a long time done
pioneer work by bringing together each year at
their scientific film festivals the work of many
countries. At the last of these in October, 1946,
the Scientific Film Association delegation en-
joyed the privilege of seeing the work of such
experts as Comandon, Leclerc and Thevenard
of Trance, Van der Horst of Holland, Hans
Richter of Switzerland, and fachine and Louka-
chevitch from the Soviet Union; as well as
screening a number of outstanding British pro-
ductions. More important perhaps than this, the
British and the I tench engaged in conversations
with colleagues from Czechoslovakia, Poland.

Sweden and America, at which William Farr, of
UNESCO, attended as a sympathetic observer.

Congress in the Autumn

It was evident at these meetings that the time
had come to establish some sort of international
organization to keep scientific film-makers and
users throughout the world in permanent liaison
with each other. The British and French under-
took to organize a congress to inaugurate such a
movement. It was to be held in Paris in the
autumn of 1947. They agreed also to prepare a
draft constitution to lay before this congress.
The preparation of this document has naturally
involved much labour and thought, and frequent
consultations between London and Paris. In it,
basic principles and certain urgent needs have, it
is hoped, found practical expression. The con-
tribution which science can make to human
happiness and the part films can play in this, are
given first importance. Among the aims pro-
posed for the new organizations are the removal
of barriers to the international exchange not only
of scientific films, but also of the skill of film
technicians, the experience of film users and the
products of research into new optical and photo-
graphic techniques. The inaugural Congress will
take place in Paris on October 2nd, 3rd and 4th,
1947; it will be followed immediately by an
International Scientific Film Festival. At this
festival, the screen time allotted to each nation
is so arranged as to give an equal share to any
nation which may wish to participate. By the
time this article appears in print, invitations to
the Congress and to the festival will have gone
out above the signatures of Jean Painleve, Direc-
tor of the Institut de Cinematographie
Scientifique and Basil Wright, President of our
own Association, to appropriate bodies in all
countries.

Other Activities

All this is but one aspect of the Association's
work in the international field. Counsel has been
given on the selection of British scientific films
to be shown at a number of international festi-
vals. Enquiries from abroad have been met out
of the collective knowledge of the Association's
Standing Committees in Industry. Medicine and
Education. Films and film strips on biology,
mathematics, astronomy, statistics and physics
from the USA, Canada, China, Denmark, the
Soviet Union and South Africa have been shown
to members. Honour has been done to dis-
tinguished foreign visitors; to Pierre de Fon-
brunc, the eminent cincmicrographer from the
Institut Pasteur (invited to Britain by the British
Council from whose Science Department the
Association has received valuable co-operation);
to Jean Benoit-Levy, head ol' the Film Depart-
ment of UN; and to Vit Hejny, head of the

Czechoslovak School Films Department. At this
latter occasion, during the Czech Festival in
May, a Czech-British scientific film programme
gave us the opportunity of seeing Dr Hejny's own
film on educational psychology, and the films on
ellipses and perabolas, made by Franz Kysela,
who also took part in the discussions in Paris last
October.

The Daily Work

These meetings have underlined, in a pleasant
fashion, the identity of interest between the
scientists, teachers and cinematographers of
different nations. But equally important, the
Association feels, is the more humdrum day-to-
day work of collecting data essential to its inter-
national purposes. At the request of UNESCO,
details have been provided of the system of ap-
praising and cataloguing films evolved here in
Britain by the Association, and of the Associa-
tion's Medical Committee"s work on the use of
microfilm for disseminating library information
on films. On the suggestion of the Director of
UNESCO'S Department of Mass Media, John
Grierson (who takes a shrewd and lively interest
in this as in so many other matters), the British
Council made a verbatim record of the proceed-
ings at the Association's March Conference on
Films in Industry, so that its findings might be
circulated to other countries. Throughout the
year, the Association's international librarian,
Denys Parsons, has continued to collect data
about the scientific films abroad. A summary of
the results of his labours is to be published in the
near future. This is the document, relating to the
work of thirty-three countries, to the interim ver-
sion of which Michael Michaelis referred in this
column in the June-July number of dm .

At Home

Here in Britain, particularly in the growing
ranks of the Scientific Film Society movement,
there is a desire to see more frequently examples
of film-making abroad. The requests received b>
the Association from other countries reveal an
equal desire that British scientific films should be .
more readih available to them. The Paris Con-
gress w ill seek to prov ide the blueprint for an
organization through which these and other ex-
changes may be increased. In the meantime, the
Association has set up a Working Party to
realize a more limited aim. It w ill collect and list
the titles of scientific films available through the
diplomatic representatives in London of all
foreign countries. In addition, it will seek to dis-
cover from the ow ners or sponsors of all films in
the Association's ( at Films of General

Scientific Interest how best users abroad mav
have access to them. The co-operation Ot"

readers of dnl, possessing information
value in this work, would be welcomed.

o:' ;

CATALOGUE OF MOI & COI FILMS-6th SUPPLEMENT

(January 1st — December 31st, 1946)
FILMS MADE BY THE MOI & COI

A General Films

B Trailers

C Colonial Film Unit

1. Monthly release films underlined

2. Names of people in brackets do not appear on credit titles.

T —Mainly Theatrical Distribution
NT = Mainly Non-Theatrical Distribution
I = For Specialized or Selected Audiences
( K > Primaril) foi Overseas Distribution
OOO i >vei lea I ' ti ibutii in Only

The abbreviation 'O' for 'Despatched Overseas' has been omitted, since

almost all MOI films are exported.
Length is recorded in feet of 35 mm. gauge.

STATISTICAL ANALYSIS— NUMBER OF FILMS PRODUCED BY THE MOI AND COI

CATEGORY

1940a

1941

1942

1943

1944

1945

1946

I « > 1 \1

Five Minute

20

37

29

—

—

—

86

Fifteen Minute

—

—

1

12

12

12

—

37

Monthly Release

—

—

—

—

—

—

13

1 I

General 'T' Distribution

14

5

7

8

5

8

14

61

General N I Distribution

23

7

35

21

28

39

26

179

Specialized or Selected Audiences

6

12

24

27

13

12

33l

127

Mainly Overseas

—

—

12

7

6

2

4

31

VV'hollv Overseas

3

10

18

39

15

6

1

94

Trailers

8

15

34

46

51

37HJK

37m

228

Total

74

86

160

160

130

116

130

856

Colonial Film Unit

8

10

16b

30c

36

30fg

19

149

Acquired 5- and 15-Minute Films

2

10

17

Id

Id

31

a Includes 2 films for T release delivered in 1939. G

B Includes 4 16 mm. productions. H

c Includes 12 Empire at War productions. j

D 15-minute films. k

e Excludes 3 re-issues, includes 3 issues in Scotland only and 3 in England and Wales l

only. m

F Includes 5 16 mm. productions.

Includes 9 'Empire at War' compilations.

Re-issue.

3 Issued in Scotland only.

Not issued.

Includes 1 film on 16 mm. Kodachrome only.

Includes 4 re-issues.

STATISTICAL ANALYSIS— FOOTAGE OF FILMS PRODUCED BY THE MOI AND COI

CATEGORY

1940s

1941

1942

1943

1944

1945

1946

TOTAL

Five Minute

Fifteen Minute

Monthly Release

General 'T' Distribution

General N.T. Distribution

Specialized or Selected Audiences

Mainlt Overseas

Wholly Overseas

Trailers

13,791

16,673

23,545

4,109

3,100
1,600

25,113

9.228
7,809
10,280

11,093
3,000b

20,141
1,316

22/. In

41.457
30,552
16,383
22,944
4,250

15,216

33,833
24.010
38,568
15,081
43,115
5,750c

16,041

17,524
39,527
18,713

5,908
17,307

5,500cg

14,832

31,165
55,216
17.850
6.179
8,413
4,625

12,622
30,478
32,618
54.245P

17.672
3,706
3,330mn

59.045
47,405
12.622
161,407
224.308
171.317
61.223
109.678
28,055

TOTAL

62,818

66,604

159,519

175,613

120,565

138.280HJK

154,671

878,070

Colonial Film Unit

11,919

7,836

13.600D

13.198E

17,844

33.107L

20,569o

118,073

Acquired 5 and 15-Minute Films

1,135

6,657

11,353

1.312F

887

21,344

Includes 3,130 feet of T releases dclisered in 1939.

Average length 200 feet.

Average length 125 feet.

16 mm. productions calculated at equivalent 35 mm. footage.

Includes 12 'Empire at War' compilations.

Monthly release.

Excludes 3 re-issues and includes 3 issues in Scotland only, and 3 issues in England

and Wales only.

H Re-issued November 19th.

j 3 issued in Scotland only.

K Not yet issued.

L Includes 9 'British Empire at War' compilations.

M Average length 90 feet.

n Includes 360 feet re-issues.

o Includes 2,425 feet of 16 mm. silent.

p Includes 1 film made on 16 mm. Kodachrome.

TITLE

DISTRI-
BUTION

PRODUCII>>\
UNIT

PRODUCER DIRECTOR

RELEASE DATE LENGTH
T NT feet

REMARK^

After Six O'clock
As Others See Us
Australians in London, The
Beginning of Histors . The

Big Four, The
Birds ol the Village

Bridge. The

BDW (Diseases in Poultry)

Britain Can Make It Series
BCMI No. (>

lit Ml No. 2
B( Ml No. 3
BCMI No. 4

B( MI No. 5

IK Ml No. II
B( Ml No. _

BCMI No. 8

IK MI No. 9

BCMI No. 10

T
I
OOO

I

NT

NT

I

Nl
NT
NT
NT

NT

Nl

NT
NT
NT

Grecnpark
Mcalin Films
Crown
Crown

Larkins

Films of Gt. Britain

DATA

Films of Gt. Britain

Films of Fact

Films of Fact

Films of Fact

Films of Fact

Films of Fact

Films of Fact
Films of Fact

Films of Fact

I ilms of Fact

Films of Fact

Humphrey
Swingler
R. MacDougall

Ralph Kcene

M. Hankinson

Alexander Shaw Colin Dean

Basil Wright Graham Wallace

(Associate:

Edgar Anstev)
W. Larkin

Andrew BuchananAndrew Buchanan

(Associate:
Fdgar Anstey)

Donald J. D. Chambers —

Alexander
Andrew UuchananAndrewBuchanan —

(Associate:

Edgar Anstey)

Jack Holmes

Paul Rotha

Paul Rotha

J. B. Holmes

J. B. Holmes

J. B Holmes
Jack Holmes

I ick Holmes

Jack Holmes

J let Holmes

16,1246 —

16 9 46

29,10 46

3 7 46
28 8 46

4 10 46

Not yet

fixed

3 7 46

957
1,126
1,038
4,289

S57
1,659

3,500
1.529

913

2S 2 46

943

880

930

921

26 | | 46

917

27 8 46

936

23 10 46

Shortened version of Good Neighbours,
monthly release for December.
Training film for rreasur) on how t..
interview the casual caller.
Special record of the Australian con-
tingent's part in the Victor) Parade.
The story of British life and agriculture
from the earliest days up to the Roman
invasion. Made for Ministry ofl ducation.
rtoon film made for the Ministry of
Food.

Made t.>r the Ministry of Agriculture to
show that most small birds ar,
t ' i l.- farmer. Bird photography
I losking.

A story of reconstruction in i
slavia.
Made tor Ministry of Agriculture and

I isheries. A film for farmers.

A monthly film primarily made for dis-
tribution in factories I sually containing
three items.

Contains: (1) Change over airfield into
farm eruleas the Crick

Will. II s iwg.l-

'lonal Radar

( on tains: I I I Works I Bath-

rooms oil the licit: i ))Manne
Contain-.: ( I ) Muminium Hoi

sign m Industry ; (3) Canadian Round I p

...ion.
in Hostels ...

II \ K 1 ' .

i I i Ordnance Sir

I I i Mabletl '< gam;

H .,.« With Interest
■ lecns and I i Egg Packing

. D

J.ard.

ill I oldinj

t, I'D I Pi 'blcm

BCMI No. 1

NT

films of Fact

Jack Holmes

—

—

30, 1 46

950

BCMINo. 12

NT

Films of Fact

J. B. Holmes

—

—

10 12 46

938

Casting in Steel at Wilson's Forge
Children on Trial

I
T&NT

Basic
Crown

R. K. Neilson-
Baxter
(Associate:
Edgar Anstey)

Basil Wright

R. K. Neilson-
Baxter

Jack Lee

1 8 46

Not yet
fixed

1,132
5,562

Cine-Panorama

Civil Engineering
Clean Farming

I

I

I

Basic

Realist
Campbell Harper

R. K. Neilson-
Baxter
(Associate:
Edgar Anstey)

Alexander Shaw

Alan Harper

Kay Mandcr

Alexander Shaw

and John

Eldridge
Alan Harper

-

Not yet
fixed

3110 46

10 8 46

388

1,235
1,486

Coal Mining Today

I

New Realm

—

Edited by Sylvia
Cummins

—

9/5/46

1,613

Cotton Come Back

I

DATA

J. B. Holmes

Donald
Alexander

—

2/10/46

2,302

Critical Harvest

Cyprus is an Island
Defeated People, A

T&NT

T & NT
T

New Realm

Greenpark
Crown

R. Keene

Basil Wright

Edited by

Sylvia

Cummins
R. Keene
Humphrey

Jennings

20 5,46

1 6 46
1/3/46

—

787

3,053
1,693

Defeat Diphtheria, 1945

Fair Rent
Fight for Life

I

T&NT
NTOO

New Realm

DATA

Exploitation

Donald
Alexander

Edited by

Sylvia
Cummins
Mary Beales

Edited by
Jim Mellor

— 23 5,46

Not yet
fixed

19/6 46

720

999
1,516

From the Rhine to Victory
From Italy to D Day

OO
OO

British Paramount

News
British Movietone

News

-

Edited by

A. S. Graham
Edited by

Raymond

Perrin

-

2/4/46

4,519
2,909

Furnace Practice
Getting On With It

I
T

CWS FU

George Wynn

George Wynn

19 8 46

25,6 46

2,740
996

Glen Is Ours, The
Good Neighbours

T&NT
NT

Verity Films
Greenpark

Ralph Keene

H. Cass

Humphrey
Swingler

Not yet
fixed

Not yet
fixed

2,792

1,377

How to Make Cakes
How to Make Jam
How to Prepare Salads
instruments of the Orchestra

NT I
NT I
NT I

T & NT

Films of Gt. Britain
Films of Gt. Britain
Films of Gt. Britain
Crown

Andrew

Buchanan
Andrew

Buchanan
Andrew

Buchanan
Alexander Shaw

Andrew

Buchanan
Andrew

Buchanan
Andrew

Buchanan
Muir Mathieson

1/10/46

25/2/46
25/2/46
28 2 46

991
1,000

934
1,821

Institutional Domestic Service

Merlin

Michael
Hankinson

Gilbert Gunn

-

25/ll/*6

1,411

Hausa Village

T&NT

Taurus

—

Joan Duff

14/11/46

—

1,949

Home and School

NT

Crown

Alexander Shaw

Gerry Bryant

—

Not yet
fixed

1,815

Houses in History

I

Seven League

(Associate:
Paul Rotha)

H. M. Nieter

—

25 1 1 46

1,780

House That Jack Built, The

T

Crown

Alexander Shaw

Graham Wallace

18 10 46

_

850

How to Cook Fish
Indian Background

It Began on the Clyde

It Might Be You

NT I
T& NT

Films of Gt.
New Realm

Britain

Andrew
Buchanan

Andrew
Buchanan

16 9 46

25 2 46

988
833

T &NT

Greenpark

R. Keene

Ken Annakin

18/2,46

—

1.412

T& NT

Low Sugar Content, Jam Making I
Man One Family OO

Milk from Grange Hill Farm I

Myra Hess

Modern Guide to Health

Near Home
North-F.ast Corner
Now It Can Be Told
Old Wives' Tales

NT
T

I

MT

TOO

NT

Crown

Films of Gt. Britain
Ealing Studios
Basic

Crown
Halas Batche'or

Basil Wright

Andrew

Buchanan
Sidney Cole

R. K. Neilson J. B. Napier
Baxter (Assoc: Bell
Edgar Anstey)

Basil Wright

J. Halas

Michael Gordon 21 1 46

Andrew-
Buchanan
Ivor Montagu

Basic R. K. Neilson- K. Mander

Baxter (Assoc:
Edgar Anstey)

Greenpark Ralph Keene John Eldridge

(Associate:
Edgar Anstey)

RAF/FU re-editcd by E. Baird E. Baird

Exploitation

1,255

Halas Batchelor

J. Halas

Not yet
fixed
8/1/46

1,000
1,551

—

Not yet
fixed

1,043

—

2 1 46

864

1 47

—

820

-

Not yet
fixed

:.::4

Not vet
fixed

Not yel
fixed

2,013

2 47

-

6,203

15/3/46

698

3 items are: (1) Admiralty Concrete

Floating Dock; (2) Motion Study; (3)

War Artists' Exhibition.

One Item only: Britain Can Make It

Exhibition.

This silent film is part of the local study

visual unit. Made for the Ministry of

Education.

A study of juvenile delinquents at
approved schools for boys and girls.
This silent film is pan of the 'Local
Study' visual unit. Made for the Ministry
of Education.

One of the Post-War Career Series. Made
for the Ministry of Works and Labour.

Made for the Department of Agriculture

for Scotland for farmers.

One of the Post- War Career Series. Made

for the Ministry of Fuel and Power and

Ministry of Labour and National Service.

One of the Post- War Career Series. Made

for the Board of Trade and Ministry of

Labour.

Made for the Ministry of Agriculture. An

appeal for workers for the harvest.

Life in Cyprus today.

The story of life and conditions and

problems facing the German people and

the CCG. Spring, 1946.

A re-edited version of Defeat Diphtheria,

1941, for the Ministry of Health.

How Rent Tribunals work in Scotland.

This is one of a series of films about
Africa and shows something of the way
of life of the peoples of the Gold Coast.
A newsreel compilation of the events
from the crossing of the Rhine to VE Day.
A Newsreel compilation of the events
from July 1943 to June, 1944, when the
Allies closed in for the final assault on the
fortress of Europe.

Made for the Ministry of Fuel and Power.
Monthly release for August. Compilation
from items in This is Britain and Britain
Can Make It

Made for the Scottish Office. A story of
Local Government.

Made for the Scottish Office. A small
community organize and form a Com-
munity Centre.

Instructional film made for the Ministry
of Food.

Instructional film made for the Mniistry
of Food.

Instructional film made for the Ministry
of Food.

Made for the Ministry of Education.
Answers the question, What is a Sym-
phony Orchestra?

Made for the Ministry of Health and
Ministry' of Labour. One of a film series
about jobs after the war.
A day in the life of one of the villages of
the Hausa people who live in N. Nigeria.
Made for Ministry of Education to en-
courage the growth of Parent Teacher
Associations.

Made for the Ministry of Education.
Changes in architecture between the 13th
century and today. Part of Visual L'nit.
Monthly release for November. Made for
the Ministry of Works. Boys from 17
counties who have left school and are
apprenticed to builders working on
council houses.
Made for the Ministry of Food.

Compilation for India Office. Describing
the gradual transition from the old
methods of agriculture and industry .
Made for the Department of Health for
Scotland. Known as the Clyde Basin
experiment. The utilization of the Emer-
gency Service Hospitals to deal with cases
of war fatigue in industry.
Monthly release for January, 1946. A
reminder to all road users to take more
care and follow the rules of the Highway
Code.

Made for the Ministries of Food and
Education.

An exposure of the fallacv of the German
race myth.

This silent film is part of the 'Local Study'
Visual l int. Made for the Ministry of

I deration.

Playingthe First Movement of Beethoven's
Sonata in F Minor, Op 571 Vppassionata).
Monthly release for January, 1947. Made
for the Ministrj of Health and Central
Council for Health Education. (Cartoon
film.)

This film is part of the Ministry of Educa-
tion Visual Unit on Local Studies.

One of the Pattern of Britain series.

A film about the British and the Maquis.
I iiclish thc.itnc.il distribution of this film
under the title of School for /'.
Made for the Ministry of Health in col-
laboration with the Central Council for
Health Education. (Cartoon.)

Pacific Hitch-hike T & NY

Penicillin in Medical Practice 1

Personnel Selection in the British OO
Army (Report from Britain No. 3)

Pool of Contentment I

Portuguese Editors' Tour i m n »

Potato Growing I

Potteries in the Gold Coast NT

Railwaymcn, The I

Scabies, 1946 I

Seed of Prosperity NT

Shaping the Future (long version) I

Shaping the Future (short version) T

Stomach Worms in Sheep I

Story of Omolo NT

Tea from Nyasaland

Teaching

Telephone Cable Jointing

This Is China

Town Meeting of the World

Turn It Out

Twenty-Four Square Miles
Typing Technique
This Is Britain Series

TIB No. 6

TIB No. 7

TIB No. 8
TIB No. 9

TIB No. 10

Way From Germany

West Africa Was There

Winter Milk

Worker and Warfront No. IS

Your Children and You

NT
I
I
T

1

I

OOT

OO T

OOT
OOT

OOT

T

OOO

1

NT
I

Films of Fact
Realist

Shell

Public Relationship

Movietone

Films of Gt. Britain

Exploitation

Crown

Merlin

Campbell Harper

Gryphon

Paul Rotha

John Taylor

Edgar Anstey
I \ tociate:
Basil Wright)

Richard
Massingham

Andrew

Buchanan

Peter Hennessy

Jane Masse)

Geoffrey Bell

Richard

M . nicham

Andrew
Buchanan

1,271

Not yet 2,858
fixed

22 5 46 8,700

I < I 1 46 —

Alexander Shaw Graham Wallace

R. Carruihers

(Associate: Alan Harper

Edgar Anstey)

Donald Taylor

4/11/46

1,265

-

1,678

26 6 46

1.685

21 10 46

800

Not yet
fixed

Not yet
fixed

I 7 46

2,045
2,220
1,735

6 6 46

Gryphon

Donald Taylor

Films of Gt. Britain Andrew

Buchanan
Crown Basil Wright

Crown

Merlin

Basil Wright

Michael
Hankinson
Films of Gt. Britain Andrew-
Buchanan
Verity Julian Wintle

Andrew
Buchanan

Kingston-Davies

Roger

MacDougall
Andrew

Buchanan

Crown

Greenpark

Basic

Basil Wright

Graham Wallace 18 3 46

Ken Annakin Ken Annakin 21 10 46

R. K. Neilson- K. Mander
Baxter
Public Relationship R. Massingham M. Law

Merlin

Merlin

Merlin
Merlin

Merlin
Crown

Movietone News

World Wide

Films of Fact

Realist

Michael
Hankinson

Michael
Hankinson

Michael

Hankinson
Michael

Hankinson

Michael

Hankinson
Basil Wright

James Carr
Paul Rotha

Clifford Dymcnt

Alexander Shaw Brian Smith
and John Taylor

1.352

22 4 46 975

— 218,46 1,750

— 26 6 779

19 9 46 797

14 II 46 2.248

Not yet 1,912
fixed

22 7 46 775

1,046

913

— 21 II 46 3,763

30 9 46 2,123

Not yet
fixed

1,031

Not yet
fixed

-

1,100

Not yet
fixed

Not yet
fixed

-

1 ,037
964

Not vet
fixed

—

1,063
1,003

-

1 5 3 46

990

-

1 3 9 46

1,478

-

5 1 46

992

11 9 46

2,567

fol the Admiralty. A n

shown travelling across the P
varioi w 1 1 i » the I lect M

and lit. Tier.

Mad. Mail-

able in 16 mm. K

age reckoned in 35 nun tcrni\ I. r running
ame.) Foi specialized audicnecv
A detailed study of the tl
sclcti

Made for MM Trc.i-.ury A film foi users

Special coverage of the fi in mad

overseas distribulii in only.

Made foi the Ministry of Agriculture. A

film for t.irnicrs

One of the scries about life in the I

Coast.

for the Ministry One

of a film sencs ab >ul

Re-edited version of the film made in
1941 for the Ministry of Health.
Made tor the Department ,,| Agriculture
for Scotland. The story ol Scottish Seed
Potati

One of the post-war career sent Pi
ing conditions and i the

building trade.

A shortened version of the above film
used as a monthly release for April.
Made for the Ministry of Agriculture. A
film for farmers.

A Kenya villager learns the scii
principles of agriculture at Bukur.i
lege.

Story of tea-growing in East Africa and
its shipment to England.
One of the post-war career scries. Pro-
duced for Ministry of Education.
Post Office training film N

Monthly release for July. (Compilation.)
Tells of China's old age struggle for free-
dom— her long fight against the Japanese
and her plans for reconstruction.
Monthly release for March. Based on
extracts taken from recordings of
Attlec's opening speech at the first sc~
of the General Assembly of the United
Nations.

Made for the PM's Office. Monthly
release for October. Intended to show the
present production position to people in
Britain.

An analysis of life in the country in 'his
area.

Made for HM Treasury. A training film
in typing technique.

This series is primarily intended for dis-
tribution overseas and theatrical home.
Each issue usually contains three items.
Contains: (I) Cambridge Auto-sexing
breeds of poultry: (2) Photo-clastic
Technique in industrial research; (3) Sad-
ler's Wells Ballet School.
(1) Automatic ticket machines on the
LPTB; (2) Open-cast Coal; (3) Re-stock-
ing the Thames.

(1) Navigational Radar; (2) Folding
boats; (3) Research in Wircworm control.
(1) Safety Precautions in London's Omni-
bus Service: i2i New Designs in
cultural Machinery; (3) Asdic for the
Herring Fleet
(1) Tugs; (2) Helidon; (3) Furs.

The story of the problem of displaced

persons. Compilation by Terry Trench ;

monthly release for June.

Specially made for distribution In ■

Africa showing the part their t:

played in the w ir

Made for the Ministry of Agricultl

film for farmers on the ad-.

planning for winter milk production

issue of this monthly n
factories. Superseded by Britain Can
li

tor the Ministry of Healti
tended to help parents of the under

TITLE

PRODUCTION I MI

DIRECTOR

(,(>\ I RNMENT DEPT.

1(1 I I \M [> VI I

Mill S

Briquette Making
Diphtheria No. 6
Influenza

Spare the Hot Water
Family Allowances
Eastern Mail Call
Domestic Workers
Only Good \r»-
Staccered Holidays
Blood Banks
Diphtheria No. 7
Increase the Harvest
Come Back Alive
Hospital Car Service
Bags and Bones
Agricultural llnlidav Camps
Odd Ode ( '
Women's Land Army
Export or Die

Employment of Disabled Persons
Brickmakcrs
I P the Potatoes
Join the Army
Odd Ode ' It-
Diphtheria 8
Per Ardua

Film Traders

Concanen

Public Relationship

Merton Park

Film Traders

Merton Park

Concanen

Concanen

Concanen

Brunner Lloyd

Concanen

Anglo-Scottish

Public Relationship

Crown

Brunner Lloyd

Public Relationship

■ncn
Anglo-Scottish
Halas Batchclor
' men

Elwiss

Anglo- Scottish
Larkins
Concanen
Concanen
Crown

Hollering

Derrick de Marney

R Massingham

A. T. Dinsdale

Hollering

J. Rogers

Derrick de Marney

D de Marney

D. de Marney

M I loyd

Derrick de Marney

A. Squire

R. Massingham

Nora Dawson

M I loyd

R. Massingham

Derrick de Marney

A. Squire

J. Halas

D. dc Marney

— Elwis*

A. Squire

v\ i iririn

Derrick de Marney

D. dc Marney

Noel Arthur

M try of Fuel and Power January 17th

Ministry of Health January 31st

Ministry of Health February 13th

Ministry of Fuel and Power February 25th

Ministry of National Insurance March 1st
■ 'trice I 7th

of Labour 1 Ith

\\ ii Office April 25th
Ministry of labour 2nd

Ministry of Health 13th

Ministry of Health :0th

Ministry of Agriculture and I islu-ncs M.iy 27th

Ministry of Transport June 3rd

Ministry of Health June 13th

of Supply June l,Mh
m n A i leries July 1st

■ >rt July Btfa

Vgriculture .V I July I Kth

tde August 4ih
Ministry ol I .ibour ' I 5th

Minisu i i 19th

.'.i August 26th
• 2-'th
I r.insport ember 5th

1 alth ember lit,

istry ember 19th

Re-issue

Resettlement Advice

Service

Merton Park

Max Munden

Ministry of Labour

September 26th

Re-issue.

Old Age Insurance

Merlin

A. H. Luff

Ministry of National Insurance

October 3rd

Who'll Help the Hospitals

Merlin

A. H. Luff

Ministry of Labour

October 10th

Join the .Vi* v

Concanen

Derrick de Marney

Admiralty

November 4th

Watch the Fuel Watcher

Elwiss

— Elwiss

Ministry of Fuel and Power

November 1 1th

Re-issue.

Paper Publicity

Crown

Gerry Bryant

Board of Trade

November 21st

RAF

Concanen

Derrick dc Marney

Air Ministry

November 25th

Post Haste

Public Relationship

R. Massingham

GPO

December 6th

Re-issue.

Highway Code

Concanen

D. de Marney

Ministry of Transport

December 9th

King's Mm

Larkins

W. Larkin

War Office

December 16th

Keys of Hca»en

Halas Batchelor

J. Halas

PM's Office

December 23rd

COLONIAL FILM UNIT

TITLE

LENGTH
feet

REMARKS

TITLE

LENGTH

feet

REMARKS

Colonial Cine-Magazine No. 4

Colonial Cine-Magazine No. 5
Deck Chair

English Village

Fight Tuberculosis in the Home

Home to West Africa
Keepers of the Peace

Local Native Councils

994

930

348

2.592
2,700

602

480

360

Sound. Contains three items:

(1) London. University Football Match.

(2) London. Colonial Film unit leaves for
West Africa.

(3) Leather workers in Accra.

(1) London. Colonial Athletes.

(2) London. Model Engineering.

(3) Gold Coast. Infant Welfare Clinic.
Sound. Silent. In 16 mm. only.

A man's struggle with a recalcitrant deck
chair.

Sound. An African's tour of a village.
Sound. A simple film to show how by
sensible conduct and precautionary meas-
ures the disease may be prevented from
spreadirtg. The film was produced in West
Africa.

Sound. The return of African troops to
their homes in Nigeria and Gold Coast.
Silent. In 16 mm. only. Made in Northern
Rhodesia, this film shows the training of
African Police there.

Silent. In 16 mm. only. Showing the public
services provided by the Local Native
Councils.

On Patrol

300

Silver Jubilee of the Alake of

Abeokuta
Swollen Shoot

675
937

Teddy Bears

284

Victory March. West Africa

1,866

Victory March. East Africa

998

Victory March. Middle East

985

Victory Parade

1,982

Victory March, Far East

Weaving in Togaland
Welcome Home

900

1,930
706

Silent. In 16 mm. only. The story of the

capture of a thief by a local African

policeman.

Sound. The Alake's celebrations in

Abeokuta, Nigeria.

Silent. In 16 mm. Kodachrome. This film

was made to assist the campaign against

the Swollen Shoot disease in Cocoa.

Sound. The film was edited from material

shot in Australia showing young bears at

play.

Sound. Version of Victory Parade with the

activities of the West Africans in more

detail.

Sound. As above, but dealing in this case

with East Africa.

Sound. As above, but dealing with Middle

East.

Sound. Colonial troops arrive for the

Victory Parade — are seen in camp — at a

tea party at the Colonial Office — at the

Derby — in Edinburgh — in London and

in the March Past in the Mall.

Sound. Dealing with contingent from the

Far East.

Sound,

Sound. The return of African troops to

Gold Coast.

FILMS ACQUIRED FROM VARIOUS SOURCES

TITLE

DISTRIBUTION

PRODUCTION UNIT

LENGTH

REMARKS

feet

2,245

936

1,939

1,404

1,838

1.815

2.049

1,353

835

1.043

2,738

1 ,323

1.456

1,589

1,781

966

990

989

2,086

8,031

1.627

One of the post-war career set

:.ii2

One of the post-war career se;

2,015

2,495

2.440

950

One of the ABC A magazines

1.056

Made in conjunction with UNRR V

942

900

1,870

1.152

1,020

840

4.480

Acquired from the Ministry of Fuel ant:

1.792

16 mm.

Silent 16 mm. oi

2.000

Acquired tram ICI

2.022

Acquired from the Cotton Board.

1,732

tired from the Australian Departmen

o] Information.

1.312

1.000

Acquired for the Ministry of £<'..,

The John Bctt's Sportsmen All Sei

1.000

do. do. do.

1.000

do. do. do.

1.000

do. do. do.

i ,000

do. do. do.

1.000

do. do. do.

1 ,000

do. do. do.

1.000

do. do. do.

l .000

do. do. do.

1.000

do. do. do.

1 .000

Jo. do. do.

l ,000

do. do. do.

1 .000

do. do. do.

Cambridge

Each for All

English Criminal Justice

Farmer's Boy

General Election

Papworth Village Settlement

Routine Job

.

St Paul's Cathedral

This Is Britain No. I

This Is Britain No. 2

Great Game

Learning to Live

OO

Macbeth

oo

New Mine

Picture Paper

This Is Britain No. 3

TOO

This Is Britain No. 4

TOO

This Is Britain No. 5

TOO

We of the West Riding

Now It Can Be Told (long version)

Palestine Police

Driver Wanted

Engineering in War and Peace

Food Manufacture

Hospital Team

Town and Country Planning

Cattle Country
Canadian Wheat Story
Out of the Ruins
Peace Builders
Musk in the Wind
I his Is Our Canada
Trees that Reach the S!;y

District Officer

Our Northern Cousins

Palmyrah

Duckbill Loader

FILMS ACQUIRED FROM THE BRITISH COUNCIL

Everyman. Produced: Lewis Frank Wallace. Directed: Richard Massingham
Verity Films. Directed: Montgomery Tully
Greenpark. Produced: Ralph Keene. Directed: Ken Annakin
Greenpark. Produced: Ralph Keene. Directed: Peter Price
Technique. Directed: Ronald Riley
World Wide. Produced, Directed: James Carr

Merlin Films. Produced: Michael Hankinson. Directed: Gilbert Gunn
Merton Paik Production. Directed: James E. Rogers
Merlin Films. Produced: Michael Hankinson
Merlin Films. Produced: Michael Hankinson
Verity Films. Produced: Reg. Groves. Directed: Reg. Groves
Merton Park Production. Directed: H. Purcell
Verity Films. Produced: Sydney Box. Directed: Henry Cass
GB Instructional

Horizon Film Unit. Directed: Max Munden
Merlin Films. Produced: Michael Hankinson
Merlin Films. Produced: Michael Hankinson
Merlin Films. Produced: Michael Hankinson
Greenpark. Produced: Ralph Keene. Directed: Ken Annakin
FILMS ACQLIRED FROM THE AIR MINISTRY

00 RAF FU. Produced, Directed: E. Baird
ILMS ACQUIRED FROM THE WAR OFFK I

Produced by No. 1 Army Film and Photographic Unit

Verity Films

AKS

World Wide (Graham Cutts)

Verity

National Interest Productions
FILMS ACQUIRED FROM THE NATIONAL FILM BOARD OF CANADA
NT Educational Unit

NT I .uional Unit

NT Nicholas Read

NT —

NT _

NT _

NT —

FILMS ACQUIRED FROM INFORMATION fli.MS OF INDIA
NT Producer: Ezra Mir. Director: K. Villiers

NT Producer: Ezra Mir. Director: Roop K. Shore)

NT Producer: Ezra Mir. Director: K. Subrahmanyam

MISCELLANEOUS FILMS ACQUIRED

1 British Movietone News

Soil Nutrients I

There's a Future In It I

National Capital NT

< an We Be Rich? NT

!lu Hurdler I

The Runner No. I I

The Runner No. 2 I

The Runner No. 3 1

Iliuh and Long Jump I
Javelin rhrower and Pole Vaulter I

Discus and Hammer Thrower I

The BOX! r |

The Walker I

I lie Rower I

I he Spot bm .in I

The Yachtsman I

Patting the Shot I

Realist Film Unit. Directed by Brian Smith
World Wide. Directed by Mary Francis
Commonwealth of Australia Production

Film Producers Guild. Director: Cecil Musk

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

125

IF THE FILM IS TO APPEAL TO THE CHILD

WE MUST KNOW WHAT THE CHILD LIKES—

MAYBE WE CAN LEARN SOMETHING FROM THIS ARTICLE

ON CHILDREN'S FILM APPRAISAL

By

ELLIOTT JAQUES

OF THE TAVISTOCK INSTITUTE OF HUMAN RELATIONS

last month's issue of dm. contained a review
of three children's Road Safety films — Puddle
Muddle Riddle, Playing in the Road, and the
Ballad of the Battered Bicycle — made by the
Petroleum Films Bureau. The same issue carried
a brief description of an experiment in getting the
reactions of school children to these films. The
children's reactions were just the reverse of the
reviewer's, indicating the discrepancy which often
exists between what an adult thinks a child will
like and what the child really likes. In making
children's films, however, it is the child's view
that counts. How are we to assess this? Perhaps
the tentative results from this film appraisal pro-
ject may be suggestive.

Methods of Testing

The appraisal techniques used were described
in some detail in the previous article in dnl.
Briefly these were to have small groups of chil-
dren carry out certain spontaneous activities
before and after each film. One group did chalk
drawings, another group made up stories,
another group made up games. Then, a day
later, all of the children wrote short essays about
the films.

The notion behind the use of these techniques
was that if audience reaction research is to be
meaningful it must tap some of the underlying
attitudes of the audience as well as the more
conscious reactions obtainable by essays and
questionnaires. The drawings, story -telling and
play techniques were therefore selected to pro-
vide an opportunity for spontaneous reactions to
emerge in their full richness.

Results

The results demonstrated that the essays did
give a useful rank ordering of the films. There
was, however, a good deal of repetitious material
in them, and a tendency to tell what the children
felt their teachers would expect. Scoring and
evaluating these essays was a time-consuming
and laborious task in relation to the amount of
material available from them.

Of the spontaneous techniques the play-groups
turned out to be by far the most useful. What in
fact happened in these groups was that the chil-
dren very readily played out on their own initia-
tive various characters and incidents in the films.
Observation and proper interpretation of the
content of these games gave a significant picture
of the kind of impact which the films had made.
For example, certain incidents and characters
were taken seriously and played out enthusiastic-
ally, others were mimicked and caricatured and
debunked.

Significant Omission

As one good illustration of this the case of the
final sequence in Put/die Muddle Riddle can be
cited. In the film, after an amusing fantasy por-
trayal of what would happen if there were no
satisfactory traffic regulations the scene changes
rapidly and shows a group of what the film calls
'sensible people' sitting round a committee room
explaining to the children why our own traffic
rules should be obeyed. This sequence was
significantly omitted from the children's spon-
taneous play. When it was suggested that this
scene might be played out the 'sensible people'
were mercilessly lampooned. 'Sensible' was de-
fined as meaning dull, and the children not in-
volved in caricaturing the 'sensible people',
joined in the fun by gibing at those who were.

Different Schools

The films were shown in three different schools,
and the reactions of the children in the different
schools varied considerably. In one where the
children were allowed a good deal of freedom
and the relationship with adult teachers was
secure there was much fuller enjoyment and freer
criticism of the films than in the school where the
relationship with the teachers was based more on
fear of discipline. The children from the freer
school atmosphere resented strict adults in the
films far more than the other children who felt
that strict adults 'must be right.'

Minor errors which would be missed by adults
were deftly picked out by the children. For ex-
ample, it was pointed out in one of the films
where a motor car nearly ran over a child, that it
was not the child's fault at all but the driver's
because he was driving too near the centre of the
road. Similarly, things which were never in-
tended were easily read into the films. Some
children, for example, suggested that the films
taught new ways of doing tricks on a bicycle and
of playing games in the road.

Future Script-Writers

The children had a wealth o\' ideas for film
stories on road safety which emerged in the story-
telling test, and made highly constructive criti-
cisms and suggestions. The teachers also had im-
portant suggestions to make, and it was clear that
they resented somewhat the idea that films for
schools should be made without reference to
those who would have to use them.

Child characters were liked in the films, as
were adults who played with the children. On the
other hand strict, or even serious or sensible
adults seemed to stir up rather deep-seated anxie-
ties and these incidents and scenes in the films
were deeply repressed

These reactions of children to these Road
Safety films — the taking-up of incorrect details,
the differences in interpretation from those in-
tended, criticisms of weaknesses in the films, the
excellent ideas and constructive suggestions —
all seem to indicate a need for the consideration
of audience reaction research as an organic part
of the process of film production, based on the
notion of allowing consumer participation from
the very beginning. In the case of teaching films
for children this would involve opportunity for
face to face contact between those making the
films and groups of teachers and children, at all
stages of production — treatment, script, shooting
and cutting.

Such producer-consumer collaboration would
guarantee greater consumer satisfaction with the
end product, and provide an endless source of
stimulation and enthusiasm for film-makers.

The appraisal work referred to was carried out under
the auspices of PFB by a team composed of the author, M,
Silberman, H. Phillipson, W. E. Moore and H. Marvcn
from the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations, and D.
Boulting and G. Bennell from Film Centre.

FIRST INTERNATIONAL

FESTIVAL OF

DOCUMENTARY FILMS

AT

EDINBURGH

Aug 31st— Sept 7th, 1947

Performances
PLAYHOUSE - LEITH WAI K

Suiulav . Vug .'• I - 1 - 1. II) and 7.1.">

Sund ty, Sepl 7th - 2.30 ami 7.1".

Idmission '2s. .'>'*. ami 5a

GUILD THEATRE -FTJ M BOl SE

Moml.iv Vilnnl.iv . Sepl 1 -t <>'li

2.:<u and 8
Idmission 2s '»</

126

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

THE FIRST OF A SERIES ON

FILM FACILITIES IN THE PROVINCES

No 1— MANCHESTER

By MERVYN REEVES

Manchester enjoys something of reputation in
cultural matters, notably music and the drama.
This is a brief account of what it is doing for the
art which is little older than its outer suburbs.

The Kinematograph Year Book lists 133
cinemas in Manchester and its contiguous
boroughs, Salfoid and Stretford. This figure must
suffice — although one notices the omission of at
least two 'palaces' where important films may be
caught on the point of deserting the city's reper-
toire. Of the 133, twenty-four are owned by the
three main circuits, and a number of the re-
mainder by smaller locally-owned circuits. Total
seating capacity may be estimated at 100,000,
roughly one seat for every ten persons. Birming-
ham and Merseyside, two areas with comparable
populations, are recorded as having 102 and 106
cinemas respectively, which suggests a relatively
heavy concentration in Manchester. We certainly
feel no shortage of the conventional type of pic-
ture house ; the lack is one of enterprise in pro-
gramme policy.

No Stravinsky!

As elsewhere, the routine commercial feature
makes its much-heralded tour of the city's
cinemas, except for occasional commercial dis-
cords like the early Orson Welles films, which
sneaked away; nor were we allowed to see the
Stravinsky sequence in Fantasia ! Apart from the
central circuit cinemas and their suburban satel-
lites, double-feature programmes are uncom-
mon. Most of the suburban cinemas run a single
feature and 'full supporting programme' — the
news and one or two shorts. The last are often
chosen as a contribution to neither quota nor
culture. In fact, it seems, they are frequently not
deliberately chosen at all but simply thrown in as
a prelude to the feature. And although the results
are rarely downright offensive, it is surprising
that the opportunity to practise the art of pro-
gramme building and demonstrate the versatility
of the film medium, should be so widely ignored.
The banality of supporting programmes is not, of
course, peculiar to Manchester, but one could
have hoped that the city's one specialized cinema
would bear fruit elsewhere in the locality.

For the 'Tatler Theatre', over many years, has
exhibited almost every factual film of merit, pro-
viding the subject matter has had a reasonably
wide appeal. Only one type of film, I'm told, is
barred — the ones which deem it necessary to
underline, verbally, the moral of a film, catch you
by the cars, and adopt a coercive attitude!

Local restrictions

This enterprise apart, we have no cinema which
can justly be called progressive. To date, there
are no regular showings of Continental films and
no repertory cinemas worthy of the name. No-
where, that is, where the work of people like

Reed, Donskoi, Carne, Ford, Rotha, Eldridge —
and your favourite comedian — is consistently
given precedence over that of the industry's less
talented personalities. So far, commerce has not
seen fit to fulfil this need ; but it is clearly a pro-
vision of the greatest educational and cultural
importance and, incidentally, an essential com-
plement to the work of the Arts Council in other
fields. We hope that the City Corporation may
feel its responsibilities in the matter. Although
quick to use the film as a means of encouraging
civic consciousness (they commissioned Rotha's
A City Speaks), the Corporation has been more
timid in its attitude towards the wider potentiali-
ties of films in the community. There was, for
example, the regrettable and unprecedented re-
striction imposed last year upon the exhibition of
all 35-mm films, and any 16-mm films of more
than 2,400 ft., in the Corporation's own Central
Library Theatre. Thus the civic film itself is ex-
cluded ; and we can only hope that this measure
will prove to be an isolated concession to those
who persist in estimating cinema exclusively by
to-day's box-office returns. As for the feared
competition which inspired the restriction — the
theatre holds less than one-half of one per cent of
the city's total population.

Film Societies

The locality has been fortunate in the work of
its voluntary societies. The oldest of these is the
Manchester and Salford Film Society, successor
to the Salford Workers' Film Society, founded in
1930. As England's first exhibiting society it was
inadvertently assisted by the banning of St<>rm
Over Asia early in its career, and over a period of
seventeen years it has shown 500 noteworthy
films. Membership now stands at 450, and its
activities include lectures and discussions in addi-
tion to standard film shows held on Sunday after-
noons in the winter months. Manchester owes a
lot to this pioneering Society and particularly to
Reg Cordwell, its secretary for many years.

The Manchester Film Institute Society, in-
augurated in 1934, has done similar work. For a
period during the war it joined forces with the
Manchester and Salford Society, both resuming
separate operations in 1943. At that time the
Film Institute Society had 124 members; it now
has 1,150 and holds two performances of each
monthly programme during the winter season,
on a week-night —thanks to a sympathetic cinema
manager. Prior to the war it had a flourishing
schools group, about to be revived, and during
recent years it has co-operated with the Extra-
Mural Department of Manchester University in
arranging a number of lectures on various aspects
of the cinema.

These two societies between them nave en-
deavoured to give every available film of artistic,
social, or experimental interest at least one show-

ing in Manchester, with frequent revivals of the
established classics. They are entitled to much of
the credit for the reported proposal to devote
one of the principal commercial cinemas in the
city to Continental films.

Scientific Film Society

The most recently formed organization is the
Manchester Scientific Film Society, dating from
1945. Rapid progress has been made and the
membership is now 600. Half are school mem-
bers for whom special films are provided. De-
mand for attendance at the junior section is so
great that only a small proportion can be accom-
modated at present, and the Society is proposing
to tour the programmes next season in order to
reach the wider audience. Programmes lasting
two hours (1£ hours for the juniors) have
hitherto consisted of an assortment of scientific
films, with informed commentary upon the
subject-matter of at least one film. The success of
these commentaries suggests that it will shortly be
possible to devote a whole programme to one
theme, and use the film increasingly as a means
of provoking discussion.

Production

On the amateur production side we have the
Manchester Film Society, which suspended
activity during the war after 16 years of excellent
work ; its film Miracles Still Happen (1935), com-
memorating the centenary of the Manchester
Children's Hospital, was the first amateur 35-mm
sound film.

Film and Education

Finally there are the scholastic bodies, the
Teachers' Screen Circle, and a number of school
visual aid groups; the latter are spreading
rapidly, as are film societies, throughout South
Lancashire. The prolificacy of film groups here is
eloquent enough. It is no longer simply a ques-
tion of stimulating an interest in film but one of
Supplying the many growing points with worthy
material and authoritative guidance.

Now that public education in this country is
likely to be the most rewarding form of security
in the atomic age. it is urgent that the film should
make its full contribution — inside and outside
the commercial cinema. Some would like to be-
lieve that, in Manchester, with the co-operation
of the various film societies, and adult education
bodies, the valuable assistance of the COI Re-
gional film Office, and — dare one hope— the
sympathetic car of the Hade, we might be able to
set the pace for this task, flic area is sufficiently
compact to avoid dissipation of effort and yet
populous and varied enough to constitute a fair
test of the power which is believed to lie in visual
education.

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

127

From Pinewood —

THE FLITTING OF CROWN

a few months ago the Crown Film Unit mi-
grated from the gaudy atmosphere of Pinewood
to the more bucolic Beaconsfield.

The move was made with all that circumspect
realism for which documentary film makers are
so noted. First things first, and five experienced
persons from the Unit were sent forth into
Beaconsfield to take the lie of the land, to sift
and sample all the possible premises and to
choose one which would satisfy all the Unit's
various capacities. Several places were recom-
mended, but one by one, after very close study,
they were pronounced unsuitable. This was too
big, that was too palatial. Until at last, when
several days of unceasing application had
produced no satisfaction and all seemed lost,
a diminutive, ancient, amiable place was found:
by name, the old hare.

The basic problem solved, there was little
else to worry about. As far as the studio was
concerned, we had all seen the plans — nothing
flamboyant but very workmanlike, homely. A
stage of small but decorous dimensions, theatres,
canteen, vaults, offices and the usual offices —
everything was there, on the plan. Anything else
we wanted we had only to ring up the appro-
priate Government department, the Ministry of
Works or the Ministry of Supply or the Central
Office of Information or the Treasury and — well,
in twelve months we have already got a most
wonderful road. It does not quite run from the
gate to the doorstep, because the bit by the gate
is not finished and we have not got a doorstep
yet. When in a few weeks' time the Ministerial
cars sweep over its clean, smooth concrete, the
civil servants will have a decided feeling (until
they get to the end of the road) that they are
getting somewhere.

But. in point of fact, the Crown film unit when
it left Pinewood got nowhere but into a wilder-
ness. There is much, on the other hand, in this
situation of having no studio, not even an out-
side lot, to brighten the eyes of the older (but
never ageing) documentarians. There are many
who think that even the Blackheath studio, small
as it was, was a lapse from purity; to them the
idea of Pinewood, with its five vast stages, was
anathema. To them, the best documentary films
were made, and will always be made by a man
and a dog and a Newman Sinclair.

That is very much the situation in which Crown
finds itself now. Wistful directors look out of the
Beaconsfield windows and wonder whether they
could lay tracks along the concrete road and
shoot at night and then post synch, in order to
get that long trolley shot which is so essential to
the script, and which would be so simple if only
they were still at Pinewood. Then someone
suggests soundproofing the paint shop which is
( twelve feet high and roughly the size of a large
drawing-room. If that were done, we wouldn't
have to post synch, but then again, though there
would probably be room for the camera, there
certainly would not be room for the blimp. Then
someone really bright suggests acrimoniously
that if So-and-so must have that tracking shot,

— To Beaconsfield

why not turn it into a panning shot, build the
set in five-foot sections, shoot in the lavatory
and then join all the bits together? And of course,
anyone who opposes any suggestion whatsoever,
no matter how inane, is looked upon as a rank
saboteur.

So this state of studiolessness may turn out to
be all for the best. It may be embittering, just at
the moment, to think that we were able to shut
ourselves away in a large studio in order to
photograph a world war, and now, when we are
asked to photograph nothing more concrete than
the Future or Plans for this and that, there is no
studio space in which to fake anything — but in
the end, who knows, the effect of these difficulties
may be most salutary. Critics not manually
engaged in the arts insist that the best art is
turned out by biting off more than you can chew,
by cracking the hardest nuts. It may be so.

Perhaps documentarians, by facing appalling
difficulties again, will learn to face the facts of
life, too. Perhaps we shall be so hard put to it to
fake, lie and cheat, that we shall resign ourselves
to telling the truth for a change. Since circum-
stances have decided that we cannot go on in the
old way we could make up our minds to have a
clean sweep of all the junk which has accumu-
lated round the word 'documentary'.

No more jovial pub scenes. No more honest
workmen pushing back their cloth caps to reveal
an honest forehead. No more rugged chauffeurs
of the sky leaning over the clouds, their eyes as
innocent as the filtered clouds themselves. No
more affectionate, kindly, unquarrelling British
families. In fact, no more of the documentary
clichj types. They are all so damned nice.

What a set of films we could make, without a
stage, without settings, without a crane, about
real people — normal people who are the normal
admixture of pleasantness and unpleasantness,
laziness and industry, crookedness and honesty,
superstition and scepticism.

In spite of the Central Office of Information's
well-known passion for the truth at all costs, we,
as proud documentary film-makers, would rather
tell a varnished lie. But if we don't get our studio
quickly, we may have to fall obediently into line
with official wishes and tell, in a new sort of
film, the unvarnished truth.

HAYES SCIENTIFIC FILM SOCIETY

a report received from this film society
that monthly shows are now given to audi-
ences of about 110. They held an 'audience
reaction' test at the April show in which the
viewers were asked to rate the films as 'excel-
lent', 'good', 'fair' or 'poor'. Shell I il.n I Init's
Approach to Science topped the list with 51
per cent 'excellent' and 4S per cent 'good'.
Other films with high ratings were Stairway to
Heavi n (on elementary astronomy i and Draw-
ings that Walk and Talk (a composite history
Of the cartoon).

NORTHERN CO! Mil S < IIII.DKI N'S
CINEMA CO! M II

mi NCCCC have held their third annual
general meeting. They find that their experi-
mental Junior Club has been a success but
they stress the need for more satisfying films.
Treasure Island and Tawny Pippct were
popular and there is an assured demand for
films of any of the children's 'classics'.

The report makes a complaint about the
impossibility of guaranteeing the complete
success of any educational film show — faulty
projectors, bad prints, damaged films, arbi-
trary vetos between library and exhibitors —
all these combine to make it most doubtful if
any particular film will be able to be shown at
the point at which it is most necessary in any
given 'teaching' project.

The NCCCC also shows French films for
grammar school pupils, scientific films, films
on the arts, and films for educationalists.
They reach a wide audience and are doing a
worth-while job.

ADULT EDUCATION AT STOKE
HOUSE

a new adult college is opening at Stoke
House, Stoke Hammond, Bletchley, Bucks, in
August. This is a private venture in continued
education and has no support from the local
authority except in good wishes. The initia-
tive has come entirely from Mr Noel Heath,
who as Wing Commander inspecting a num-
ber of RAF educational schemes in this coun-
try during the war, realized that there was a
great demand for more learning, particularly
in cultural subjects. With this in view, k
now bought Stoke House in order to hold
short courses in art, music, drama and handi-
crafts. An attempt will be made to provide an
outlet for self-expression, so that when stu-
dents leave they will either want to come back
again or they will go home determined to
benefit by their introduction to creative
leisure.

Stoke House is opening on August 27th
with a week's conference for teachers, and for
others who are interested, on Understanding
the Adolescent. Various subjects will lie dis-
cussed and they w ill all have some bearing on
this problematic aspect of education.

The speakers will be The Rt Hon H.Graham
White on Human Relationships in Industry;
H. A. T. Child on Vocational Guidance;
Clifton-Taylor on Good and Bad i
A. A. Dams on Poetry and Drama; I ionel
Gamlin on I low to be a Good-Humoured
i i Handley-Read on Self-expression
through Painting; Dr E. Graham Howe on the
Art of Healing; G. A. Lyward on the Reli-
gious Difficulties o\' the Adolescent; i J. D.
vile on the Moods of the Adolescent;
John Wales on the Scope and 1 imits o\ \ isual
l due, it ion. Commander I , Whitehead on the
Transition from School to Work.

On August 28th the Central Office oi In-
formation will show some educational films.
including it is hoped. Children of the City (the
film about juvenile delinquency in Scotland).

Particulars of this conference m.i> be ob-
tained from Mr < s. I) Moore, the D

Si idles ,:t Stoke HOUSe; his .uldre-s is

Dane Court School. Blandford, Do

128

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

FLIGHTS OF FANCY

By
R. E. WHITEHALL

the production of films is a remarkable business,
Nothing can ever be taken for granted, as the
many critics of the wartime developments in the
French cinema are now discovering. The people
who attacked the French excursion into an unreal
world of witchcraft and magic as 'decadent' and
'unhealthy', are now discoveringthat one does not
necessarily have to degenerate under foreign oc-
cupation in order to dally with dream desirewithin
the confines of a rather frail edifice of celluloid.

The flight from reality is a too-frequent
phenomenon in the post-war British cinema not
to be disturbing. Disturbing in that the types of
subjects now in the offing would not have looked
out of place on the production schedules of the
major British studios during the middle 'thirties.
The same ponderous historical subjects (some of
them merely revivals of ideas not put into pro-
duction during that period due to financial diffi-
culties) appear now with a greater gloss and sheen,
but with a complete lack of the sound common
sense characterizing the great British films be-
tween 1939 and the present day and — remember-
ing the early Asquith films, the Hitchcock pro-
ductions, The Edge of the World, Bank Holiday,
The Citadel, and a few other isolated examples —
those of pre-war days also.

It is easier to get a balanced view of the airy
flights of fancy on the part of our producers if
one remembers the position in Italy, a country

where there is far more reason for an escapist
trend, and the fact that Italian film-makers are
increasingly turning to the theory that the
ultimate aim of the cinema should be to provide
something more than entertainment. The whole
of post-war life in that broken country has been
explored, at first through the semi-documentary,
and now in humanistic terms.

Best Italian Film

Robert Rosselini, the finest exponent of ordin-
ary emotions in a drab world since the Carne of
Quai des Brumes and Le Jour se Leve, has fol-
lowed Rome Open City and Desiderio with Paisa,
a bi-lingual film with a mixed Italian-American
cast, dealing with the psychological influence of
the Allies on the Italian civilian. The film has
been hailed as the best ever to come from Italy.
Rosselini, who insists on supervising his own
films from script to screen is now working with
Max Colpet on a film treating the minority
problem.

This director is not an isolated example of the
Italian cinema's awareness of modern problems
— there are many others — yet it is rather curious
that the first Italian film to reach this country
since 1939 is an operatic film which might well
have been made in the pre-war years. There is
no accountable reason why The Barber of Seville
should be given preference over far worthier

PHOTOMICROGRAPHY LTD

Specialists in Cine-Biology

J. V. DURDEN in charge of production

Whitehall, Wraysbury

films which have not, at the moment of writing,
been acquired for exhibition in this country.

Even Hollywood, the butt of the universe, has
produced, during a season almost as barren as
the dust-deserts of Oklahoma, post-war themes
of vital importance, maltreated in Till the End of
Time, intelligently handled in The Best Years of
Our Lives.

There is the stuff of drama in reconstruction.
If anyone doubts that, let them see what Jill
Craigie did with The Way We Live, laying the
problem fairly and squarely in the laps of the
audience, providing no loophole for evasive
rationalization. Miss Craigie's documentary had
more dramatic impact than a dozen inoffensive
little thrillers or polite drawing room comedies,
more genuine cinema than will be found between
the covers of Miss du Maurier's latest best-seller,
and distribution comparable to that of the newest
Continental masterpiece.

There are a whole set of new problems — social,
economic, cultural, even political (Hollywood is
preparing a quartet of films, Crossfire, Gentle-
man's Agreement, Lights Out, and Earth and High
Heaven, all attacking racial prejudice either
against Negro or Jew). Ealing, the most socially
conscious of British studios, have completed
Frieda, dealing with the difficulties of personal
Anglo-German relationships at the present time,
and are filming A. J. La Bern's extraordinary
story, compressed within 24 hours, of small-time
crooks in the East End of London. The Boulting
Brothers are following Thunder Rock and Fame
is the Spur with Graham Greene's Brighton Rock.
Gainsborough have Good Time Girl, dealing with
delinquency, and Holiday Camp, an unknown
quantity from one of the best of the younger
documentary directors. Ken Annakin, but else-
where current films are aimed further and further
away from reality. To visit a British studio today
is rather like taking a trip to Madame Tussauds,
all the great figures of the past century, particu-
larly murderers, are there.

Now Blue Lagoon

The combination of Frank Launder and Sid-
ney Gilliat once made two outstanding documents
of lower middle-class life, followed by a satire in
the tradition of Hogarth and Rowiandson. Now
they are intent on filming H. de Vere Stacpoole's
Blue Lagoon, a saga wherein the beauteous Miss
Jean Simmons and some unknown Hollywood
lad are cast away on a desert island.

With all too disconcerting frequency this desert
island complex seems to be cropping up, as un-
healthy in its way as the deliberate distortion or
suppression of fact in the new Russian films, such
as The Vow. There is no room for thesis films in
the Russian manner (as They Came to a City only
too well proves), but The Best Years of Our Lives
illustrates that present-day problems can be
treated in such a way as to combine enthusiastic
audience reaction with wider and deeper search-
ing into the moral and spiritual values of the
modern world. Any film industry which is to be a
living force must mirror the world of which it is
part, expressing with vigorous simplicity the
heart and mind of the nation. The roots of a film
industry should be deep in the national culture.

Liu Ling, one of the Seven Worthies of the
Bamboo Grove, wrote, in the third centur>.\ . .
the aflairs of this world appear but as so much
duckweed on a river', a sentiment apparently ad-
opted as a motto by far too many film producers.

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

129

FILMS for the ARMY:

THE WORK OF AKC

The Army Kinema Corporation, a civilian
organization, was set up last year to continue the
work done during the war by the Directorate of
Army Kinematography at the War Office by the
Army Kinema Service in the field, and by ENSA
on the entertainment film side.

Supervision

The AKC is responsible for supervising the
production, through civilian trade firms, of all
training and instructional films for the army and
for distributing and exhibiting the release prints
when the films are finally approved. A typical re-
lease print order is for, say, 20 x 35 mm and
70 x 16 mm prints, though, of course, this varies
with the type of film and the precise audience for
whom it is intended. Prints are sent to AKC
libraries (there are 13 in the UK and about 25
major libraries overseas, from Japan to West
Africa and from Hamburg to East Africa) where
they arc held for issue on demand. A small num-
ber are earmarked for schools and training
centres which have specialized film libraries of
their own. Many army units have their own
16 mm. projector and films are issued to them by
post or local delivery; in addition, all AKC dis-
trict libraries have dual mobile 16 mm projection
equipments which serve units which for one
reason or another have no projector of their own.
There are over 120 of these equipments in the
United Kingdom and over 300 overseas or in
troopships. All AKC libraries have their own
technical and administrative staff, and film repair
and maintenance workshops.

Distribution

As well as handling training and instruc-
tional films for the army, the AKC rents, dis-
tributes and exhibits entertainment films. These
are shown both in 35 mm (there are about 250
35 mm theatres operated by AKC all over the
world) and in 16 mm. These entertainment films
are obtained under the terms of the contractual
agreements made by the AKC with the major
British and American renters. The agreements
guard civilian exhibitors' rights, and define what
categories of soldiers' friends and relations may
attend AKC shows. About 104 feature films are
booked annually and are shown to army units
large and small, wherever they may be. As the
Treasury has now withdrawn the subsidy for
entertainment for the Forces, the cost of provid-
ing these entertainment films has to be met from
the box office receipts, which are fixed in agree-
ment with War Office. The small and isolated
units, whose need for entertainment is greatest,
are catered for by an elaborate system of 16 mm
mobile routings. AKC's aim is to give the soldier
the best possible entertainment films at the
cheapest prices whether he is in a big city in
Germany or guarding a desert outpost.

General Interest

Many of the War Office Instructional films are
of wide general interest; some have been re-
viewed from time to time in the dnl and in other
Documentary trade journals. A number have
been 'adopted' by the Central Film Library in
the same way that the War Office has adopted
films from COI and elsewhere, and these are
available in the usual way from the CFL. To
meet the many requests for copies of their films,
the War Office have recently authorized the
prints held in AKC libraries to be made available
to approved civilian organizations at a hire
charge of 5s. a reel a day (16 mm). Among these
films are the ABCA Magazine series — 10 minute
films on current topics designed to serve as a basis
for discussion — Coal, Education,Town and Country
Planning, etc.; the Current Affairs Series includ-
ing Read All About it, a three-reeler about the
Press designed to show the difference between

news and views, and to show how a newspaper
works; Our Teeth, which shows in an amusing and
non-technical way why it is a good idea to keep
one's teeth clean ; Best Feet Forward, made for the
ATS on the care of the feet ; Technique of Instruc-
tion in the Army, already widely known out
the army as an effective aid in instructing the
instructors; the eleven films of the Map Reading
Series which, although dealing primarilv w ith the
use of the map from a military point of view,
show details, in actuality and diagram, of con-
ventional signs, contours, direction finding and
so on. There are also a number of technical films
like those on Compression Ignition Engines and
on Elementary Principles of MT Vehicles.

Full details of these films can be obtained from
the AKC libraries at York, Hounslovv, Edin-
burgh, Salisbury, Belfast and Chester, or from
Curzon Street House, London, Wl.

N

U

c

L

E U S

Data

and

Seven

-I eague Film Units have

together

founded an

indep

endent company

to produce medical

and biol

ogical dims

The following examples of productions now

in hand indicate

the scope of this unit : —

Si udies in 1 luman 1 a< tat

on Jot doctors and mid

I umlur Puncture In Infants for cthjeai

medical students

Diagnosis of Threadworm Infestation

for J

( >< ular Palsies for 2nd

and jr

medical students

1 lome Nur in* 1 « hniqu

l-s

Dire

Jack Chambers

rter D pm

Briar

rd WATS n\tR I |

N

ucleus

hi

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imiti rj 16 I >' \rUav

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130

DOCl/MENTARY NEWS LETTER

Denis Segaller has just returned from USA
he sends us this brief account of

AMERICAN LOCATION

dnl has asked me to write down some of my
impressions of America. What shall I write
about? I have come back absolutely saturated
with impressions — mostly good ones! This 11-
week trip of mine (April, May, and half of June)
has been wonderful — one of the greatest and
most delightful experiences I have ever had. (Or
maybe that much is obvious anyhow.)

RMS Queen Elizabeth is breathtaking . . . and
can take your appetite away, too. For an exqui-
sitely uncomfortable sensation I can recommend
seeing a film — any film — on board ship in a rough
sea, with the screen pitching gently to and fro.
The Queen Elizabeth has two fully equipped
cinemas, with a daily change of programme —
single feature — films such as Johnnie O'Clock,
Nicholas Nickleby, Margie (which I rather went
for) plus the usual short. This Modern Age's
Coal Crisis went down extremely well with a
somewhat cosmopolitan audience.

The purpose of my trip was to shoot certain
processes in oil refining for the instructional
Refinery Series I am making at Shell. One of my
two chief refinery locations was at Dominguez,
some twenty miles from Hollywood. So after two
days in New York off I went to the West Coast.

I enjoyed Hollywood a lot. One of the things
I liked about it was the pleasant cool, white
architecture — nary an ugly building in sight —

and an air of spaciousness. Hollywood isn't a
very clearly-defined geographical unit, but just
a 'district' in the enormous sprawling mass of
Los Angeles, bounded on the West and South
by other districts known vaguely as Beverley
Hills (where Shirley Temple lives) and Wilshire
(one T and no 't'), and on the North by the
Santa Monica mountains, which are reminiscent
of Italy and reputed to contain poisonous snakes.

'The Boulevard' — Hollywood Boulevard — is
mainly shops — not as expensive as you'd think —
and, of course, Sid Grauman's beautiful Chinese
Theatre with hand- and footprints of many stars
(including the Durrante schnozzle-print).

My shooting was all exterior work. Union
minimum crew consisted of: cameraman (£23 a
day), operator (about half that amount), assist-
ant (can't remember his rate), and electrician
(about £5 a day). These are full studio rates as
there is no separate shorts agreement. The crew
were grand to work with and turned in the best
possible stuff.

We had our weather troubles, however. The
Los Angeles district suffers from a fairly new
climatic disease known locally as 'smog'. This is
not unlike a London peasouper, only blue, not
yellow; it is largely caused by the many new
industrial plants which have sprung up in the
area during the war years, plus, I suspect, some

THE HORIZON

FILM UNIT • •

An Associate oj the Film Producers Guild Ltd

A Unit of seven people who during the
past two years have made twelve films for
Government Departments and Industry, for
informational or instructional purposes.
They specialize in, and are experienced in,
the writing and film technique of helping to
communicate people to each other in different
aspects of citizenship.

THE HORIZON FILM UNIT

(producer: max m u n d e n )

GUILD HOUSE, UPPER ST. M A R I I N ' S LANE, W . C . 2

sea mist blowing in from the Pacific. It tended to
be very thick most mornings on location, and
sometimes we had no sun until late afternoon. We
also had considerable cloud and general over-
cast.

Shooting in and around oil refineries is an
interesting but rather mucky business. Our feet
sank in tar melted by the heat of the sun (when
there was any sun), our hands and clothes got
covered in oil and grease climbing up tanks and
towers. I left my 'refinery suit' behind when the
job was finished.

George Pal is at present making a series of
Puppetoon Films in colour for Shell; I met him
two or three times and was lucky enough to be
shown round his studios. I was glad to learn
something of his shooting methods and to
examine his fascinating little puppets, which are
models of craftsmanship. He uses a variety of
animation techniques : changes of facial expres-
sion for example are produced by a series of
heads, each with a peg registering into a hole in
the neck.

I was also taken on to a couple of sets at
Warners during rehearsals between takes. Much
impressed by general air of efficiency and order
yet at the same time a feeling of good humour.

Many units in Hollywood and elsewhere mak-
ing documentary, instructional or "commercial'
films are operating entirely on 16 mm. Main
reasons are: lower cost, and colour. Right now it
is difficult or even impossible to obtain 35 mm.
colour facilities for any non-theatrical produc-
tions, whereas on 16 mm. Kodachrome is readily
available. 16 mm. shooting, editing, printing and
optical facilities are much better organized on the
whole than over here, and quality of show copies
tends to be higher.

My other main location was at a refinery in
Texas, near the Gulf Coast. Here by contrast we
had a week of the most perfect shooting weather
— sun (and was it hot?), brilliant blue sky and
some wonderful cloud effects. I was told photo-
graphers come to the Gulf Coast from all over the
USA to shoot clouds, and Hollywood even sends
cameramen the 1,800 miles to get clouds for
library material to be used for back-projection.

Everywhere I went folks were extremely
hospitable and kind. I found Americans on the
whole a friendly, informal and delightful people,
and liked what I saw of the American way of life.

Everywhere, too, I found the greatest apprecia-
tion of British films. Not only are such British
Shell films as Distillation, Transfer of Power, and
Hydraulics acclaimed and widely used by the
Shell organization in the USA, but these and
other more recent British documentaries such as
Children's Charter, Your Children's Eyes. etc.
seem to be achieving great things in the schools
and in other non-theatrical fields. (I would like
to be able to say a lot more about this non-
theatrical distribution set-up, but must plead
limited knowledge. This 1 do know, that numer-
ous small private firms seem to be hiring projec-
tors and other visual aids apparatus to schools
and youth clubs, and w ith these go a fair propor-
tion of British documentaries. US educational
bodies as a w hole seem a w hole lot more film-
conscious than in this country.)

Nearl) everyone I spoke to had seen and was
enthusiastic about such films as Brut Encounter,
Henry \\ Suit wax to Heaven {A Matter of Life
and Death) and This Happy Breed. I saw Great
Expectations playing to a full house of 6,500 in
Radio City Music Hall in New York. It went
down good and big: mv two American friends
declared it the best film they had ever seen.

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

HI

CORRESPONDENCE about

FILMS ON LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Emm a Local CoverniiK'iit PRO

DEAR SIR,

I was more than glad to see that space had been
given to the article by Alec Spoor in the last issue

Of the DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER, and I must

strongly support all he has written on the idea of
films to explain the workings of local govern-
ment to the people.

As a practising Public Relations Officer, 1 feel
that the cinema, in furthering the cause of
citizenship, can do much to combat the appalling
apathy of the average citizen regarding matters
of local public interest, an apathy of which
the cinema is often accused of being the first
cause!

There is no doubt that much of the social dis-
order apparent today is due to the fact that the
sense of civic pride and native consciousness has
lost its rightful place in our lives. In the old days
of local government from the parish pump there
was a great deal of the personal and intimate
element linked with the townspeople's delibera-
tions. Every name was known, almost every face,
and sometimes even their private ambitions were
common knowledge. The absence of many of the
modern social services, administered by the Town
Hall, particularly the public health and hospital
services, called forth a continued application of
the principles of neighbourliness and friendly co-
operation. Many of the opportunities for the
expression of these principles are withdrawn from
our modern social order and, in depending to a
great extent on the uninterrupted continuance
of the services organized from the Town Hall,
we have lost a great deal of our sense of depend-
ence on each other, as neighbours and members
of a community.

Social surveys have revealed that the majority
of people are bound to any sort of code of ethics
only by cobweb chains, by an inherent sense of
decency, rather than a defined attitude to life.
They remain generally out of focus and be-
wildered, and it is this aimlessness which breeds
apathy and, let us be honest, is a considerable
factor in filling the cinemas. Of the multitude of
regular cinema-goers, how many are 'choosey',
and how many go out of sheer habit, principally
because the cinema is one form of entertainment
which requires little effort on their part, but may
be relied upon to shut out drab reality for an
evening.

Is the cinema content to be regarded as an
opiate to an already bored population so long as
box office receipts are satisfactory? Or does it
feel that being, as it is widels acknowledged, a
most pleasant form of diversion, it might use its
undoubted attraction to broaden and enrich the
outlook and the lives of its patrons' It has a
golden opportunity for so doing. There is no
reason why the education of the public should
be confined to educating the children at their
special matinees, nor is it necessary to revise the
entire policy of the film industry which is, I take
it, to give the public what it wants.

Only short documentary films are needed to re-
mind John Citizen of the ever watchful care
exercised by the local authority on his behalf.

Local government is a very interesting human
story, beginning even before the birth of every
new citizen, present when he first sees the light o\'
day, and ready to put on his first nappie! It
watches over his health in the first anxious weeks
and then, reassured, follows him to the da) nur-
sery, sits with him in the park, provides him
with babyhood amusements, and receives him
with due pride into school. Local government
shares with the parents the duty of instilling into
the future citizen the virtues of decency and
uprightness, teaches him his limitations as well
as his righis. and having fitted him for life, helps
him to decide on his future career. The libraries
are available for his use for pleasure and instruc-
tion. The parks and swimming baths and sports
facilities are always there for his recreation, and
when boy meets girl, there's a friendly tree upon
which to carve two hearts and an arrow.

For the responsibilities of manhood and
housewifery, the background services are always
at work. The services providing for the general
safety and health of the people, clean food, fair
measure and good weight, are ensured. The
streets are kept clean and dry, refuse is taken
away. Sanitary inspectors are always on call.
Perhaps John Citizen takes an allotment. Incase

of accidents, there is an ambulance service. In
any distress, physical, mental or financial, local
government is there offering the helping hand,
the hand of the community, held out to any of its

members.

It is surely a worthy motive; this renaissance of
the sense of citizenship, which can only be brought
about h> showing the work of the Town Hall in a
human and interesting way. Most people are con-
cerned only with matters which affect their own
lives. Local government embraces all. and its im-
pact is everywhere apparent so very apparent
that it remains unheeded. The streets we walk on,
the schools our children attend, sometimes the
house we live in (or would like to live in), the
open spaces we frequent at times ; all are prov ided
by the local authority.

The cinema should do all it can to press this
fact home to the mass of uninterested citizens,
for until the general public take more interest in
local affairs, we shall continue to fall short of
full democratic representation.

Yours faithfully,

JOHN C. SUTCLIFFE

Public Relations Officer
Town Clerk's Department,
Town Hall, Ealing, W5.

INFORMATIONAL
FILM YEAR BOOK

An essential handbook for everyone interested in the non-
theatrical film. Contributors include: John Grierson, Paul
Rotha, Basil Wright, Andrew Buchanan. Oliver Bell, J. B.
Frizell, Forsyth Hardy, Norman Wilson, etc. There is a
Buyer's Guide to Apparatus and full lists of makers, pro-
ducers, libraries, organizations, etc., with full details of the
year's documentary films. Illustrated, 10s. 6.7. net. By post 1 1 \

READY SHORTLY

FILMGOERS' REVIEW

FORSYTH HARDY'S third annual survey of the year's best

films, with full production details and man) illustrations \
invaluable record for reference ; 6d. B is.9d.

DOCUMENTARY 47

Asurvey of recent documentary production bj leading writers

of the movement and a record of the first Intel national Festival

of Documentary I Urns,] dinburgh, September, 1947. ( opiousl)

illustrated. 2s. 6d. By post 2

T II E A L It V N P It K S S . Publish

is tiers

4 2 FREDKRICK SIR I 1 I . I I) 1 N K I R G II ,

132

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

NEW BOOKS ON FILM

Penguin Film Review No. 2. Penguin Books. \s.
The second edition of the Penguin Film Review
amply fulfils the promise of the first. Without
being esoteric, it manages to deal in a serious
style with many important aspects of the cinema
both in this country and abroad, and it is grati-
fying to anyone interested in the progress of the
film that there seems to be a wide public for in-
telligent criticism and analysis of the kind found
in its pages. Those who are primarily concerned
with the documentary aspect of the cinema will
find much food for thought in the article by Basil
Wright on 'Documentary Today'. 'Confusion of
public thought', says Mr Wright, 'as to what a
documentary film is doesn't matter much'. He
goes on, 'if it is agreed that a definition of the
documentary film is no longer really necessary, it
becomes quite plain that documentary is not this
or that type of film, but simply a method of ap-
proach to public information . (His italics.) It in-
cludes 'all known media of information, particu-
larly films, film-strips, slides, radio, television,
stills and illustrations of all sorts, the Press (daily,
weekly and periodical in general), diagrams,
wall-newspapers, pamphlets, books, lectures and
exhibitions'. Other articles include a fascinating
account by Thorold Dickinson of the pains-
taking search which he undertook to ensure
authenticity in the African music for his film
Men of Two Worlds, an informative description
of the Moscow Script Studio screenwriting by
Catherine de la Roche, the first part of a survey
by Ragna Jackson, of the Scandinavian film,
and a number of interesting statistics collected
byH. H. Wollenberg.

Informational Film Year Book, 1947. The Albyn
Press, Edinburgh, 2. 10s. 6d.
If you want to know anything about anything
in the documentary film world, how do you find
out? You ask your friends, you write letters, you
read magazines and you still can't find out what
you want to know — up to now that has been the
position. At last the Albyn Press has come to
the rescue with their Informational Film Year
Book — the first of an annual series. Let all those
in or around the documentary film world stand
up, take off their hats and pass a vote of thanks.

Here is a well-laid out objective source of in-
formation. Admittedly, it may not be completely
comprehensive but it takes many, many steps in
the right direction. The first half contains articles
by such documentary figures as Grierson, Rotha,
Wright and Forsyth Hardy and also chapters on
the film in Scotland and Ireland. It is worth
reading and most interesting to amateur and
professional.

The second half has a Buyers' Guide and lists of
Organizations, Film Societies, Production Units
Studios, Libraries, Publications, etc. There is a
list of the documentaries made in the past year
and some stills from these films.

Buy this book and keep it carefully hidden —
otherwise it will vanish.

The World is My Cinema. E. W. and M. M.

Robson. (Sidney an Society.) 12s. 6d.
In 205 foam-flecked pages the authors put for-
ward an almost unimaginably preposterous
analysis of the cinema today. Their argument, as
far as it is possible to disentangle it from the
shock-headed language and spaghetti-snarled
thought in which it is presented, seems to go
something like this — if you can believe it. British
films are no good; worse, they are a sinister,
malign menace to our national purity, foully in-
tended by their makers, who have 'a Sadist-
Fascist mental complex', to lure us all to Nazism
and war. There is only one way out. We must
insist that they shall be made according to the
Christian ethic as set out in the Hays Code, which
the authors compare with the Sermon on the
Mount. It is because most American pictures
have in the past conformed to this high moral
standard that they have been so successful at
the democratic polling-booth of the box-office,
American pictures do not, we are given to under-
stand, treat low, disgusting, unpleasant subjects
with the bad taste shown in Champagne Charlie
which is all about drink; are not obscene like
Uncensored which contains two references to
'behinds' ; do not lower the sanctity of marriage
and the home as Anthony Asquith did in Fanny
by Gaslight; are not disrespectful to the flag like
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp; do not
hold religion up to ridicule as was so shamefully
done in Henry V. The 'Sadists and Schizophenics,
pathological murderers and other subconscious
disease mindedness' which besmirch the British
screen find devilish advocacy in the writings of
critics like Lcjeune and Powell, with their liking
for the depraved Continental cinema, and
originate partly in the gospel of sexual promis-
cuity preached by Engels in The Origin of the
Family, and partly in the depraved philosophy of
'the aesthetes, the hedonists, the cynics and the
vocal sadists deriving from the French and Ger-
man schools' who apparently include Shaw,
Wilde, Swinburne, James Joyce and O'Shaugh-
nessy.

Well, that's the gist of it. It will cost you
twelve-and-sixpence if you want it. Or you can go
to Hyde Park and hear the same sort of thing free,
and get some fresh air at the same time.

British Film Music: John Huntley. (Skelton
Robinson.) Ms. 6d.

Mr Huntley's survey of the music of the
British cinema might be readily sub-divided
into three sections. We have articles on
most aspects of the field by Huntley himself —
surely Muir Mathieson's most faithful and de-
voted satellite; we have some contributions by
men prominent in the art of film music; and we
have a biographical and index section of great
value. Mr Huntley describes his work as not a
discussion of theory but a statement of the facts.
Perhaps it is a pity that a little more care was not
taken in his collection of these facts. It might be
said that in a book containing such a wealth of

information some errors were bound to creep in.
Still, in a volume in which the greatest value lies
in the references as to who did what and when,
such mistakes are small but important. For in-
stance, the GPO Film Unit did not become the
Crown Film Unit in 1939; Stricken Peninsula
could scarcely be described as a production of the
Army Film Unit, and Kenneth Pakeman did not
compose the music for October Man. This last is
rather a bloomer coming as it does from one who
attended a lot of the recording of Alwvn's music.
Somehow one gets the impression that the book
would have been much better — and certainly
much more accurate — had more time been de-
voted to proof correction. There is something of
the atmosphere of a work rushed into press that
is unfortunate in a reference work on so im-
portant a subject. If it comes to that Mr Huntley's
description of the process of recording sound on
film has a colourful naivete which would look
better if technicalities had not been cast entirely
away. Nevertheless, the book contains a vast
amount of valuable information. The research
involved must have been prodigious. It is fair
and anything but patronizing to the documentary
movement — and who are we not to be grateful
for small mercies? If 17s. 6d. is a lot of money for
a slim volume, well, we have some very chaste
illustrations and a description of a music session
by one of the orchestra which is pure joy.

WORLD UNION OF
DOCUMENTARY

on June 8th and 9th, 1947, a meeting of
individual members of the documentary
film movement took place in Brussels.

Australia, Belgium, Czechoslovakia,
France, Holland, Jugoslavia, Poland,
United Kingdom, USA and S. Africa were
represented.

After an exchange of views and informa-
tion it was agreed to form a World Union
of Documentary.

A resolution, addressed to all workers,
stressed the indispensable role which docu-
mentary has to play in the post-war world.
The preamble said that documentary had
not only to state all the problems but also
to guide the peoples towards the solution
of these problems. Work must be done
which would secure the full expression of
social, economic and cultural life through
the medium of film. The resolution ended:

'The principal tasks confronting docu-
mentary workers are as follows:
The fight against the enemies of peace and
democracy; national, racial and econo-
mic oppression and religious intolerance;
poverty and disease, illiteracy, ignorance
and other social evils.

And the fight for peace and reconstruction;
independence of subject peoples; free
intellectual and cultural expression: dis-
semination of knowledge, not at present
available to all.

Documentary film workers will collaborate
with all international organizations working
for the principles enumerated above."

SIGHT
and
SOUND

A cultural Quarterly

WRTIILY FILM BULLETIN

appraising educational

and
entertainment values

Published by: The British Film Institute
4 GreatfRussell Street, London, W.C.I

DOCUMENTARY

NEWS LETTER

Published

Bi-monthly

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FILMS FOR THE
CLASSROOM

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Alex Strasser, F.R.P.S.

DOCUMENTARY AND
INSTRUCTIONAL FILMS

Producer: Brian Smith

REALIST FILM UNIT

LIMITED
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320

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were needed to make the 56 animated films pro-
duced during the past 6 years for the purposes of
education, instruction, information and entertain-
ment. While this amount of work was in itself no
mean task, quality was the primary consideration.

Halas & Batchelor

M EMBERS OF" FEDERATION OF DC

10a SOHO SQUARE Wl GER 7681-2

' Sight has to do

with understanding;

hearing with reason K';\«*on«HAu**)

We have produced many films which have shown the
pattern of Britain to people all over the world. Since
international communications have been resumed, we
have enlarged the field of our productions with films
about countries and peoples beyond our shores.

Our activity in both fields is increasing, and our
opportunity to contribute to better understanding
between races is accepted with a sense of responsibility.

Our work expresses itself in terms of sight and sound;
and it is alwavs our endeavour to make films which will
stay in the memories of those who see and hear them.

GREENPARK
PRODUCTIONS Ltd

M A N A (, I N l . IIIRFCTOR R A I P H K 1 1 N 1

An Assoc, ate of THE FILM PRODUCERS GUILD LIMITED

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k

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1

INEWS LETTER

OCTOBER 1947

ONE SH I I l\(,

in this issue: UNESCO Reports

Anatomy of Hollywood

THE. MUSEUM
O^MOOEflNART

Film in Denmark
Film Reviews

i

IN PRODUCTION
FOR RELEASE DURING 1947

FOR SCHOOLS

FOR

INDUSTRIAL TRAINING

PENICILLIN (Three Short Films)
AMMONIA LIME SALT

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THE PAINTING OF BUILDINGS

THE TECHNIQUE OF SPRAY PAINTING

SHOT-FIRING IN COAL-MINES (16 mm. Kodachrome)

FOR VETERINARY AND PHENOTHIAZINE PAYS A DIVIDEND

AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION (Parasitic Worms in Farm Animals) (16 mm. Kodachrome)

FOR MEDICAL EDUCATION Six subjects in 16 mm. Kodachrome

* Release dates will be announced

IMPERIAL CHEMICAL INDUSTRIES LIMITED
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SIGHT

and
SOUND

A cultural Quarterly

NTHLY FILM BULLETIN

appraising educational

and
entertainment values

Published by: The British Film Institute
4 Great Russell Street, London, W.C.I

THE HORIZON

FILM UNIT • •

An Associate oj the Film Producers Guild Ltd

A Unit of seven people who during the
past two years have made twelve films for
Government Departments and Industry, for
informational or instructional purposes.
They specialize in, and are experienced in,
the writing and film technique of helping to
communicate people to each other in different
aspects of citizenship.

THE HORIZON FILM UNIT

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GUILD HOUSE, UPPER ST. MARTIn's LANE, W.C.2

DOCUMENTARY

NEWS LETTER

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DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

Editorial Board: Stephen Aikroyd, Donald Alexander, Mai Anderson, Kdgar Anstcy, Geoffrey Bell, Ken < imeron, I'.iul Fletcher, Sioclaii Road, Graham* rharp, Baafl Wright
OCTOBER 1947 VOL 6 NO 59 PUBLISHED BY FILM CENTRE 34 SOHO SQUARE LONDON W 1

133 THE IMPORT TAX

134 135 UNESCO REPORTS

136-137 SURVEY OF FILM IN FRANCE, BELGIUM 143
AND LUXEMBOURG

144

138 DENMARK AND FILM

139 HOLLYWOOD JABBERWOCKY 145
140-141 ANATOMY OF HOLLYWOOD

Annual subscription 6s. (published six times a year)

142 GOVERNMEM IILM-MAKI\(. I\

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146-148 WRITING AND REALIZATION

Bulk orders up to 50 copies for schools and Film Societies

(THE COVER STILL ON THIS ISSUE COMES FROM THE DANISH FILM THE SEVENTH AGE)

THE IMPORT TAX

THE complete failure of certain sections of the Industry, and of
the Trade Press in particular, to take even a moderately sober
view of the 75 per cent tax on foreign films, has only been partially
offset by the statesmanlike attitude of the BFPA. Otherwise the
Trade seems to have been bent on confirming the accusations of its
most violent critics that it is largely a tool of American finance
anyway.

The plain fact is that hysterical screams about the disaster which
is about to overtake the British public in the form of closed movie-
houses are both stupid and pointless. It is probably not true to say
that people won't go to revivals of films; on the contrary, a large
number have been revived, and successfully, during the past years.
A little ingenuity and showmanship could work wonders — for in-
stance, a Hitchcock repertory season. Meantime one notes that
Britain's largest cinema has just had a week of live ballet, and been
packed out. Dare one wonder whether the public would mind all
that much if there weren't any films after all? The cinema is quite
a mild drug, and enforced abstention from it is not likely to be even
as irritating as abstention from smoking. At present, in any case,
general opinion seems to be that the Americans will not cease to
send films here, if only for the reason that in a market which has
llways shown a clear profit (to the extent of determining financial
policy as regards production costs) they will, in the <:nd. take 2^
per cent if they can't get 100 per cent; in other words. £4,000,000
a year is better than nothing. While British production cannot at
this stage expect to be able to fill what in an\ case will be a bi
gap, there is no doubt that annual output can go up pretty con-
siderably if inflated budget pictures are abandoned, il the working
tempo of British film production is stepped-up (a psychological as
well as a technical matter), and if something is done to encourage
the documentary and short-film people by providing some expec-
tation of a reasonable financial return on production. A single
feature programme will, of course, be necessary; and although the

Bernstein questionnaire showed a large majority in favour ot the
double feature, there is no reason to suppose that people will not
quickly get used to the other, always providing that the supporting
programme consists (as it certainly docs not todaj ) of good qualit]
Stuff. All these factors mean that the imminent issue of the Gov-
ernment White Paper on the new Cinematograph Films Bill is of
the greatest importance, even if the idea of Quota sounds, under
immediate circumstances, a little incongruous. Financially and
economically, there is every justification tor the Import lav and
the average citizen will in the end prefer to find Spam in the tin
rather than Carmen Miranda. But this justification should not blind
us to the real disadvantages of the tax. films carrj ideas, and a tax
on foreign films is a tax on the interchange of ideas. The
aimed at America only; but it hits equally hard the import of films
from other countries. It may be said that films from I ranee.
Sweden, Denmark or Italj impinge little enough on the general
film-going public, and that their total cessation would not matter.
The reply to this is that the best of the European films have an
influence on public taste on! ot all proportion to their audi.
not least do thej influence the technicians who make British films
\N i it must be remembered that one o\ the main reasons win
! uropean films are not more widelj shown here is the determina-
tion of the US-influenced section ol the Trade that the) shall not be
Shown. Had it been possible to encourage the entr\ ol I
films while taxing the entrj of I S films, the general audiences in
this country alter a period ol resistance no doubt would have
benefited a great deal But it must not be forgotten that tl

on ideas applies with equal loice lo the best ol Hollywood produc-
tion too Deprived ol this best, we should miss something really

valuable, and not least the link ol ordinal \ understanding between
peoples which the film, and the I S film especially, s.m. at Us finest.

so \ i\ idly -ok\ cogentl) supplj

134

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

UNESCO REPORTS

By
SINCLAIR ROAD

'unesco should as a first and pressing measure
appoint three Commissions on Immediate Tech-
nical Needs, to examine the requirements of
those countries, particularly in Europe and the
Far East, where the war has caused serious loss
of equipment and personnel, or where rehabilita-
tion and reconstruction are affected by inade-
quate technical knowledge and facilities.'

The first step in constructing the defences of
peace was to put the instruments of education
back into the hands of the people of Europe and
the Far East. Accordingly the first General Con-
ference in Paris instructed UNESCO to survey
the main requirements. Executive Committees
w.'nt to work, commissions were appointed, and
teams of research workers sent out in the early
part of this year to the twelve countries selected
for immediate investigation. By the end of August,
reports were ready, summarizing the technical
Press, radio and film needs of France, Belgium,
Luxembourg, Holland, Norway, Denmark,
Poland, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Greece,
China and the Philippines. Conferences have
since been held to consider the findings and to
make detailed practical recommendations. One
of UNESCO's projects for 1947 has been com-
pleted. The report on film needs is concise,
factual and unique. Apart from meeting the
immediate aim of assessing the technical de-
ficiencies of a number of countries, the report
does several other jobs. It was also designed to
serve another part of the Mass Communication
programme which is concerned with removing
obstacles to the free flow of information, such as
quotas, tariffs and censorship regulations. The
material finally collected gives, therefore, the
first accurate picture of the rise and development
of the film medium in the countries surveyed.
Up to now the main source of information about
world film activities has been the Motion Picture
Section of the US Department of Commerce,
which has in turn depended for its intelligence on
Hollywood. Its publications are useful though,
in reality, they are little more than rough and
ready assessments of the marketing prospects for
American films. The UNESCO report is of quite
a different calibre and with it UNESCO's film
department has at least established itself as a
world centre for film information.

The key to the whole inquiry is a question-
naire of staggering proportions. Nearly 500
questions were prepared on films alone. This was
the basis on which the research teams collected
their information. The final result is a testimony
of thorough and willing co-operation between
those who asked and those who answered.

Ft is impossible to do the film report justice in
so short a space. Very briefly the kind of informa-
tion obtained is as follows. Full particulars are
given of all known projection facilities, 35 mm
and Id mm, sound and silent, mobile and static,
commercially operated, installed in schools or
used in other ways. Approximate attendance
figures at the cinemas arc also included. Com-

mercial distribution machinery is described and
the percentages of foreign film imports given.
It is, therefore, possible to see, for example, the
extent to which American domination of the
world screens has declined since 1939 and the
distribution of British films increased. Produc-
tion resources are covered in some detail —
studios, personnel, finance, technical develop-
ment, output. Manufacture of raw materials
and equipment and facilities for professional
training are dealt with under separate headings.
Educational films are also considered apart,
and it is interesting to note the relatively large
place they occupy. A brief sketch is given of
the conditions under which the film industry
operates in each country, the legislation which
has been introduced and in general the impor-
tance which is attached to the film medium.

The general impression is of greatly expanded
interest in all uses of the film, as revealed by in-
creased cinema attendance and growing official
support. We have had first-hand evidence of the
zeal of the Czechs, but the report shows just as
much urgent attention being given to making and
using films in Poland, Norway, Denmark, Yugo-
slavia and even Luxembourg. Where no contri-
bution can be made in terms of studio-made
feature films, because markets or the particular
language group are small, there is growing docu-
mentary and educational film activity. In the long
run the contribution which each country can
make to the overall purposes of world education
may as a result be even greater, provided there is
the willingness and machinery to exchange the
films once they are made.

Currency difficulties

The conclusions which the report comes to
summarize the main technical needs. Raw
materials — film stock and chemical products
— do not present a major problem. Equipment
for production and laboratories and for exhibi-
tion constitute the principal deficiency. Equip-
ment for exhibition is by far the greater item of
expense, and the need is chiefly for 1ft mm and
film strip projectors which again emphasizes the
growing rise of films in education. Nearly all
countries have further expressed their need for
first-rate educational films from abroad. They
want to receive catalogues, but more particu-
larly they are anxious to establish some kind of
exchange system to overcome currency diffi-
culties. This is a question which requires some
immediate solution if the regular interchange of
documentary and educational films is to be
effective.

The total needs have been assessed in the report
at roughly £5-6 million, of which 10 per cent
represents needs for the development of educa-
tional film production and for exhibition equip-
ment of all types. Expressed in terms of countries
China accounts for more than half the needs,

and China, Greece and Poland together for 90
per cent.

Equipment and Personnel

The report and its findings have in turn been
vetted by a further Sub-Commission which has
added its own recommendations. The Sub-
Commission is of the opinion that world pro-
duction capacity for black-and-white film stock,
for chemicals and for equipment is sufficient to
meet all needs, although it foresees continuing
delays in the delivery of certain types of equip-
ment. The problem of how countries are to ob-
tain foreign exchange for their purchases is the
subject of a further section in the Sub-Commis-
sion's recommendations. The creation of a
special UNESCO fund is proposed to assist in
re-equipping the Press, radio and film industries
in war-devastated countries, and also the flota-
tion of loans. Both proposals will be put before
the next General Conference of UNESCO.

The Sub-Commission stresses the greatly
extended use of 16 mm sound projectors for
public film shows and the advantages, not the
least being the smaller costs as compared with
the use of 35 mm projectors. In passing it also
notes a feeling in some countries that there will
be strong technical reasons for the adoption of
17.5 mm instead of 16 mm for sub-standard
equipment. It recommends UNESCO to in-
vestigate.

All countries need trained personnel : both
more people and people with higher qualifica-
tions and wider experience. This is rightly put as
a priority requirement. Interchange of personnel
and of whole units and scholarships by the more
fortunate countries — a scheme which UNESCO
has already pioneered — can provide some of the
answers. But let us not be too smug about this.
At least two of the countries sur\e>ed already
operate proper training schemes of their own.
It is time we hurried on with training plans for
our own industry in Britain.

The Sub-Commission recommends that
UNESCO should act as an International Clear-
ing House of Information on films, a recommen-
dation which is anticipated bv the very fact and
excellence of the report itself.

There is a further proposal that UNESCO
should maintain a Reference film Library of
selected films as a kind of shop window to sim-
plify the job of choosing and \ie\wnc films.
Action by UNESCO is also proposed to develop
the exchange of educational films between
countries without currencv passing between
them, and exemption of educational films and
equipment from import-tax.

Decision next month

In November the second General Conference
of UM SCO takes place in Mexico City. The
recommendations made by the Commission on

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

135

FIRST

INTERNATIONAL

FESTIVAL

OF

DOCUMENTARY

FILMS

"Plato said it was in harmony — ■/'// the learning of harmony, in the pursuit of harmony
that one could find the basis of justice and the basis of the good life. All art is a state oj harmony
and its form is the achievement oj harmony. Its substance is concerned with all that breaks
up harmony.

In that respect the arts have much of great practicality to give today. It is in the sight oj
mans achievements as literature presents them that we fire our will. It is in man's mind — at
work, in difficulty and suffering, but still maintaining his great progress — that we find our in-
spiration for the future.

Documentary has a very specific part to play in this inspiration and
in this ivork. It is an art. it is a public service, and it is an educational
instrument. It is one of the few arts that has these three elements. It is a
mirror held up to nature, hut also it is a hammer shaping the future.'1

(Excerpt from John Grierson's speech at the opening performance of the Festival)

The Edinburgh Festival demands much more than
a casual notice. Our press date made it impossible
to do justice to Scotland's initiative in this issue.
Early in November we hope to bring out a special issue.

TILL THEN WE SAY

THANK YOU, SCOTLAND

(Continued from page I 34)

Technical Needs will come up for approval by
the member nations present. They must decide
whether the lines of action proposed for re-
equipping the film industries of I urope and the
Far East arc to,be implemented. The value of the
further surveys to which UNESCO is already
committed will depend on the degree of willing
co-operation shown at Mexico City. To prepare
a plan of action, however excellent the plan, is
pjintless unless action can be taken. I he recent
FAO Conference in Geneva is a depressing
example of the way in which sell-interest an. I
stupidity are impeding world reconstruction.
The fate of world plans does not, however,

depend only on the decisions of official con-
ferences. UNESCO's report is not the respon-
o\' the delegates at Mexico ( it> alone.
It is a document which demands attention in
every countrj and in all quarters where there is
genuine interest in developing the use Ol the film.
It is our responsibility in Britain to consider what
can be done to bring toicign technicians to this
country to Study, to send film units abroad to
work with local groups, to develop the two-waj
exchange with othei countries of films
f pes and relevant information

\ 'it has been made on all these fronts. I he
Edinburgh I Mm Festival brought togethei foi

the first time a representative collection o\ world
documentaries. In Brussels last Jul} the
an organization ot docui ntary film workers
was laid in the World I nionol Documentary In
Paris in October the Scientific Filn ' ion

is participating in blish an

international scientific film bod) \' the receni
International Conference o ' ' ions

in Czechoslovakia similai pi dis-

cussed, ["here is. both national)) and inter-
nationally, the machinery to sup:

of the recommendations in t!

It is tm us to lake the lead which has

136

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

SURVEY OF FILM IN FRANCE. BELGIUM

AND LUXEMBOURG

'UNESCO Reports' gives a general picture of the scope and principal recommendations of the Commission
of Technical Needs. In the first year the Commission has surveyed film developments in France, Belgium.
Luxembourg, Holland, Norway, Denmark, Poland, Yugoslavia, Greece, China, and the Philippines. The
information collected is unique and should be widely available. DNL is prop3sing to summarize the main
findings in a series of articles. A beginning is made in this issue with France, Belgium and Luxembiurg

FRANCE

Since the liberation the French Government has
adopted a constructive policy towards the film.
In October, 1946, a National Cinematographic
Centre (Centre National de Cinematographic)
was set up under the control of the Ministry of
Youth, Arts and Letters. The Director-General
of the Centre is assisted by an Advisory Council
representing both sides of the industry, and by an
Administrative Committee representing eight
Ministries. The Cen*re derives its funds from
State subsidies and contributions from profes-
sional organizations.
The functions of the Centre as are follows:

(a) to examine draft laws, and decrees;

(b) to co-ordinate all branches of the industry, to
arrange modernization and development, to
collect statistics, to arbitrate in disputes;

(c) to supervise financial arrangements and the
proceeds of films;

(d) to grant loans or subsidies to producers;

(e) fo distribute documentary films and develop
the non-commercial side of the industry, to
organize national and international exhibi-
tions;

(/) to arrange professional training;

(g) to co-ordinate social work in the industry.

Although the French Government has stopped
well short of nationalization, the Centre never-
theless occupies in principle a controlling posi-
tion in the industry.

Exhibition

Despite the fact that several hundred cinemas
were damaged or destroyed during the war,
cinema facilities are greater than in 1939. The
number of cinemas operating on March 1st,
1947, was as follows:

Commercial exhibit ion

35 mm

16mm

Cinemas

4,913

1,171

Travelling cinemas

149

4,164

Film Guilds

Cinemas

442

—

Travelling cinemas

—

1,891

The main increase has therefore been in the
16mm field. Cinemas attendances show a corre-
sponding increase. The weekly attendance figure
in 1946 was just over 9 million, one million of
these being at 16mm shows. Although this figure
is still well below the 25-30 million recorded in
Britain, it is three million above the pre-war
figure for France. Actual receipts, however, con-
tinue to be small. It has been estimated elsewhere
that the present gross box-office takings are only
6,000 million francs a year (i.e. about £12 mil-
lion), which is one of the factors contributing

to the present financial crisis besetting the French
film industry.

Two other points are worth noting about 'he
exhibiting side of the business. The circuit system
is very little developed in France. The biggest of
the three main circuits operates a total of 37
cinemas only, a great difference from the mam-
moth British combines. Moreover, all cinema
programmes must, by a law of October, 1940,
include only one long film of more than 1,200
metres, in other words the single feature pro-
gramme is the order of the day.

Distribution

There are a large number of distributing com-
panies, 90 operating in Paris. All the big Ameri-
can companies have their agencies and also the
British Eagle-Lion. The entry of foreign films is
controlled by legislation. All cinema programmes
must show French films at least four weeks out of
every twelve. This is one of the conditions laid
down by the Franco-American agreement of
May, 1946, by which the French film industry
was 'blum-byrned' and brought to its present
catastrophic state.

The films shown in French cinemas are increas-
ingly of American origin. Of films released in
Paris in 1946 the following were the countries of
origin:

per cent
America . . . . . . 46

France . . . . . . 41

England . . . . . . 8

USSR 2-5

Other countries .. .. 2-5

American films are also obtaining an increas-
ing percentage of box-office receipts. Today the
figure is 50-55 per cent of the total as compared
with 35-40 per cent pre-war. The number of
British films shown has also risen, but still does
not constitute an important factor. France re-
mains tied to Hollywood.

Production

Fiance emerged from the war with most of its
film production resources intact. Today it has
15 studios with 44 stages in use, and there are a
large number of production companies of all
types. In 1946, 94 long feature films were pro-
duced and about 150 to 200 documentaries,
shorts and cartoons. This year, however, the
conditions of the Franco-American agreement
are beginning to take their toll. Estimated feature
production is down to 45. Government finance is
available to producers m the form of loans or
subsidy, but this alone is of no avail. A draft
resolution has recently been submitted to the

Second Assembly calling upon the Government
to take drastic action to save the industry in its
present plight. Already in 1946 French producers
made a loss of 1,000 million francs, while pro-
duction costs are up ten times on the 1939
figures. Since then the situation has become
worse and the industry is threatened with com-
plete collapse and the unemployment of its
skilled technicians. The resolution put up to the
Government proposes cuts in the taxes levied on
the industry, more loans to the best French pro-
ducers, increased exports of French films and
above all a revision of the disastrous agreement
which Blum negotiated with America. The film
industry has been incorporated in the Monnet
plan for the reconstruction of French economy
and it is to be hoped that some positive action
can and will be taken.

Films and Education

The UNESCO Report also gi\es details of the
equipment situation in France and also of train-
ing facilities, but the other main section deals
with the educational film position.

Since 1914 the French Government has taken
an active interest in the use of films in education.
A central library of films has been in existence at
the Musee Pedagogique since 1920. Today it
contains some 400 films, three-quarters of which
are silent. In French schools there are about
5,000 35mm silent projectors and between 600
and S00 16mm sound and silent machines.

In 1944 a committee on educational cinema I
was set up to study and promote this use of the
film. It is hoped ultimately to expand the library
to include some 2.000 films and to install 100.000
projectors, preferably 16mm sound. This develop-
ment is envisaged as part of the Monnet Plan
and is estimated to cost 11.000 million francs,
spread over ten years. The committee is to be
responsible for vetting subjects for educational
films, relying on the Centre National to arrange
production, under teacher supervision and in co-
operation with private companies. In principle
the machinery set up has much in common with
what has been planned in Britain. The. use ol
foreign films is also envisaged, if thej can be ob-
tained on some kind of exchange basis. This is a
point which our own Ministry of Education
should go into as soon as possible.

Tribute is also paid in the UNESCO Report to
the pioneering work of .lean Painlcve at the
'Insimit de cinematographique scientifique' ir
the field of scientific film, and to the "Cine-
matheque I rancaise' for its work in collecting
films and documents dealing with the art of the
film. The expansion of film societies is also an
important factor in French film life. The "Federa-

-

!)()( I MINI Am Nl \\s I I I I I • K

137

lion Francaise des Cine-Clubs' now has about
120,000 members. A committee on films for
children has also been formed recently to study
the production and distribution of such films And
to pull together the various efforts being made in
that direction.

BELGIUM

The film position in Belgium is different in
several important respects. Cinema attend
quite high in proportion to population (the
weekly figure is around three million), and there
arc 1,200 35mm cinemas and about 350 equipped
for 16mm shows. On the other hand Belgium
produces hardly any feature films of its own; the
figure for 1945 was five only and for 1946 even
less. The Belgian cinemas therefore depend
almost exclusively on foreign products. The per-
centages of all films shown in 1946, according to
country of origin, is roughly as follows:

US, 67%: France, 25%; England.

Others, 2%.
Lil,e most of the countries in Western F.urope
Belgium continues to depend to a very large ex-
tent on America. There appear to be no restric-
tions operated by the Belgian Government
against the importation of foreign films. In fact,
Government action is limited to censorship and
t ) the development of educational film activity.
No information is available about documentary
film production. This is an unfortunate gap, since
this is the field in which many of the smaller
countries are finding that they can make an im-
portant contribution. The absence of Govern-
ment initiative may be one explanation.

Educational Films

The Belgian Ministry of Education has a Cinema
Section formed in 1946 and responsible for
developing the use of films and film strips. Un-
fortunately its library of films and all its tiles
were destroyed by fire this year. The sen ice had
therefore to begin from scratch. Its functions
cover the whole range from purchase of equip-
ment, production and distribution of educational
films to the supply of information. No exact
information is available as to the number of
projectors in schools, but they are said to be

adequate for present needs. A non-profit-making
company, 'Institul National de Cinematographic
Scientifique', has also been formed to produce
films for universities.

LUXEMBOURG

UNESCO has not forgotten Luxembourg. Tiny,
with no production studios and only 29 cinemas.
the Grand Duchv nevertheless has an educational
Film Ofiice and is seriously concerned with the
problem of using films in schools. Only 45 silent
projectors were left in use alter the war, but there
are plans to increase the number. The Office
operates a library which contains 370 subjects
and is already producing educational films of its
own. Once again the position of Luxembourg

underlines the need for an international exchange
system lor educational films. Other countries
should take note.

Calling Film Societies

According to Report in the Daily Herald {of
September 23rd) the Kinematograph Renters'
Society has decided that Film Societies are
becoming 'a threat to exhibitor interests'

We would, like to draw the attention of I ilm
Society members to this rather astonishing
announcement and we inv ite them to let us know
what they think.

Do they feel that they are a threat ' Or could
it be that the boot is on the other foot'.'

Opinions, please1

THE MILLER'S AIM

We feel that our readers may be interested in
the following extract from an article in Vorwarts

a paper published in the Russian Sector of
Berlin.

We print it as it stands, with the original title
and point out that it is written by a German for
German consumption.

As usual, we remind readers that the views
expressed in any article or extract do not neces-
sarily coincide with the opinions of the Editorial
Board.

in England there is a special type of Miller. We
mean a mill-ownerandnotamancalled Mr Miller.
The name of this mill-owner is J. Arthur RANK.
He is of a special type because in the first place he
is the owner of very many, very big mills — so to
say — a 'monopolist-miller'.

The second reason for being outstanding is that
Mr Rank developed an early liking for the cine-
ma. Being a man of means, he at first afforded
himself the luxury of a few cinemas and later of
many.

In the course of time film studios, film dis-
tribution agencies and other branches of the film
industry were added. Today things have reached
the state that you can hardlj enter a cinema in
London which is not Mr Rank's property. It is
just the same in the English provinces. However.

if you did happen to find an independent subur-
ban cinema somewhere, you may rest assured
that the film you would see had been made in
Mr Rank's studios.

Of course, all this is fright-fully democratic.
You may be certain that Mr Rank has a com-
pletely open mind and that his pictures faithfully
reproduce his political convictions.

Negotiations

We would never have started to talk about Mr
Rank had it not been for the fact that this flour
producer first of all interested himself in the
German lilmgoer.

According to the English Sunday Chronicle, he
has for some considerable number of months
kept a team of research men in Germanv to
study current conditions.

Now the agents of Mr Rank have proposed a
plan to the British Control Commission for the
taking over of UFA, in which the exploitation of
Rank's films in Germany would promote the
birth of a new democracy in Germanv.

Should we Germans be asked for our unbiased
opinion, then we could only answer that we did
not envisage the new democracy meaning that
Hugenberg's monopoly could be replaced by
Rank's monopoly. i k vnk

CROOKS

the strict laws of libel in this country are not infrequently a matter
of editorial regret, and never more so than in dealing with the so-
called 'producers' of the quickie shorts and featurcttes which arc
currently tending to bring the name of documentary into disrepute
amongst the cinema-going public. Originally these quickies, however
much one may have objected to them, were not necessarily matters of
dishonesty. The provisions of the Films Act, and the impossibility
of getting adequate receipts from theatrical distribution, made the
production of these films, costing as little as from £150 to £600, al-
most inevitable. Recently however this shoddy field of film-making
has taken on a more sinister aspect. Quickie producers have noted
that documentaries arc usually sponsored films. Taking a leaf out o\
the documentary book, they have begun to turn more than a few
dishonest pennies by sponsor-swindling on quite a big scale. This is
how they do it. They approach an industrial or commercial firm and
spin a long story about the enormous public which can be reached
through the public cinemas, at a cost to the sponsor no greater than a
few big adverts in the national dailies, and with an audience fai
greater than the readership of the newspapers. I hey ,nl>,\. though not
of course in writing, that they can gel good theatrical distribution. It

is extraordinary by the way how otherw ise hard-headed businessmen
fall for this sort of guff. The producer then quotes a production cost
of £1.500 or more. When he gets the contract he makes the film for
as little as £600. The film having been finished, the sponsor naturally
starts to agitate about distribution; but he lias nothing in writing.
The producer spills all the old tricks of the trade altered market
conditions and whatnot and eventually offers to make a special
effoi t to get the film into the cinemas. I lc then takes it personally to a
renter who offers say, £350 foi all distribution rights, rhis th«
ducer pockets. I lis clear profil on the deal is in the neighbourhood o\'
£1,200. I be basic result is that the public is tormented vet again bv a
crapulous film of no merit whatever, the sponsor vows never to en-
gage m films again, and. because the word documentary is -is ol
not impertinently attached to these productions, a totally false and
deleterious impression about the tactual film starts to get around.
The onl} things which are satisfied in the whole episode are the pro-
ducer, who can live in luxury at an expensive West I ml hotel as long
as there arc still suckers land you know how often they aie born);

and. of course, the exhibitor's quota, which is win somet

must be done about the whole situation in framing the new Rims Bill

138

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

This article was written as an Introduction to a Catalogue of Danish Films

DENMARK AND FILM

By

ARTHUR ELTON

Denmark has made a contribution to the art of
the film out of all proportion to the four million
people who live within her borders. She was one
of the earliest European countries to take up film
production, and to this day on the Nordisk lot at
Valby, near Copenhagen, stands a glass walled
and roofed studio built in 1906 when interior
scenes had to be illuminated by sunlight.

By the 'twenties, Denmark had become a major
European producing centre of silent films. Asta
Nielsen and Psilander were making hearts throb
faster and breasts heave from Moscow to
Madrid. All Europe laughed at Fyrtaarnet and
Bivognen (Lighthouse and Tram-trailer), the
famous pair of comedians, better known as Pat
and Patachon, or Long and Short. It was at this
time too, that a young journalist, Carl Theodor
Dreyer, was gaining his first experience in films.

When the sound film spread round the world,
Denmark was at a disadvantage. Not only was
she a small country, but she belonged to one of
the smaller language groups. Nevertheless, by
rigid economies, she managed to keep her film
industry alive and to make about ten feature
films each year till the outbreak of World War II.

When I came to Denmark a little time after the
liberation, almost the first film I saw was Carl
Dreyer's masterly study of witchcraft, Day of
Wrath ( Vredens Dag), with its splendid acting and
photographic quality and its moving formal
stylized dialogue. I thought at the time, and I
think still, that this is one of the world's most im-
portant contributions to the art of the cinema,
to be ranged alongside such films as Potempkin,
The Grapes of Wrath, The General, Drifters, The
Covered Wagon, Song of Ceylon, and the Gold
Rush. Alas, when the film was shown for the first
time in Copenhagen, it was almost unanimously
condemned by the film critics, and no producing
company had wit enough to give Dreyer another
film. It was not even sent to the Cannes Festival
in 1946, where it would certainly have created a
sensation.

Fine Quality

Only the Danish Government had the wisdom
to get Dreyer to work with documentary. It
is England's good luck but Denmark's mis-
fortune that Dreyer could only find support for a
new feature in London, for a country can ill
afford to lose her artists and creators.

Lest it be thought that Dreyer's masterpiece is
the result of an individual genius, working out-
side a tradition and in isolation, at least two other-
feature films of fine quality have appeared in
Denmark in the last eighteen months — The Red
Meadows (De Rode Enger) and Ditte, Child of the
People {Ditte Menneskebarn). The former,
directed by Bodi Ipsen and I an Lauritzen, is a
taut workmanlike story of the Danish under-
ground movement. The latter is the first full
length feature film to be made by Bjarnc I [enning-

Jensen, who has trained both as an actor and as a
documentary director. Several of his document-
ary films are listed in this catalogue. Ditte is a
sensitive and finely observed study of the life of
an illegitimate girl on Jutland. It has something
of the quality of a novel by Thomas Hardy.
Henning- Jensen's documentary sense, combined
with his sense of character and situation, has
enabled him to make a film both dramatic and
full of the sights and sounds of country life. As
one watches it, one can almost sniff the wind as it
blows in from the North Sea across the Jutland
dunes.

Such is the tradition and such are the achieve-
ments against which the present collection of one
hundred documentary films must be judged.

Before and during the war

Danish documentary had its beginnings just be-
fore the war. Paul Henningsen's long and beauti-
fully photographed The Film of Denmark, pro-
duced in 1935 was an isolated experiment. By the
time of the German invasion, Denmark's only
documentary unit, Minerva Film, had only a
few films to its credit, though these included
some medical films by Axel Lerche, and Theodor
Christensen's documentary on the building of
the Trans-Iranian railway, sponsored by
Kampsex, the Danish film of civil engineers.

When the Germans smashed into Denmark, her
film technicians were faced with two alternatives.
Should they abandon their screens to the Ger-
mans, hand over their film studios and cutting
rooms, and allow their film culture to be wiped
out? Or should they attempt to hold their industry
in their own hands, keeping alive some of the
essential qualities of Danish life and ideals? Like
their comrades in France and other occupied
countries they chose the latter course. The Gov-
ernment decided to help, and two authorities
were charged to sponsor documentary films — ■
Dansk-Kulturfilm, a voluntary body supported
out of public funds in the form of a tax on
cinemas, and Ministerierncs Filmudvalg, the
Film Committee of the Danish Government. The
former approximates to the British Council, the
latter to the British Central Ottice of Informa-
tion. As in England, the production functions of
Dansk Kulturfilm and Ministeriernes Filmud-
valg have now been merged. Thomas P. Heijle,
an educationist closely associated with the I oik
High School movement and founder and director
of an organization showing stage plays to school
children, looked after the film work of the former.
Mogens Skot-Hansen, one-time civil servant in
the Danish Ministry of Fducation, became re-
sponsible for the films of the latter, under a com-
mittee headed by Vilhelm Boas of the Ministry
of Justice. Skot-Hansen brought to the films a
knowledge of civil service procedure and a sense
of public purpose. To these qualities he soon

added first rate technical skill, for he quickly be-
came not only an ingenious script-writer, but also
a capable director and film editor, and an expert
on non-theatrical distribution. Today he is one
of the best documentary producers, and his
special qualities have enabled him to find a com-
promise between the rigid civil service procedure
and the creative freedom without which artists
cannot flourish. Early in 1947 he joined the film
department of UNESCO in Paris to work under
John Grierson.

Similarities

So, when I came to Denmark. I found a docu-
mentary school already established with strong
and lively traditions of its own. 1 quickly felt that.
even if English documentary could contribute
something by pointing to technical and social
paths which it might be profitable to explore, my
colleagues and I in England had a great deal to
learn from Denmark in return.

Before the war, Britain had evolved both the
theory and practice of documentary. But in spite
of such famous titles as Drifters, Man of Aran,
Night Mail. Housing Problems and Song of
Ceylon, British documentary did not become a
mature or sizable industry till after 1941, when
it became harnessed to the war effort. Danish
documentary also reached maturit> during the
war, and the movements in the two countries,
divorced from each other as they were, shjw
remarkable resemblances. Even their differe ss
are complementary .

The war forced both Governments to turn to
the film as a method of public information and to
sustain public morale. Both Governments
adopted the documentary approach, though not
in England till after some ludicrous attempts had
been made to dish up Rule Britannia as an incen-
tive to go to war. The five-minute film, released
free of charge to the public cinemas, was intro-
duced almost simultaneously in the two coun-
tries. Both sought to find a workable compromise
between the old theory that a civil service ad-
ministers and neither interprets nor creates, and
the fact that films, and documentary films in
particular, are interpretative and creative Oi
nothing at all.

The differences between the two schools were
as Striking as their similarities. In England the
documentary film became a weapon of offence
Frills and fal-lals were jettisoned. Perhaps with
them went things which we could ill afford to di
without. Things like humanity and humour
Things which bring that warmth which is essen
rial if there is to be a deep and sympathetic rela-
tion between the film maker and his audience. Sc
1 still feel pleased when 1 remember that, in the
middle of the war. the Ministrj o\ Food was per-
suaded not onlj to accept but to like Len Lye's
fantasy on the Woolton pic When the Pie wa
Opened. I am happy, too. to have beendistantb

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

139

associated with that chunky untidy Elizabethan
masterpiece, Our Country. As the war went on,
quantity had to be put before quality ; content
became all important; the message — only too
often solidly embodied in the commentary and
absent from the visuals —became everything, and
for this very reason sometimes failed to come
across.

In Denmark, the documentary film became a
weapon of defence. Its makers could not present
the economic, political and social position as they
experienced it. Had they done so, the Gestapo
would have killed them. So they were forced often
to deal with things of local rather than universal
importance. They had to step aside from the
realities of the war situation. This had an effect
on their work opposite to that in England. If the
English films had few frills, the Danish some-
times had too many. If the English films sacrificed
form to content, it was sometimes the other way
round in Denmark. If English films were often
too down-to-earth and even dull, Danish films
were sometimes a little too high off the ground.

The film workers in both countries are now
seeking to deepen their social approach to their
subject matter, to be at once more profound and
critical without losing contact with their audi-
ences. Our films must be peopled with characters
who laugh, quarrel, make love, marry and beget
children. They must have both grace and warmth.
It is here that I think England has much to learn
from Denmark, and it is for this reason that I
want to touch on three particular aspects of
Danish documentary films — their technical
virtuosity, their humanity and their humour.

When one is with the Danish documentary
people, as likely as not they will be discussing the
technical side of their craft, the proper timing of a
mix, the weight and effectiveness of a cut, the
juxtaposition of a word and a visual, the struc-
ture and build of a sequence. This love of film
for its own sake is something which I admire and
respect, though sometimes it can go too far. The
consequence has been that, though technically
many of the films are superb and achieve a satis-
fying blend of picture, voice and music that any
country may envy, some of them sometimes lapse
into virtuosity for its own sake. For example,
parts of Bjarne Henning-Jensen's two films,
Paper and Sugar, suffer in this way, gay, spark-
ling and brilliantly put together though they be.
It is not unjust to say that he has only found his
mature style in Dine, Child of the People. Again,
S0ren Melson was capable of making both the
charming Cutler H.l\ (though even here the jazz
musical accompaniment seems a little strained)
and The Cow which degenerates into a ballet of
blood and offals. TheodorChristensen. one of the
ablest film makers in Denmark, is still seeking a
reconciliation between his vivid racy impression-
ism and the requirements of clear and pithy ex-
position.* Finally, no note on the technique of
Danish films would be complete without a refer-
ence to the finely conceived musical compositions
accompanying many of them, and to their
luminous photography.

Few Danish film directors are content with a
mere statement of fact which one may take or
leave. They study each new subject as a special
problem on its own. They try to express their
own point of view towards the theme they are

* Two of Christcnscn's most import re made

independently and arc not listed below. "I hey are a tine
impressionist survey of the work of the ship-building firm ol
Boumcister & vv.un, and Del Gaeld ■ 'Free-

i domh at Stake), a film compilation illustrating life under the
Nazis up to the liberation, and based on actuality material
shot secretly by members of the underground movement.

treating. They seek to make the audience led as
well as understand. They pick out special qualities
and exhibit them to the audience, perhaps a fine
landscape draped handsomely across the screen

or a particular quality of emotion. For this rea-
son, many of the films have point and wit and
interest far beyond the bare bones of the subject.
Every now and again, of course, there is a failure
Hagen Hasselbalch who has made one of the best
films in the whole collection, Your Grain is in
Danger, sometimes slips his anchors and hits the
moon, as in Pan and the Girl.

At its best, Danish documentary shows its
characters in the round. They arc not merely ob-

HOLLYWOOD JABBERWOCKY

By

I. A. R. DIAMOND

'Twas ciros, and the cine lords
Were lollyparsing with their babes:
All goldwyns were acadawards
But demille ruled the nabes.

'Beware the Jarthurank, my lad!
The lion's claw, the eagle's wing!
And when U-I his pix, be glad
That DOS dos everything?'

He took his Johnston code in hand:
Long time the ranksome foe he sought —
So rested he by the schary tree,
And stood awhile in thought.

And as in quota-quotes he stood,
The Jarthurank, of happy breed,
Came boulting through the korda wood
And caroled on his reed!

For sin! For shame! On cleavaged dame
The censor shears went flicker-flack!
He scarred the Bard, and coward marred
Went gallupolling back.

'And hast thou haysed the Jarthurank?
Come to my arms, my breenish boy!
O date and day! Elate! L.A.!"
He xenophobed with joy.

'Twas ciros, and the cinelords
Were lollyparsing with their babes:
All goldwyns were acadawards
But demille ruled the nabes.

Reprinted by kind permission of 'The
Screen Writer — publication of the Screen
Writers' Guild, Inc., USA.

served from afar off. One feels that one has met

them in the flesh. The introduction of story' and

rticularly in Drcyer's Good Mothers and

en's Health lor Denmark, is an interesting

departure.

Only one group of films is unsatisfactory. This
is the set of travel or tourist films. Beautifully
photographed though most o\ them are, they
seem to have been made with no audience in
view, or .it best for an audience that has been
ul buried these last twen I -'i" they

seem to be aimed at the middle-class I nglish pre-
war traveller (who rarely or never saw tourist
films), who used to wander across Europe,
shotting the peasants, swarming over ruins,
carrying his money in a little bag slung round his

neck for fear of thieves, and brewing tea on a
spirit stove in his hotel bedroom at lour o'clock.
The makers ol' those films have not realized that
the tourist of today in the main will come from
the Study Group, the Youth Club, the Workers
Travel Association, the trade union and the
technical school. What the new travellers want
to know is, what sort of people will they meet '
What will thej eat? Where will the) st.i\ and how
much will it cost.' What's the dancing like.' Is the
bathing good.' Is there fresh water near the
camping sites? I will bet a pound to a penny that
Soren Melson's gay, intimate and good-
humoured People's Holiday will do more to bring
people to Denmark than all the spires and towers
and landscapes and ruins and castle and his-
torical monuments rolled into a ball and
doubled.

Wit

There is one quality for which Denmark could
give points to the documentary schools of 1
land, France, Czechoslovakia, Canada and the
USA, and still beat them: wit and humour. Film
after film, particularly those tackling propaganda
themes, has a neat and witty script, and imagina-
tive presentation. With the exception of some of
the British trailers, and the work of Humphrey
Jennings, Len Lye, Brian Smith, and D' \
Cartwright, I am tempted to think that English
documentary is rationed to one laugh and two
smiles to every hundred films — and they don't
always take up the ration at that. The Danish
films scintillate with gaiety and humour. Once
seen, one does not forget the crusty old gentle-
man in Torben Svendsen's beautiful The Seventh
Age, who objects to his room mate doing physical
jerks, or the old lady in the same film listening to
the wedding ceremony through an ear-trumpet.
One could trust Soren Melson to find the part)
of plump men, stripped to the waist, wearing
caps, smoking cigars and playing cards under the
sweltering sun in People's Holiday. Who but
Bjarne I lenning- Jensen would tackle such a for-
bidding subject as the care of the teeth by making
a party of children play at being dentists and
patients? Who but Mogens Skot-Hansen and
Hagen Hasselbalch would have thought of mak-
ing the corn w eev ils in The Com is in Danger hold
a committee meeting in squeaky voices to discuss
how to get rid of that pest mankind!

How can she fail?

Well, there it is. Denmark has come out of the
war with a tough and lusty school of document-
ary. Today she is facing the problem of aligning
the documentary film with the new trends of the
shifting world, of finding a more stable economic
film structure at home, and a more certain
tribution outlet abroad. She cm scarcel) fail
How could she when she has men in the public
scrv ices with an understanding of film like H. II
is. > h, Henning I riis, Dr l ransen, Jcngen Dich
and Blom Andersen' When she has a State
tributmg organization headed I
gaard, journalist, teacher and film critic b) train-
ing, with a deep knowledge and love for films'
And a national sponsoring organization headed

bv lb Koch-Olsen, a producer
\ d, above all. a bod) of sensitive and expert
directors and can'. od luck, and

good shooting to Ingoll Boisen, Theodoi
( hristensen. Carl D Hasselbalch.

ne .md \strid Henning-
Ole Palsbo, the Roos Brothers, rorben

Svendsen, and to all the Others who have
tributed so much to the art of film m IVnmark

140

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

Reprinted from the August 15th, 1947, issue of AMERICAN OUTLOOK
by kind permission of the London Editor

THE ANATOMY OF HOLLYWOOD

a perplexed British judge several years ago asked
'Who is this Hollywood?' A California city, now
part of Los Angeles, it has come to symbolize
film makers and their industry. Contrary to
common assumption it has begun no major
trend, except in fashions. Hollywood is a re-
flection— out of focus and in technicolor — of
the American film-goers who cheered it with
more than $1,800,000,000 at the box office last
year. A wit says 'Hollywood is double Dubuque'
— doubly a typical city of 44,000 souls in Iowa, as
in Britain one might refer to a 'double Wigan'.

Hollywood is young. The community was only
a hamlet 30 years ago. Half its top executives and
artists are under 40. Their customers are of an
even tenderer age. Dr George Gallup, director of
Audience Research, Inc., said last March:

The average American movie audience is
predominantly a young audience. The nineteen-
year-old contributes more to the box office
than any other age group. Regular movie at-
tendance seems to begin around the age of
twelve. It goes up steadily through the age of
nineteen. After that it falls off sharply. Re-
latively few persons attend the movies with
any regularity after the age of thirty-five . . .
He adds that out of 143 million American, 90
million are able to go to the cinema. Only 58
million of these attend at least once every three
weeks; but there are 80 million weekly admis-
sions because of habitual 'repeaters'. Men and
boys attend as frequently as women and girls.
The 17,000 US theatres are in 10,238 cities and
towns. Most of these are in the populous, in-
dustrialized north-eastern third of the country,
which includes much of the Mid-west.

Standardization is the Key to Mass-Production

One reason Hollywood has 'gone over big' is
that it tailors its films to fit millions of people.
Some that seem shapeless are pinned together
with a bit of everything that is 'box-office' — ■
i.e. that will attract crowds. Others, unadorned
with substance, have been stripped of all that
could offend. In short they are like American
cheese: good enough to lure lovers of cheese
when they can't get the best, but not rank enough
to affront potential eaters. Hollywood could
build on this broad foundation of appeal because
so many Americans, with their high income, can
afford to attend the cinema. So, like other
'opiates of the masses' — the Press and radio —
Hollywood offers the mean of what is common to
all. As common denominator of 'the American
Way' it appeals to the young who are always
anxious to follow and (in their own slang) to
stay 'in the groove'.

Hollywood has capitalized the American folk-
myth that an individual through work, luck, and
a pure heart can climb to dizzy heights. Few
have reached the pinnacle, but at any rate the
millions can have the next best thing: for ninety
minutes of transfiguration they can become a
Myrna Loy or Clark Gable, uninhibited, perfect,
triumphant in life and love, lilmgoers live in an
everyday environment of keen competition,
monotony and frustration. Every day they

struggle for supremacy in deeds and possessions.
The tension thus generated is released at the
theatre. On the screen, life is good, right and
simple. The guy who cheats at cards, or kisses
Gable's girl, is inevitably condemned 'up the
river' (up the Hudson River to Sing Sing prison
in New York State) or (worse) to eternal
celibacy.

The Menu of Film-Fare

Hollywood's biggest assets are its stars. They
are worshipped not as actors but as ordinary-
people who have similarly risen per aidua ad
astra. The wealth and plenty lavished on them is a
right and proper reward of upward struggle, as
it also is for wealthy businessmen. Hollywood's
deity today is singing, kidding, easy-going,
average-guy Bing Crosby. Bing's 'fans' (from the
word 'fanatic') go to the films to see Bing, and
not the character of priest or gold prospector
which he portrays. They do not see an actor or
his acting. Some stars even feel slighted if they
become famous as the characters they create,
rather than as themselves.

In a country where the unusual is usual and
the impossible is always happe/iing, exaggera-
tion is a simple colloquialism. Much of the un-
reality in Hollywood films is therefore taken by
Americans with a laugh; but the British, who
venerate understatement, are dismayed by it.
Conversely, the slow, diffident, undramatized
realism of good British films and their characters
seems pedestrian to many an American who en-
joys high-speed heroics, slapstick, and sledge-
hammer drama, with all the characters 'over-
typed'.

The least plausible of standard US film-fare are
perhaps the 'Westerns' or 'horse operas'. These
make up 54 per cent of Hollywood's output.
They are seldom seen in the big theatres in the
cities, but appear regularly in out-of-the-way
places and small towns. Strangely enough they
are a smash-hit in the West itself, where modern
ranch hands delight in seeing cow-ponies gallop
twenty miles without ill effects. But these 'sage-
brush sagas' are mainly supported by the very
young, who after school and even in summer don
their spurs to join forces with Hollywood's
brave and true cowboys. The audience is a
bedlam of youngsters cheering, taking pot-shots
with cap-pistols at villains and overcoming all
dangers in an afternoon of hard and fast riding.
Villainy never wins. Virtue always does. If this
is bad for youth, it can onlj lie because adult
life is never as fair!

The Psychology of Realism and Escapism

Millions of Americans will go to any movie.
Many of them want relaxation, not entertain-
ment; and some sit and sleep. As Dr Philip .1.
Rulon, acting Dean of the Harvard Graduate
School of Education, said on February 25th:
'This may prove they arc tired, but it cannot
prove they are dumb." Holly w ood's success is also
partly because habitual lilm-goers become de-
pendent on films and radio for 'canned' amuse-

ment. Because of this, Hollywood to the delight
of its youthful fans continually tries to out-do
itself. American producers have made good pic-
tures, but some of their best just turned into
'box-office poison'. One, 'The Ox-Bow Incident",
an excellent drama of a lynching, barely made a
box-office ripple.

The screen, therefore, keeps behind the public
taste. Producers prefer to use a successful idea
over and over again to protect their enor-
mous investment. Self-imitation also affects the
plot. Hence the epidemic of 'animal epics' and
'psychological thrillers'. Bette Davis was neurotic
yet a hit, two years ago in 'Now, Voyager'.
So today, Laraine Day is a kleptomaniac in
'The Locket' and Joan Crawford, who was onK
slightly disturbed mentally in 'Mildred Pierce',
goes completely 'off her trolley' in 'Possessed'.
Some star who went 'nuts' in celluloid will
probably win the 1947 awards for acting — unless,
of course, they get nosed out at the winning post
by a horse, dog, or other mammal.

Hollywood is subject to pressure groups and
'lobbies' ranging from political interests to the
Glass Bottle Blowers Association, which com-
plained when Gary Cooper drank canned beer
(see 'The Art of Lobbying' in A.O. No 17, p.
167). Criticism has also been on moral grounds;
but most of that is negative. It resulted in the
Motion Picture Association's moral code, equally
negative, which was devised to stave off Govern-
ment regulation. But the code has not silenced
vast numbers of still indignant religious, women's
and educational organizations. Most of these
groups attack the screen for setting a pace,
whereas, if anything, it follows the public too
much. They fail to see Hollywood's chief
criticizable influence: its cutting of dies out of
certain vulgar patterns in American life and its
crushingly repetitive die-stamping of them, in
reverse, on the cinema-going public. Sociologist
Leo T. Rosten wrote in his study Hollywood
'Whether the movies imitate life, or whether life
imitates the movies, is for others to decide; this
writer believes that, like missionaries on a desert
island, they begin to convert each other.'

Bigger and Better Business

Eight gigantic producing companies, known
as the 'majors', dominate Hollywood. They are
largely controlled by eastern (New York, etc.)
capital. All except United Artists, Inc. are mem-
bers of the Motion Picture Association of Ameri-
ca. Inc.. o\' which Eric Johnston — former Presi-
dent of the US Chamber of Commerce — is
president. But United Artists joins the others to
help form the Motion Picture 1 \port Associa-
tion. Inc.. also headed by Johnston.

Todav the whole US film industry is caught be-
tween rising costs and a shrunken home market.
American films grossed S2.700 million at
America's and the world's box offices in 1946.
a 10 per cent rise over 1945. Out of this, the
seven MPA majors netted SI 20 million as com-
pared to a $65 million net in 1945. Variety,
leading entertainment magazine, reported on
December ISth. 1946, that 64 percent of this gain

DOCUMENTAU\ NEWSLETTER

Ml

($35 million) v\as the big seven's savings as a
result of Congressional action which erased the
Government excess profits tax at the outset of
1946. But costs of production in 1946 soared to
$413 million for just over 400 pictures, a 25 per
cent rise in a year. And to cap it all, US box-
office receipts have skidded from what the
Wall Street Journal calls the 'super colossal' to
the 'mere colossal'. Typical estimates point to a
slump of 12 to 20 per cent so far this year.

Mr Eric Johnston and his Influence

Hollywood films scooped S900 million gross
from the foreign market last year, or 35 per cent
of their gross total. Almost S400 million gross
came from the UK. The advent of Johnston to
the MPA showed the concern for this market.
He was preceded by Will Hays, a political inti-
mate of President Warren G. Harding. Hays'
function was to protect Hollywood interests on
the domestic front. (The code for moral suita-
bility of films was administered by the famous
Hays Office'.) Johnston, however, is a political
theorist and businessman. As former President
of the US Chamber of Commerce he has con-
tacts all over the world. Last fall he adopted a
'get tough' policy with the MPEA urging them to
export only select films and abandon such offen-
sive practices as stereotyped portrayals — e.g.
Englishmen who alway s wear monocles and look,
and are, silly. He is highly aware of the com-
petition US films face from British pictures in
such territory as Latin America, and is convinced
that Hollywood must help its country meet the
threat of Soviet power. He has repeatedly told
MPA members that US films must carry the
message of free enterprise to the world. (Holly-
wood's reaction to this, so far, has been one of
deep astonishment.) Meanwhile Johnston is
working closely with his friends Will Clayton,
Under-Secretary of State for Economic Affairs,
and William Benton, Assistant Secretary of State,
as well as with Secretary of State Marshall to
advance the international exchange of films
(A.O. No 4, p. 34). This, and the fact that he has
been mentioned as a possible Republican Vice-
Presidential partner with Governor Dewey in
1948, makes him one of Hollywood's prize
personalities.

British and American Films in Each Other's
Country

American films reaped approximately
£16,750,000 net from the United Kingdom, while
British products only nipped about 58,500,000
net from the US market. Even so, Hollywood's
net income from the UK was only 17 per cent of
its gross income in the UK. The rest remained in
Britain for distribution, exhibition, taxes, etc.
Therefore the 'majors' were busily buying shares
in British and other foreign theatres and dis-
tribution chains. Profits from these investments
will be clipped by the new cut in British film im-
ports, but the new British ban on transfer of
more than a quarter of US film profits into dollars
will put an abrupt stop on 'direct' investments in
the British film trade.

The big Hollywood companies have profited

directly by importing British films into the US

since 95 per cent of the US film industry's capital

of $2,600 million is in theatres. Here, too, arc

i most of the profits. Despite eight years of the

US Government's anti-trust action against them

in the courts — for monopolistic practices — the

eight 'majors' control 73 per cent of the theatres

in 92 cities with a population of more than

i 100,000 each. They also dominate 16 per cent of

! all US theatres, and hold shares in thousands

more. British pictures may easily get from $12
million to S20 million from the US market in
[947, but not in 1948.

So with eves on the profits British films will
make in US theatres, as well as on the benefits
of trade, five major US theatre circuits last June
handed to Mr J. Arthur Rank play-dates (en-
gagements) totalling S12 million yearly. The
agreement provided that only the best of British
films be shown. This was the first real chance
British films had to compete in America as a
whole w ith the home product.

Would British Films have Succeeded?

'Stix still nix Brit pix despite crix*: in Holly-
wood lingo this means British films will not have
an easy time drawing American crowds. (Stix
means sticks, backwoods, rural areas and small
cities: nix means negative towards; Brit, British;
pix, pictures; and crix, critics or newspaper
columnists, who have generally been favourable
to London products.) Variety, after an exhaustive
coast-to-coast survey, stated on June 18th:

Most sections of the country, in fact,
virtually every section except the metropolitan
centres along both coasts, are continuing to
exhibit the same time-old allergy to foreign
films which was evidenced before the war. The
principal difference is that there are more ex-
ceptions . . . such as the British Henry V.

Yet there is an undercurrent of apprehension
in certain segments of the American film industry
over the excellence of recent British films. This
misgiving is magnified by the home box-office
slump. The MPA claims it is an economic sign
of the times. Admission prices arc an average of
47 cents, a 50 per cent increase in six years. But
producers note that good films still get the big-
gest crowds. And the thirty-two million Ameri-
cans who remain potential film-goers are still
there. Many of Hollywood's grade-B pictures
may therefore soon quit the screen. The Govern-
ment's anti-trust suit against the 'majors' has
reached the US Supreme Court. If the Govern-
ment is upheld, producers will be enjoined, among
other restrictions, from compelling theatres to
buy a block of grade-B pictures with each grade- A
film.

Film Finance and Film Quality

A writer or musican in Hollywood can earn
52,000 a week and then go unemployed for
months. Most producers have made a million and
have also lost one. Hollywood is not as jaunty
as it seems. It is basically timid and shrewd. The
fate of the 'independent studios' shows tin- I I
year one-third of all US films were 'shot' by
independents. Many 'indies' were formed by
directors and actors whose 'artistic freedom'
boiled down to selling their company after it
had made one picture, because that way they had
only a 25 per cent capital gains tax instead
of an income tax as high as 60 to 80 per cent!
And independents are never free from the
'majors' anyway; for "majors' take over I
tribution and exhibition of their films. Today,
because of the general economic uncertainty, the
are scampering back to (he 'majors'
fold.

But even the 'majors' have to have financing.
The Guaranty Trust ol New No:k, one of
Hollywood's biggest financiers, his practically
withdrawn from the film business. I he Wall
Street Journal reported on May 20th '\ \ev
York banker who makes a lot of loans to Holly-
wood e\p! nned that his institution now insists
on the best talent, and even then will loan onlj

50 to 60 per cent of production costs A year
it would have loaned <>0 to 70 pel cent even
though producers and actors weren't top-level.'
Because of this, Hollywood has doubled its

rts to cut costs. Ironically, it has for twenty
years fostered public taste for fabulous settings.
Now it looks with interest at the realism British
films achieve with flimsy sets. Hollywood has also
cut its personnel from 30,000 to 21, 000 in a year.
The re-issuing of" old films has been another
money -saver. Today all 'majors' withdraw popu-
lar pictures in time to protect their future profits
on re-issuing them. More than ever, Hollywood
seeks to protect its enormous investment by
filming best-selling books and plays. (Only half
of all screen stories are original; popular plots
arc used over and over again with new titles.)
Paramount financed the 'legitimate stage' pro-
duction of Broadway's Pulitzer Prize play 'State
of the Union' with 5300,000 just to obtain the
film rights. Some producers are even trying to
'capture' popular books and songs by buying
shares in publishing houses and gramophone re-
cord companies.

The British Blow at Hollywood and the Future

Now, at the British Government's penal
emergency tax on its UK profits, Hollywood pro-
fesses itself thunderstruck. It has thunderstruck
back (through the MPEA) by banning exports ol
new US films to Britain. The tax roused more re-
sentment in Hollywood than an outright British
ban on imports of US films; for, somewhat
querulously and partially, Hollywood spokes-
men complained that HM Government had given
them no 'tip-off. and they had only expected, at
worst, a new tax of 25 to 50 per cent not a full
75 per cent. Hollywood's hope is that British
film fans and theatre owners, plus possible Slate
Department pressure on the British authorities,
will modify the tax. In this connection, Mr Eric
Johnston's personal relations with the State
Department should not be overlooked.

The chief fear in Hollywood is that the British
action will set an example to other dollar-short
countries — who multiply daily. Reorganization
of the whole US film business is now necessary
because of the interdependence of domestic
and foreign business. Hollywood is too confused
at present to chart its course. One 'independent'
producer said, 'I think it's the worst crisis in
Hollywood's history .' Many producers, especially
'independents', claim that their earnings in the
US cover only their film production (
even a fraction of their costs. \ll their profits,
and possibly some coverage of costs, came from
earnings abroad, above all in Britain. I
'majors' are better oil' because thej get profits
from their own theatres even if their production
costs arc not met.

The chances are that I S retaliation will not
stop the Rank play -dates because there are
six months' supplies of untaxable US films
now in Britain plu\ possible re-issues of old films.
Thus 1947 profits may be untouched by the
British action last week. But all the trends
hitherto obvious resulting from i tnd

slower box-office returns will be ii
Hollywood is expected to redouble its effort
open the I i American And South >
markets. I his sudden British sharp*
ii illywood's difficulties in finaiu
with difficulties in cutting costs laboui un

in Hollywood ate verv

abroad is probable, especially soutl i rnia

142

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

GOVERNMENT FILM-MAKING IN AUSTRALIA

By

Edward Cranstone

in July, 1945, the Australian Commonwealth
Government took the step forward in their film-
producing policy of forming a National Film
Board, and appointing to it as Films Commis-
sioner, Ralph Foster, of the National Film
Board, Canada.

In deciding to mould their film-making activi-
ties on the pattern of their sister Dominion they
could not have done better, for Foster brought to
Australia some of the vitality and organization
of what is perhaps today the ideal set-up for the
production and distribution of Government
films. The production of Australian Government
films had not previously been on a scale com-
parable with other countries, and the films pro-
duced, usually two or three a year, had been
made under the administration of the Depart-
ment of Commerce, chiefly to advertise agricul-
tural products overseas. They were boringly
factual and their commentaries were freely inter- "*
spersed with the words 'Now we see '.

With the advent of the war in 1939, the Films
Division went over to the newly-formed Depart-
ment of Information, which, being largely com-
prised of newspaper men, was apathetic about
the use of film, concentrating their propaganda
mediums rather on still photography and journal-
ism. Later they sent a cameraman to the Middle
East. They did not know at the time that this
obscure young man was to become a world-
famous name in the sphere of war photography.
The young cameraman was Damien Parer.

The material sent back by the war cameramen
was, by mutual arrangement, sent straight to the
newsreels, where it was processed and edited.
Although this solved the distribution problem, it
is doubtful if it served the best interests of the
nation ; for it gave the privately-owned newsreel
companies the right to use the material how and
if they liked. Indeed, much splendid material
never saw the screen because of prejudice against
an 'unknown photographer'.

This prejudice can be understood in the light of
the Government's refusal to allow newsreel men
to operate in war areas. Harmony was restored
eventually when several of the 'old school' news-
reel men were engaged by the Department as
war cameramen, and the companies felt that their
prestige had been restored. However, when the
Japs were thundering at Australia's front door in
1942, and the most thrilling of all Australian
newsreels hit the screen, namely Kokoda Trail, it
was not shot by the 'old school', but by the ob-
scure young man, Damien Parer. Unfortunately
for films, Parer was killed in action in September,
1944.

When the war ended, the Australian War
Memorial was far-sighted enough to collect from
the newsreels all material that had been shot,
and fortunately it is now preserved for posterity.
Today the Government Films Division is
organized on a better footing than ever before.

Not equalling its Canadian counterpart in size or
scope, it is nevertheless built on a sound founda-
tion and can look forward to expansion in the
future. One of Ralph Foster's first tasks was to
find new personnel for the enlarged Department.
He enlisted enthusiastic young people released
from the Forces, to train as scriptwriters, pro-
duction assistants, etc., and sought out tech-
nicians who had drifted away from the Depart-
ment during the war. "He found new directors and
was assisted in this fask by such men as Harry
Watt and Joris Ivens, who were in Australia at
the time. One of these young directors, John
Heyer, worked with Watt on The Overlanders.r
Units were formed and the task was begun of
implementing the programme recommended by
the Film Board. Films included both subjects
suggested by the Department of Information and
those sponsored by other bodies.
' As the units were necessarily widely dispersed,
the need was felt for a Chief Producer, who could
act as a co-ordinator for all units and a liaison
between technicians and administration. The
man chosen for this post was Stanley Hawes,
well-known documentary man who had worked
with Grierson both in England and Canada.
Stanley Hawes, with his sympathetic approach
and keen sense of discrimination, did much to
guide the young documentary makers on a
steady course and to assist the older members to
a documentary approach.

Naturally the new Films Division is suffering
the growing pains that all similar organizations
are prone to. Inability to obtain apparatus for
the expanded personnel, lack of adequate work-
ing space, transport difficulties (no mean factor
in Australia's open spaces), film stock shortages
and, of course, the petty squabbles and jealousies
that are found so often in creative circles. Gradu-
ally difficulties are being ironed out and months
of hard work have borne fruit ; films are emerging
that should bear comparison with documentaries
anywhere. Indeed, two of the films have been ac-
quired by MGM for world release and others are
under consideration. Native Earth, the first, deals
with the Labour Government's new deal for the
natives of New Guinea, while the second, Journey
of a Nation, deals with the problem of transport
bottlenecks, caused by Australia's broken gauge
railway system. Three 16 mm Kodachrome sub-
lets. Turn the Soil, Men and Mobs, and Born in
the San, have been turned out for the Department
of Commerce, and, although the subjects are the
same as of old — wheat, sheep and dried fruits —
they have been given an entirely new interest by
the use of an historical approach. The soil
colour of Australia's sombre background, with
much attention given to typical sound and
voices, give to the films that spirit of nationalism
which might be expected in the Government pro
duced film. Namatjira, also in Kodachrome. de
picts the life of the Australian aboriginal. It is

shot entirely in Central Australia, using as actors
only the natives themselves. The unusual music,
based on aboriginal themes, is by a very young
composer, Charles Mackerras, who is now in
London. Stanley Hawes contributes a delightful
effort called School in the Mailbox, about the
education by correspondence of the out-back
child: while Watch over Japan deals with Aus-
tralia's role in the Japanese occupation. Three
films, Men Wanted, Street in Suburbia and
Nuriootpa, are sponsored by the Department of
Immigration, and a series called Australian Diary
is produced by the Department of Information
itself. Other films produced from within the De-
partment show life in Australian towns and cities
and Australian sports and pastimes. Some of
these have been severely criticized as 'tourist'
films and much space has been devoted to dis-
cussion in newspapers and periodicals by writers
who are anxious that the way of the new National
Film Board will be along the road to reality and
not in the romantic backwaters of past errors. If
this sort of healthy discussion and criticism con-
tinues, so much the better for Australian film
making, as it is only by taking an active interest
in the work of their Governments that people
anywhere can expect results.

{Continued from page 141 )

in Mexico where labour is cheap. Many US pro-
ducers who had counted on good revenues frorr
Britain are caught with costly pictures on their
hands, e.g. the $6,000,000 'Forever Amber'.
Economy must now be the order of the day.

Better US Films

Fewer and better US pictures may capture
more of the home and Canadian markets, bu:
because of high costs the absolute number c
pictures produced must now be cut. especi-
ally those in grade B. Longer runs in the
theatres for each film are also forecast, and even
more frequent re-issues (though the latter quickf'
show 'diminishing returns'). Finally there is
film technology. Will it come to Hollywood's
aid? An expert motion-picture technologic: I
correspondent reports to us from Hollywoo,
that this cannot be taken for granted. Nothing
unusual is expected for the next five to ten years
Steady and unspectacular improvements ir
sound and photography are all that's foreseen
The much-talked-of three-dimensional movie:
cannot even be said to be m the laboratorj stage
yet. The US Navy developed the tridimensional
photograph; but the inventor only says it 'ma;
be adaptable to motion pictures.

Thus for severely practical reasons, bcttei
American films may soon unroll. But it is stil
unsure if they will. The natives of Hollywood
have learned to believe nothing they hear ano
only half thc.v see. And the British may not eve I
see American films at all!

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

1-43

NEW DOCUMENTARY FILMS

HOW AN AEROPLANE FLIES

Part I. Lift

Part II. Drag

Part VI. Controls

Made by Shell Film Unit. Camera: Sidney
Beadle. Animation: Francis Rodker and A. J.
Shaw .

These three self-contained parts of Shell's new
films on aerodynamics, for the use of students of
aviation, flying personnel and ground staff in
training, and senior forms in schools, were pre-
viewed in August. The remaining three parts
will be completed shortly. The three parts shown
represent a considerable achievement on the part
of the team which planned and made them,
among whom were Sydney Beadle, photography,
John Rodker and A. J. Shaw, diagrams. They
are, in fact, first-class teaching films which
physics and general science masters will find
of the utmost value for their senior forms — age
group 1 3 - if belonging to A stream ; though they
will be more appreciated by 14 and 15-year-olds
who are able to think in abstract terms.

Yet, while the ability to think in abstract terms
and to understand abstract principles is necessary
in the student who is going to learn most from
these films, the empirical method has been very
rightly used. Progressing from the known to the
unknown and proving the latter in terms of the
former, is the accepted practice among the most
advanced teachers; it is also the essence of good
instructional film-making in my opinion, especi-
ally in the realms of physics and general science.

Part I — Lift, shows how an aeroplane actually
rises and remains airborne, a mystery many
i scientists from Icarus and Leonardo da Vinci
onwards have guessed at but never been able to
control. The introductory sequences, showing
the action of the wind above and below the flat
surface of a piece of paper and of leaves fluttering
to the ground, are admirably done, though they
are perhaps over-long. The 'known' in this case
is so easily recognized and understood that it
could have been cut down by several examples
and a longer time spent on the "unknown', the
Venturi tube and the effect of the change in air
pressure on the upper and lower -hich

controls the force which keeps the aeroplane in
the air.

How much the amount of lift is governed by
the angle of the wing is also shown clearly.
Diagram and model are ingeniously used, some-
times in conjunction with each other as in most
Shell films.

Part II — Drag, is the simplest of the three films
to grasp at one showing; it could also have been
reduced to the standard length of one reel, which
to my mind makes a good maximum length for a
direct teaching film. (Part I is 1 [ reels in length;
Part II \\ reels and Part VI 1 red )

Drag shows the wind's resistance to forward
movement, first of the human body and then
an aeroplane. Technical construction, such as
stream-lining, is shown as reducing this impedi-
ment to speed.

Part VI — Controls, surprises by the apparent
simplicity by which an aeroplane is controlled,
but this apparent simplicity is misleading. The
control of an aircraft is shown to be an exact
science based on precise knowledge of the effect
of the slightest pressure on the elevators and the
control surfaces at the wing tips which will
change the aircraft's motion and direction from
dive to climb, from bank to roll, from a straight
course to a sharp turn. . . .

I his film has less than the other two of the
gradual build-up technique and is perhaps the
least satisfactory for that reason, although its
lessons are taught clearly and well, with no
burking of the difficult flying shots.

After seeing these three films I am more than
ever convinced that the Shell Unit are making
some of the best educational films of today, and
have a good deal to teach the rest of us who are
working in this difficult field about good, clear,
sound instructional film technique.

AN EDUC II I FILM PRODUCER

Convection, Conduction and Radiation. Realist
for British Gas Council in association with Film
Centre. Direction and Photography : Alec Strasser.
Distribution: British Gas Council. 8 mins. each

film.

While the Committees have been conferring,
British Gas Council and Realist have acted.
Strasser, Bennell, Parsons, Dorothy Grayson
(which of them to single out for credit who can
say? Let's think of it as a team) have produced
abiding models of what teaching films should be.
Each of these three films is made up of a series of
short sequences which take us step by step to-
wards an understanding of the subject. Each
sequence ends with a question which it leaves the
audience to answer. In other words, here are
three films which can be shown together, or
separately, or in bits — according to the require-
ments and capabilities of teacher, class and
curriculum. What is perhaps even more impres-
sive, the short sequences (some of which may not
run to more than half-a-dozen shots) are devised
with quite outstanding imagination. Going back
to the words with which this review opened, it
seems likely that to Alec Strasser must go the
lion's share of the bouquets. There was real
genius in Your Children' < I that fantastic and

yet completely logical sequence of the orange —
and there is genius here again. All this may sound
too much of a p Of course, the films

aren't perfect; of course, everybody, including
r . has a lot to learn about making teaching

films (for example, the spoken word was perhaps
over-complicated, and its deliver) oddly in-
human), bu; even if we must proceed in arith-
metical progression before we lin.illv re ich a per-
fect Standard, at least Realist has found some-
thing which has eluded everyone else, the first
term to start us on the way. Committee H has
emitted many vague pages adumbrating, in what
they think to be specific terms, which I
ducer must dare to contradict, some scores ,>•
films thev w.mt to make. In fairness to the

teachers they represent, and to the producers
whom thev apparently dismiss .is amateurs, thev
should see ( bnvection. Conduction ami Radiation.
They might learn a lot.

Twenty-four Square Miles. Basic tort 01. Pro-
duction: R. K Neilson Baxter. Direction: '-
Mander. Photography: A. Englander. Editing:

Adam Dawson. Animation: Cynthia Whitby.
Vfodel: J. P. McCrum. Distribution: Non-
Theatrical. 43 nuns.

The twenty-four square miles are a section of
Oxfordshire covered by one sheet of the (> in.
ordnance survey map. The film illustrates a
detailed survey of this once made by the Agricul-
tural Economics Research Institute of the
University of Oxford in 1943. Everythin
covered: occupations, housing and public ser-
vice^ education, entertainments, local
ment. It is rather surprising that the point
of farm workers as such is not dealt with: for
instance, the tied cottage — important in any
consideration of rural problems is not men-
tioned. But, by and large, the facts are given
honestly and thoroughly, even if the super-
objectivity of the presentation makes for flatness.

Technical execution is very good. The director
has managed in very short scenes, to capture
unerringly the atmosphere of village whist-
drives, Women's Institute lectures and Parish
Council meetings. Both photography and cutting
are crisp and to the point. Two weaknesses stand
out. One is the use of the large contour map.
Were this confined to an explanation of the lav-
out of the area in its various aspects, the only
complaint could be of an occasional lack of
clarity in the direction. Unfortunately, the map
is also used to cover statistics and other com-
mentary points which could more clearly and
more excitingly have been put over by actuality
shots. The other weakness is in the effects tr
which never quite makes up its mind whether to
be there or not.

The great problem is to discover why. in spue
of thoroughness, honesty, and technical excel-
lence, the film remains unsatisfying. To those
actively engaged on planning, it will be an
inv aluable w ork of reference. But reference v
are for specialists. The conviction, the imagina-
tion that will arouse interest and w ill cj
understanduv' hive no place in them. 1 he
man is apt to gain from this perusal only an
impression o\ a lot oi \\w\- and figures, and
perhaps a memory of some v\ the main head
A more compelling picture o\' the problems of
rural reconstruction might have been achi
by taking a smaller area s.iv a single vil!.
and giving it a fuller, warmer, more int
treatment But even using all o\ the twenty-four
square miles, some positive feeling might
resulted from keying all the analvsis to
definite acth ii '■■ it ls- 'he layman it

likely to walk out feehii

all very complex and difficult', and then forget
all about it.

Owing to lot

held over lor tin- next i*>

:ion on L.

Baxtei

144

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

AUDIENCE RESEARCH

—FREE DISCUSSION

By a member of Shell Film Unit

at the Shell Film Unit in May, 1947, we showed
the first two of a series of six films on 'How an
Aeroplane Flies' to an audience of thirty school-
boys of matriculation standard. The idea was to
find out how the techniques employed would be
received, and how they would think the films
could be improved.

The thirty boys, who were on the science side
of a London school, were accompanied by their
senior and junior science masters. The other
adults in the audience included the producer,
the three co-directors of five of the series of six
films, and an observer from the Institute of
Human Relations. None of the boys had any
extensive knowledge of aerodynamics, though
some had flown and two had recently joined the
ATC.

It was decided that since the questionnaire
method had already been tried on other audi-
ences in respect of one of the films {Lift), free dis-
cussion should be tried out on this occasion. (An
account of the 'questionnaire' experiment was
published in DNL Vol. 6, 51st issue.)

The afternoon was conducted as follows. First
the fact that experts in the subject were consulted
during the making of the films was explained to
the audience, and they were invited to consider
themselves as a group of experts who were there
to suggest how the films could be improved. Lift
was then projected. Discussion on Lift followed
for about twenty minutes, after which there was a
break for tea (the appropriate time having ar-
rived) and then Drag was projected and after-
wards discussed for about half an hour.

The free discussion form of audience-reaction
test provides no objective standards or statistical
answers such as can be obtained from a question-
naire, and a summary of conclusions can only be
a subjective one and to a certain extent personal
to the observer.

As far as could be judged, all the boys were
keen to help with the experiment, and (after a
little initial shyness) were not abashed by the
presence of strange adults.

The two films, Lift and Drag were made with
this type of audience as their lowest intended age-
group, and are also destined for use in training
air crews and ground staff. Lift employs simple
analogies (e.g. boys marching between benches
forming a narrow gap to explain Venturi effect),
a good deal of demonstration apparatus (e.g. a
wind machine directing a stream of air over a
model wing to which pressure gauges are con-
nected to show the variations in pressure on the
upper and lower surfaces), and some shots of
aeroplanes in flight, stalling and landing. The
commentary in both films is simple and dire< I
No music or effects are used. Lift employs no
diagrams; but in Drag several diagrams arc used,
the use of analog) is lightlj increased, and there
are more actuality shots of aircraft. Drag was
shown in the cutting copy (run double-headed),
which was in a fairly complete state, opticals
having already been cut in. A married print of

Lift was shown. The two films are of approxim-
ately the same length — sixteen minutes each.

The most encouraging thing (from the film-
maker's point of view) was that both films ap-
parently promoted a desire for further knowledge
of the subject. After seeing Lift a hot discussion
raged on what happened when an aeroplane went
vertically upwards; after Drag there was quite a
bit of argument about the terms 'resistance' and
'drag' which the boys did not regard as synony-
mous.

There was (especially during the second film) a
very keen noting of points of detail — 'The oars
would be deeper in the water' (of a shot showing
the swirls made in water by oars); 'One of the
weights' (on a balance) 'seemed to be a different
size from the rest'. 'When you had the oil in a
beaker and water in a beaker and air in a beaker,
you put the rod into the air beaker and said it
wasn't so sticky, and a drop of water came out'
(fell off the glass rod which had just been in the
water beaker). 'You didn't say the flaps had
dropped' (of a stop-frame shot of an aeroplane
landing).

In fact, nothing escaped their eagle eyes, which
amply confirms the fact that 'It'll get by' is not
good enough.

An important point concerned tempo and
construction. The film Lift, because of the nature
of its content, goes straight through from begin-
ning to end, without definite breaks. Drag on the
other hand is broken by section titles into a short
introduction and three sections, and concludes
with a summary. After the showing of Lift there
was a general feeling that the film was 'a bit fast'.
On analysis this proved to mean, not that too
little time was spent on each point, but that the
points came too quickly on top of one another.
The demand was for more breathing space: 'It
didn't give much time for each point to sink in."
'It was a bit fast, T didn't feel I could do w ith the
four' (five) 'other films.' There was general agree-
ment that the section titles in Drag overcame
these difficulties, which serves to emphasize that
instructional films must be punctuated. Simple
section titles are apparently good punctuation
ii II ks. but it was agreed that wordy titles are un-
desirable; for instance one boy suggested that
there should be a title mentioning all the main-
points at the end of each film. He was howled
down by his companions, and then said thai it
would not be a good idea.

One boy had 'close-up trouble'. He complained
that he saw a man walk up to an aeroplane, and
then the man was "taken awaj and we onl) saw
Ins hand', an interestingly naive waj of describing
the cut from mid-shot to close-up, reminiscent
of the cry "Where are their feet?' which is said to
have gone up when D. W. Griffith invented the
close-up. In general, however, this audience jp-
peared not to share this trouble, being normally
conditioned to cinema. It is interesting, however.
that this isolated instance of close-up trouble
on lined on a close-up of a hand; there was ap-

parently no difficulty over close-ups of faces,
which are far more common on feature films than
are close-ups of other parts of the body.

More serious was the complaint that (of Drag)
'the film darted about from place to place too
much'. On analysis, this was found to concern a
sequence of wind-machine and balance demon-
stration in which (after the general set-up had
been established) close-ups of the scale pan, the
pointer and the object whose drag was being
measured were intercut fairly rapidly. The boys
agreed that they wanted to "stand back and watch
the whole experiment'. At the same time they
criticized the 'waste of time watching all the
weights go on the scale pan one by one", so it is
apparent that the determination of correct tempo
depends largely on the degree of obviousness of
the point being made. This is bound to vary
with different audiences. This came out very
clearly in discussion of a graph illustrating the
fact that the drag of a given object varies as the
square of the velocity. In the film this grap
slowly built up from experimental evidence ob-
tained in the preceding sequence. Long be
really looked like a graph, the boys were mutter-
ing impatiently, anticipating the final form of the
diagram, and in subsequent discussion it came
out that the boys were accustomed to graphical
methods of dealing with these sort of data, and
would have been prepared to leap straight from
the experiment to the finished graph without
intermediate steps. With another audience the
intermediate steps might have been essential, and
it is quite probable that to be ahead of the
instruction once in a while is no bad thing.

It was at this stage that it became e\ idem that
this class of boys were conscious of themselv es as
a group — they discussed the effect that certain
sequences were likely to have on people younger
or older than themselves, and asked what sort of
people the films were made for.

The audience were critical of certain diagrams
and water-flow shots in which white dashes or
dark particles moved right across screen. They
complained that these were 'hard on the eyes'
and that 'it was hard to concentrate on the
particles — hard for the eves to follow — the whole
screen seemed to run away from you.'

Although there is little concrete justification in
the notes of tins discussion, certain doubts were
raised in the minds of the film-makers on the rea
value of the visual analog) technique. On the
whole the images that stuck in the minds of the
members of tins audience were the direct ex-
amples rather than the analog es I sequence
showing stream-lined and non-streamlined Ob-
jects m an air flow made visible by smoke, fo;
instance, had far greater impact than the analog)
Ol .i sliding pack of cards which illustrated the
behaviour of air layers in the boundary region o
an aircraft's skin.

Vi mi. the brief appearance of a ver> person
able voting woman struggling against the wind a:
the beginning of Drag caused quite a stir, but it is

DOCUMENTARN NEWS II I II U

145

loubtfu] whether she alone made the point.
Nevertheless, she probably seised a useful pur-
iose in creating interesl and a desire to watch the
creen — teachers sometimes employ shock I
p force the attention of a class, and tins particu-
.ir sequence can he instilled on this score.

To sum up, it is evident (if indeed it is not well-
nown already) that films of this kind should be
(unctuated and divided into sections; that the
iming should allow breathing space, but should
.ot be so leisurely that the audience gets irritat-
igly far ahead of the film : that the greatest pos-
ible care should be taken to lead the eye to the
ight place in the screen; that screen geography
between shots) should be .1 matter of the utmost
oneein, and that no mistakes or incongruities
hould be permitted. The whole question of
palogy in instructional films deserves careful
lamination. Twentieth century physics relies
:ss and less on sense-experience and sense-
nalogy, and it is probable that a too-lavish use
f analogy in films and other teaching media is
elinitely harmful.

We. the film makers, learned, or were firmly
srninded of, all these points, but the main result
f the afternoon was that we were greatly stimu-
ited. This close contact w ith a real live audience.
1st at the stage of cutting when one never wants
> see the film again, gave us a line injection of
-esh enthusiasm. And we doubt if we should
ave experienced such candour, such quickness
n the point, and such easy discipline of discus-
ion had we assembled thirty adult aerodynami-
■ists to give us their opinion of the films.

For this stimulation alone, the experiment was
/ell worth while, and this method (in contrast to
ie questionnaire method) is within the reach of
ny production unit, and might well be tried at or
ear the end of every film of this type.

CLMK !/. OFFICE OF INFORMATION
SCRIPTWRITING COMPETITION

The Central Office of Information is holding
a competition for documentary film script-
writers. While established film-writers are
not barred from competing, the purpose of
the competition is to discover new talent
among free-lance writers.

The competition is open to all. except em-
ployees of the Central Office of Information.

Competitors are required to write a full
treatment for a short film on ONE of the
following subjects:

'Face the Facts': a film about Britain's post-
war economic problems.
'Get Home Safe and Sound': a film to en-
courage all road users — drivers and pedes-
trians— to co-operate in avoiding accidents.
'Portrait of an Englishman': a film which
says something about the English character,
for overseas audiences.

The films should preferably be one reel
(about ten minutes) in length, and should
certainly not be longer than two reels
(twenty minutes).

A first prize of £75 and a second prize of
£50 will be awarded by the judges.

All competitors will be required to sub-
mit an entry form together with then
ment. Entry forms and full details of con-
ditions of the competition can be obtained
on application to films Division. Central
Ollice of Information, 81-85 Baker Street.
London, Wl.
Closing date will be December 1st, 1947

FILM FACILITIES IN THE PKOYINCES \<>. 2

LEICESTER

By
L. HELLIWELL

iiR has the reputation of being 'a nice
place', a popular opinion not without consider-
able justification, lor apart from its pleasing
physical appearance, the city is attentive to the
mental as well as the material life of its inhabi-
tants In the world of music and the line arts
generally it is held in high regard, and so much is
going on that it is hardly possible for any intelli-
gent and eager person not to find some outlet for
his interest.

The general picture is so very satisfying that
when one comes up against the exception it is
with a jolt. This jolt exists in the world of the
film. If you are satisfied that the film should re-
main only a medium of entertainment and that
the prescribed forms and limits of this entertain-
ment continue to your taste, then you will have
no complaint. Should you incline to the experi-
mental or wish to see films other than the typical
Anglo-American, you will be obliged to see them
priv ately or save up for a visit to 'Town'. In short,
the commercial cinema world of this city of ap-
proximately 250,000 does not cater for any other
than the general.

Possessing 29 cinemas with an approximate
seating capacity of 30,000 (thus giving one seat
for every 8/9 people), Leicester compares very
favourably with other cities of comparable size.
Statistics of numbers of v isits to the cinema by
each inhabitant per week are not available, but
from personal observation it would appear that
Lestrians are more eager patrons of the cinema
than elsewhere. Perhaps then managements can-
not be blamed for keeping to the stereotyped
double feature or 'full supporting' programme.
Sure of full houses and knowing that apprecia-
tion of any film other than "pure' entertainment is
limited, they rarely experiment.

Is it surprising, therefore, that showings of
Continental and other films of an international
reputation have been few and hesitant? They have
been billed, but to have to withdraw a film on the
third day and replace with a dated 'popular' pro-
gramme is a risk managements are reluctant to
take twice I he city does not possess a News' or
repertory cinema ; hence showings of factual
films have been in a casual time-tilling capacity
without pattern or reason. These films rarely
achieve the audience thev deserve, nor is this
audience (which undoubtedly exists) in a position
to see the films it desires. Under these conditions
the tactual film has remained submerged and
only under more courageous management will it
gain a deserved reputation. Regrettably, at
present, there seems no possibility of this.

The use of the film in any other capacity than
entertainment is therefore left to the non-com-
mercial world and here are two ventures that
Leicester can regard with pride I Leicester
Film So ind now having

mbers, has done excellent work. I he aims
ol the Society are summarized as '(a) the showing

of important films which have not been seen in
Leicester. 01 which have had insufficient show-

ing; (/;) the rev i\ ing of classic films of all kinds;
(c) the show mg of < ontinental films ot reasonable
merit to enable members to be familiar with what
is being done there; and (</) the showing of short
films of especial interest. In all cases the films
chosen will be of value to the student of the
history, art and technique of film makin
eagerness to experiment and depth of vision of
this Societj is well illustrated by the selection of
films shown during the last winter: Princess
Kaguya (Japan), Avalanche, Marie Louise (Swit-
zerland), he Jour sc Leve, VHomme qui cherche
la ve'rite (I ranee). Jazz Comedy (USSR). These.
in addition to four outstanding USA films and 23
short films of varying types, indicate the compre-
hensiveness and line judgment of the Society, the
credit of which falls in a large measure to the
energetic guidance of the Film Secret. i.
I R. Cottrill, ba. To the latter also the Societj is
indebted for the excellence of its equipment, hav-
ing, in addition to the latest designed 35 mm pro-
jector, continuously variable tone and volume
control in the hall itself with microphone
attached for commentary.

One department of the local authority also has
been courageous. In 1939 the Public Libraries
Committee of the City Council installed a 35 mm
projector in a new branch library and. since then.
with a break early in the war years, has held
programmes each winter. Their intenlio;
frankly educational through the creation of in-
terest and, by combining films, speakers, and
books on a chosen theme thev aim to increase
public awareness and understanding ol the
problems of the daj .

This utilitarian use of the film is a pioneer effort
to Leicester's credit: many factual films <ap-
proximatelv 50 are shown each winter) which
otherwise would not be seen in the city, find a
select but appreciative audience. The use ol a
speaker guiding the subject to suit local condi-
tions enhances the value of the documentary film,
a method to be commended to other author,

Other than the above, film facilities appear to
be occasional. I he I ducation authority is mak-
ing increasing use of the instructional and travel
film for older scholars. The Leicester ( olleges of
V I and Technology make wide use of the film on
subjects with which the work of the college
concerned, and the Vaughan College each winter
holds a course of Study in film historv. technique
and appreciation I he Museum and \it Gallery
Committee is to use a Id mm tor wider appeal in
its work, and other bodies, adult education.
British I egion and trade associations have in
their turn made occasional use o\ the film to put
over some desued point.

I immari/e. while Leicester has no r<
to be ashamed o\ its film facilities, it is the en-
lightened few who c.irrv the burden The in .
power loi good inherent in the medium is not

fully realized, a situation d<

courageous attitude on the part of the public, the
commercial wot Id and the local author;

146

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

Reprinted from the July issue by kind permission of the 'Screenwriter'

WRITING AND REALIZATION

By

MEYER LEVIN

it takes only a few minutes to write a scene in
which a runaway boy wakes up on a high rocky
ledge in Palestine, to find himself surrounded by
sheep, with an Arab shepherd staring at him.

But when you go to make the scene, in precisely
the spot you had in mind when you wrote it, you
discover that the equipment-truck can only go
within a few hundred yards of the rocks because
the driver does not want to risk his vehicle on a
ploughed field. You help lug the camera equipment
the rest of the way. The shepherd who was to be
there at four o'clock with the sheep is found in a
meadow a mile away at four o'clock, because he
says his sheep could not feed on the rocks. You
push and goad the sheep, but by the time they
reach the scene the cameraman decides that the
light is on the hairline of departure. There may
be time for just one take. Then it is discovered
that the sheep simply will not stay on the rocky
ledge long enough for a take. They scramble
away. Finally you make the scene without the
sheep.

But it isn't what you wrote. At night, worrying
about it, you suddenly realize that the scene was

wrongly written. It should have been goats. So
the next day you decide to try it with goats.

Although there are goatherds all over the
mountainside, there are none within four miles
of this particular spot on the day you want them.
You go to Tiberius and personally lift a sufficient
number of goats on to the truck. You transport
them. You help herd them up the hill. And after
a few dozen major and minor crises, and hours of
toil as a goatherd, Arab-pacifier, reflector-holder
and assistant camera boy, you get the scene that
was so easy to write.

The French have a word for it. They call it
realization.

The realization of Survivors, in Palestine, was
a six-month try to catch a dawn shot, scarcely
an evening that wasn't spent desperately hunting
for a character for tomorrow's scene, because the
one who had been cast had been called away by
his Youth Group for a 'hike'. Every word that
was innocently typed in the script, which was
written in six weeks 'from scratch', later entailed
laborious hours of realization. And yet, as the
writer, I could not permit myself to feel that the

rublic
Relationship
t Urns Ltd

.tvichard lVLassingham in charge of production

29 WHITEHALL, LONDON, S.W. I * WHITEHALL 4OOO

final responsibility of realization could rest en-
tirely with someone else.

In a studio set-up, it is simple for the writer to
say that what he wrote was beautiful, but that
after the script departed from his hands any
number of people mangled and butchered it far
beyond recognition. While this is usually true,
there are surely times when every writer in his
soul smiles at the task he has given the producers
and directors, knowing that what he has so easily
written is most difficult to realize, and inwardly
glad that he does not have to take the responsi-
bility for putting it on the screen.

Conversely, and more often, the writer aches
with the apprehension that what he has written
cannot exactly and precisely be understood, I
through the words themselves; he feels that an> I
realizer, however talented, is bound to get the j
atmosphere or the emphasis wrong, and knows I
that the only true way to make films is for the
writer to be present throughout the shooting and I
to have at least as much control as anyone else in I
the realization.

Few writers ever get such an opportunity. Bui I
with the increasing trend toward story-documen-
tary technique, stimulated by the successful ex-
periments produced during the war. these oppor-
tunities are increasing. And when Herbert Kline
and I set out to make our Palestine film, it \sas
agreed that this was to be the method. I would
assume equal production responsibility and have
equal production authority with him. He would
direct the film, but the realization had to con-
form to the intention of the script.

As it worked out in practice. Kline acted as my
producer while I was writing the script, I acted
as his producer while he was directing the film

It need not be imagined that this procedure is
perfect and that it always works harmoniously.
Nor does it mean that each lakes responsibility
for the merits of the other's work. In the end, the
w riting stands on its own and the direction standi
on its own. But although the French often use the
word realization in the same way that we use the
word direction, it reflects only their oxer-empha-
sis on the role of the director of films, for the
realization in this type of film is trul> the work of
both, and I believe that writers may justifiably
insist that it is part o( their function in all film-
making to have such a share in realization.

As joint producers we decided from the K
ginning that in the case o( severel) dispute,
scenes, where we could arri\e at no agreement .
to the method of filming, we would film both ve"
sions and decide which to use when we sa 1
what they looked like on the screen. It becan 11
necessary to do this in only three or foi
instances.

To the making of Survivors, I brought a cor
turning interest in Palestine that had begun Wit I
m\ first visit to the count rv in 1925. I had ak<

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

147

specialized, as a war correspondent, in the story
of the fate of the Jews of Europe. The film, Kline
and I agreed, was to show w hat Palestine could
io for the survivors.

Kline brought to the project his experience as a
■ory-documentary producer, being especially
icnovvn for The Forgotten Village, But each of us
had worked in the other's field, for he had colla-
borated on screenvvriting assignments, while I
had worked as a documentary film director in
OWI.

Having agreed upon the theme of the story,
there followed a consideration of what had to go
into the story. During all my years of contact
with Palestine I had collected 'must' scenes for
i film about the country. On every one of my
"our previous trips I had discovered some view,
or some activity, which I felt must eventually go
into the film. And I had, in fact, first proposed
the idea of a Palestine film to Kline in Spain in
1937; we had never quite let the subject drop.

I knew, for instance, that the story must show
what life was like in a Palestine farm collective;
it must include a horra — the settlers' dance — and
it must include an aliyah — the going up to the
site of a new colony, which is collectively built in
a single day. It must include an illegal landing. It
must include the view of the wilderness of Judea
and the Dead Sea from Jerusalem-Jericho road.
It must include the view of the Emek from the
Haifa road. It must, of course, include the Sea of
Galilee and the Jordan. It had to contain a se-
quence thai could be played on the campus of the
Hebrew University, with the awesome back-
ground of the Dead Sea on one side and the
spiritual view of Jerusalem on the opposite side
of Mount Scopus.

The film-story would have to make an oppor-
tunity for a sequence in the old city of Jerusalem;
it would have to make use of the complex Iradi-
J lions and emotions that were attached to the
« sights of the Via Dolorosa and of the dark lanes
«1 ijand huddled synagogues of the old city; it would
have to show the progressive force and spirit of
ui the new city, too.

And apart from all the physically obligatory
scenes, the places that had to be in the picture
because of their beauty, or their historic and
spiritual connection, there were the mandatory
requirements of the life in the country. Something
of the cultural life had to be shown, through the
city of Tel Aviv — perhaps the theatres or the
symphony orchestra. Something of the industrial
life of the country had to come into the story,
either showing the manufacturing complex in
Haifa harbour, or perhaps the diamond industry
of Nathanyah, or the potash works of the Dead
Sea.

And finally, the pioneering aspects of land re-
clamation had to come into any story of Pales-
tine, and for this, the new drive toward settling
the desert of the Negev was the ob\ ions answer.

Plainly, there were enough 'must' items for the
construction of a full-length documentary film.
If we could hope to get them all in, we needed a
story of movement— a chase, or a search,
i Usually, writers fee! that the inclusion of obli-
gatory scenes hampers them. But sometimes one
feels these scenes is a challenge to invention. \nd
since in this case most of the requirements had
ariginated with myself, there could be no com-
plaint.

In the end they were all solved, through the

story of a boy's search for his family. The central
motif of the story echoed in mj mind from the
story of every survivor I had met in the liberated
camps and on the roads of Europe, during and
immediately after the war. The first and con-
suming quest of each was for the remnants of his
family. Indeed, 1 somewhat caught their ob-
session, and for many weeks almost dropped my
work as a journalist in order to collect lists of
survivors, with the names of the kin they hoped
to find and spread these lists wherever they might
be useful.

One story emerged from the rest. It was the
story of a little boy in Buchenwald who refused
to leave the camp when liberation came because
his father had been at the camp with him and
his father, w hen taken away on a work-party, had
told the child 'don't go away from here — wait
here for me until I come back. Otherwise we will
never find each other".

This became transmuted into the story of a
child whose father, when being taken away with
the rest of the family on a deportation train, told
the child to run and hide in the woods, 'you will
find us in Palestine'.

The child then arrives in Palestine with a group
landed illegally by the Hagana; from the first
moment he reveals his obsession that he will find
his family in Palestine. As the group is taken, by
truck, to a settlement in lower Galilee it becomes
possible, by following the truck, to disclose such
views as Mount Tabor in the pre-dawn and the
Sea of Galilee in dawn.

The life of a typical settlement is revealed as
the refugees l>egin to adjust themselves to their
new home, and as the children try to befriend the
bo I (avid. Rut he rebuffs them, and runs awaj
in search of his own family.

David trades an arm) jack-knife for a ride on
an Arab bov's donkey, and through their run-
away episode we see more details of the shores of
Galilee and the life of the region. The relation-
ship between David and the Arab boy, and be-
tween the settlement and the Arab boy's village,
serves in a most natural way to illustrate the
typical workaday relationships on the ground
level, between Arabs and Jews.

The runaway episode is halted when the don-
key gives birth to a foal; the boys are I
back home and David is given the foal. But as it
cries for its mother, he carries it back, wading
across the Jordan which is between the Jewish
settlement and the Arab village. Later, it is
decided at a meeting of the settlement that David
shall be sent to a children's village, where he will
be among other boys like himself, with a chance
for special care toward adjustment.

This time in the daylight, the truck passes on
the Haifa road, through the Emek, past oil re-
fineries; it stops in Haifa, where David learns
that a ship of legal immigrants is entering the
port; he hopes to find someone from his family
on the ship.

After his further disappointment in the port, the
story progresses to the children's village; on the

(Continued on page 14s,

THE UNIT WITHI

Realist Film Unit has been making documentary
and instructional films since 1937. During the
last two years a Unit under the Educational
Supervision of Dorothy Grayson, B.Sc, has
completed ten classroom films. This 'unit within'
is now preparing, shooting or completing eight
films.

REALIST FILM UNIT

Member of the Federation of Documentary Film Units

9 GREAT CHAPEL STREET W I

Telephone Gerrard 1958

148

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

first night he quarrels with the boys who insist he
is an orphan like all the rest of them, he has a
iight and runs away again.

Through means of this flight, it is possible to
show glimpses of Arab shepherd life, and of
Caesaria, and finally of the new city of Tel Aviv.
Here he is led to seek his family amongst the
members of the Palestine Philharmonic orches-
tra, for one of the \ iol mists bears David's family
name, Halevi.

David interrupts a rehearsal, where a new
Palestine folk symphony is being performed.
But the violinist is not from David's country
Poland. However, someone knows of a Halevi
from Poland, working at the Dead Sea potash
plant.

Again the boy's journey leads through a sec-
tion of unforgettable Palestine landscape — this
time as he rides a bus down the Jericho road. He
passes through the potash works, where Jews
and Arabs labour side by side and finds Yehuda
Halevi; the worker pretends to be his uncle.

As the boy begins to find himself at home with
the Halevis, the life of the community is felt—
the Sabbath by the Dead Sea, the visit to the
neighbouring settlement, the chatter of Palestin-
ian children about their vast projects for electri-
fying and irrigating the country.

But when David discovers that Halevi is not
really his uncle he runs away for the last time —
to find the office in Jerusalem where, he has heard,
there is a record of all the families that have been
found. On his journey through the wilderness, he
is helped by an Arab merchant who takes the boy
to Jerusalem on his camel-train. They enter by
the Gate of St Stephen. The boy becomes lost in
the maze of the old city and is helped by two
priests who find him on the Via Dolorosa. They
take him to his own people in the Jewish quarter.
(Here, we deliberately avoided the Wailing Wall.)
The boy enters a synagogue and from there is
directed to the new city.

With a troop of children masquerading for
Purim, he at last finds the 'office where they have
the names'. This Search Bureau for Missing
Relatives is actually housed under an ancient
ruin, between the new and old cities and the long
files of family-records, in the catacombs, provide
a perfect background for the climatic moment
when David discovers that his family is dead.

In his collapse, he has a reversion to infancy.
He is taken to the Haddassah hospital on Mount
Scopus and there his friends from the first settle-
ment find him. In his phase of infancy he identi-

fies the refugee woman who has befriended him
and the leader of the settlement Hagana as
'mamma' and 'papa'.

This moment fuses the story of the child with
the story of the refugee woman and her problem
is revealed in the following scene, which takes
place on the campus of the Hebrew University,
adjacent to the hospital.

The story moves on to the establishment of a
new colony in the Negev by the refugees, together
with a Palestinian youth group. The child is
brought to the settlement.

In ploughing, a stone is turned up bearing an
ancient inscription with the name Halevi.
Through this incident the boy is brought back to
reality, in this symbol he finds his family.

The course of this story provided the inclusion
of all the self-imposed obligatory scenes, and yet
provided this in such a way that every setting
added to the dramatic potential of the tale.

While it was the director's task to realize the
scenes in terms of acting, the finding of the precise
locations and the enlistment of the people of each
place for authentic background usually fell to the
writer. Partly, this was due to my working know-
ledge of Hebrew and partly to my long familiarity
with the country and with Jewish customs. For
though the film was made with English-speaking
participants the work in the entourage was
usually conducted in Hebrew.

While all of Palestine was extremely excited by
our film project, and more than ready to co-
operate, the very intensity of interest sometimes
caused difficulties. For the smallest participant
wanted to be sure that our point of view was
acceptable and every scene was scrupulously in-
vestigated. As the population is intelligent and
hyper-sensitive this often led to delays and to
discussions and explanations which would seem
tryingly protracted under ordinary circumstances.
In addition to allaying the suspicion of the poli-
tical groups and of the Arabs, there were difficul-
ties of tradition to overcome.

My script for instance envisaged a scene in a
synagogue in the Old City. Now, almost all
orthodox Jews consider photography as forbid-
den under the command not to make graven
images. How could one 'realize' such a scene?

I found the leader of the old-city community
and got him to show me an ancient, beautiful,
little synagogue behind his own house. It was
named, he told me, the Ohr Chayim — the Li\ ing

Light. It so happens that I wrote a book of
Chassidic tales some years ago and knew that the
Ohr Chayim was one of the great rabbis of that
mystical sect.

This communion of information, coming from
an unorthodox American Jew, was the opening
point. We discussed Chassidism for hours. And
finally we were permitted to film our scene in the
holiest of Old City synagogues.

In the completed film there are, of course,
many things which I feel might have been differ-
ent, and many things which the director feels
might have been different, had there been fewer
practical difficulties — such as the curfew, which
usually struck as we had finished three hours of
preparations and were ready to film. But these
are the limitations of the method of shooting in
live locations; in return you get the quality of life.

As a writer, I believe the labour I put in for six
months, after the six weeks I spent in writing the
script, was necessary for the fulfilment of an
author's responsible share in the realization of
this type of film. The goats are among the rocks —
even if I had to carry' them there myself.

CORRESPONDENCE

DEAR SIR,

With reference to your reviewer's comments on
my book British Film Music, may I correct him
on two points of fact? First, I did not say that the
GPO Unit became known as Crown Film Unit
in 1939: (Page 106 . . . 'Although the name was
not altered until some months after the outbreak
of World War II, the GPO Unit became in effect
the Crown Film Unit a few hours after Premier
Neville Chamberlain had announced the fateful
news that Britain was at war . . .' I

Secondly, in the case of the film October Man.
Kenneth Pakeman wrote three short pieces of
music before the film went into production for
use in the film ; subsequently, the music was not
used in the final version and William Alwyn was
called in to provide the entire score for the
picture.

I have to thank the reviewer for his correction
in the case of Stricken Peninsula.

JOHN HUNTLE1

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ON! Sllll

mis issue: Edinburgh in Review; Sir Stafford Cripps and t1
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(Member of Federation of Documentary Film Units)

'The Blackheath Film Unit, who would
scarcely claim to be educational special-
ists, have produced in Sugar from Britain a
film that has practically everything for the
serious geographer. If there are any to
complain that the pace is too pedestrian,
the content too factual, they would be of
the type that subconsciously expects in
the classroom the fireworks and fantasy
of the local cinema. For those who believe
with me that in education, at least, we
should have good wholesome bread with
our circuses, Sugar from Britain is the right
sort of food.

'In the first place, the subject, the pro-
duction of beet-sugar in this country, is of
paramount importance. Then the pre-
sentation is beyond praise. From first shot
to last, from the sowing of the beet seed
to the weighing and packing of the sugar,
the camera has been carefully placed to
impart maximum clarity to the point at
issue; and whenever photography is in-
adequate, diagrams are inserted. The ac-
companying commentary completes an
ensemble of thoroughness and substanti-
ality, explaining a process here, adding a
few statistics there. There is enough
information to satisfy the most exacting
requirements.'

From Look and Listen's review by

W. G. Moore, BSc.

SUGAR FROM BRITAIN

was made by

BLACKHEATH
FILM UNIT LTD

9 North Street

LEATHERHEAD SURREY

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

Editorial Board: Stephen Ackroyd, Donald Alexander, Max Anderson, Edcar Anstey, Geoflrcy Bell, Ken Cameron, Paul Flatcbar, Sinclail Road, Onlume Tharp, Bad WligM
Editor: Davide Boultini S|l>" »nJ Account*: I'.KKy HuKhis

"NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 1947 VOL 6 NO 60 PUBLISHED BY FILM CENTRE 34 SOHO SQUARE LONDON WI

149 QUESTIONS TO THE KRS

150 NOTES OF THE MONTH

151 EXTRACT FROM GRIERSON
152-154 EDINBURGH IN REVIEW

155 BOUQUETS DEPARTMENT

156 SIR STAFFORD CRIPPS AT THE ASFP

157 PRODUCTION OF A COI FILM

158 JEAK— A DOCUMENTARY CLOSE-UP

159 NEW DOCUMENTARY FILMS

160 CORRESPONDENCE

161 THE DEATH OF MAJOR DOCUMENTARIES?

162 THE EDINBURGH FILM GUILD
163-164 FILM REVIEWS— DANISH

Annual subscription 6s. (published six times a year)

Bulk orders up to SO copies for schools and Film Societies

QUESTIONS TO THE KRS

at the September Council Meeting of the Kinematograph Renters'
Society the Film Society movement was condemned as a 'breeding
ground for the leaders of anti-film attacks'. It would be interesting
to know the exact meaning of the statement, but it's not difficult to
understand this sudden feeling of antagonism on the part of the
KRS towards the Film Societies.

Since the arrival of the import tax, re-issues have suddenly be-
come important — important to the renters. Up till now, the Film
Societies have been big customers of re-issues and, therefore, the
KRS feels a cool breeze and develops a stiff neck in that direction.

But has the KRS ever stopped seriously to think about Film
Societies and about the films they show? We wonder just what the
KRS knows about the matter; maybe it will not be out of order if
we give here a short resume of the development and activities of
Film Societies. It might even reach the eyes of the KRS and con-
vince them that they are conceivably looking through the wrong
end of the telescope.

The Film Society movement began in England with the forma-
tion of the London Film Society in 1925. The aims were 'to show
a group of films which are in a degree interesting and which repre-
sent work that has been done, or is being done, experimentally in
various parts of the world'. Before the war there were 40 Societies
in England but during 1939 this number dropped to 23. In 1945
an English and Welsh Federation of Film Societies was set up with
the thirty members. There are now about 75 General Societies and
50 Scientific Film Societies, the latter represented by the SFA. A
rough membership estimate of both ordinary and scientific groups
works out at a total of about 65,000.

The Societies have had to fight their way along. Local authori-
ties with a few exceptions (notably the London County Council)
have been unco-operative. Watch Committees have been active in
setting themselves up as censors over the films which the Societies
wish to show. But never before have the Film Societies also had to
stand out against the renters.

It is worth considering the type of programmes planned. In
early days, documentary had a big place — it was through these

shows that the early work of the documentary film producers
became more widely known. Russian films banned by the censors
such as Battleship Potemkin could only be seen by members this
particular film has never had theatrical distribution in England.
Modern programmes are heavily overloaded in the direction of
French feature films; Danish, Czech, Italian and Russian work
is included. Documentaries from all countries are shown as well
as the best English features. Naturally Hollywood has a place also
in the programme — 'Classics' such as the Grapes of Wrath, Of
Mice and Men and the Chaplin films appear time and time again.

But, in looking over all available programmes for the last year
it would seem that there are very few occasions where any Film
Society bills a film which has been a big box-office draw all over
the country. On the other hand, many of the films shown to mem-
bers and receiving the most enthusiastic receptions are ones which
either have never had full theatrical distribution or have proved
disappointing in terms of box-office receipts.

The average weekly attendance at the cinemas is in the neigh-
bourhood of 20,000,000 at the worst. We have said that Film
Society membership is about 65,000. Is it possible that an annual
membership of 65,000 can have any effect on a weekly attendance
of over 20,000,000? On the other hand, 10 million adults do not
go to the cinema at all — it is reasonable to suppose that some of
these people are Film Society members. We must also remember
that most groups do not hold shows all the year round the most
usual arrangement appears to be fortnightly throughout the winter
months. In ouher words, anj effect which Film Society membership
might have on attendance at general cinemas is very, %erv small
and, on the whole, the members go to their Society shows to sec
films which they cannot sec at the 'local'

In other words may we respectfully pose two questions to the
KRS on behalf of the Film Societies? I hese .:

ic) What is meant by saying that the Film Societ) movement is a
'breeding ground tor leaders of anti-film attacks' '

(6) Do the renters feci that their interest! a: e being threatened
by the existence of Film Societies ' I: ■

150

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

NOTES OF THE MONTH

The Cover Still on this issue is the Title Card from Chants Populairrs (No. 5)
made by National Film Board of Canada

International Scientific Film Association

the congress held in Paris from October 2nd to the 9th, 1947,
arranged jointly by the Institut de Cinematographic Scientifique
and the Scientific Film Association, came to a very successful con-
clusion with a unanimous decision by the delegates to form forth-
with The International Scientific Film Association.

A provisional constitution for this new international organiza-
tion, which will, of course, require subsequent ratification, was
agreed by the delegates from 22 different countries.

Under this provisional constitution the International Association
will have a main meeting each year, but between these main meet-
ings, the affairs of the Association will be managed by a council
comprising five officers and seven other members.

The Association will be concerned with all aspects of scientific
film matters. As a start, however, to its work, it was agreed that
invitations to join the Association should be sent to those countries
who had not been represented at the Congress in Paris. In addition,
the exchange of information through the office of the Association
(which will be established in Paris at an early date) will forthwith
commence on those scientific and technical films that are already
available for exchange, on methods of appraisal and on Customs
regulations on the exchange of films.

Moreover, following the agreement that concurrently with each
annual meeting of the International Association, which will be
held in different countries by invitation, there should be held a
screening of new scientific and technical films, the British delega-
tion were asked to arrange for the 1948 Congress to held in Great
Britain in October, 1948. Arrangements to this end are immediately
being put in hand by the Scientific Film Association of Great
Britain.

Conference in Manchester

the Education Committee of the Scientific Film Association is hold-
ing its annual Conference in Manchester (at the University) on
Friday, Saturday and Sunday, November 21st/23rd, in conjunction
with the Manchester University, the City of Manchester Education
Committee and the Manchester Scientific Film Society.

The subject of this year's Conference will be the Visual Unit
including films, film strips, wall charts and teachers' handbooks. Two
Visual Units will be shown in their entirety, one dealing with water
supply and the other with local studies.

H. D. Hughes, MP, Chairman of the Committee for the Prepara-
tion and Production of Visual Aids, R. J. Thorn, Secretary of the
National Committee for Visual Aids in Education, and Mrs Mar-
couse of the Ministry of Education will speak about what has been
done to develop this teaching tool and will discuss plans for the
future.

Other speakers will include members of the production teams
responsible for the visual units demonstrated.

We hope that the Conference will be well attended. A report of it
will be included in our next issue.

Un-American

the most un-American aspect of the present Congressional inquiry
into un-American activities is the inquiry itself. The investigating
committee seems determined to make nonsense of the very consti-
tution of the United States. Set against the garish background of
Hollywood, the investigation has recently taken on a nightmarish
character. In a courtroom got up like a stage set, defending
attorneys find themselves being forcibly ejected amid howls of
'throw that bum out'. Stars, with attendant trains of fans, fall
over themselves in the rush to tar and feather the next man. But
those who seem so anxious to pin the label of 'red' on to their
colleagues are likely to find that they have stuck a far nastier label
on themselves. To their credit a number of film people have come
out strongly against this fantastic witch hunt. In fact, the com-
mittee may find that the glare of Hollywood publicity has shown
up its activities in their true light.

Good twopence worth

concern for the nation's culture is, unfortunately, a rare quality
among political organizations. The Communist Party is, therefore,
to be congratulated on its timely Memorandum on the Film In-
dustry. An analysis of the present control and tendencies of the
medium, and of the 75 per cent tax and the alternatives that have
been suggested is followed by practical proposals designed 'not
only ... to reduce the present dollar tribute, but ... to readjust the
industry along lines restoring its national independence and ensur-
ing a better service to the community'. Selling at twopence, this
document deserves the serious consideration of all who are inter-
ested in the national and cultural values of the cinema.

We've had it too!

further to the remark on Mr Rank which was published in a
paper in the Russian sector of Berlin and reprinted by us in our
last issue, we'd like to point out that Mr Rank's is not the only
portion of the British film industry which comes under review.
Here is a short extract from a digest of an article in Soviet Art.
(August 15th.)

'The writer begins by saying that unlike the Soviet document-
ary cinema, neither the American nor the English documentary
cinema has ever been interested in reflecting on the screen the
fundamental principles of reality, though both have attained a
certain skill in the reproduction of events. The Anglo-American
documentary cinema sets itself a quite different task — to stupefy
the spectator with lies. For this purpose it produces, for instance,
pseudo-ethographical films with the stamp of intentional
thoughtlessness upon them, showing a 'colonial paradise', these
films aim to falsify reality in the most shameless way. while
colonial 'feature' films, novels and essays contain the same ideo-
logy. Primitive propaganda films on the lines of film posters
are also produced. Finally, there are films of an openly advertis-
ing character. No wonder that one of the British film firms en-
gaged in the production of documentary films is subsidized by a
gas company!'

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

151

'Time for Enquiry' is the title of an article by John Grierson
published by the Albyn Press in 'DOCUMENTARY 47'. We
give below a few of the main points, but we hope that readers
will read the whole article. Comments are welcomed — as an
introduction we give :

A good deal of gloom surrounds the British documentary opera-
tion in this summer of 1947. 1 think the situation is urgent and war-
rants an immediate official enquiry if a great national asset is to be
saved from damage, and most important needs of the State in the
field of information are to be imaginatively fulfilled. But first let us
see the problem in proportion.

The complaint takes various forms. Something— the best ones say
— is going out of documentary, and in fact why are they so full and
why did we not make such a show at Brussels as we once did with
the Song of Ceylon and sundry other minor masterworks of the
moment? Far too many units, it appears, are going into instructional
work in plain avoidance of the difficulty of revealing in dramatic
or poetic or other creative form, the stubborn social material of
the day.

The films are slack for lack of fire, and so are the boys who make
them, runs the criticism. There are shocking stories of people of
talent doing nothing for a year and losing their competence. Pro-
duction procedure lacks the tempo which is essential for creative
work and there are endless dying delays as between the film makers,
the sponsors and the people of the Treasury. Committee production,
I am told, has raised its ugly head to the point where films are killed
in the script by bureaucratic indecision.

It is said that the economies and administrations of the units are
not always as orderly as they might be, and that many of their
efforts could be better co-ordinated. It is doubted in some quarters
whether production by thirty to forty units with separate overheads
and sometimes insufficient resources can represent an efficient
system.

I therefore suggest that the solution does not lie outside the terms
of public sponsorship but, on the other hand, lies in deliberately and
patiently working to make that sponsorship an imaginative sponsor-
ship. This is where the emphasis should now lie. Criticisms which do
not recognize this task, and defections which are merely impatient,
do not greatly help.

There is criticism on both sides. The units charge the sponsors,
and particularly the Government sponsors, with a lack of decisive-
ness and a lack of imagination. They say they have lost the concep-
tion of a total driving plan for the use of the documentary film in
the urgent service of the nation. The sponsors, on the other hand,
say that the film makers are too independent by half and cannot be
relied on to deliver efficiently or even to deliver what they have
undertaken to deliver, and finally that the boys are so full of small
politics these days that nary a one of them has time to throw his
cap over a steeple.

I agree when people say that, without imaginative support from
the sponsors, imaginative films are impossible. I even sympathize a
little when people talk of throwing up the Government relationship
altogether and re-discovering their freedom. But I still conclude that
it is a suicidal attitude and not realistic, either socially or aesthetic-
ally.

The situation calls for a new measure of mutual confidence and a
new measure of leadership on both sides. As for the documentary
people, I would have them count their blessings, even if they find
their rations short. Where elsewhere has the documentary idea been
so richly maintained even when a good deal of formless stuff which
neither taught nor revealed was passed off in its good name? Where
elsewhere have so many companies been maintained in such con-
tinuity of public work that they have come to expect it, no matter
what administrative shapes they gave themselves?

As for the sponsors, they are fortunate at this time to have a

EXTRACT

FROM

GRIERSON

school of film-makers at their disposition who, whatever their foibles
have made a profession of this realistic field of cinema and have
remained faithful to it. With better organization, they represent an
essential asset to Britain at this juncture, because there is much in
these days of change which the British public needs to clear its
vision and strengthen its will for the job ahead.

Perhaps the documentary people are not at the moment so
vigorous in new ideas as they might be, but who, pray, is? The gap
created is a spiritual one which is evident everywhere. The docu-
mentary people are part of a larger picture, and there is no great
difference between the frustrations of the COI and the frustrations
of the units who think they are afflicted by it. Neither are yet at the
stage of seeing where the positive way of the public will flies, and
who can blame them when the leaders themselves flounder in equal
uncertainty? I would say that the so-called 'dullness of documentary'
is not yet a disaster. Only its defection from the service of reality
could be.

In this matter, the documentary people have, of necessity, to look
to the brightness of their creative weapons and the methods by which
they work. The situation calls for an examination of what they are
doing on every level of talent to take the documentary film beyond
the level of mere technical proficiency and into the world of imagina-
tive interpretation. They cannot continue to live on the word 'docu-
mentary' itself, nor on its successful contribution to educational
theory, nor on its reputation of practical achievement in the hard
days of the war.

I do not want to push the point too far in a difficult situation, but
I do not like the loss of direct and confident relationship between the
artist and the Government official; and I am bound to think that if
something is going out of documentary, it is because something has
gone from its essential underpinnings. Ground has to be made up.
A notable understanding of the needs of the nation is the first condi-
tion of a positive, fresh and imaginative contribution toward their
fulfilment.

The second condition may lie in recognizing the need to reorganize
the documentary business, and radically, from an administrative
point of view. There was never a time when anyone could say of the
documentary people that they took personal advantage from the
work they did, or served their own comfort. I have been told a
hundred times over that this was silly and that we could never hold a
group together on such a basis. But the documentary people did so,
and, even when my friend Lejeune speaks dividing words now, this
she must allow.

Where Miss Lejeune has something, and where I must at this
moment speak out, is in saying that now is not the time for com-
placency. I do not think the documentary people can afford the
independent luxury of so many units. I do not think the> can afford
the present high cost of films. I do not think they cm afford the
present laboriousness in which a film is conceived, or the present
tempo in which it is made. We cannot afford it for the simple reason
that we are shooing our sponsors away.

Short of a proper enquiry, I have myself no conclusions to oiler.
I simpls want the documentary film in Britain to be even better in
the public service than it has been before. I want the documentary
group to be in the vanguard of the national effort and an example
of good sense and discipline in the creation of the future. Above all,
I do not want the documentary group to wait around for things to
happen to it from the outside, when now. as i( has always done, it
can write its own brave ticket. It requires, however, a special effort;
and I think now, and not later, is the time for it.

152

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

The first International Festival of Documentary Films was held at Edinburgh from August 31st to September 7th, concurrently with the three weeks' Festival
of Music and Drama.

Organized by the Edinburgh Film Guild, with the assistance of a widely representative committee and the co-operation of the Central Office of Information
the Festival was designed: (1) To present for the first time a world view of documentary achievement by showing examples of the best realistic production
from many countries, and (2) To create an opportunity for the reconsideration and re-assessment of the principles and methods of the documentary
movement.

The Festival was opened by a ceremony at the Playhouse cinema on the first Sunday afternoon. Speeches of welcome were made before the films by the
Rt Hon Sir John I. Falconer, Lord Provost of Edinburgh; John Grierson, Director of Mass Communications UNESCO; and Norman Wilson, Chairman of
the Ldinburgh Film Guild. Subsequently there was a programme of films at the Playhouse in the evening. During the following week there were twice daily
film shows at the Guild Theatre, Film House, a Show at the Central Hall, Tollcross, organized by the Scottish Educational Film Association, and the
Festival concluded with an afternoon and evening film show at the Playhouse cinema. In all seventy films from seventeen different countries were shown to
an audience totalling over five thousand, a figure which, judging from the numbers turned away daily, would have been very much higher if more accommodation
had been available at the Guild Theatre.

DNL PRESENTS

EDINBURGH IN REVIEW

Introductory Note

The assessment of foreign films presents a number of problems. Obviously t rue criticism can only be applied in relationship to the conditions prevailing in
the country of origin and the audience for which the film is intended. In the absence of such knowledge, and hampered in many cases by an ignorance of
language, it is easy to underestimate the significance or effect of a film for the purpose for which it was designed. Viewed under the conditions of the Festival
the impact of any film becomes a very individual matter, and it is clear that there will be frequent differences of opinion due to the varying knowledge of
each viewer. A relatively unimportant film about a country or people of which one knows little, may, for example, when seen with a number of others seem
more interesting than one in which the background is familiar.

In making this survey of the films shown at the Festival, the attempt has been tnade to keep these points in mind, but with such a large number of films
to cover it has proved impossible to publish full critical reviews of every film. We have therefore been obliged to limit this survey to a short statement of the
theme of the film, together with a few comments which may serve as a guide to their value, assessed from the opinions of a number of independent observers.
Inevitably such comments must leave much unsaid, particularly as regards British films, many of which will be the subject of longer reviews in our regular
columns, but we hope that our readers will be able to get from them some idea of the total picture which the films at the Festival presented.

No exact details of length have been obtainable; the running times given should therefore only be regarded as an indication of whether a film is a one-
reeler or five. Most of the foreign films shown at the Festival are not obtainable in this country. Viewers interested in any particular film are advised to
seek information from the Embassy of the country concerned.

To the team of reviewers who made this survey possible, documentary news letter extends its thanks.

Playhouse. Sunday. August 31st. Afternoon

commentary in English, and too frequent reminders of
Stalin. This is a record rather than a documentary film,
though the attempt is made to relieve the monotony by
Opening ceremony. Films from Britain, Denmark and the gHm«ses of the countries from which ^ch g^p comes.

USSR

Comment. A simple lyrical story with superb photography
and commentary. The film gives no real picture of life in
Assam — but it was not intended to; within its own terms
of reference, it is a fine piece of filmcraft.

1. Cumberland Story {Britain. 50 mins.)
Theme. New methods and new machinery can bring renewed
life to the coal mines and new hope for the men who work
there. The film tells the story of the finding and working of
an old seam, lost in a mining disaster a century before.
Comment. Well made and in places exciting. Nationaliza-
tion, it is implied, will do in all pits what was done in this
one; but the characters never really come to life and we are
left with our doubts. As a story the film holds attention; as
a moral for the mining industry as a wnole, it fails to con-
vince, and the ending is flat. Why, if the film is believed,
with present good intentions, with nationalization and a
five-day-week, is there still so much wrong with the mining
industry? There are deeper pioblems which this story does
not tackle or even hint at.

2. The Seventh Age (Denmark. 18 mins.)

Theme. Old-age pensioners in Denmark. A survey of the
system for the distribution of pensions, and arrangements
made by the State to house those without resources of tbeir
own.

Comment. A balanced and satisfying account of its subject,
with a commentary in English. Apart from the story it tells
of a fine social service, this film is remarkable for its
warmth, humanity and simple common sense. The problems
of old age are shown with real understanding.

3. The Festival of Youth (USSR. 50 mins.)

Theme The parade of national representatives of youth
from every part of the USSR before the Soviet leaders in
the Leningrad Stadium in 1946. Shot in Agfacolour.

Comment. For fifty minutes the eye is dazzled by a whirl of
dancing and marching in some of the finest colour yet seen
on the screen. But it is loo long and marred by a chauvinistic

The Playhouse. Sunday evening

Films from Poland, Australia, Britain and France

1. Native Earth (Australia. 14 mins.)

Theme. Australian colonial administration in New Guinea.
The film discusses the exploitation of the natives before the
war; shows the part which they played during it, and ends
with the attempts now being made to develop them for self-
government.

Comment. A frank and fast-moving account, which, though
in places faintly self-righteous, makes its points well without
over-elaboration.

2. Student of Brcslau (Poland. 11 mins.)

Theme. The rebuilding of university life in war-torn Poland.
The students themselves repair their halls and lecture
rooms. Everything is short, so alongside their studies even
the students must work for their living at ordinary jobs. But
life is not all work, and there are lighter moments when the
students, like youth everywhere, dance and flirt.

Comment. Direction and camera-work poor. To British eyes
the film is dull and unimaginative. An understanding of the
commentary would have helped. In Poland the film prob-
ably has a considerable propaganda value.

3. A String of Beads (Britain. 28 mins.)

Theme. Love in the tea wardens of Assam. Boy buys beads
for his girl in the market. A marriage is arranged and a
baby is born.

4. Farrebique (France. 96 mins.)

Theme. The life of a peasant family through the four seasons
of the year on a farm in south-western France. Every detail
is followed, births, deaths, the rotation of crops and the
perennial question as to whether the farm shall be rebuilt.

Comment. This is a film of the earth earthy. Everything is
real even to the pdtois dialect — which apparently the French
themselves cannot understand. Sensitive, slow as the people
themselves, packed with a lyrical symbolism, this film is
redolent of a nostalgia for the land. Whether you like it, is
a matter of taste. Either you will think it a piece of arty
fandango which goes on too long, or you will think it a
masterpiece.

Guild Theatre. Monday, 2.30 and 8

Films from Yugoslavia, Australia, France. Britain and the
United Nations Organization

1. Youth Railway (Yugoslavia. 40 mins.)

Theme. Many regions of Yugoslavia have been unconnected
for centuries by any but the most primitive forms of trans-
port. To bring the railway into Eastern Bosnia after the war.
youth brigades from every part of the country are mobilized.
The film shows how these young men and women succeeded
in their job with only the simplest tools.

Comment. Wasteful of its natural drama, this film is crude
and repetitive, but it impresses by its raw vitality. If the
English commentator could have ceased her exhortations
for a moment to allow the camera to speak for itself the
result might have been a film of major importance. Neverthe-
less as a record of how something valuable was created, and
as a reminder of what can be done by sheer enthusiasm, the
film has a lasting effect.

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

153

2. Indonesia Calling {Australia. 20 mins.)
Theme. When, after the war, the Dutch were trying to
reconquer Indonesia and suppress the Republic, the
Australian waterfront workers struck to prevent the sailing
of ships carrying soldiers and war material. The film tells
the story of how this sttike, supported by seamen of many
colours and nationalities, halted the Dutch effort .it a
critical time and gave the Indonesians a breathing space.

Comment. Made under conditions of considerable difficulty,
this film has rough edges. As a record of international
co-operation in a common cause, it is stimulating and
exciting.

3. The People's Charter ( United \ations Organization. 20
mins. )

Theme. An account of the world needs that brought the
United Nations Organization into existence. The film tells
how the charter was signed, and appeals to ordinary people
everywhere to make it work.

Comment. Built up from library material in a March of Time
style, the film has a disproportionate significance against
the background of present international politics. If its
message is laboured too long, the language, at least, is one
that is understood in the cinemas.

4. Assassins d'Kau Douce {France. 20 mins.)

Theme. Internecine warfare at the bottom of a pond.
Comment. As a photographic record of the struggle for
existence between the minute creatures, who live at the
bottom of ponds, this film is a considerable achievement.
Horrible to watch, the raucous jazz accompaniment seemed
unnecessary.

5. Le Tempestaire (France. 22 mins.)

Theme. A story of Breton life.

Comment. A tedious anecdote, lit occasionally by beautiful

shots of the rocky coast.

6. The Infantryman (Britain. 20 mins.)

Theme. The place of the Infantryman in the British army.
His duties and his importance to other arms of the force.

Comment. One of a series made for the War Office, the film
attempts to cover too much ground. For its intended
audience it may have had some value; there was little for a
Festival audience.

7. Chasing the Blues (Britain. 8 mins.)

Theme. The importance of welfare in the cotton mills.
Comment. A lively and amusing film which uses a mixture
of cartoon actuality and superimposition to make its
points. A pleasant change from objective documentary.

Guild Theatre. Tuesday, 2.30 and 8

A programme predominantly about Scotland. One film from
Sweden.

I. Progress Report (Scotland. 10 mins.)
Theme. Rehousing in Glasgow.

Comment. Simple reportage — from the word go the film
leaps ahead with facts and figures of temporary and
permanent building in district after district. Housing
statistics arc not usually very memorable; the film does
little to make them more so.

2. Paddy's Milestone (Scotland. 34 mins.)

Theme. The island of Ailsa Craig, whose rock provides the
world's supply of curling stones.

Comment. Beginning in pre-history, the film passes in suc-
cession from a study of life on Ailsa Craig to the cutting
of its rock for curling stones; thence to the mainland,
where they are finished, and ends with a study of the game
of curling. This is interesting material, and some of the
sequences are well made, but there is enough here for several
films. The facetious and discursive commentary is irritating.

3. Caller Herrin (Scotland. 20 num.)

Theme. Herring from sea to table. Modern methods for
canning, curing and freezing which are providing a sound
economic basis for the industry.

Comment. It is difficult today to be original about trawling .
wisely this film docs not attempt any novel approach.
Telling a straightforward story, it docs a competent job.
and, in the sequences on the preserving of herring, adds
something to one's knowledge

4. Country Policeman (Scotland. 20 mins ■ )

Theme. The life of a country policeman in a rural district of
Scotland.

Comment. Apparently the policeman's lot here is a happy
one. A pleasant solid film, with a touch here and there of
humour but what opportunities are lost for a real human
study.

5. North-Faisl Corner (Scotland. 20 mini I

Them*. Life in the north-east corner ol Scotland.

Comment* A fine study which moves gracefully from the
trawlers on the coast to the mechanized farmers inland,
pausing en route to look in on Aberdeen A sensitive film

which achieves a genuine flavour ol the land and its people

6. The Glen is Ours (Scotland. 30 mins.)

Theme I ocal Government. Shall the Glen be preserved for
the people or sold for commercial exploitation I he votes
decide.

Comment This is a staged production, which alternately
appals by its vulgarity and entettains by a display of genuine
comedy. As fact, it is nonsense; as fiction, it is fun — and the
message goes over Whether you like it or hate it, there is
no doubt of its value for cinema audiences. The greatest
weakness is the improbable acting of some of the characters.

7. Sunshine Over Snow (Sweden. 10 mins.)

Theme. Life in the wilds of Lapland. Owls mice and bears.
Small boy hunting birds is frightened by the bear. He runs
home. Father hunts the bear with rifle and dog. Night falls.
The bear attacks the dog. Dog and hunter go home leaving
the bear lord of the land.

Comment. A brilliant short film, sensitively observed,
photographed, and put together. Picture and sound com-
bine to give the magic of a fairy tale to a few tiny incidents
in the life of a far distant people. An object lesson to film
makers, this was one of the outstanding delights of the
Festival.

Guild Theatre. Wednesday, 2.30 and 8

Mainly Canadian films, with contributions from Poland,
USA, Denmark and Switzerland

1. Fiddlc-Dcc-Dee

2. La Poulctte Grise

3. Cadet Rouselle (Canada. Each 7 mins.)

These three colour productions by Norman McLaren were
one of the surprises of the Festival. Fiddle- Dee- Dee is an
experiment in the abstract; pattern, shapes, line and colour
dance across the screen to the theme of'a lively tune, played
upon a violin. A film which leaves you dazed, breathless
and excited. La Poulelte Grise and Cadet Rouselle are car-
toons illustrating popular French-Canadian folk songs.
Most people are allergic to songs on the screen, hut these
films open new fields; the quaint drawings are a delight to
the eye and fit perfectly to the mood and the words of the
songs. They make you sing too!

4. Accidents Don't Happen Nos. 3 and 4 (Canada. 10 mins.)

Theme. Safety first in factories. How to avoid accidents by
taking common-sense precautions.

Comment. Using a comedy character who does everything
wrong, these films are slick and fast moving. One may
wonder whether sarcastic comedy is the best way of making
people think, but at least they are genuinely funny. As such
they will be remembered when a dozen films of serious
exhortation would be forgotten.

5. Klee Wyck (Canada. 20 mins.)

Theme. The life and work of the Canadian painter Emily
Carr.

Comment. An interesting but maddening film. Emily Carr is
clearly an exciting painter. As an introduction to her work
the film has great value; but the commentator oversells the
story, and the continual close shots never allow a moment
to reflect upon her work as a whole. Made in Kodachrome.

6. A Feeling o( Rejection (Canada. 23 mins.)

Theme. Social maladjustment. The psychoneurotic causes
behind the inability to make friends and enjoy social con-
tacts.

Comment. For its theme the film takes the story of a lonely
girl, who develops symptoms of headache and lassitude in
consequence of her inability to cope with her social environ-
ment. In flashback we see the story of her early life and the
way in which her over-anxious mother dominates her
natural reactions. Naturally the film over-simplifies the
issues, but if films about psychiatry are to be made, this is
one which will give food for thought to neurotics and
parents alike. Less commentary would have been an
advantage; there are some things which the audience should
be left to discover for themselves through I purely visual
technique.

7. Warsaw Suite (Poland. 30 mini )

Theme. Destruction and rebuilding in Poland.

Comment. For this theme the Poles have chosen to use a
pure impressionistic technique Here is ever) trick k( the
early cinema — buildings from ever) engle, masks and smear
filters, reflections in water, figures against the skv
embodied hands and feet, all against a background Ol the
three sections of a tyinp •' British

audience, trained in a factual ippi

romantic and arty But there arc vc-ct ions which arc genuinely
moving, and it has the advantage, for i" "ici.civ audience.
of relying on a purely visual technique. It is a measure of
the skill of its composition that at the end one realizes that
it carried not one word of commentary nor needed any

8. Boundary lines {USA. 10 ml

Themt Ihc artificial barriers that divide man I

■"i r U c an. I DeO| i'le.

( ommenl I sing a wealth of device ;r cartoon'

is an intelligent and imaginative attempt to illustrate the
point that a line is only an idea' . it can be whal « make it.
Simple and I Icarly the film move i point,

ring the futility of barriers, building up its argument
and its appeal for indie .dual, nan

pcratton to the final consequence the

destruction ol mankind itself through the
a presentation of the person... 'ic world's r

problems, it is entirely successful Technically superb, this
is a brilliant and stimulating film.

9. People's Holiday ( Denmark 1 5 mil

Theme. The facilities available for Danish workers to enjoy
their holidays

Comment. This, another in the scries of films dealing with
the Danish social services, shows the contributory schemes
for holiday arrangements on an individual or camp f .
and the attempts being made to get a better mutual under-
standing between town and country by or. Jays
for townsfolk on farms. Although rather wanderinc
confused in places by attempting too much, the film sue
ceeds in getting over a real picture of the people of Denmark
and how they enjoy themselves.

10. Le Souverain (Switzerland. 20 mins.)

Theme. The life of a small community in a Swiss \alle>

Comment. This is a straightforward film which, i
a few scenes from the life of farmer Lichlenberg's family and
picturing them vividly, succeeds in giving a rounded picture
of the life and spirit of the people in this Swiss valley. I he
few scenes of a village council sett ling the question of whether
it is in the interest of all for a road to go through the
farmer's land is an object lesson in democracy, which goes
over better than any fireworks or exhortations. And their
sp irts are amusing; was golf after all not a Scottish inven-
tion'.'

Guild Theatre. Thursday, 2.30 and 8

Films from Britain, India, Australia, USA, Switzerland and
Palestine

I. Here is the Gold Coast (Britain. 40 mins. I
Theme. The economic, agricultural and administratis c
problems of the Gold Coast and the way in which the I
onial Government is trying to deal with them.

Comment. This is a comprehensive survey of a littlc-kn, wn-
colony which holds the attention in spue of its length I he
film gives an impression of objective analysis, which is
strengthened by the absence of any sense of complacency
and the use of a native-born commentator.

2 Bassein (India. 10 mins.)

Theme. A day in the life of an Indian fisherman in a Christ-
ian-Indian community.

Comment. A simple story attractively photographed.

3. School in the Mail Box {Australia. 20 mins.)

Theme. The vast distances which separate mans Australian
families from each other have led to the organization of a
children's cotrespondence school, which leaches them by
means of the post and the radio.

Comment. A fascinating story, efficiently but unimaginatively
treated.

4. The Blue Riband ( USA. 20 mku >

Theme. The 4 H Agricultural C lubs. which give training and
ads ice to young Ameiican farmers

Comment. There is more than a hint here ol Hollywood

Ihe theme is lest in a pompous story about the it lufferabli
Williams family and their aim to win the Blue Riband
prize at the local agncultuial show I veryone is happy and
smug in an American paradise none the less, technically
a competent job.

J Loctrot {Switzerland. 13 mini.)

Theme. The attractions of Lucerne and its musical festival

■u-nt. A travelogue whish tells sou almost nothing

I the musical festival, all that > • ml to know

about I ucc-mc and which would almost certainly den

.ivinngit Adequately photographed but conluiingly
constructed.

6 II, ., iv.- in the IVv.rt ( /'...'. ••:.■•!, 17 mtll.)
Ihrm. \ - -.enirnt in

, eded
verting the desert of the Dead Sea into fertile land
for settlement.

men! It is ''ic that, in i

lion, the Ic i el the nee. I I

ments in Palestine But with such a them
the treatment is not m

to weaken the effect In vpitr - 1 this i» an

evvitmg and well made lilm.

154

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

Guild Theatre. Friday, 2.30 and 8

Films from Australia, Denmark, Italy, Czechoslovakia and
Br it am

1. Men Wanted (Australia. 15 mins.)

Theme. Life in Australia and the opportunities offered for
betterment by learning a skilled trade.

Comment. As a film to encourage immigration this film
would not seem very successful; well made, but it lacks the
fire of conviction, and shows once again the difficulty of
using a personal story to illustrate a general theme. This
story of a British sailor, who settles in Australia and is
persuaded by his girl friend to learn a skilled trade so that
they can get married, never comes to life.

2. Health for Denmark (Denmark. 20 mins.)

Theme. The organization of the Danish Sick Club system,

and the hospital facilities it provides.

Comment. A human and likeable film, which tells its story
in a clear simple fashion. Notable for its touches of humour
and sympathetic direction.

J. The Church of St George (Czechoslovakia. 20 mins.)
Theme. The Czech national shrine in the Church of St
George, Prague.

Comment. A good example of what can be done by lighting
and camera work to reproduce the emotional effect of a
static architectural subject. This is a film which, in spite of
its excellencies, remains dull to an overseas audience, who
do not possess the background of traditional interest.

4. Piazza San Marco (Italy. 15 mins.)

Theme. A study of the art and architecture on the buildings

in the Piazza San Marco in Florence.

Comment. In lesser hands this would be just another
travelogue. A superb use of camera and lighting succeeds
in holding attention, and results in a film which is remem-
bered.

5. The Water Garden (Czechoslovakia. 10 mins.)

Theme. A nature study of pond flowers and the insects
which visit them.

Comment. Superb colour gives man) of the shots of this
study a startling beauty. Unfortunately, designed pre-
sumably for children, it is made exasperating for adults by
the silly and whimsical English commentary.

6. A Modem Guide to Health (Britain. 10 mins.)

Theme. Simple health tips on posture, sensible clothing,
exercise and sleep.

Comment. An amusing and entertaining cartoon, which
puts its points over well.

7. Bambini in Citta (Italy. 15 mins.)

Theme. How the children of Italian cities live and play.

Comment. A brilliant and delightful study. The film has no
social message to offer, but it succeeds in capturing the
spirit of childhood. These urchins watch the sights, play
and get up to mischief, not only in the cities of Italy, but
in every city of evety country in the world.

(This programme was to have included the film Les
Quatre Saisons from Belgium. Unfortunately by error the
film sent from Belgium was an English one of the same
name, sub-titled in French and Flemish.)

On the same evening a showing of films was arranged by
the Scottish Educational Film Association at the Central
Hall, Tollcross. The programme comprised Air Mail and
Documentary of Achievement from South Africa; Accidents
Don't Happen and Vegetable Insects from Canada; Boundary
Lines from the USA; and Latitude and Longitude from
Britain. Some of these films were included in other pro-
grammes and are commented upon above. No comments
are available on the others at the time of going to press.

Guild Theatre. Saturday afternoon

Films from Poland, Switzerland, the USA, Sweden, Denmark
and Britain

1. Easter in Lowicz (Poland. 10 mins.)

Theme. Easter customs in the town of Lowicz.

Comment. This is a pleasant, simple film, which succeeds in
catching something of the character of the people, and of
the mixture of piety, superstition, and plain high spirits
that are often found in peasant communities at a time of
religious festival.

2. The Balance (Britain. 10 mins.

Theme. Britain's overseas trade. The reason for need to
balance imports and exports.

Comment. An excellent short film for its purpose. Actuality
and diagram are skilfully blended to give a clear and con-
cise summary of the essential facts.

3. La Varappe (Switzerland. 10 mins.)
Theme. Mountain climbing on Swiss peaks.

Comment. This is an interesting and well made film, which
explains the technique of mountaineering. Notable for a
skilful use of the camera to heighten the climber's sense
of isolation and suspense.

4. High Plain (USA. 15 mins.)

Theme. The life of the primitive people, who live on the
high plateaux of Bolivia.

Comment. Factually the life of these people — a mixture of
ancient Indian and Spanish — is interesting. But told in a
happy travelogue vein, the picture presented is superficial
and casual. One cannot believe in the kindness of the
benevolent landlord, who, in such a poor and primitive
land, exacts no money from his tenants — contenting himself
only with his right to their work for just three days of the
week.

5. Locomotive (Poland. 20 mins.)

Theme. The devastation of the railways and rolling stock in
Poland after the war, and the efforts being made to repair
them.

Comment. This was the best of the Polish films. Clearly
designed both to stimulate railway workers to greater
efforts and to inform the public of the reason why they have
to put up, temporarily, with such shocking conditions of
travel. For this purpose it would appear to be a very good
film. Relying to a great extent on fast moving montage, the
film achieves a considerable emotional effect, which can
even surmount the difficulty of language and background.

6. What Will Happen (Sweden. 10 mins.)

Theme. The training facilities available for Swedish youth
when they leave school.

Comment. An uninspired survey, which painstakingly
examines a great variety of trades. No doubt of some value
for its intended audience.

7. Good Mothers (Denmark. 15 mins.)

Theme. The story of the Mother-Help Organization in
Denmark, which cares particularly for unmarried mothers.

Comment. A vivid and human film about one of the most
ignored problems of our social system. The choice of a
single illustrative case leaves us, however, with a feeling
of an incomplete picture of the system as a whole. There are
questions unanswered upon which we should have liked to
know more.

8. Les Voyages de Jadis a Aujourd'hui (Switzerland. 20
mins.)

Theme. The development of the Swiss railways from their
early chaotic beginnings to nationalization and electrifica-
tion.

Comment. As a story of how a small country succeeded by
popular vote in producing an efficient nationalized public
setvice, this film is interesting. The material, however, is
not such as to inspire a very high quality of film making.

9. Home and School (Britain. 22 mins.)

Theme. A new approach to teaching and parenthood. By
learning to understand their children and the why of their
actions, parents can get the confidence and companionship
of their children, and the teachers will find them more
ready to learn.

Comment. To deal with this theme the film tells a story of a
small suburban family, who by good fortune have sent their
children to a progressive school. The contrast between
their behaviour at home and at school leads the parents to
discover the key to a happy relationship with them. This is
an impressive example of the acted story documentary,
which develops its theme clearly and logically. The children
are excellent, but are these middle-class people really
typical of England

Guild Theatre. Saturday evening

Films from the USA, Italy, Britain, and Australia

1. Round Trip ( USA. 10 mins.)

Theme. International trade. Its importance to America.

Comment. The film tries to explain why protective tariffs are
harmful to national interests. In fast moving sequences the
film cross-questions and argues with people in different
jobs, countries and positions of life. This is an all-out
effort: eye and ear are assaulted continuously by every
device of sound and camera. In the end, sad to say, the
point gets lost in confusion. A pity, because this film has
something important to say and tries hard to say it. Con-
cerned primarily with American problems, it ia possible that
to an American, steeped in isolationism, the point would
be clearer.

2. The School (USA. 20 mills.)

Theme. A day in the life of a small-town American school.

Comment. Steeped in sickly sentiment, this film looks as
though it were shot by an amateur, who got caught in a
school by a rainstorm and had nothing better to do.

3. Pascoli Eterni (Italy. 10 mins.)

Theme. Life among the sheep farmers of northern Italy.
Methods of cheese making from sheep's milk.

Comment. A simple and well-made little film, which gives
a real picture of the way these people live.

4. Dover Spring, '47 (Britain. 10 mins.)

Theme. Replanning and rehousing in Dover since the war.

Comment. An intelligent attempt to present housing statis-
tics in an entertaining form. Not entirely successful, it is
nevertheless a pleasant change from the usual documentary
approach to this sort of subject.

5. Watch Over Japan (Australia. 10 mins.)
Theme. The Australian occupation of Japan.

Comment. This film does little more than confirm our
knowledge of the fact that there are Australian troops in
Japan. Of the country and of what is being done by the
occupation forces there is no hint. Technically it would
appear to have been compiled from news-reels.

6. Learning by Experience (Britain. 34 mins.)

Theme. A study of children's behaviour under different
circumstances.

Comment. This is a film designed for teachers in training to
provide material for discussion and study. For this purpose
it would seem an interesting experiment, which needs a
closer study than can be given in a brief space. The children
are quire unselfconscious and the commentary is confined
to plain statements and questions — the answers are left to
the viewer.

7. A Thousand Million a Year (Britain. 10 mins.)

Theme. The work of the Department of Customs and
Excise.

Comment. Cut down, for theatrical purposes, from a longer
version, this film presents an uninspired and disjointed
account of what could have been a fascinating story.

8. The Magic Globe — Czechoslovakia (Britain. 15 mins.)

Theme. Aspects of life in Czechoslovakia which will appeal
tochildren.

Comment. This film, made for the Children's Cinema
Clubs, is one of a series which attempts to show British
children something of the life of people in other countries.
For this purpose two children pay a visit to Czechoslovakia
by means of a 'magic' film carpet. As one might expect
there is nothing here very profound, but the film is well
made and in places visually almost exciting. Children will
certainly be interested — whether they will be any the wiser
about Czechoslovakia is another matter.

The Playhouse. Sunday afternoon

Films from Sweden, Britain and Denmark

1. Rhythm of the City (Sweden. 20 mins.)
Theme. The city and the people of Stockholm.

Comment. This is a film of great beauty. It makes no
startling discoveries, it tells no facts. But here, skilfully
blended with deep understanding and exquisitely photo-
graphed, are a series of small incidents in the life of the
people of a great city. This, a film without words, speaks
in a language which will be understood by ordinary people
the world over.

2. The World is Rich (Britain. 45 mins.)

Theme. Over a large part of the earth people are starving:
yet the resources of the world could provide for them all
if there were proper provision for distribution and storage
of surplus, and if up-to-date methods of agriculture were
employed in countries still farming by primitive methods.
The film appeals for international co-operation to make
the World Food Organization, which sets out to solve these
problems, a success.

Comment. Using the technique of interview, library material
and diagram, which was so successful in the earlier World
of Plenty, this film builds up its argument with relentless
logic and urgency. In the matter of food supplies, one of
the world's greatest problems, there is only one choice of
this generation to make — international co-operation or
hunger followed by crime, disease and war. No criticism of
detail can obscure the fact that this is one of the most
important films of today.

3. Your Freedom is at Stake (Denmark. 50 mins.)
Theme. Denmark under the Nazi domination.

Comment. This is not only the story of the Danish Resist-
ance movement, it is a history of the rise and fall of Hitler
and the Nazi Party. As an historic document the film is
unique, lor this is no reconstruction — it was actually shot
during the war under the eyes of the Gestapo. As might be
expected from such a compilation, the results are uneven:
wiihout an understanding of the Danish commentary, the

(Contd. Col. I. p. 160)

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

155

«#b5&9*tf UOMC|tlCt!S

^Department

THIS IS THE FILM TREATMENT FOR

PLEASE MAY WE HAVE YOUR COMMENTS QU1CKLY-
IF POSSIBLE WITHIN

Film productions have to be made to a schedule.
Any delay means idle time for technicians; and
idle time means that the technicians lose their
enthusiasm, and the Government loses money.

DNL has long thought of organizing a Bouquets
Department. What more appropriate time to
start than the Xmas issue? Particularly when the
Central Office of Information has risen to the
occasion with the brand new folder reproduced
alongside.

This is not to say that DNL will not very
hastily organize a Kick-in-the-Pants Depart-
ment for any future occasion when blame may be
more applicable than praise.

When we look at the COI folder we like to
think of all the people who will in future receive
COI treatments inside its beautifully striped
cover.

We like to think of them creeping like snails
unwillingly into their offices one cold, raw,
austerity winter's morning when a delicious,
tasty fog has settled happily down on their
Monday breakfast of household milk and in-
adequately reconstituted egg — we like to think
of the new energy which will spring from their
chilblained fingers and their frost-bound brains
when they find the latest COI treatment lying
happily on their desks in all its attractive black,
white and yellow splendour.

They will read the pep-talk at the foot of the
folder — they will analyse it phrase by phrase as
they have been trained to do.

They will learn that "film productions have to
be made to a schedule' ; they may wonder I low?'
and 'Why?' and 'What schedule?" and 'By
whom?' — but that's neither here nor there.

They will realize that "any delay means idle
lime for technicians'; Ideas for the Occupation
of the Idle Times of Technicians will flash
through their brains— Knitting Woollens for
Export out of Camera Tape, Making Celluloid
Collars for Film Magnates out of dud Film
Stock and many other profitable and time-
consuming occupations.

They will ponder on the fact that 'idle time
means that the technicians lose their enthu-
siasm' and may be constrained to consider a
Memorandum (or even Memoranda) on Occu-
pational Therapy for the Return of Enthusiasm
to Technicians.

And then, with a jolt, they will come to the
crux, the coup d'etat of the whole matter . . .
with horror dawning on their faces and fright
suddenly dispelling the remnants of the dried
ind the tasty morning fog, they come to the
last, the fatal statement 'the Government to
money',

Seriously, though. />.\/ welcomes the innova-
tion both as a means ol hurrying on matters
which tend to stagnate and as a * ol

can show originality in idea ,\rA design. \Nc love
the Unemployed I*echnicians and we like the
whole conception M.r. it prove in worth in

results.

\

156

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

WIDESPREAD INTEREST AND CONFLICTING PRESS
REACTIONS FOLLOWED THE REMARKABLE SPEECH

MADE BY

SIR STAFFORD CRIPPS

at the Annual Luncheon of the
ASSOCIATION OF SPECIALIZED FILM PRODUCERS

We print it in full below

the earliest line of film production in which we as a people
made our mark was the short documentary film. British documen-
taries were widely recognized as being in a class of their own but
unfortunately the general public either failed to appreciate this
fact or having appreciated it were unable to give due encourage-
ment to the carrying on of the good work.

As a result the specialized film producers and other short film
producers have found it difficult to maintain their output.

During the war the position was different because the demands
of the Government through the Ministry of Information were large
and continuous and managed to keep all the available units pretty
fully occupied.

Now that the expenditure upon all Government propaganda has
had to be cut down the need has arisen for alternative forms of
production for a number of Film Units who cannot any longer
expect to work full time on Government contracts. To some extent
this can be made good by the private sponsored films which some
industrialists are enlightened enough to demand as part of their
general advertising programme. I hope, too, that some of the new
nationalized industries and services will be using this method of
publicity to put across the ideas which they need to communicate
both to their own employees and to the public.

All these are most useful functions which the specialized film
producers can perform for the country but they will not in them-
selves, I believe, be sufficient to maintain in stable circumstances
the number of units that are capable and willing to do the work.
, Sooner or later we must somehow or other give the public an
opportunity of seeing the output of these units, an output which I
am convinced the ordinary person would enjoy more than many of
the second features which now disgrace our screens. As your
chairman knows this is a matter upon which I have been very
keen for a long time, but it is easier to be keen about it than to
devise a means of bringing it about.

Several conditions will have to be observed if we are to accom-
plish what I would like to see, which is that high quality British
shorts should replace a lot of the low quality second features which
are at present being shown.

The first is that the producers of the shorts should be quite con-
vinced that what they produce for this purpose must be entertain-
ment and not education. You cannot and should not try to force
down the throats of people who have paid to be entertained what
you consider is good for them by way of education.

That does not mean debasing the quality of short films — for on
the whole the public has good judgment as to quality, much better
I believe than some of the exhibitors give them credit for!

It is a curious fact that whether you are dealing with film exhi-
bitors or buyers of consumer goods they all tend to place the taste
of the public much lower than it really is and they are often sur-
prised and slightly resentful when they discover that they are
wrong. I am not, of course, referring to all exhibitors, but to a
widespread tendency amongst exhibitors. I, myself, believe that

the best will always justify itself in the public estimation provided
it is not used to deceive the public — as for instance by pretending
you are out to entertain them when really your design is to educate
them. The first point then is that you must produce genuine enter-
tainment. This does not debar you from the documentary technique
— indeed it is that very element which can in itself make the enter-
tainment value especially when it can form a pleasant contrast to
the feature technique in a single programme.

Second, a proper place must be found in the programmes for
shorts — British or otherwise — of this nature. So long as the second
feature is insisted upon and no one will build up a programme on
any other basis it is almost impossible to put a short into the pro-
gramme. Two features and the newsreel fill up the whole pro-
gramme. My own belief is that a more attractive programme
could be made — at least from time to time — by replacing the
second feature by two or more really good shorts.

Third, there must be enough of the receipts left over after paying
for the first feature to allow a reasonable sum to pay for the shorts.
We don't want quickies or bad shorts, nor do we need short films
on which extravagant sums have been spent. We do need, however,
to recognize that good shorts must cost a certain amount and that
they cannot be made unless a reasonable return can be obtained by
the producers.

The latter two of these requirements are a matter for the exhi-
bitors primarily and for the renters and I hope very much that one
of the large circuits may lead the way in this encouragement of
the peculiarly British capacity for making good short films.

I have sought, as you know Mr Chairman, to bring together the
circuits and the producers of short films on some such basis as I
have sketched out but I fear that so far my aims have not suc-
ceeded.

I know that some of you — in fact probably all of you — feel
that a great deal could be done towards this end by legislation. I
think it is true that something can be done but not, I fear, every-
thing. It is not any easy matter to balance out the interests of the
very many competing interests in exhibition, renting and produc-
tion while at the same time guarding the interest of the public and
the economic interests of the nation.

However much I, as an individual, might desire to assist one
particular branch of the whole cinema organization I must, as a
Minister and as responsible to Parliament, try to give a fair deal
to all the conflicting interests. I hope, however, when you see the
draft of the new Bill you will not be wholly disappointed with our
intention and it will, of course, always be possible for Parliament
to amend the Bill when it comes before it.

It may be that some of our present difficulties as to dollar pay-
ments will not react too unfavourably upon your organization for
we certainly must do all we can to produce in this country as many
dollar savers as possible and I shall also hope that some of your
productions will find their place amongst our exports to other
countries.

cV

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

15->

I am a very great believer in films for educational and propa-
anda purposes and though we cannot spend the more or less un-
mited sums upon them that we did during the war I am certain
lat under the right conditions and given the right films they are
ie most powerful means of spreading essential knowledge that
•e possess. The visual demonstration of facts in an attractive form
, I believe, the easiest and most certain way of getting them across
) the public. The film suffers, however, from one serious disability
i this rapidly changing world and that is the time that must be
:cupied between the determination of the need to explain a par-
cular aspect of our lives to the people and the completion and
lowing of a film for that purpose.

Anything that we can do and you can do to shorten that period
ould vastly increase the utility of films for mass education
jrposes.

Though we have gone a long way in developing short films for
lis purpose you will not, I am sure, rest upon your oars. There is

a great deal yet that we can do to meet new sih . new

methods. This is an ever-developing art which mil >ngly

influenced by the ever-changing needs of our situation ami just
as many of you have done a great work in the past to widen
and develop the appeal of your work to the public,
sure you will all of you continue in that good work. You have
always shown yourselves great servants of the public and of the
nation more interested in the benefits you can bring to souctv
and in the honesty of your art than in your profits or personal
gain.

It is that spirit which has shown itself in your films and has been
widely recognized as placing them high in the realm of film produc-
tion.

May you continue in that same purpose and may the ever-
growing recognition of your contribution to the art and life of our
nation bring you the security and stability which you rightly seek
for your production units.

PRODUCTION HISTORY OF A COI FILM

reprinted from the August issue of Monthly Review the official
organ of the Films' Division of the Central Office of Information

imaginary history of a typical COI film may
f interest. It shows the many stages through
ch every film has to go before the show copy
wars on the screen. This history is untypical
ne thing only: everything goes smoothly,
treatment, shooting script and roughcut
approved without any drastic alterations
the financial arrangements go through
out a hitch. Often, alas, the history of a
luction is not so straightforward as this.

(1) The Ministry of Help writes to Films Divi-
>n saying that they urgently require a short film
i Industrial Exteriosis, for non-theatrical show-
g to factory workers and study groups.

(2) The Chief Production Officer talks to the
oduction Controlling Officer handling that
inistry and they agree the film will help the
iblic's morale considerably, if only it can be
ade quickly enough. They decide that it sounds
e a two-reeler, costing about £4,000, and that
seems the sort of film Nadir Films might well
ike, if only Hector Bathos is free to direct it.

(3) The Director approves the project.

(4) The PCO starts a production file called
Klustrial Exteriosis', rings up Hector Bathos
id finds that he is free, and arranges a briefing
seting with the Ministry of Help.

(5) The briefing meeting is attended by the
70, Bathos, the Public Relations Officer at the

frtry of Help, and the experts on Exteriosis.
decide that the film must be aimed prim-
at foremen and charge hands, that it should
vo reels, with a straight commentary, and
at it should present the positive aspects of
teriosis in a thoroughly popular style. After the
seting. Bathos and the PCO have a drink
gether and exchange ideas.

(6) The PCO writes a minute to the Production
JOtracts Section, asking for Nadir Films to be
mmissioned for a two-reel treatment on
idustnal Exteriosis", at a fee of £65. Production
>ntracts recommend this proposal to I i nance
ivision, who approve it. Production Contracts
en send a formal commissioning letter to Nadir
Ims.

(7) At the instigation of the PCO, the Ministry
of Help write a formal request letter to Films
Division, asking them to produce a two-reel film
on 'Industrial Exteriosis' at a cost not exceeding
£4,000. The PCO minutes this to Production
Contracts, who minute it to Finance Division,
who ask the Treasury for authority to make the
film. The Treasury, after some thought, give their
authority.

(8) Hector Bathos sends in his treatment. The
PCO discusses it with him, and he rewrites the
first sequence. The PCO then discusses the treat-
ment with the Chief Production Officer and the
director. As a result, Bathos rewrites the first
sequence again, so that it's almost exactly as it
was in the first place.

(9) The PCO sends copies of the treatment to
the Ministry of Help. After a fortnight, a meeting
is held at the Ministry to discuss the treatment.
After much argument about the true nature of
exteriosis, the Ministry approves the treatment,
except that the character on page 3 should be a
woman and not a man.

(10) The PCO gets Nadir Films commissioned
for a shooting-script, in the same way as they
were commissioned for a treatment. At the same
time he has a quiet word with Bathos about
that first sequence, which he's still not happy
about.

(11) Nadir Films send in the shooting-scnpi
This again is discussed by the PCO the Chief
Production Officer and the Director, and ap-
proved with some small alterations.

(12) Nadir Films send in a budget for the pro-
duction, totalling £3,950. The PCO discusses it
with the Production Contracts. Production
Contracts have a word with the Business Manage!
ol Nadir, crosses Off tWO weeks' salaries lor
editing and recommends the contract to I inance
Division at £3,895. Finance Division authorize
the budget, and Production Contracts send out
an official contract letter to Nadir I ilms

(13) Nadir go ahead and shoot the film Vs hen
they've got it to rough-cut Stage, they bring it up
to the COI and show it to the PCO, with Bathos

reading the commentary. The l'( I -r two

shots to be interchanged, and insists on cutting
out the phrase 'breaking bottlenecks' in the com-
mentary. Then the rough-cut is shown to the
Director, the Chief Production Otficer and the
Technical Production Officer. As a result of their
comments, the whole of the first sequence is cut
out and replaced by a single close-up of exteriosis
in action. Finally, the rough-cut is shown to the
Ministry of Help, who like it very much indeed.
At this last meeting it is decided that the final
title for the film shall be 'A Stitch in Time'.

(14) Nadir record the commentary, complete
the film and deliver the show copy to Films
Division. The Technical Production Officer sees
the show copy, to check the quality of recording
and printing, and gives it his OK

(15) As the film is for non-theatrical showing in
factories. Home Non-Theatrical Distribution
estimate how many 35 mm. and 16 mm. prints
will be needed and order them from the labora-
tory. At the same time, they forewarn the
Regional Film Olivers that they will be getting
the film very soon now.

(16) The prints arrive. Some are placed in the
Central Film Library, some are sent straight out
to the Regional Film Officers

(17) The Regional \ ilm Officer for the North-
North-Fast includes the film in his next factor)
show. The projectionist reports that the film went
down extremely well, especially the tunny bit at
the end

There the storj ends for the moment But the
film will go on K-ing shown non-theatrically. to
different audiences, for a vear or more Scientific

I ilm Societies with their own projectors will

borrow copies from the Central l ilm I ibrarv
(unfortunately the film is not suitable I
And the Technical Production Officer will have
it dubbed into ■ dozen ind the

Overseas Distribution Sc 1 help to

the tilm to be shown in e%
which, like cm

run ir mm mi, t ilri

158

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LEi'XER

JEAK — A DOCUMENTARY
CLOSE-UP OF A. E. JEAKINS

The Story by Frank Sainsbury

when I first knew Jeak, in 1935, documentary
was very far from being the moneyed business
that it is today. In the evenings the boys used to
repair to Patmacs in Soho Street, one of the
series of repulsive pubs that we seem to have a
fatal knack for discovering. And as the directors,
with their untold wealth of £8 and even £10 a
week, crowded to the bar and expansively bought
rounds of draught Bass at 4\d. a time and
Whiskies (Black and White of course) at 8d. (or
was it 9d.) we 35s. a week assistants hung respect-
fully in the background until we found out if we
were in the round too. If unlucky, we would pair
off and buy each other halves of mild. In this
way Jeak and I often found ourselves buying
each other a drink which was a little surprising,
as Jeak was a full-fledged camera-man and
camera-men were entitled to buy full rounds on
their £7 a week if not quite so often as the
directors with their private means. But as it
turned out, Jeak hadn't got a regular job, he just
did an odd day's work here and there at 30.r. or
so a day, for the GPO or newly-formed Strand
or the Travel Association, when they needed an
extra camera on the job or their own camera-
man was not available or the shooting was a bit
tricky and likely to be beyond him. If he got

10 days' work a month I suppose he was lucky.
I don't know how long he had been carrying on
like that before 1935, several (he'd knocked
around with the newsreels before) years, anyway,
and finally when John Taylor did give him a
permanent job at Realist about 1939 at first he
was on a retainer and paid fully only for shooting
days. It wasn't till 1940, I think, that he went on
a full weekly wage, and could at last relax of
10 years of scraping a day's work here and a
day's work there. The reason I mention all this is
that a man who will go through all that difficulty
and discomfort just to work a film camera must
have his heart pretty well engaged in photo-
graphy. And that is a sufficiently rare thing among
camera-men.

At first sight Jeak looks a typical pipe-sucker.
He stands on the edge of the company firmly
grasping his pipe, listening attentively to the
philosophy and witticisms of the company and
saying never a word. When, every five minutes or
so, he is appealed to or volunteers his contribu-
tion to the discussion he sucks his pipe judicially,
pauses, and delivers not (thank heaven) the pro-
found platitude you expect from pipe-suckers
but nine times out of ten a wisecrack and usually
a very good one. Of all the camera-men I've

PHOTOMICROGRAPHY LTD

Specialists in Cine-Biology

J. V. DURDEN in charge of production

Whitehall, Wraysbury

The Drawing by M. A.

worked with I've always found Jeak in spite
(or perhaps to a rattlebag like myself because
his long silences the best possible company
the job and off. On location I always had t
feeling that Jeak would have liked his little bi;
comfort, the good hotel and a five-course m?
if he had his choice and no one can be stubborr
than Jeak once he digs his toes in. But if
helped the job for us to stop in an unemplo;
mill-girl's cottage or a town that was be
raided every night or in boozing trawlerme
company, then Jeak would cheerfully acquie
and make a very good best of it. In fact I've nei
known him unreasonable at any time or in :
way. If he thought a set-up needed four 2-k
and a couple of arcs, and all we had (and it
all we usually had) was four 500s and a
photo-floods, then Jeak would set to and n
the best of it. And never a told-you-so if
. stuff was not so hot. Considering how
" demands Jeak has ever made it may be a 1
surprising that the quality of photography he
turned out year after year on features or inst
tionals, is the very best there is in documer
or indeed on the level with the best in the Bri
film business.

Jeak's secret perhaps is that he learner
use his lean years of unemployment and
employment. Sitting around at Realist day
day with no work to do he never seemed b
or at a loss. Usually he had a light men
process of conversion to his own requirem
the photo-cell covered with criss-cross bi
adhesive tape. Or he'd be ploughing his
through all the British and foreign tech
journals for ATC abstracts or his own sati
tion. Or sometimes, like the yokel — he'd ju:
The result was that when you did go out sho
with Jeak he was the quickest, best, easie:
get-on-with camera-man I've ever worked
The arty boys make a lot of fuss about ful
cussion between director and camera-man z
the exact purpose of the film and artistic me.
of the shot and no doubt where most cai
men are not interested in their trade or a-
only to be directors that sort of thing is
necessary. But with Jeak the barest word o
and he's got the idea perfectly. It may be
unusual in the film business, he can and does
Or it may be that, as the merry company ba
away, there's a lot going on in a quiet
behind those pebble glasses.

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

159

NEW DOCUMENTARY FILMS

irly Diagnosis of Acute Anterior Poliomyelitis.

jcleus with Simpl. for COI and Min of
jalth. Technical Advisers: R. MacKeith, E.
awlett Kellaher. Medical Director: Brian
inford. Camera: Derek Stewart.
eprinledby kind permission of the 'I^ancct')
jmoN of action proposed by a Ministry, par-
ularly where this involves Treasury authority,
ings to mind a picture of long delays, punctu-
al by interdepartmental memoranda. The
inistry of Health is to be congratulated on
ving abjured such routine in making its film
r doctors on poliomyelitis. This film was con-
■fived only on the sixth of August; the idea was
ered to the Ministry on the seventh; and on
; eleventh the Treasury agreed to meet its cost.
le Ministry of Health referred to the Central
ficeof Information, which handles film-making
r Government departments, and a unit was
mmissioned to undertake the work. On the
elfth a final conference was held at the Ministry
d the shooting script was decided; and that
Tie day filming smarted. Three days later this
is completed; and, from the end of August, the
n is obtainable in all parts of the country, with
ojector and projectionist, from the regional
ices of the Central Office of Information, for
owing to medical audiences.
The film, entitled Early Diagnosis of Acute
iterior Poliomyelitis, was made with the help
Dr W. H. Kellaher, invoked as a consultant
the Ministry', and of Dr R. C. MacKeith, who
ted as adviser to the unit, which is directed by
•Brian Stanford. With a running-time of about
:een minutes, it opens with a graphic demon-
ation of the recent age-incidence of cases in
>ndon hospitals. After brief mention of the
ual presenting symptoms (headache, fever,
y( miting) it goes on to portray the common early
mllDS: cranial-nerve palsies are beautifully illus-
3 ! ited, as also are the methods of eliciting spasm
the muscles of neck, back and limbs; a word
-:1 spared, too, for early changes in tendon re-
: • xes. Then comes a demonstration of lumbar-
. iincture technique, followed by brief observa-
; ■ >ns on methods of disposal of faeces, precau-
>ns by the attendant, isolation of doubtful
err ses, and methods of spread ; finally practitioners
h e adjured to notify cases, and when in doubt to
■■; nsult the MOH.

' Though the film is intended for the general
; actitioner there are no shots calculated to help
m specifically in his encounter with the disease
the home — apart from one showing a housc-
ife protecting her food from flies, and another
Mlraying a doubtful case comfortably isolated
a garden. The practitioner would welcome
■me suggestion of the time-sequence, which
ould lend itself to visual presentation. Perhaps,
•O, he would like an explanation of how the
tendant precautionary steps, illustrated in the
m by masked and gowned nurses and doctors,
t to be applied in the home; and especially he
ants to know what advice to give the families
f established or unproven cases. As a rule he
ill not be undertaking lumbar puncture. If the
agnosis is in doubt (and it is on this score that
le film advises the procedure) he is likely to

I the patient to hospital. Always, except

occasionally deep in the country, lumbar punc-
ture should be undertaken in hospital, where the
risk of infection can be minimized: this is made
clear in the spoken commentary which accom-
panies the film.

Minor Electrical Repairs

The Electric Iron

The Generation of Electricity

The Transmission of Electricity

Merton Park for BEDA. Producers: F. A. Hoare
and Winifred Holmes. Directors: Graham
Murray and Neil Brown. Cameras: Charles
Marlborough and H. Hall. Scripts: Neil Brown.
Animation: T. R. Thumwood. Distribution:
BEDA. 10 min. each.

Minor Electrical Repairs shows how replacing a
fuse and repairing a broken flex can be simply
done and gives reasons for the procedures. The
Electric Iron is divided into two parts: how the
iron works and how to use it, and includes a very
clear explanation of the thermostatic control.
The Generation of Electricity relates the move-
ment of a magnet in a coil to generators and
power stations, while the Transmission of Elec-
tricity carries on the story, describing how a

transformer works and how current is distri-
buted over the country by the grid.

In each film the solid teaching is well done by
the animation. What is not so happy is the w jv
the pill has been sugared. It looks as if the pro-
ducers could not make up their minds whether
to go all out for a full film technique or whether
to confine themselves to a simple informational
method. The idea of the family coping with the
broken wire is itself quite good, but it is clumsilv
related to the ghost voice giving its explanations
and exhortations; in fact, as treated, it is appal-
lingly smug and irritating. Part One of the electric
iron, on the other hand, is a straightforward
instructional film which achieves its purpose, but
Part Two is rather the salesman demonstrating
his latest model.

The films will certainly be welcome in schools:
their best points are that they deal with one
subject at a time and that they avoid, albeit
somewhat clumsily, the sledgehammer blows of
verbal logic. They constitute an interesting ex-
periment at a time when experiments are badly
needed, and thus make a valuable contribution
to the still small supply of films made directly
for the classroom.

A VISUAL AIDS EXPERT

IN PRODUCTION
FOR RELEASE DURING 1947

FOR SCHOOLS

PENICILLIN (Three Short Films)
AMMONIA LIME SALT

OXYGEN

(16 mm. Kodachromat

FOR

INDUSTRIAL TRAINING

THE PAINTING OF BUILDINGS

THE TECHNIQUE OF SPRAY PAINTING

SHOT-FIRING IN COAL-MINES (16 mm. Kod.ch.-om.)

FOR VETERINARY AND PHENOTHIAZINE PAYS A DIVIDEND

AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION (Parasitic Worms in Farm Animals) (16 mm. Kodichrom.)

FOR MEDICAL EDUCATION Six subjects in 16 mm. Kodachrome

•*• Release dates will be announced

IMPERIAL CHEMICAL INDUSTRIES LIMITED
NOBEL HOUSE - LONDON, S.W.I

160

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

(Conld. from p. 1 54)

action in many places is confused and obscure. Taken as a
whole, for overseas audiences, the film lasts too long; but
there is fascinating material here for a shortened version
which, omitting the background, would deal only with the
Danish people under the Occupation and the sabotage
work of the Underground movement.

The Playhouse. Sunday evening

Films from Britain, France and Italy

1. Antarctic Whale Hunt (Britain. 18 mins.)

Theme. The work of the whaling fleet in the Antarctic.

Comment. This film, one of 'This Modern Age' series, has
some fine action shooting of the harpooning of whales and
of their processing in factory ships to provide important
sources of food and other materials urgently needed today.

2. Henri Matisse (France. 40 mins.)

Theme. The life and work of the French painter, Matisse.

Comment. Films about art are nearly always unsatisfactory.
This one comes as close to an explanation of the work of a
painter as it would seem possible to do. Covering the whole
development of Matisse's work, and including some shots
of the artist himself, the most interesting sequences are
those which show how he builds up his ideas from the
initial conception to the final result, and are a record
posterity may value. The most irritating part of the film is
the atmosphere of reverence and adoration created by the
commentary.

3. Paisa (Italy. 120 mins.)

Theme. Episodes showing the interaction between the
Italian people and the Allied armies during the invasion of
Italy.

Comment. This film, a multi-lingual full-length feature
documentary provided a magnificent finale to the Festival.
Directed by Rossellini, whose Rome, Open City has already
been seen in this country, the film consists of a series of short
stories with no continuity link other than that of the Allied
armies' advance from the South to the North. Each of these
incidents, with its cunningly contrived twist, is constructed
with a vivid realism, which is as brilliant as it is terrifying.
With only a handful of material, Rossellini compresses into
the space of two hours a range of human emotion which
makes Paisa an unforgettable experience, and one of the
screen's greatest achievements. Paisa is too important a
film to be discussed briefly. A fuller review must await its
hoped for theatrical showing.

CORRESPONDENCE

DEAR SIR,

Your October issue included amongst its con-
tents an article bearing the title 'The Miller's
Aim'. It was written by an enemy of our country.
Yes, an enemy; for in my eyes, like millions of
Englishmen, the Bosch will remain an enemy.
Let us not forget that period of horror and
misery, 1939—1944.

This Bosch is complaining not only of the Ger-
man film industry, but seemingly about ours also.
I request him, as far as our industry is concerned,
to keep his nose well and truly out; it has nothing
whatsoever to do with him. Many people, I am
sure, will join with me in this request.

Complete monopoly, like nationalization, is
something to keep well clear of. Take away com-
petition in any business, and you destroy that
very vital thing, ambition. Destroy ambition and
you destroy life, for every man jack of us lives on
ambition. In this country today, we are producing
films far surpassing the products of Hollywood:
films made by the J. Arthur Rank Organization.
Very different from the 'quickies' of 1932 — 1939,
before Mr Rank took such an active interest. To-
day our industry is respected in many countries.
In fact, even Englishmen are beginning to respect
us, and that is really something. That being the
case, I think the term 'Monopolist Miller' used by
our German friend, ridiculous and most cer-
tainly insulting. If Arthur Rank has proposed the
plan suggested to the British Control Commis-
sion, and if it will promote a new democracy in
Germany, then I say 'Thank heaven', for democ-
racy is a fine thing.

May I also remind the German writer that v-e
won the war, defeated Germany. Had the botf
been on the other foot, I am certain no English-
man would have been given the opportunity 'c
complain about anything. Nobody could com-
plain as a prisoner in one of the Nazi 'horror
camps. Could the citizens of London am
Coventry complain as they saw their dear arc
loved ones crushed to death during the blit/.'
Crushed to death by Germans. Let us not forger,

You have my full permission to publish th
above if you so desire. In fact I would esteem it
favour if you do.

Yours faithfully,

ERIC LESLIE (ERIC T. ASBURY),

Managing Direct t

Leslie Laurence Productions Ltd.
29 Whitcomb Street, London, WC2
October 23rd, 1947

THE UNIT WITHI

Realist Film Unit has been making documentary
and instructional films since 1937. During the
last two years a Unit under the Educational
Supervision of Dorothy Grayson, B.Sc, has
completed ten classroom films. This'unit within'
is now preparing, shooting or completing eight
films.

REALIST FILM UNIT

Member of the Federation of Documentary Film Units

9 GREAT CHAPEL STREET W I

Telephone Gerrard 1958

AN APOLOGY

The article 'Denmark and Film' in our last iss
was Mr Elton's introduction to Documented
in Denmark, a catalogue of_ films shortly to t
issued by Statens Filmcentral, 1 Dahlerupsgad
Copenhagen, we apologize to the publishers ar
the Danish Government for any inconvenien
or misunderstanding caused by its pre-public
tion in DNL.

DOCUMENTARY 47

will be a lasting souvenir
of the

EDINBURGH FESTIVAL

it is on sale at
Film Centre. 34 Soho Sq., Wl

or from the
publishers

ALBYX PRESS

42 Frederick Street

Edinburgh 2

PRICE 2/6

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

161

ORRESPONDENCE

from RALPH KEENE

THE DEATH OF MAJOR DOCUMENTARIES?

i: I wonder if technicians in the documentary
id shorts side of the industry fully realize what
11 be the effect of the application of the new
iture rates to 'films over 3,000 ft in length in-
ided for theatrical distribution'? So far as I
n see it will mean the death of the major docu-
?ntary. I do not think that any Government
industrial sponsor will be able to meet the
lormously increased production costs; nor will
be possible at these rates to make good quality,
5 reel 'featurettes' on a commercial basis.
This company recently had to budget a 4-reel,
eatrical-release film for COI. It was overseas
oduction and the new feature rates added
!,300 to the wages bill alone (the cameraman
Duld have been drawing £53 a week!). The
suit, of course, was that the film was cancelled
. a 4-reeler. Yet this production only called for
location unit of four people, plus the normal
liting staff. Goodness knows what the increased
>sts would be on a production requiring elec-
icians, sound crew, sync, camera, etc. And
ages aren't the only factor involved. BFPA
uiditions, I understand, call for a minimum unit
"fourteen people for silent location shooting!
is madness to suppose that documentary can
and such rates and conditions.
Unfortunately, the wording of the relevant
ause (4a) in the shorts agreement is somewhat
nbiguous. It says 'When employees are re-
aired to work on any film of over 3,000 feet
tended for normal commercial distribution
trough a renting company, they shall receive as
minimum the salaries and work under condi-
ons laid down in the agreement between the
i ritish Film Producers Association and the
ssociation of Cine-Technicians'. ASFP main-
an that 'BFPA agreement' here means the one
lat was in operation at the date of the signing
f the shorts agreement (May 22nd, 1946). They
ty, not without reason, that ASFP would not
ave signed a blank cheque for all future BFPA
jreements, in the negotiating of which they
ave no voice. ACT on the other hand, main-
lin that the new feature rates and conditions
utomatically apply as from the date of the
gning of the new BFPA agreement. So, for the
resent, there is deadlock. As far as I know, no
tajor documentaries are being made, and Films
Hvision have said that none will be commis-
oned at the new rates.

Now is this a good thing for documentary? . . .
r for its public? ... or for its technicians?
ersonally I think it is disastrous, for the follow-
ig reasons:

(1) Major documentaries like Target for
bnight. World of Plenty, Today and Tomorrow,
he Way We Live, are a vitally important part of
ur national and social film propaganda pro-
rammes. They make a far greater impression
Q audiences than the average 1-2 rceler, and
ave done invaluable service in raising the pres-
and public appreciation of documentary.

(2) Thei r disappea ranee would leave the market
wide open for the cheap, irresponsible 4-reel
quickie, which we should we doing our best to
keep off the screen.

(3) From the technician's point of view it is
the major documentary which gives him the
chance to express himself on a bigger canvas, and
thereby enlarge the scope and power of a film's
message. And if, as I predict, the application of
the new feature rates means the end of major
documentaries, then all our technicians will be
permanently on shorts rates — without any hope
of the increases they have enjoyed from time to
time in the past when making this type of film
at the old feature rates.

Much of the confusion arises from the fact
that, under the present Quota Act, all films over
3,000 ft. in length are classed together in the
same category. But, in their costs, their length,
their earning capacity, their purpose and the
conditions of their production, the 4-5 reel docu-
mentary is an entirely different proposition from
the commercial, second-feature — or 'B' class —
entertainment picture.

As one way out of this unhappy impasse it

should be possible to create a new category of
film to include the theatrical documentary and

the better type of "fe.iturette'. It is not practical
to legislate on a basis of 'quality ', 'purpose' or
'merit'; but it might be possible I at .1

definition on 'costs' and 'length' — e.g. all films
over 3,000, but under 6,000 ft. in length, and
costing not more than £25,000, to be classed as
intermediaries', and made at the old feature
rates.

I would like to urge technicians in our branch
of the industry to give themselves furiously to
think, if they do hot want to be condemned, for
the future, to making nothing bigger or better
than 2-reelers. One last word. ... If a situation is
allowed to develop under which no major docu-
mentaries can be made, it is inevitable that many
of our senior technicians, feeling themselves
frustrated, will move into feature production.

And would that be a good thing ^..docu-
mentary?

Yours faithfully,

RALPH KEENE MANAGING DIRECTOR
GREENPARK PRODUCTIONS LTD

SEVEN LEAGUE FILM UNIT

We wish our friends a Merry Xmas
and a Prosperous New Year

1918

Seven League Film Unit Limited 26 D'Arblay Street London W 1

MEMBER OP THE FED ERAT IOS OP DOCU Vf E yTA RY FILM UNITS

162

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

This photograph shows the interior of the theatre at

GUILD HOUSE, EDINBURGH

where many of the Festival shows were held

NORMAN WILSON

has written for us

this account of the

growth of the

EDINBURGH
FILM GUILD

whatever measure of success the Edinburgh
Film Guild has achieved is not due to any
privileged position or unusual wealth. This
suggestion of peculiar advantages enjoyed by
Edinburgh rather hurts our Scots pride. The facts
are, the Film Guild was founded some eighteen
years ago when 'intelligent' filmgoing was not so
popular as it now is. We were among the pioneers
and we virtually had to create an audience. We
lectured, argued, preached, bullied. It was hard

work, sometimes dispiritingly hard work in the
early days.

We were young in those days and naturally
poor. But we took risks and bravely put on films
like Caligari and Rein que les Heures, in the
hope that we'd scrape together enough members
to pay the costs. We even ran bazaars to help the
funds! Somehow or other we got through the
first difficult years without going bankrupt — and
without making any concession to popular appeal.

FIFTY

NATIONS

are represented among the members
of the British Film Institute who share
a belief in the future of the film.
For full information, please write to:

The British Film Institute

An independent organization financed through H. M. Privy Council

4 GREAT RUSSELL STREET, LONDON W. C I

Our programmes were often 'difficult'. Th
included all the work of the avant garde, the eat
Russians and a strong infusion of documentary
in the days when it was a heady and exotic bre

In addition to our shows, we brought up
film-makers themselves to talk about what th
were aiming at. Grierson, Wright, Cavalcai
will tell you they had a better platform and
better Press in Edinburgh than they had
London.

We started film shows for children and on
they were established handed them over to :
Scottish Educational Film Association. V
disliked the original set-up of the British Fi
Institute and initiated the moves which led to t
setting up of the Scottish Film Council.

From the beginning, we believed that
object of a film society was not merely to pro\ i
'unusual' films for the snobs who regard
ordinary filmgoing as a form of intellecti
slumming. We actually liked the cinema, che
vulgar and shoddy as it was ; we also realized
potentialities as a medium of expression and
powers as a social influence. Instead of sitt
aloof in a private and precious world of a\>
garde art, we felt that our job was in the cinei
and among the people.

We therefore organized support for whatc
worth-while films the trade had to offer
played up the directors and producers vm
mattered. We made friends with the renters
the exhibitors.

How hard we worked!

We helped to establish the first British Fed
tion of Film Societies and when that wa?
failure we formed the Federation of Scot
Film Societies, which has now operated succ
fully for oser ten years. We sponsored the
mation of the Edinburgh Scientific Film Socii
now probably the largest in the country. We h]
put on special shows for Government Dep
ments, for the City Corporation and for van
other organizations whose use of films
thought it worth while to encourage.

We have helped in many and devious way
stimulate the production of films in Scotland
we have helped and encouraged everyone
has come to Scotland to make films. We
the first Exhibition of Film Decor, held in
august precincts of the National Gallery
Scotland. And lastly we organized, with the

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

163

DANISH FILMS

T:

imark Grows Up. Production: Nordisk Films
Ttpagni. Direction: Hagen Hasselbach, Astrid
ming- Jensen, Soren Melson. Photography
ne Jensen, Annelise Reenberg, etc. Music:
it Fichn.

ilth for Denmark. Production: Palladium.
ection: Torben Svendsen. Script: Arthur
mi. Photography: Erik Olsen. Music: Paul
ierbeck.

Seventh Age. Production: Palladium. Direc-
: Torben Svendsen. Script: Carl Dreyer.
tography: Karl Andersson. Music: Emil
sen.

• so long have we in Britain been isolated
n any real contact with the rest of Europe,
i the extent to which the documentary move-
it has progressed in other countries in the
t few years has hardly yet been realized,
jorts from travellers abroad and an occa-
lal film have given some indication of what is
ipening, but, with the exception of Czecho-
/akia — a cross section of whose films were
1 at the Czech Festival earlier this year—
iculties in obtaining foreign films have effec-
ly prevented any serious or detailed study of
umentary developments overseas.

ltd. from previous page
in advisory committee which included Paul
;ha representing FDFU and Basil Wright
n ASFP, the first International Festival of
cumentary Film.

f this reads like a boasting account of achieve-
its, it is not written with that intention. There
lOthing we have done that couldn't have been
le elsewhere by dint of hard work and a
itinuity of effort. The Edinburgh Film Guild
iow the largest film society in the country. It
; 2,300 members and by the careful manage-
rs of its finances — provided entirely by the
mbers' subscriptions — it has built up over the
is a fund from which it has been possible to
xhase its own premises which contain offices,
•ary, meeting rooms and a charming little
atre, with both 35 mm and 16 mm projectors,
cned this year, it is hoped that Film House
1 become a real film centre from which the
ivities of the Guild will continue to expand
i increase. It is the work that has been done
it matters but it is difficult to be completely
personal and no reference to the Edinburgh
m Guild would be complete without some
•.ntion of the officials who run it. There is no
:ade of honorary office-bearers whose names
ght add dubious lustre to the Council. All its
smbers have been elected because they have a
auine, almost a passionate interest in films —
ople like Forsyth Hardy, known to everyone
documentary as a sound critic and able negotiat-
;>Alan Harper of Campbell Harper Films,
Til Ramsay Jones of the Central Office of
formation; Rhona Inch Morrison, a well-
own architect, who was once with the GPO
Im Unit; and Frank MacLauchlan, who as
an Treasurer has performed wonders with the
oild's finances. The fact that most of these
ficials have worked together for many years
S meant a constancy and continuity of policy
lich Im? insured both stability and progress.

In the case of Denmark, although since the
war there has been an increasing contact between
film makers of the two countries, to most people
the importance, or even the existence, of the
documentary movement there is virtually un-
known. These three films — the first examples of
Danish work with an English commentary to
reach this country — are therefore of exceptional
interest.

Planned as part of a series dealing with the
Danish Social Services, the films cover respec-
tively the fields of Child Welfare, the Hospital
Services, and the Care of the Aged. These are
fields in which Denmark has every right to be
proud of her achievements, and the films have
obviously been designed with an eye to overseas
distribution. It would be misleading, however, to
imply that they are propagandist in outlook.
Indeed one of the outstanding features of these
films is the restraint and moderation with which
the story is told. In places the commentary is
frankly critical, and there is no attempt to im-
press the viewer with glittering accounts of the
best — some of the most attractive institutions
are, for example, immediately classified as not
typical —and in each of the films inadequacies
and dissatisfactions are pointed out. This
quality of self criticism conveys an impression of
honest analysis which carries a real conviction.

Of the three tilnis the best undoubtedly is The
Seventh Age. It tells tirst of the w.iy in which old
age pensions — adjusted to circumstances of en-
vironment and resources — are distributed. In
Denmark there is no long trek for the aged to a
Post Office. The money is delivered; in country
districts by the postman; in towns by special
messenger. For those who have no homes of
their own, various arrangements are made to
provide accommodation, cither in flats at a
rental they can afford, or in institutions. The
film concludes with a picture of life for the aged
in a number of different types of institution.

For those in this country who know some-
thing of the inadequacies of our own provision
for the aged, this film will be a revelation. But
it is not only for its description of a social svstcm
that this film will be remembered. No words can
adequately describe the way in which Torben
Svendsen, the director, has translated Carl
Dreyer's fine script to the screen. The problems
of old age are brought vividly to our minds
through the eyes of the old people themselves;
here by sheer film craft is caught the beauty and
tragedy of old age. By turns serene or troubled,
pathetic or gay, this film has a deep understand-
ing of human nature. It is a film every detail of
which remains in the memory.

(Contd. top page 164)

•tm ^youiuj Jt> jjj^n

GENEVA, AUGUST 27th, 1947

WORLD IS RICH SEEN TODAY BY DELEGATES AND REPRESEN-
TATIVES OF FORTY-EIGHT NATIONS AND EIGHTEEN INTER-
NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS. HIGHLY ENTHUSIASTIC RECEP-
TION. F.A.O. IS DEEPLY GRATEFUL TO UNITED KINGDOM FOR
THIS SUPERB CONTRIBUTION TO INTERNATIONAL UNDER-
STANDING . SIR JOHN BOYD ORR .

Inquiries to the Central Office of Information

length 5 reels

i $ytj mAA

5

a Film of Local Government set in the City of Manchester
Inquiries to the Manchester Corporation length 7 rerU

SHORT FILMS

if ma saatfaa • Tin a&n&QQU

SjjiJJ'fil/ iluJ33 • uJi a3i5>3 JUT

Inquiries to the ( i ntr.il Office of Infom

35M?30&5>a

for the Royal National

Lifeboat Institution

fur the llnti-h Wuterwork*
lion

Producers: PAUL ROTHA, J. B. HOLMES. JOHN WALES, DUNCAN ROSS

FILMS OF FACT LTD 25 CATHERINE STREET, W C 2

164

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

(Continued from previous page)

Health for Denmark shows the organization
of the Sick Club system, which through a con-
tributory scheme enables its members to get free
medical advice and, where necessary, hospital
facilities. For the point of view of the patient the
film introduces us to a typical Danish family,
while the details of organization are seen through
the eyes of the tradespeople, who, as directors of
the sick club, are responsible for the management
and running of the hospital and its allied services.

In exposition this film is less satisfactory than
the previous one. The simple story is inadequate
to convey more than a superficial impression of
the system as a whole, while the devices used to
explain the lay-out of the hospital are clumsy and
tend to slow up the action. But for its defects the
film has compensating qualities. There are sly
touches of wit and humour, which give the film
a sense of reality all to rare in our native pro-
duction. What British director in a hospital, for
example, would introduce us to the kitchens, the
bedpan and the laundry among the panoply of
wards, X-ray rooms and operating theatres?
And there will be few of us who do not recognize
something of themselves in that incorrigible
'youngest' !

Denmark Grows Up, covering the social ser-
vices available for babies and young children,
ranges from the training of midwives, ante
natal, maternity and post natal care in rural
areas to the organization of nursery and junior
schools in the towns. Children the world over
are a joy to watch and the directors make the
most of their opportunities, but with such a wide
field to cover continuity is difficult. The result is
a disjointed story in which the details remain less
clearly in the mind than with others of the series.
For overseas audiences at least, some restriction
of scope would have been an advantage; never-
theless the total picture of social achievement
which the film presents is impressive. As in the
other two the quality of sincerity is striking, and
the film again demonstrates the astonishing
ability of Danish directors to bring their charac-
ters to life.

For all who are concerned with social welfare,
these films will provide a valuable introduction
to Danish methods of dealing with their problems.
Clearly Denmark has done much in her care for
the helpless and needy which we in this country
should do well to study. But for film makers, too,
there is much of a technical interest. Some of the
more serious minded will no doubt be irritated
by a joy in film craft which in places is almost
naive, but few will deny that these films have
wit, humanity and a refreshing quality of enthu-
siasm which is sadly lacking in so many of our
own films. And finally, whatever to British eyes
may be the defects of construction and exposi-
tion the fact remains that these are films about
real people. The postman, the cigar merchant,
the taxi driver, his wife and family, the farm
worker sitting by his wife in labour, the old lady
who was a trapeze artist in her heyday — these,
and many others too numerous to mention —
these are old friends. We meet and know them.
These films bring us close to the people of Den-
mark themselves, to their hopes, their fears and
their problems, which are not very different from
our own. This, when hatred and misunderstand-
ing are again dividing the people of the world,
and when economic restrictions are forcing us
back to our island isolation, is important.

Copies of the films may be obtained for private
showings by application to the Danish Embassy.

J he Cotton Board

FILM LIBRARY

of unused shots from recent Cotton films
is, we believe, a model of what such libraries
should be. We do not pretend that it is
yet comprehensive, but it is continually
growing, and, if the shot you want exists at
all, it is easy for you to select it and to
order it up. The library is operated by

on behalf of the Cotton Board.
Apply to Eric Pask, DATA, 26 D'Arblay St, Wl. Gerrard 3122

THE

HORIZON

FILM UNIT

An Associate oj the Film Producers Guild Ltd

Now in production with 'Social Healer'
— a profile of a County Medical Officer
of Health — for the C.O.I, and Foreign
Office.

THE HORIZON FILM UNIT

(producer: max munden)

GUILD HOUSE, UPPER ST. MARTIn's LANE, W.C.2

SOMETHING NEW

IN
CLASSROOM FILMS

To meet his desire to use visual aids to education the
British Gas Council now offers the teacher three new
films designed for the classroom. Divided into short
sequences to enable the teacher to stop the projector
for discussion or explanation, they are planned as an
integral part of the school lesson. Moreover, thev give
that connection between the schoolroom and the world
outside that makes an otherwise academic subject vivid
and memorable.

These films cover the subject of Transference of
Heat by Convection, Conduction and Radiation. They
are supported by Teaching Notes (3s. per set) which
form a miniature text book on the subject.

" Admirable films, not least because the
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SIGHT

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A cultural Quarterly

MONTHLY FILM BULLETIN

appraising educational

and
entertainmenl values

Published by: The British Film Institute
4 Great Russell Street, London, W.C.I

DOCUMENTARY

NEWS LETTER

wishes its readers

\
2)appp CljrtStums

and a

C^oob J7rti) Dear

MOST HUMAN BEINGS LIKE APPRECIATION . . .

That it has been said of NORTH EAST
CORNER 'its beauty is irresistible', that FENLANDS has
been described as 'a lovely and informative picture', that
CYPRUS IS AN ISLAND has been called ' a perfect film
of its kind', pleases us no less than the warm reception
given to A STRING OF BEADS at the Edinburgh Film
Festival.

Whether the subject is the people of the
Potteries, the shipyards of Great Britain or the air routes
to Australia, we do our best to make our films techni-
cally and artistically satisfying to ourselves.

But, being human, we also like to hear that
they have given satisfaction to others.

Krrrnparh Productions Ltd

MANAGING I ) I K 1 C T < ) K K A I 1' 1 1 K 1 I \ I

Ah Associate of Till FILM PRODUCERS GUILD, LIMITED

GUILD HOjlSl ■ UPPER ST. MARTIN \ I \M • lONDON • «i ! / I'm/i/i' Bar ^4:0

Mil \\ \1 PRI s». I O\l>o\ \\n HI RIPOR11

COCUMENTAR

film

INCORPORATING DOCUMENTARY N

JANUARY 1948

C VV 3

ONE SHILLING

basic Films

for 1948
include subjects for

MINISTRIES OF AGRICULTURE, EDUCATION,
HEALTH, SUPPLY, TRANSPORT; SCOTTISH
OFFICE; WAR OFFICE; ADMIRALTY; G.B.
CHILDREN'S DEPARTMENT; BRITISH GAS
COUNCIL

cnsic Mims

are made by

KAY MANDER, J. B. NAPIER BELL, JOHN SHEARMAN

JOHN B. RHODES, CYNTHIA WHITBY
A. ARTHUR ENGLANDER. MICHAEL CURRER-BRIGGS
CURT LAURENTZSCH ADAM A. DAWSON

KITTY MARSHALL, PAMELA GEARY
DEBORAH CHESSHIRE, D. F. PICKIS, PEGGY DOWLING
LARRY PIZER, BARBARA VINCENT, PHILIP AIZLEWOOD

THELMA SEWELL, VICTOR PROCTOR
P. UPWARD, M. PIERSON, J. HARRISON, S. CROOKS
R. S. CAMPLIN R. K. NEILSON BAXTER

BASIC FILMS LIMITED

18 SOHO SQUARE. LONDON, W.I
GERRARD 7015

A MEMBER OF THE FEDERATION OF DOCUMENTARY FILM UNITS

CONFIDENCE

There is considerable
alarm and despondency in the
documentary world. Jittery
sponsors, centralization of all
Government film production in
Crown, are rumoured to be
bringing about the end of
documentary as we have known
it.

We believe that much of this
is unreal. Crises are nothing
new in our industry. Pub-talk
often magnifies them into dis-
asters. But good and worth-
while documentary films will
continue to be made, and we at
DATA are determined to be
among those who make them.

DATA

DOCUMENTARY TECHNICIANS ALLIANCE LTD
21 SOHO SQUARE, LONDON. W 1. (..-rrard 2826

Member of the Federation of Documentary Film Units

DOCUMENTARY film IIVUS

VOL. 7 NO. 61 JANUARY 1948

EDITORIAL BOARD

STEPHEN ACKROYD
DONALD ALEXANDER
MAX ANDERSON
EDGAR ANSTEY
GEOFFREY BELL

KEN CAMERON
PAUL FLETCHER
SINCLAIR ROAD
GRAHAME THARP
BASIL WRIGHT

EDITOR

DAVIDE BOULTING

SALES & ACCOUNTS

PEGGY HUGHES

Cover design by james boswell

CONTENTS

This month's cover still is from A Siring of Beads reviewed on page_6

Editorial

Notes of the Month

Films in Germany
Arthur Elton

Venezuela to Verdoux
Edgar Anstey

The World is Rich

New Documentary Films

New Films from Canada

Survey of Films

No. 2. Czechoslovakia, Poland and Yugoslavia

Recording Angel?
Alex Shaw

Open Letter from a Schoolteacher

Correspondence

Nero Nonflam; Lucian Prechner

Correspondence

George Jones; H. E. Norris; Geoffrey Dando

Published every month by
Film 4 cntro .'I i Soho Sq. London Wl

9

10

II
12

ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION 12. V.

SINGLE COPIES is.

CATS OUT OF BAGS

Q. When is a crisis not a crisis?
A. When it's a rank crisis.

Several months ago a tax was introduced which
is likely to reduce enormously the showing in
Britain of American films and il was assumed that
British production would be greatly increased to
till the gap.

At the time of writing one member in li\e of the Association
of Cine-technicians is unemployed and Mr Rank is being
heavily criticized by the financial pundits for a production-
distribution deal alleged to resemble a pig sold in a poke.
Meanwhile our exhibitors are grovelling about on their well-
worn knees praying alternately to the Board of Trade and to
the American industry for some guarantee that the) shall not
be asked to bear, in the shape of a reduction of receipts, an)
part of the British post-war economic burden.

To cap everything, the Rank Organization and Sir Alexander
Korda claim that their established and leisurely production
policies are sacrosanct and that chaos would follow any
attempt to interfere with them.

Fortunately and most properly the Board of Trade is not
deceived. Mr Harold Wilson has announced the formation of
the National Joint Films Production Council 'to keep under
review by the Industry and the Government the measures
being taken to promote the fullest and best use of available
film production resources'.

It is vital that the present spate of recriminations should be
brought to an end at the earliest possible moment. An analysis
of the situation appears to us to reveal the following key points.

(1) The tax on foreign films represents the greatest incentive
the British film production industry has ever had.

(2) It may also represent a temporary threat to the revenue
of exhibitors.

(3) The stability of the Rank Empire depends primarily on
Rank as exhibitor and only secondarily on Rank as producer.

(4) Rank has made the fundamental mistake o\ allowing
his interests as an exhibitor to remain dependent on a con-
tinuing supply of American films.

(5) As a result of this mistake and bispolic) of making a few
lavish prestige films instead o\' more medium cost pictures
which would both satisfy the exhibitors' needs and re
their costs with the home market, most British producers have
been caught bending.

(6) The tax is therefore turning out to provide less of an
incentive than was expected. In the circumstances, the appear-
ance of the White Paper on the neu I ilms Act ma) be handy,
but it hardly touches the seat of the present crisis

(7) The Government has still to decide between (a) with-
drawing the tax and thcicbv virtuallv handing back

trol of the British industry, togethei with a substantia] annual
tribute of dollars, to the Americans or (/>) taking Mt active part
in the rationalization in the national interest ol the British
industry.

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

NOTES OF THE MONTH

Happy New Year

with 1948 DNL gives place to DFN — Documentary News Letter,
reaching a wider readership and being a firmly established maga-
zine, becomes Documentary Film News. Clothing coupons may
be scarce but we've managed a new dress and we hope you like it!
It was designed for us by James Boswell, now Art Editor of Lillipul.
Some of our original readers may remember the time when we
came out monthly; wartime difficulties made publication irregular
but, with the New Year and a new volume we turn over a new leaf
and announce monthly appearance in the future. A word to old
subscribers — we need new readers and plenty of them; you'll find
a form inside this issue — do please help us by getting it filled in by
a new subscriber; or how about giving a present of a subscription
to a friend overseas? Don't forget we go post free anywhere in the
world. To all our readers — the Correspondence pages have not
been over-full lately. Let's have your views and criticism on any-
thing and everything in short letters, we are getting tired of the
sound of our own voices!

The New Bill

the bill containing the proposals for the new Cinematograph
Films Act, which is to take the place of the 1938 Act, comes to hand
just as we are going to press. There is, therefore, no opportunity
to do more than provide a brief summary of its main proposals,
and to attempt a somewhat hasty assessment of their significance.
The most important proposal from the point of view of the docu-
mentary and shorts business is that, at long last, and after many
years of unremitting campaigning, a genuine cost clause is to be
applied. The figure is 10 shillings per foot (labour costs), applying
to all films, both long and short, if they are to qualify for exhibitor's
quota. While many of the documentary and shorts people would
have liked a higher minimum, the figure proposed may neverthe-
less be regarded as satisfactory, since it will eliminate the quickie
which has been the bugbear of the industry for so long. Moreover,
the new Bill also abolishes the separate quotas for short and long
films, and substitutes in their place separate quotas for first features
and for all other films in the programme, with the exception of
newsreels, etc., which remain exempt, as previously. The distinc-
tion between the first feature and the rest of the programme, as
far as quota is concerned, is that the former will be calculated "on
the number of days of exhibition of a particular film" and the latter
on footage. Renter's quota is abolished altogether. The regula-
tions on exhibitor's quota are, on the other hand, considerably
tightened; particularly welcome is the clause which lays down that
'Any British Film' (that is, long or short) 'must be shown at least
once between 5 p.m. and 10 p.m. if it is to be counted for quota
purposes'. This removes any possibility of the revival of the once
popular practice of bumping off British product by showing it
only in the mornings. A further clause penalizes the big circuits,
and concedes to the small exhibitor; the small man whose theatre
takings are less than £100 per week is 'relieved of all quota obliga-
tions', but groups of more than 200 theatres controlled by the same
person (as it might be Mr J. A. Rank) will be designated as
'special quota theatres' and will be liable to higher quota rates.
More than this, the Board of Trade will have discretion not to
license any further theatres to the big circuits, a clause which re-
calls the famous gentlemen's agreement between Rank and Dalton
some years back. Going further still, the Bill proposes that the big
circuits shall also be compelled to show up to six British films a
year certified as suitable by a Selection Board appointed by the
Board of Trade; this presumably will be the body set up by Cr ipps.
whose functions hitherto have been highly obscure. The result of
this proposal should be that films which the Trade is reluctant to
handle because of their unusual or experimental character will be
given a chance to prove their worth (or otherwise) in at least some
of the major theatres of the country. A rather sinister clause lays

it down that the provisions of the Bill may be applied to 16 mm
films; but this is, fortunately qualified by the statement that this
can only be done 'subject to affirmative resolutions of both Houses
of Parliament'. One of the most gratifying provisions of the Bill re-
fers to the Films Council. Ever since its formation, and subsequent
transformations, there have been many justified complaints that it
did not adequately represent the balance of power as between the
financial, creative, technical and consumer interests of the Trade.
Its new composition puts this right; there are to be five independent
representatives of the public (of whom one must be Chairman),
four representatives of the producers, four of labour, four of ex-
hibitors and a modest two for the renters. The general impression
from a hasty reading of the Bill is that the role of the Council is
also to be considerably strengthened vis a vis Board of Trade poli-
cies and action. A particularly important point from the docu-
mentary point of view is that the definition of what constitutes a
British film for the purposes of quota has been extended to include
films 'made by or on behalf of His Majesty's Government in the
United Kingdom, or by or on behalf of the Government ot any
other part of His Majesty's Dominions'. This removes the anomal-
ous situation by which many productions, including some of the
best Canadian films, were ruled out as ineligible for quota. The
actual quota percentages are not yet stated in the bill: which is
hardly surprising in view of the situation regarding the Import Tax.
But the Board of Trade is to be committed to fixing these percent-
ages not later than July 1st, 1948. We shall comment in greater detail
on the new proposals in our next issue, when there will also be an
opportunity to study the reactions of the various sectional interests
ot the Trade.

The Scientific Film Association

the SFA has been very busy this last few months — one conference
on The Use of Films in Universities was held in London (in con-
junction with the Cambridge Films Council and the BFI) while
only a week later there was one on The Visual Unit in Education
held in Manchester. Both of them were very well attended and an
impression of the latter is included elsewhere in this issue. The SFA
is doing a most valuable work in the education field in support of
the national committees.

Films in the Colonies

on January 16th the British Film Institute is to hold a conference
on the Use of Film in the Colonies at the Royal Empire Society
Hall. Creech Jones (Colonial Secretary) is to open the conference
and Adrian Crowley (Under Secretary of State for the Colonies)
will be in the chair. John Grierson is expected to speak in his
capacity as Director of Mass Media for UNESCO.

Sequence

a magazine by this name is being published by the Oxford Univer-
sity Film Society. Number Two has just come our way and been
thoroughly enjoyed by the Board. The standard of writing is high
and the production is excellent. The good quality paper and inter-
esting stills alone make it worth two shillings a go.

Film Today

published by the Saturn Press with an Editorial Board comprising
Sydney Box, John Cross, Paul Rotha, Carol Reid and Richard Win-
nington. the first number of a new film publication 'Film Today'
( 5s.) has just appeared. Lavishly illustrated, it attempts in the words
of the editorial 'to cover all those departments of the cinema with
which we believe our audience to be concerned'. Subjects range
from Unesco to cleavage, the making of a film to poster publicity
and overseas film activities

!)()( I MKN I VR\ I II. M \| \\ s

Films in (ivrnuuui b> Arthur elton

Film Adviser to Information Services ( ontrol of German)
(A broadcast talk delivered over the British Forces Network of German] on October 21st, 1 947 )

the film Section of ISC or Information Sen ices
Control to give it its full name, deals mainl)
with two kinds of film — those imported from
other countries, in our wise generally from
Britain, and those made by the German film
industry for use in Germany, and presently 1
hope, for export, I am going to consider the
import of films into Germain first, not because
this is necessarily the most important job being
done, but because the Film Section of ISC has
just brought this part of its work to a conclusion.
Since October 3rd the import and distribution of
films from Britain and America has been handed
oxer to commercial interests. From now on the>
must undertake the very great responsibility of
selecting films for Germany. For films are no
ordinary commodities. They are the products of
creati\e imagination. Main films, perhaps most
films, are pretty poor and shabby works of art.
but this does not mean that they do not influence
the ways of thinking and feeling of millions of
people. For the masses of people of the world
learn about themselves and their neighbours
through films, learn to despise or admire other
countries, learn to buy their goods and judge then
ways of life. The world looks at America and
Britain through the eyes of Hollywood and
Denham. That is one of the reasons why no con-
trolling authority in Germany dare allow films to
be used irresponsibly, for they can be instruments
ofgoodorharm.

The very power of films is sometimes a bit of
an embarrassment to the people who make a
living by producing or selling them. For a long
time the film industry worked by a formula which
ran something like this: the public is always
right : therefore the films the greatest number of
people pay to see are the best films. QED. On
this piece of phoney opportunist idealism, the
film moguls in the past justified drenching all
mankind in emotional film slush. Then Goebbels
got busy. Stealing an idea here, corrupting an
argument there, he mobilized the power of the
cinema, not only for profit or the satisfaction of
shoddy sentiment, but to poison the mind of a
whole people. And the film boys outside Germany
who for years had been pretending that all the>
were doing was to 'sell' entertainment — some-
thing, they said, as innocent as "putting on
pantomimes — were suddenly seen to be babies
playing with spiritual atom bombs. For the awful
truth is that a film may make money because it
endorses standards of behaviour or presents ideas
which people would be ashamed to adopt if they
hadn't 'seen them on the pictures'. And which of
us today won't pay a few pennies to have our
lower natures not only catered for but positive!)
congratulated? The question which faces us all is
— Can the film trade find itself new standards in
keeping with the age we live in? And nowhere in
the world today is the problem more urgent than
in Germany.

To illustrate my argument, let me quote one ol
the greatest box-office hits in Germany the
British film The Wicked Lady, put out a year orso
ago. I fancy so many German people paid to
see it because, by implication, they could argue
from it that we won the war because many of us

are natural!) sadistic, sew. unscrupulous swash-
bucklers, and not because we had the com
our convictions. Were the millions of reichmarks
that Him earned reall) worth the harm it did? This
is the sort of question which must not only be
asked but answered by those handling films in
Germany toda>

Now let me consider the Othei kind ol film
the films made by the German film industry.
Now that Film Section has handed over the
distribution o\' British films in Germany. I
believe that it will find itself laced with by far
the most important task ol its existence the
encouragement of a nm* lively and independent
C ici man industry. For films no matter how base
the motives behind their production — are one of
the ways a nation expresses itself and takes stock
of itself. For the masses of the people film-makers
occupy the place the ballad-singers and story-
tellers used to occupy. Though films from abroad
can amuse and instruct, can teach and encourage
I think no country can acquire a philosophy
ready-made from another; each country must
hammer out its own The film can play a huge
part in this process. That is win I believe it is
even more important to encourage an independ-
ent home industry in Germany than to ensure the
import of appropriate films from outside.

If my arguments are right, the new German
films are likely both to illustrate trends in German
thought and feelings today, and to be a powerful
factor in shaping the Germany of the future. If
they can find the growing points in the new
Germany and bring them alive on the screen,
they will do a powerful service for the new Ger-
many. If they merely suggest that the German
people are creatures of circumstance, then they
will not help the German people to find their wa>
out of their present difficulties. If they counsel
suicide and despair, they may do harm.

Let us have a look at some of the German
films made since the occupation. Let's take lirst
of all Helmuth Kautner's In Jenen Tagen ( In
Those Days), by far the best film yet made and
released in the British zone. Technically the film
is of the highest order. It is imaginative; simple
effects, like the reflection of trees in the wind-
screen of a car, have been used brilliantly; the
acting is \i\id and sincere, and 1 shall long
remember the old baroness being driven out of
burning Berlin in a battered car, >>' the sergeant
being shot as he is driving a German office: along ,i
snowy road in mid-winter. The hero of the film,
by the way, is a motor-car which tells its own
story to prove that, throughout the Nazi regime
and the war. there were decent ordinary people in
German;. I rue enough, of course, but the film
lacks something all the same. It lacks a kind of
toughness. For its characters, I ascism was ,i
horrible background. None of them participated
None of them fought back No. I'm afraid hi
Jenen Tagen falls finall) into the class of films
showing the German people as orphans o\ the

storm. Then there are Zug) />' /'

from the British /one and / 5 hath >n

{Marriage in the Shadows) from the Russian
Both are finelv made, but both suggest, Ol Bl

least imply, that the onl) way out of difficult) is

suicide Both. I contend, are dangerou
the othei hand, \forder sind untet I ns{ \fw

mg < f) from the Russian zone I
these d ingers, and is besides a masterly piece
of film-making worth) to he ranked beside
anv film made m I mope this year. It is the stor>
of the successful struggle against despair and
disillusionment hv a prisoner from the Eastern
front, who regains his pride by returning to his job
of beniL' a doctor. On the way he hands a Black
Marketeer ex-Nazi thug over to the police instead
of taking the law into his own hands and shoot-
ing him But if you ask me which will be the
better box-office success in Germany, I shall replv
the former. Not because it is the better film, but
because people w ill pas more readily to see some-
thing that implies that non-partieipation is
innocence, than to see something which does not
evade the realities ol' the present situation. A
vivid example of the dangers of taking the box-
office point of view when determining a film
policy for German) .

Alongside the feature films there is, of course,
the equally important question of documentary
films and the huge audiences outside the public
cinemas. It is in this field that perhaps the gi .
opportunities lie in Germany today. For of all
films that suffered under the hand of Goebbels,
documentarv and teaching films suffered worst.
At the present time mixed German and English
teams are making documentaries for the public
cinemas, and even more importantly, every help
possible is being given to the production and
distribution of films on 16 mm. In the British
Zone there is an organization called Gesellschaft
Unterichts for Film und Bild, with its head-
quarters in Hamburg. This is now at work
making a series of films ranging from scientific
studies of the honey-bee to plain teaching films
for the schools. Other films are planned for
adults and children, and presently it is hoped that
ever) German school and adult institute will be
able to look to the film both for recreation, learn-
ing and culture. A lively and instructive docu-
mentarv tradition is an asset in anv country, and
I think that Germain with her splendid technical
skill, will presently become one of the foremost
countries in this respect

Finally, of course, there is the newsrei ".
im Film winch is still a direct!) controlled

Anglo-US operation, though carried out almost
entirely In German stall Welt mi Film goes to

ever) cinema m the British and American Zones,

and is one ol the most important sources of news
from home and overseas available in the country
toda) Presently, I hope. Welt im Film will be-
come a wholt) German undertaking

w . then yon have it German) has slendei

technical resources, but splendid technicians she

has a film tradition second to none in the world.

Out job is to see that the films m the tie

main become an independent, health) and

flourishing movement, representative of all that
is best in the German people themselvi

DOl metelv an instrument in the hands of those
whose principal aim is to get as rich as p
as quick!) as possible, and then get out.

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEW S

Venezuela

A RAMBLE by

'you've been to New York and South America,'
said the editor, 'how about an article?' It was
true that much could be reported from across the
Atlantic. Documentary is ubiquitous in oppor-
tunity if not in accomplishment. The world — as
every new applicant for a new job will tell you —
teems with subjects.

Yet what finally enabled me to embark, on this
article with some show of enthusiasm was a
shorter and simpler expedition than the trans-
Atlantic crossing. It was a trip down Charing
Cross Road to Chaplin's Monsieur Verdoux. And
if, as a result, I write not a word about foreign
parts, I suspect that Chaplin's latest film has
more to say to documentary film-makers than the
jungles of the New World, whether they be of
chromium or coconut palm.

Note first that Monsieur Verdoux is a film
arousing passionate controversy. Whether or not
the wit, the sentiment and the slapstick is ac-
cepted without an increase in blood pressure,
you may be sure that the moral speculations of
the film's climax will lead to disputations as bitter
as those which have traditionally been reserved
for a Cocteau premier. And the reasons are not
dissimilar. For here is someone trying to use the
cinema for a personal statement on matters in
which we all regard ourselves as expert. More-
over he is clearly possessed by a truly passionate
desire to state his case; the whole purpose and
manner of the film is subordinated to the need to
make a sharp criticism of society. The violence of
the audience reactions is the measure of his
success.

It is important that Chaplin's climax, in which
he suggests that the individual who murders to
defend the economic position of his family, may
be no more guilty than the nation that goes to
war in defence of its way of life, gets an imme-
diate response from working-class audiences.
They are pleased also by the direct assaults upon
'respectability' and upon the complacencies of
religious jargon. It may not be fanciful to suggest
that Chaplin is attempting something not dis-
similar from the aim of Shaw's earlier plays (Mrs
Warren's Profession, Arms and the Man, for ex-
ample), but with the important difference that
Chaplin appears to reach immediate and direct
contact with a working-class audience. Perhaps
we should regard Chaplin as embarking in this
film on a new career as 'The Poor Man's Shaw'
or Shaw without the long words. Some of the
vicious middle-class and intellectually snobbish
reactions to the Chaplin climax would seem very
familiar to GBS. It is true that when he speculates
verbally and clumsily on the nature of evil,
Chaplin is merely inept, but more than com-
pensating is the beautifully appropriate styliza-
tion of his miming (compare not unprofitably
Jean Louis Barrault) which goes often deeper
than cinema words have yet learned to probe.
Watch also his masterly contempt for his back-
cloth and the way he deliberately uses the screen
cliches of train-wheels, feet runing upstairs and
the Eiffel Tower to accentuate his satire on the
feverish daily whirl of the business-man. He
rightly assumes that it is Chaplin and what Chap-
lin has to say that is the attraction, that the sets
and the continuity devices are props to be ig-
nored or themselves satirized.

to Verdoux

EDGAR ANSTEY

But what has all this to do with documentary?
Let us turn for an answer to the current produc-
tion schedule of the Central Office of Informa-
tion. Let us read the titles. Here are document-
aries which undoubtedly employ, and often
with great efficiency, the whole gamut of cine-
matic devices known to man. They embrace
everything under the sun from the bottling -of
pickles to a coloured cartoon about satellite
towns. They stand or fall, not by stars or stories,
but by their ideas. Why then do the titles make
curiously gloomy reading — even for the devotee
of documentary.

Is it because of an inescapable conviction that
these films — unlike Monsieur Verdoux — will have
nothing new to say, notrriBg that anyone has pas-
sionately wanted to get across to an audience and
for which the medium is a means and not an
end?

Have British documentaries become dull be-
cause in spite of the crying need for them to re-
vise and restate the social democratic philosophy
their makers succeed in saying nothing which
has not already been said only too often in print
or over the radio — or indeed in earlier films? The
number of feature productions which have any-
thing original to say is, of course, also negligible.
But they are able to maintain audience interest
by their fictional content. They have a tale to tell,
normally a familiar one revamped, but at any
rate a tale.

Do we reach the conclusion that the docu-
mentary film-maker who is eschewing fiction
must substitute personal opinion and con-
troversy? I believe that at any rate we should re-
examine the role of the individual in the produc-
tion process. The world is coming slowly to ac-
cept the view that although the provision of food,
clothing and shelter must be subject to mass dis-
ciplines these may well be dangerous instruments
on the level of philosophical interpretation and
belief. It is already clear that anti-individualist
doctrines will not give us full and flexible power
over any art-form. Let us not forget that in the
earliest days of documentary the element of
'interpretation' was held to be essential and new
interpretations do not spring from bureaucracy.

To approach the current documentary problem
from this point of view reveals clearly the danger
of administration becoming senior partner to
production in the control of documentary policy.
For official films the Department must name the
informational task: the film-maker must be left
free to provide the screen solution.

Recently I viewed a group of Continental docu-
mentaries most of which put our own work to
shame for liveliness of purpose and treatment.
Yet in the middle of one of them — a beautiful
Italian film of shepherd life and a powerful piece
of Italian public relations — a civil servant at my
elbow in a stage whisper to her neighbour re-
marked, 'Not a very clean farm, is it?' Visions
were immediately conjured up of the fate of this
film had it passed through British official hands.
One can readily imagine the deletion of all the
key sequences on the grounds that the agricul-
tural methods shown were not of the most
modern order.

So we do not need to visit the tropics for a
salutary piece of advice on documentary. Let us
make a pilgrimage instead to the feet of the
courageous Mr Chaplin who had something to
say and was not turned from his purpose until he
had said it. Let us not forget that in the early
days of documentary film-making in this coun-
try, something not dissimilar was wont to hap-
pen. In these days it is more common to sit back
and complain that no one offers any good sub-
jects to make. No one ever did.

DFN COMPETITION No. 1

It is the year 1588 after the defeat of the Armada.
Great social, political and economic changes are
taking place in Elizabethan England. The Films
Division of the Queen's Privy Council has been
ordered to make a scries of six films to introduce
these changes to the public and to bolster up the
morale of the people after the war with Spain.
One film each is allotted to the War Office, the
Admiralty, the Board of Trade and the Mir.i, tries
of Health, Agriculture and Education.

We offer prizes of a guinea and half a guinea
for the best selection of titles (with suggested
Elizabethan script writers) for these six films.

Entries must reach the Editor before February
1st and results will appear in the March issue.

BRITISH DOCUMENTARY

We welcome British Documentary which has just
been established as a body representative of all
those engaged in documentary film production
and distribution in this country.

The broad aims of British Documentary are
to develop :

(1) The technical and artistic quality, and the
social and cultural value of documentary films.

(2) The freedom of expression and the moral
and artistic responsibility of documentary film
workers.

(3) Proper financial conditions tor the produc-
tion and distribution of documentary films.

(4) Adequate distribution for every subject
which is produced.

(5) International co-operation, h\ exchange of

films, workers, and ideas, and by joint produc-
tions, through the World Union of Documentary.

It is, in fact, as a result of a series of open
meetings held to discuss the World Union of
Documentary, set up in Brussels last June, that
the new organization has come into being.

A number of immediate and practical func-
tions for British Documentary have been agreed.
They range from acting as the platform for docu-
mentary opinion and policy to providing a
central meeting place and club-room.

Membership of British Documentary is open to
all those working in documentary film produc-
tion and distribution; there is also a category of
associate membership for those who have done
service to the documentary movement.

DCM I Ml N I W<\ I II M NKNNS

•STAR DOCUMENTARY

The World is Itielt

made by Films of Fact
produced by Paul Rotha

why is a film reviewer like a Commissioner for
Inland Revenue? Because the> both spend a lot
of time making allowances, and because the same
glow of satisfaction warms the hearts of both
collector and critic when the) find that no allow-
ances need be made. The World is Rich asks no
quarter and no charity. Here, for once, there is
no necessity to assume excuses, lack of technical
means, inexperience, sponsorial spinelessness or
lack of funds. Mr Rotha was probably faced
with most of these difficulties at one time or
another in the coarse of production: but he has
overcome them, and overcome them so com-
pletely that not a rack of them is left to mar his
finished film. It can be judged as the major work
it is, by the most exacting standards of criticism.
The theme is the world food situation, how it
arose, and what the Food and Agriculture
Organization of the United Nations plans to do
— and asks the constituent nations to do — to in-
crease the production of staple foods and ensure
an equitable distribution of them to the under-
nourished millions of the world. It is a measure
of Mr Rotha's skill of presentation that he man-
ages to get a subject of this magnitude into a film
of five reels without apparent overcrowding,
without resorting to winds generalizations, and
without allowing his audience for a moment to
forget the hungry eyes and aching bellies that he
behind the official figures. Its success in this last
respect is perhaps the film's greatest achieve-
ment. The power of the cinema to translate facts
and figures into flesh and blood — and all too
visible bone — has seldom been fully exploited:
but it has never been more fully exploited than in
The World is Rich. Equally remarkable, in these
days when to be candid about ugly facts in an
official film is hardly less ill-bred than sniggering
at the duchess's toupet, is the uncompromising

'plenty of food everywhere, old man'

way in which this film faces the full implications||jdeserves to be, it will help bring agreement

of the issues which it raises. Responsibly, reason-J Iconsiderably nearer.

ably, with the help of such prominent personali- f The film is not onlv impressive because of i

ties as Sir John Orr and the late Mr La Guardia,
the case is made for the abandonment of the
present economic system in so far as it affects the
production and distribution of food. It is not an
impartial film. It favours the defenceless, hungry,
ordinary man, and is strongly opposed to all
those who arc permitted by a system of free enter-
prise to gamble with, speculate in, corner and re-
strict the food he needs. Controversial? Yes, but
the controversy is one in which we are all in-
volved as surely as we are involved in mankind.
As Sir John Orr says in the film, if the nations
cannot agree about such a fundamental subject
as the abolition of hunger and want, there's
nothing on God's earth they will agree about.
And if The World is Rich is shown as widely as it

or is there.'

subject matter. Again and again one is struck b\
the skill and meticulous care with which shots
from innumerable sources have been collected
and compiled. The commentary and the musK
too, are on the whole admirably composed to
bring out the full implications of the visuals Yet
there is something about the structure of the film
which is untidy and confused. The broad thread
of the argument, although never broken, is
sometimes entangled in a knot of irrelevances.
and sometimes doubles back on itself so that
considerable concentration is required to follow
it. This lack of claritv in development is not en-
tirely due to the complexity, of the subject, and
has the unfortunate effect of making the audience
work harder for its information than it should
properly be asked to in a public cinema. The
criticism might be hardly worth mentioning
were it not for the fact that the Isotvpe diagrams
on which the film relies for illustration of some oi
its principal points are quite inadequate to the
task. They have been made without ingenuity
and without much thought: and their effect is
to complicate still further the already rather
tortuous unfolding of the theme

In spue of these defects, The World la R
documentarv film in the verv highest class In
courage, sincerity, and importance of subject-
matter u is in a different category from the
ordinary run of propaganda and public relations
productions, and it merits the widest possible
exhibition throughout the world Yet it is
understood at the time of going to press that it
will onlv get a veiv meagre theatrical distribution
in this country \\ nether this is due to the oppo-
sition of the renters 01 to some othei cause, it is
gie.ul> to be deplored A change is long overdue
in a distribution system which permits second
features of the most disreputable kind to exclude
from the screen RlmS of real public interest and
importance Ultimately, the remedy is in the
hands of audiences, who too seldom express their
preferences to the cinema managers; but it u
to be hoped that the new t inematograph I ilms

\ aiII do something to improve the situ. i'

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

I 'nless otherwise indicated, 'DFN' Reviews
are the work of 'DFN' Reviewing Panel,
consisting of Stephen Ackroyd, Donald
Alexander, Max Anderson, Ken Cameron,
Paid Fletcher, Sinclair Road and Grahame
Tharp. Opinions expressed are the collec-
tive opinions of the Panel.

Tale in a Teacup. Greenpark for International
Tea Market Expansion Board. Directors: Ralph
Keene and Terry Bishop. Script: Laurie Lee.
Photography: George Still. Music composed by
Lambert Williamson, and conducted by John
Hollingsworth. Editor: John Trumper. Distribu-
tion: T. and non-T from ITMEB. 17 mins.

A String of Beads. Greenpark for ITMEB.
Producer and Director: Ralph Keene. Script:
Laurie Lee. Photography: George Still. Musical
Director: John Hollingsworth. Original Music:
Elizabeth Lutyens. Editor: John Trumper. Dis-
tribution: T and non-T from ITMEB. 25 mins.

T' for Teacher. W. M. Larkins Studio for the
Tea Bureau under the Supervision of Voice and
Vision Ltd. Verse: Roger MacDougall. Music:
Francis Chagrin. Animation: Peter Sachs.

This series sponsored by the Tea Bureau com-
prises three films of very different type. The first
sets out to tell the story of tea, its origin in China,
the starting of the first plantations in Assam in
1823, its introduction into this country and grow-
ing popularity until it became a national institu-
tion. The approach is simple and direct. There is
a certain amount of historical reconstruction at
the beginning, which is not wholly successful.
The film then proceeds to describe clearly and
well the work involved from plantation to factory
before the finished packet of tea is ready.

'7" for Teacher takes over at this point and adds
some useful hints about how to make a good
cup of tea. It is a cartoon in the Lotte Reiningerr
tradition, the figures being in silhouette form.

A String of Beads, a story documentary set in
the plantations of Assam, is the centre piece of
the series. It is a moving and imaginative film
which successfully avoids the almost inevitable
comparison with Song of Ceylon. It tells of the
marriage of Ramdas and Mangri who work in
the tea gardens, of their home and the child that
is born. The film is lyrical before all else, it
catches the mood of the young couple against
the natural beauty of the plantations. It does not
pretend to do more than this. The rhythm of the
film is consistent throughout. Yet no theatrical
distribution can be obtained, which confirms
one's suspicions that the exhibitors and renters
do not know their business.

Downlands. Greenpark for COI in association
with Film Centre. Direction: Charles de Lautour
and Humphrey Swingler. Photography: George
Still. Distribution: CFL. 18 mins.

This is the last of The 'Pattern of Britain* series
which has ranged up and down these isles and
caught the many moods of the changing country-
side. Downlands adds its impressions of rolling
farmlands which have been cultivated intensively
by succeeding generations. The film tends, how-
ever, to be rather flat, due probably to the series
of accidents which upset and delayed production.
While it has none of the memorable shots which
make other of the films in this scries stick in one's
mind, it obviously belongs to the pattern and
adds its piece to the picture o\ Britain.

NEW DOCUMENTARY FILMS

Park Here. Greenpark for COI. Producer: Ralph
Keene. Director: John Eldridge. Camera: Martin
Curtis. Distribution: CFL. 17 mins.

Theme. The difficulties encountered by the
townsman when he visits the country and the
solution which would be afforded by the creation
of National Parks.

Comment. This film falls into two parts, which
bear little relationship to each other. In the first
an actor disguised as a railwayman deserts his
engine for a bicycle and gets into difficulties on
an expedition into the country. This, since he
does not know that hay burns, cows stray and his
attractive girl friend has forgotten to pack a
sandwich, is hardly surprising. The second part
shows some of the beautiful unspoiled tracts of
country which could be declared National Parks
and provided with proper facilities for visitors.

The idea of National Parks is a good one, as
the experience of Canada and the United States
has shown; this film, however, will do nothing
to convince you of their value in Britain, or even
to explain what the idea really means.

The Centuries Between. Merlin Films for British
Gas Council. Producer: M. Hankinson. Director:
G. Gunn. Camera: J. Flack. Distribution:
BGC non-T. 18 mins.

This is a film about a rural community whose
small, privately owned gas works goes into
liquidation, throwing the inhabitants back on
more primitive methods of heating and cooking.
A petition is organized and addressed to the
large gas undertaking in the nearest town, and
when enough potential consumers have agreed
to take the supply the pipes are laid. So gas re-
turns to the village and everybody, it is to be
presumed, lives happily ever after. It is com-
petently, but by no means brilliantly, made and
carries out its not very inspiring task with fair
success. But one looks in vain for a real touch
of imagination in the direction or a true spark of
humanity in the acting. In short, it is a film
without feeling, and that is a cardinal sin.

Scrap Book for 1922, Pathe. Produced by Peter
Baylis, in association with Leslie Baily. The
pages turned by Patric Curwen. Narration:
John Snagge. Film Editor: A. Milner-Gardner.
Musical Director: Hal Evans.

The Year is 1922. Here is a film following closely
the pattern set by the BBC in its popular series.
Perhaps the thought of sitting for over half an
hour through vintage library material, with all
its speeded-up projection and grotesque fashions,
might seem a little terrifying. But somehow the
film is always interesting and sometimes verj
funny. Peter Baylis has selected his twenty-five-
v car-old celluloid with discretion and has
assembled it with skill, and while his desire for
artistic perfection might have inclined him to
make rather more ruthless use of the scissors it
is obvious that he has allowed one eve occasion-
all) to wander over to the box-office, For surely
Scrapbook, with its three thousand and some-
thing feet, is the right length for the trade -just

as far as any documentary film can be. And any-
way a mighty lot appears to have happened in
what at the time seemed a pretty ordinary year as
years go. In between a rather cliche start and a
flowery ending Mr Patric Curwen turns the pages
with scarcely a rustle.

Dover '47. Data through COI for Ministry of
Health. Producer: D. Alexander. Director: Mary
Beales. Photography: W. Suschitzky. Distribu-
tion: T and non-T COI. 10 mins.

Theme. Dover rebuilding.

Comment. Here, at last, seemed to be a document-
ary which had managed by the lively approach of
its makers to scramble out of the general rut.
Starting off in parody of the typical travelogue's
style in dealing with such an historic setting as the
English Channel coast, and with Alice Duer
Miller's 'White Cliffs of Dover' in our minds, it
halted us abruptly, by a nicely -conceived gag, as
it appeared about to pursue a sedate course
through the tangible history of a long-established
town. Switching then to a gentle probe, under the
leadership of its American commentator, into
Dover's immediate and future rebuilding plans,
it takes us through the town to meet some of the
ordinary inhabitants: and then concentrates on
a new, and somewhat isolated, estate where mass-
produced temporary' houses are being erected.
Here we discover, to the surprise of the American
commentator as well (he appears in the film), that
not only do the roads bear American names, and
so perpetuate Dover's link with wartime v isitors,
but that the English commentator (who has also
appeared in the film — he tried to convince us he
was an ordinary Dover chap by being discovered
lolling over a monument) is liv ing in one of the
temporary houses. The film ends with a 'wise-
crack', which so embarrassed the American
commentator that his feeble delivery of it makes
one reel at any moment an all too tamiliar voice
will roll out over the last shot of the castle ruins
to say, 'And now we leave this ancient town

Why doesn't this film come up to the expecta-
tion of its more imaginative handling of its sub-
ject than is found in the common run of films?
Partly because it leaves a lot of questions un-
answered about the subject itself— and there is
the time to answer them. Also, it misses oppor-
tunities of broadening its interest by not taking
us. for instance, into the finished temporary
houses to meet those people lucky enough to have
one: and to learn how they got them, how they
like them and how they enjoy going what appear
to be some miles into the town when the buses
aren't running. But more. I think, it falls down
on technicalities; for, in spite of competent and
often pleasant photography, uncertain direction
(watch particularly the scenes of the castle gate-
keeper shutting the door, the city engineer's
office and the group at the end of the film) and
weak casting irritate where there should be no
irritation. The English commentator is far too
colourless a personality beside his American col-
league to give a balanced effect, especially for
overseas audiences

!)()( I Ml-. VI \R\ I II M M-.NNS

NEW FILMS FROM CANADA

Bronco Busters. 16mm. Sound. Running Time:
10 minutes. Produced 1946 by the National Film
Board in the Canada Carries On Series.

Theme. A break in the hard life of venturesome
and unventuresome cowboys while they compete
in or watch (respectively) the annual Calgary
Stampede (rodeo).

Comment. Bronco Bu\tei \ siarts as ii ends. with
scenes of horses roaming Alberta's foothills-
with here and there a cowboy having a hard life
. . . 'The Calgary Stampede draws spectators
from all across the continent to watch top-notch
riders pit their skill against the strength and cun-
ning of the four-legged outlaws." We see the
spectators at the end of the draw, so to speak.
looking at the exhibition of agricultural machin-
ery which is part of the Stampede, and settling
into their seats.

The show begins: wild horse riding, calf-
roping, bramah bull riding, and the bulldogging.
make up the main events. Final event of the big
show is the chuck-wagon race. 'We see the wagons
loaded with all the supplies needed by men riding
the ranges, pelting along to the finish line ....
When the last event is over, back to the ranges go
the ranch hands and the wild horses. Bronco
Busters ends as it started, with scenes of horses
roaming Alberta's foothills.'

And there's really very little else to say about it.
Any film about animals, horses in particular, gets
by, because, however static the film, the animals
can be counted on to move — usually with a
superb grace and beauty. Here the movement of
the bulls and calves and horses (sorry, 'four-
legged outlaws') may not be so graceful, but is
fast and unexpected enough to create an interest
in what is a pretty ordinary piece of film-making:
a film which might have been made anywhere in
the North American Continent. It obviously
loses some visual interest from being shown in
black and white when originally made in colour
(owing to shortage of prints): but in black and
white it merits no more than the term 'programme
fill-up'.

(The quotations are from the National Film
Board's information sheet.)

Tomorrow's Citizens. 35 mm. Black and white-
Sound. Running time: 10 min. National Film
Board, Canada Carries On series, 1947.

This film purports to 'examine ihe qualifications
of contemporary educational method and polio
in the light of an age that has released new
natural energies, to be used for or against man-
kind". All that in ten minutes. Of course, it docs
not succeed. It has bitten off more than it can
chew, and suffers from severe indigestion, with
its accompanying wind. True, the problem with
which the film deals — whether our own inven-
tions will destroy us — is of supreme importance,
but a journalistic approach to it, which is by
turns slick, shallow and smug, is using the
methods of the alchemist to solve problems of
unclean physics. The film, in fact, does the very
thing it is intended to discourage; it applies pre
atomic thought to the atomic age

Let's Look at Water. 16 mm. Black and while.
Sound. Running time: 20 min. Produced 1947
by the National Film Board for the Department
of National Health and Welfare.

\ straightforward, not very ambitious, account

of how a Canadian city's water supply is purified.
The opening sequence reviewing the ways in
which water serves all forms of life is more than
a little banal ai times. That water is used for
drinking and washing hardly needs to be stressed
to any, audience, however specialized. But when
the film gets on to describing how a municipal
supply is gathered, purified and distributed it
does summarize with adequate clarity a number
of facts that should be stored somewhere in
every citizen's mind. They would perhaps remain
longer in store if more reliance were placed on
visual demonstration and less on the expository
power of the implacable voice which is becoming
a characteristic of many Canadian films.

Klee Wyck (Canadian Artists Series No. 5).
16 mm. Colour. Sound. Running time: 15 min.
Produced 1946 by the National Film Board.

Klee Wyck is the name the Indians gave to the
late Emily Carr, a Canadian painter who, we are
told, found her inspiration 'in the towering
forests and dying Indian culture of British
Columbia". In this film the camera pans up fir-
trees and down totem-poles, across wooded
ridges and over Indian villages. It tracks into one
canvas and away from another. Seldom does the
eve have a chance to rest and take in either the
scenery or Miss Carr's work. The director has
been faced with that most difficult of all prob-
lems, how to make a motion picture on an essen-
tially static subject, and the peripatetic camera is
his solution. But in choosing it he falls out of the
frying pan of dullness into the fire of obscurity
and confusion.

Third Dimension. 16 mm. Black and white.
Sound. Running time: 19 mins. Produced 1946
by the National Film Board in co-operation with
the Sculptors' Society of Canada.

This is a survey of modern Canadian sculpture.
The principal sculptors of the Dominion are
seen at work, and the methods they use are out-
lined in terms understandable to the lay observer.
There is a detailed demonstration of the method
of making a plaster cast from a claj original, and
another of the stages by which the clay figure is
built up. In fact, the emphasis is principally on
the mechanical aspects of the ait and there is
something lifeless about the film as a result
Why, one wonders, don't the sculptors tell us
something about the complexities and fascina-
tions of working in the round, explain what the)
are aiming at anil show how the* achieve it '
Surely there can't be a standing order in Ottawa
that no one but the commentator shall open his
trap.

Montreal By Ni«ht. Produced b. the National
I ilm Hoard in the ( anada ( arncs on Series

Theme, One of Canada's most rapidlv expanding

cities at night in all Us facets Ol 1 rench and

i lish, industry and art. historic rid modern'.

Comment. There are sonic strange claims (apart
from the above) made in the \ itional I ilm
Board's information sheet about this average-
film: 'The film approaches Montreal at night
show mi- thai 40 per vent of the population is
bilingual .... I sing the floodlights and filming
places nevei filmed before, the picture achit
unique effects in its documenting ol Montreal
The ( anada Carries On unit of the National I ilm
Board has made a film on upcoming Montreal,
using a technique never applied in the filming of
that cits before.'

While it may be perfectly true that as fa l is
Montreal is concerned some of the effects may be
unique, and the technique new. merely because
no other film has been made in this way about this
particular city at night, it would be as well for the
writers of these 'blurb sheets' to realize that this
kind of film has been as competently, and often
more imaginatively, made about practically e
other major city in the world. Such claims can
only do a disservice to the technicians who made
the film and to the film itself, since the audiences
in the 60 different countries to which it is being
distributed will expect something out of the
ordinary.

Viewed as a modest little film about a strange
city, it is pleasant enough, if uninspired; but
lacks the warmth of contact with the city's in-
habitants which would have been achieved by
recording their voices as well as their faces [|
takes us to the usual haunts of any city at night
the amusement park, the night clubs, the deserted
offices and business centres cluttered up with the
debris of the day, the social clubs, the suburban
homes, the resting factories, the busy newspaper
presses. But after all that, Montreal as Montreal
remains much of a mystery nor are we much
nearer to understanding what Canadians arc or
feel or do. Just another 'programme fill-up'

This film shows up the limitations of 16mm..
on which size it was viewed, because night photo-
graphy suffers most from a bad print or mediocre
projection equipment and both are more com-
mon to sub-standard than to 35 mm. film making.

Condition Improved. Produced by the Canadian
National Film Board for the Department of
Veterans' Affairs and the Department of National
Health and Welfare. 16 mm. B. and W. 33 mins
Theme. The part played bv sarious forms of
occupational therapy in the treatment of injury .
disease and mental illness
Commem Occupational therapy is now gener-
ally accepted as an essential adjunct to rapid re-
covery after accident oi illness \s a comprehen-
sive surves of the many kinds o\' remedial exer-
cises used todav. this film does a useful job. I he
treatment is simple and straightforward, but it
may be questioned whether such a survev. which

consists essentially of a series of linked examples,
is really the most convincing approach to the
subject, foi ui attempting to covet such a wide-
field details ate glossed over and there is little
time available for the siudv oi individual cases
Ihe best sequences are those dealing with th<

o>vcrv of Children aftei infantile patalvsis and
(he treatment of stammering and neurotic condi-
tions. In these the dim really com.. but
thev ate tantalizing in their brevity and each
could have provided enough material foi a full
length film on their own

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

SURVEY OF FILMS— Summary of UNESCO's Report on Technical Needs

NO 2— CZECHOSLOVAKIA, POLAND and YUGOSLAVIA

the three countries considered in this issue
now have nationalized film industries. They are
also characterized by their growing documentary
film production.

Czechoslovakia

All production, distribution, import and export
and exhibition of films was nationalized in
August 1945. A special film department of the
Ministry of Information was made responsible
for launching the new State industry operating
through the Czechoslovak Motion Picture
Company. This company has separate sections
for all types of production, distribution and
exhibition, including one for research and
education. The Trade Unions have a direct share
in control and management.

The number of cinemas operating today is

roughly the same as pre-war, though considerable

expansion is planned. The present position is as

follows: 35 mm 16 mm

cinemas cinemas

In Bohemia,

Moravia,

and Silesia 1,631 .39

In Slovakia 245 23

The figure for weekly cinema attendances in 1946
was approximately two million.

There is considerable variety in the films
shown, a far wider range of foreign films being
imported and given general distribution than is
customary in Britain. Percentages of all films
shown from mid- 1946 to mid- 1947 is as follows:
Features Shorts
Czechoslovakia — new 4.5 37

— reissued 21
USSR 23 25

UK 19 18

USA 18 15

France 1 1 5

Sweden 3

Switzerland and Belgium 0.5

Total number of films 515 340

Home production is in a relatively fortunate
position. Studios are fairly extensive and well-
equipped, though there is a shortage of trained
technicians. Before the war between 30 and 40
feature films were produced each year. The 1946
figure was 12, but for 1947 25 films are planned
and for 1948, 30. There are also a number of
short film units (including one puppet film
department), with an output in 1946 of 50 films.
Three weekly newsreels are produced and a news
magazine twice a month.

Films in Education

The use of films in schools is being developed
considerably. This is the responsibility of the
Czech Cinematographic Society under the
Ministry of Education, with a similar body
working in Slovakia. The Society has the right to
produce its own films for schools, but in 1946
only 5 were made in this way though 15 are
planned' for 1948. These films will be 16 mm
silent. Most of the films at present used by schools
are documentaries made by other sections of the
industry. The Society's library contains some 125
titles, mostly re-edited German material, but it is
hoped to extend its range by exchange arrange-
ments with Switzerland, England. America and

Sweden. In the country's 17,000 primary and
secondary schools there are some 2,000 projectors
(as against 300 pre-war) but only 50 of these are
sound. The Czechoslovak Film Institute also
plays an important part in the educational field.
It has a library of film classics and is responsible
for the improvement of technical standards in
production and exhibition, and for the training
of technicians. Training facilities are well
advanced. In conjunction with the Academy of
Dramatic Arts, the Institute provides full courses
for all grades of technicians and artists.

NEWS FROM UNO

16 mm copies of The People's Charier, the
first documentary made by the UN Film
Board, can now be got from the Central
Film Library. It should be very useful for
showing to groups of older students and
adults who may be studying any aspect of
the world as it is today.

During the next seven months ten docu-
mentaries on widely varying subjects will be
made (under the direct financial sponsorship
of the UN Film Board) by ten member
nations. * * *

International Realist, with Lewis Gilbert
(of GB) as Director, are at work on the film
allocated to Britain under the scheme. The
film is at present called Common Ground and
sets out to show the community of interest
between people in different counties who

work* at the same jobs.

* * *

The UN Film Board is preparing an inter-
national catalogue of films to which all
nations are being asked to subscribe by send-
ing in all information available about all
films, features and shorts, made by each of
them. * * *

Two film strips are already available for
free distribution from UN Headquarters.
Five others are being made. These will be
ideal for use by adult education groups and
will be issued with accompanying charts and
teaching notes in a variety of languages.

* * *

Edinburgh first and then London by the
spring is the timetable for the exhibition of
Our Road to Peace now on its way from
New York. After London it will go off on
tour of the Provinces.

Poland

All branches of the film industry in Poland
were also nationalized in 1945. A State enterprise,
Film Polski, is the responsible agency super-
vising all activities including research, training,
and educational films which are the business of
the Polish Film Institute. Production is'the only
field open to private undertakings which can hire
the nationalized studios.

Before the war Poland had some 800 cinemas,
but most of these were destroyed. Today 560 are
in operation with a seating capacity of 230,000.
Present weekly attendances are in the neighbour-
hood of half a million. For the size of the popula-

tion cinema facilities and cinema going are by no
means highly developed.

It has been estimated that 180 feature films a
year are required. In 1945-46 Poland imported
from:

USSR 40 films

France . . . . 43 ,,

Sweden . . . . . . 10 ..

Switzerland .. .. .. 2 ..

USA . . a few

In 1947 contracts were concluded for 40 British
films, 65 American and some French. Poland
also imports now from Czechoslovakia and Italy.
Production facilities are very limited, much
equipment was destroyed. Although only two
feature films have been completed, 150 news reels
and long documentaries and 50 short docu-
mentaries were made by June 1947.

Educational Films

Educational films are the concern of the Polish
Film Institute w hich is responsible for production,
distribution, research, film societies, and the
training of technicians. The Institute has two
studios and has produced films on a wide range
of subjects. A Scientific Film Institute has also
been established. There are 500 16 mm silent and
10-20 sound projectors available for school use
on a travelling basis; only a few schools have
their own machines. The Institute's Central Film
Library contains 250 titles, the majority silent.
Special series of shows are also arranged for
adult audiences.

Despite the initiative being shown in all fields,
Poland is still gravely handicapped by the losses
it has suffered. The shortage of equipment and
trained technicians is acute.

Yugoslavia

Before the war there was practically no film
industry in the country. Cinema going and the
use of films for other purposes had hardly been
developed. The new Government has set about
remedying the deficiency. A central Cinema
Commission has been created, to work with
similar commissions in each of the six federated
republics. Its primary function is to build
studios and develop production, and to expand
the number of cinemas and mobile projection
units. At present there are only 120 to 150 small
cinemas, poorly equipped. Weekly attendance is
just over half a million. Of the films shown in
1947 75-85 per cent were Russian. 10-15 per cent
French, with one Yugoslav film. An agreement
has also been concluded for a number of films
from Czechoslovakia. In general the countrx is
relying therefore on Eastern Europe for its
programmes. Homo production has hardly got
under way. Apart from newsreels a few docu-
mentary films have been made so far, though
future plans are ambitious.

Educational Films

Educational film use is undeveloped for the
same reasons. 5 films are, howe\er. scheduled
for production this year, and a special educational
film studio is planned. 300 projectors are avail-
able. There is therefore a great need for equip-
ment of all kinds and for contact with educational
film activities in other countries.

!)()( I Ml N 1 MM 1 II \l M \\S

ileeordinti Angel?

A CLOSE-UP OF KEN CAMERON

The Story bv Vlex Shaw

shah jehan lavished every care on the building of
the Taj Mahal. He sought perfection. Another
seeker after the same quality is building his dream
palace in an isolated corner of the Crown Film
Unit Studios at Bcaconslield. Locally known,
affectionately or derisively, according to the feel-
ings of the speaker, as Cameron Castle, it is one
day to be the hub of an eventual Palace of Perfect
Sound. Indeed, were it not for the Ministry of
Works, there is no doubt that its designer also
would have insisted on porphyry, alabaster and
lapis lazuli being used in the construction (always
provided, of course, that they were acoustically
suitable).

This building represents the latest step in Ken
Cameron's efforts to record better and better
sound, an ideal which he has fanatically pursued
ever since he started in films.

Sound and music are his masters and seldom
has there been a more willing slave. Presumably
he takes in food (although it is possible that this,
in his case, is done \ ia the ear and that the nour-
ishment is sound waves). And there would not
seem to be much time for sleep in a spare time
devoted to concerts and the esoteric literature of
sound recording. In any case, sleep for him is not
the waste of time it is with lesser mortals; he can
hear in his sleep as I have many times proved.
Sleeping peacefully at concerts or the opera he
will yet, on waking, comment sourly that the
flutes were a bit rough in the slow movement or
that a singer was off-key. And lo and behold, they
were! The fact that he strenuously denies having
slept at all is nothing to do with the case. I have
witnesses.

Not content with listening and then trying to
reproduce the perfect sound, he takes a passion-
ate interest in musicians and will talk of a Walton,
Britten, Alwyn or Abady with a critical enthus-
iasm usually reserved for football teams In fact
that is what they probably are to him, for in his
mind there seems to be something very much akin
to the football divisions up and down which the
composers move according to their latest works.
Players he is not so interested in. I think he feels
that they stand between him and that perfect
sound he is always seeking, yet, in spite of this,
few of us who lived through the terrible da> when
the signed photograph of Dame Myra Hess fell
from his office wall will ever believe that he is
quite blind lo their talents. No ominous geese
ever created such a feeling of impending
doom.

He often appears to be a forecast of the Man
of the Future; highly specialized, obsessed, an
Ear-Man. Certainly a list of the films which
he has recorded — Coastal Command, Target,
Listen to Britain, V.\. and Instruments of the
Orchestra among them- -suggests a vast range of
sounds hunted, caught, dissected and put on
celluloid. But his passion for American stage
musicals shows that the man is still human. Any-
body who can fly from Ottawa to New York for
a few hours specially to see Allegro, is clearly
an endearing character.

Ken comes from the fanatic-producing city of
Glasgow. While studying to be an electrical
engineer he spent his spare time at the mov ies and
particularly those shown by the Glasgow Film
Society. Here he heard Grierson and the inevit-

BOOK REVIEW

We Made a Film in Cyprus. By Laurie Lee and
Ralph Keene (Longmans, Green and Co, London
— New York — Toronto. Ms. bd.)

for the undoubtedly vast body of people interes-
ted in how films are made, this book should have
considerable appeal. It is conceivable, however,
that the discriminating reader of travel books will
find it even more absorbing. The film fan will
look for rather more technical detail than is pro-
vided by Ralph Keene in his half of the text, but
no-one could call for a livelier portrait of Cyprus
and its people than sparkles from the pen of
Laurie Lee. Lee was the script writer for Cyprt i
is an Island, and he is less concerned to reveal the
processes of cinematic gestation than to provide
us with a visually exciting picture of modern
Cyprus. Sometimes his indefatigable search for
the dramatically evocative word or the unexpec-
ted visual analogy leads to over-rich writing but
the volume is slim and the problem of digestion
not, therefore, acute. The illustrations are lovely
and generally to the point of the text, and most
readers will be interested in the film's scenario
which is printed as an appendix.

W e should do well perhaps to prepare for a
spate of such books (scratch a documentary
film-maker and you will find a literary man) and
future practitioners would do well to study this
rather fine example of what may prove to be a
much misused genre. They will observe that one
problem remains unsolved. Should the book be
intimately done, written about the film-makers in
their spark-striking relationship with their actors,
or should it be a travel book about the place?
Can it be both, as is here attempted'.' It is sig-
nificant that the whole book comes suddenly and
brilliantly to life when Laurie Lee wine- about
the film-makers' Easter Day partv with their
Cyprian hosts. Here is something of the neces-
sarily picaresque qualitv of such documentary
film-making.

And, finally, what are we to make of 1
Lee's penultimate words' 1 thought ol the film
we had prepared, which was now ready to be
made; but I thought more of that film we could
UCvei make, of the things that could not he said '

Heaven help us if film-makers start to come
back with their real achievements in then books
and not in their films

The Drawing In W \

able spell was cast over him. From that day for-
ward he determined to be a sound recordist Ik-
spent the next summer as an apprentice at the
GPO Blackheath den shillings a weeki and then
joined the unit as what he himself calls a sound
stooge (eighteen shillings and ninepence a week).
Those were the days of The Fair) oj the Phone
and Bill Blewett. ken did a lot of stooging. Then
came that strange hiatus repeated in so many of
our lives when he went and stooged on quota
quickies at Welwyn instead. Cavalcanii recalled
him to the GPO and finally, a BS< salelv under
his hat, he did his first dav's work as a fully
fledged sound recordist in Manchester with the
Halle doing a score of Gaillard's for Forty
Million People. From then on it was a pursuit of
better sound. With frequency and modulation,
decibel and supersonic, by mike and bv cycle,
through trial and through tears, he sought pre-
fection. The human voice, the orchestra, the
natural sound, these weie his raw materials I heir
impeccable reproduction, his aim.

An enthusiast himself he is a connoisseur ol
other enthusiasts. Thus the stormv collaboration
between himself and \1uir Malhieson has been
more than usually fruitful I ach sees in the other
a fellow-maniac and together the) have done
much for our films.

Now, at the almost tender age o\ 31 (he has
been described as 'the oldest thirty-oner in the
world') he finds new enthusiasms I he National
film Board of Canada has found in him an
ardent gospeller; bigger and bettei scoring
are planned; new materials aie to be used for
walls and ceilings; stereophonic sound is m the

offing Where it will all end is a mattei for coo-

jecture. Will he go mad Irving to record the un-
bearable or will he find new worlds lo conquer?
I think 1 shall telephone him and ask him if he
can get on the track, the squeak ol a bat or the
noise ol the stars, lor the new. the difficult, the
impossible, is his ,.. I | much

to this pioneering attitude of his

10

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

OPEN LETTER FROM A SCHOOLTEACHER

dear marjorie: I'm so sorry you weren't able to
get up to Manchester in November after all, but
at last I'm keeping my promise to let you know
all about the Conference on Visual Units
organized by the Scientific Film Association.

There were plenty of people there — teachers
like us, local education authorities, university
people, education experts (whatever those are),
film producers, people from the Central Office
of Information, in fact someone from every
organization you can think of.

Mr Hughes, the PPS of the Ministry of
1 dacation and Chairman of Committee A, gave
the first talk on Friday evening and he explained
all about Committees A and B — why they
started, what they've done and what they plan to
do. He made it all very clear and easy to under-
stand. After that we were meant to see some films
but the projector or something wouldn't function
so that was all until Saturday morning when Mrs
Marcouse (she's the secretary of Committee A)
started off the day's proceedings by telling us
about the Visual Units that are being made —
how the ten now planned are to be experimental
and go out to selected LEAs so as to see how they
work in different schools. She named and outlined
all the Units and then showed us the main film of
Houses in History (it also has wall charts and
models which we saw). Later on someone in the
discussion said that it wasn't a subject which was
really suitable for a film and I must say I didn't

like it very much — I wouldn't use it because I
think my children would find it hard to follow
and a bit dull.

Next came the Water Supply Unit which
hadn't yet been approved by the Ministry of
Education but which should be out soon after
you get this letter. It was meant for 12 — 14 year
children (on the average) and included one main
film, 11 silent ones, 2 film strips, wall charts and
teacher's notes. We saw the main film — (I'm
afraid it would make the children in your area
laugh a bit because it didn't even mention all
the houses in the country which depend solely on
individual rain-water storage tanks for their
supply!) However it was a new approach and I
think it could be very useful in the schools. There
were a lot of criticisms afterwards but I approved
of its clarity and its slow commentary — not a
word too much. People seemed to think it was
rather like a 'mystery tour' — that they ought to
have shown where the water went before they
showed it leaving the river; others thought that
the diagrams were too involved for children, that
they were not simple enough and did not give any
ideas of proportion in size of pumphouses and
tanks, and that the children would ask 'why' over
a lot of points which should have been clear.

After this we saw some of the silent films of the
Unit — I don't think the ones showing how various
pumps worked were much use and two other
people said it was waste of time to make them.

MERLIN FILMS

Twelve technicians with a hundred and

seventy-five years' experience in films

Then we saw the film-strips — I liked them, though
later on one of the film people said they were
badly made. I still feel they'd be popular with my
class. The charts weren't so good — most of them
seemed more for older children and the simpler
ones were rather dull — I'd rather allow the class
to make their own from the rest of the material.

That afternoon all the people who had been in
on the making of the Unit described what had
happened from the first idea in March, 1945, until
now. It does seem awful waste of time, money and
energy to take three years over one Unit. doesn"t
it? And someone said it had cost £16.000! The
COI man said he thought £8,000 would be
nearer but he wasn't sure. It was quite interesting
to hear about all the work, but I did feel it was a
lot of fuss over something which will admitted!)
be very useful, but not all that essential. Still, it is
an experiment and the people who made the
Unit seem to think it is going to be successful. The
delegates were full of questions and criticisms
but didn't get very clear answers.

In the evening we saw another Unit meant to be
used by the students in training colleges, etc.
themselves and not for teaching as such. Near
Home was the name of the main film; I thought it
was very good and only wish I had the time to get
my class going on something like that. I didn't
quite get the point of the cine-panorama but the
silent film was excellent. In fact. I liked this unit.
Local Studies, best of all and think it should go
down very well in the training colleges and with
older children. It will be useful because of the
lack of 'teaching' in it.

Next morning we saw the films we should ha\e
seen on Friday and then Mr Thorn (Secretary of
Committee B) talked about the work of his
Committee. He told all about the panels who are
working on films for different age groups and
then said that every film was to have as
Educational Adviser a teacher of the appropriate
age group who would be seconded on full pay for
a term or longer in order to be in on all the film-
making and learn a bit about the technicalities —
that would be fun to do, wouldn't it? He also
mentioned apparatus supply and the Regional
Film Libraries which are to be set up so that we
can go to see films and Visual Units before
actually ordering them for use. That seems a good
idea! Again, there was a hot discussion and
people aired quite a lot of grievances about the
length of time taken on making Units, about
difficulties over apparatus, about bad co-opera-
tion from LEAs and about the weak points in the
films. Unfortunately the Committee people didn't
seem really to answer all the questions we asked;
lack of time, I suppose.

That afternoon we heard Mr Green on the need
for research in Visual Education. I felt that he
was obsessed by psychological experiments and
some of the ones he quoted seemed quite
irrelevant. Also, he seemed very exercised over
whether children learned best visually or other-
wise— I though the only people who could learn
wholly visually were the deaf-and-dumb and,
after all. we were discussing Visual Aids in
Education, not Visual Teaching.

Anyhow, the Conference was worth going to
and I wish you had been able to get there. I don't
imagine I'd ever have the time or the wish to use a
whole Visual Unit but I suppose someone might
have. Anyhow, it does show thai the powers-that-
be are trying to do something and it's very inter-
esting to see how they do it !

Yours sincerely .

DOdMIN I \U\ III M M \\S

II

CORRESPONDENCE

SIR : fn the article reprinted in your last issue con-
cerning the making of our film A Stitch in Time,
on the subject of industrial exteriosis, Philip
Mackie claims that his history "is untypical in one
particular only, everything went smoothly'.
Apart from this evidence of a short memory,
there are in his lively account a number of state-
ments which seems to us to call for comment. In
what follows, the figures correspond with the
numbering of his paragraphs.

In paragraph (4) he says 'The PCO . . . rings
up Hector Bathos, and finds that he is free'. It is of
course, true that our producer frequently carries
out personally investigations and the writing o(
treatments undertaken by this Company, par-
ticularly in the fishing season. It was presumably,
during one of his absences that Mackie's tele-
phone conversation with Bathos took place.

In paragraph (5) there are two points. 'The
briefing meeting is attended by the PCO, Bathos,
the Public Relations Officer at the Ministry of
Help, and the experts on exteriosis'. The producer,
we believe, was still fishing.

'After the meeting. Bathos and the PCO have
a drink together . . . ' This interested us and we
asked Bathos about it. He reassured us — he said
he paid.

In paragraph (6) we find, 'Production Con-
tracts then send a formal commissioning letter
(for a two-reel treatment at a fee of £65) to Nadir
Films.' Mr Mackie's account suggests that no
answer to this letter was ever sent. Our files show
that, in fact, our Business Manager protested at
once that the fee was too high. Also, the subject
required considerable investigation involving
some three or four months of Bathos's time, ac-
commodation and transport. For this, in reply.
Production Contracts offered the sum of £5, and
a lengthy exchange of letters followed which be-
came more and more pained as it developed, fn
order to settle differences of this kind our Busi-
ness Manager sometimes even has to put on his
bowler hat, take his umbrella and make a per-
sonal visit to Norgeby House. This upsets him
very much as it interrupts his football pools.

Paragraph (7) says, 'The Treasury, after some
thought, give their authority.' We regard this as
a statement of considerable importance. The use
of the words 'after some thought' puts Treasury
officials at a much higher ethnographic level than
we had imagined.

Paragraph (8): 'Hector Bathos sends in his
treatment.' An unusually definite step for Bathos
to have taken, but doubtless he was tired of
waiting for the producer to get back.

Paragraph (10): 'The PCO gets Nadir Films
commissioned for a shooting script, in the same
way as they were commissioned lor a treatment'
(our italics). This time our Business Manager,
we are told, merely reached for his bow ler hat and
umbrella and started for Norgeby House right
away. The umbrella, it appears, makes admirable
camouflage for the smaller types of sub-machine
gun.

Paragraph (12): 'Nadir Films send in a
budget for . . . £3,950', etc. This implies that,
knowing the global to be £4,000, we adjusted our
budget to fall just nicely short of it. This does not
line up with the facts. Our budget figure was
£6.341 which was submitted knowing that a mar-

gin is always ad\isable so .is Production ( on
tracts can cut out a couple of items to make them
feel good without putting the production in
jeopardy. As Mackie points out, the figure was
duly reduced by cutting out certain sums, in-
cluding the firm's telephone bill which had un-
accountably become mixed up with our Business
Manager's papers, to £3,895. Subsequently, sup-
plementary budgets brought the final maximum
contract price up to £6.340. It may be of interest
that the firm's telephone bill has been paid.

Paragraph (13) : 'As a result ol their comments,
the whole of the first sequence is cut out and re-
placed by a single close-up of exteriosis in action.'
Doubtless, poor Bathos, tired out by being in
there all alone, pinch-hitting for the producer, let
this one slip by in an unguarded moment.

Arising from paragraph (17), we have heard
recently that the film has had a great success in
the regions as a comedy fill-up, but at shows to
factory workers no effect whatsoever is apparent.

You may, of course, use this letter in any way
you think fit.

Yours faithfully,
for and on behalf of Nadir Films Ltd,

NI ro NONF1 \M,

Managing Director
P.S. It was discovered that the producer had gone
into features.

Programme Planning

sir : w hen building up a programme for a typical

Film Society session one naturally wants to in

elude a fa»r proportion of documc itaries I Ik
short ones are useful as support lor the main
feature to the long ones a whole evening ma>
well be devoted.

When it comes to carrying out in practice this
inclusion one finds great difficulties. In the
first place there is an almost embarrassing
choice of hundreds of titles from the Central

Film library catalogue (just to mention
source) and these titles do not tell one. ol COU

how good these films are. one feels instinctive!)

that onlj some s to 10 per cent ol these shorts
would be suitable lor showing to the Fill S
type of audiences. Secondly the excellent graded
catalogues prepared by various organization
often either out of date or have been prepared
with different turns in view. 1 ven the DNL does
not always help

In short, there is onl> one way out and that is
to organize occasional viewing sessions of selected
new documentaries for the representatives ol the
Film Societies and similai bodies so that the;,
see the films for themselves and form their own
judgment. At present, the opportunities for
viewing such films are so very limited, that some
such scheme is surely desirable. After all, in many
towns (and perhaps in many parts of London,
too) it is only the Film Societies that will give the
documentaries a fair chance and fight for their
appreciation.

N ours. etc..
Chelmsford LUC lxs PRE* listR

ANNOUNCING

A FILM FOR

THE COUNCIL OF INDUSTRIAL

DESIGN

DIRECTED BY PHILIP LEACOCK

MADE AT THE MERTON PARK STUDIOS

A FILM FOR

THE UNITED NATIONS

DIRECTED BY LEWIS GILBERT

(BY ARRANGEMENT WITH G.B.I. LTD.)

INTERNATIONAL REALIST LIMITED

9 GREAT CHAPEL STREET Wl

12

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

CORRESPONDENCE

(cont.)

Manchester Conference

sir : I do not wish to cause affront to the organizers
of the very valuable recent conference concerned
with Visual Aids in Education. Such people put
an immense amount of skill and hard work into
the voluntary promotion of an admirable cause
and they deserve all the help and encouragement
we can give. I hope, therefore, that they will
understand that I am trying to be constructive
when I point out that most of their strenuous
efforts will be wasted if they do not give their
attention to the matter of adequate presentation
of the material discussed.

This applies to the planning of such con-
ferences as a whole and its psychological effect
upon the audience, but much more so to the
projection of films and stills.

The present difficulties of equipment, staff and
organization are well known — but there is no
excuse for thoroughly bad projection even if
some of it is provided by the COI. It has been
said that such methods are typical of the modern
classroom conditions. If so, that is merely an
indication that teachers need a little training in
the technique — but in any case it cannot consti-
tute an excuse for dragging down an organized
display to such a level especially when it is
intended as an example and a lead.

Even if adequate projectors and screens are
unobtainable (and are they?) there is no excuse
for projecting the film back to front, end first, off
the screen or right out of focus. Surely the pro-
jectionist should be allowed and should take time
beforehand to have the whole 1 6 mm. outfit ready
for instant projection in an adequate manner. If
he were given such time to prepare and adequate
instructions, he could also splice the short reels
together to avoid those infuriating pauses for
rethreading.

The climax was reached at the SFA Manchester
Conference when a complete film show was
cancelled (after about 20 false starts) because
'the films were green'. If one cannot project a
green film how does any film ever get shown? No,
any projector which causes such havoc should be
serviced or scrapped — and sometimes those
responsible for its use might be treated similarly.
Meanwhile could somebody read and act upon
the admirable SFA leaflet on How to Run a Film
Show?

Yours, etc.,

GEORGE A. JONES

Film Societies

sir: I was indeed pleased to see your article on
Page 1 of this month's DNL. An experience of
mine two years ago with MGM indicates to me
the source of the suggestion made by KRS that
Film Societies are 'breeding grounds for leaders
of anti-film attacks'.

I had occasion to write regarding 16 mm films
they might have. Their reply was that I call and
see Mr Russell-Roberts. I called and was
astonished to learn that it was the first they had
heard of Film Societies; even the great Sam
Eckman appeared ignorant of our existence. He
said they had no such thing in America.. I recounted
how we in our Society handled films. We dis-
cussed the sociological content and honesty of

films whether they be documentaries or feature
films. I was then shown a list of MGM films
which they contemplated reducing to 16 mm and
asked if I considered any would be suitable for
Film Societies. I picked out two which I thought
might be used. They were The Citadel and Mr
Deeds I chose them because of the possibility of
rousing lively discussion on their sociological
honesty of content. Asked why I had chosen
none of the others, I openly said I considered
them rubbish, unworthy of honest straight-
forward discussion. In other words they were
pure escapism. I emphasized at great length that
we were not an alternative to cinemas. Our job
was to make our members more discriminating.
I asked them to give us documentaries of
America equal to British documentaries. If they
were worthy my members would express their
appreciation in no uncertain manner. This
closed the interview, every word of which was
taken down in shorthand !

Since then I have received some very charming
letters from Mr Russell-Roberts inviting my
custom.

I strongly suspect that the KRS have been
unconsciously led up the garden by MGM arising
out of my interview. I am therefore most anxious
to learn the answers to your two questions. I hope
you will publish them — if they do reply!
Yours, etc.,

H. E. NORRIS

West London Co-operative Film Society

dear sir: I cannot understand the lapse of edi-
torial good taste which permitted your columns
to be used recently by Mr Eric Leslie for a parti-
cularly vicious and quite uncalled for attack on
the defeated German people.

If it really is necessary to rail against 'the
Bosch', two years after the war and in the midst
of a desperate world-wide bid for peace, docu-
mentary news letter, a specialist journal, is
surely not the proper medium. I doubt whether
any part of the film industry is in fact really ap-
propriate as the spearhead of such an attack, for
no thinking person will deny the contribution of
the Germans to the screen whatever else they
may have done to earn humanity's displeasure.

In any case, judged by our own British stan-
dards Mr Leslie's behaviour is quite inexcusable.
He pounces foaming on your German con-
tributor for the crime, mark you, of having ex-
pressed an honest opinion publicly. What would
Mr Leslie say if the German scientists now work-
ing (and, incidentally, getting killed) over here in
the interests of this country were to decide, in
consequence of reading his remarks, that they
too had better keep their finds to themselves?

No, stick to your subject, Mr Editor . . . and
leave Mr Leslie to do his mischief, if he must,
elsewhere.

Yours faithfully,

GEOFFREY DANDO

17 Iverna Gardens, Kensington, London, W8
November 21th, 1947

c

I N E M A

CREDIT for the actual invention of the
cinematograph is difficult to apportion.
It is certain that Englishmen played an
important part. As long ago as 1860 Sir
John Herschel published a theory of
cinematography, and about 1889 a patent
for a cinema camera and projector was
applied for by W. Friese Greene and
M. Evans. Today the cinema is our great
relaxation. But how many of us who go
to " the movies ", who watch the latest
performance of our particular " star ",
realise what the cinematograph industry
owes to the workers in many branches of
science and technology, and not least to
the chemist? No other form of entertainment owes him so heavy a debt. Celluloid itself, the
basis of the industry, is a chemical achievement. This must be transparent to give clear images
after great magnification, resilient and tough to stand great strain. It must be so treated that
the danger from fire is reduced to a minimum. The hand of the chemist is indeed traceable from
the make-up of the actors to the lamps in the projectors. In the apparatus used for the sound-
recording rare metals are needed : in the lenses of cameras and projectors, optical glass of the
highest quality : in the colour-photography, pigments of the truest and most vivid colour. The
sets for the ballrooms and palaces of the cinema's Cloudcuckoodom involve the use of large
quantities of paints, quick-drying stucco and plasters : the costumes and
draperies must be dyed. The tale is continued into the cinema theatre itself, in
its decoration, its disinfection, its air-conditioning. When next you sit in
your favourite cinema, think for a moment of the patient work in laboratory
and factory that has enabled you to see the wonders of the world or the finest
product of the cinematograph studio so clearly and still at so modest a price.

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SIGHT
and
SOUND

A cultural Quarterly

NTIILY FUJI BULLETIN

appraising educational

and
entertainment values

Published by: TheBritishLilm Institute
4 Great Russell Street, London, W.C.I

DOCUMENTARY
FILM N EWS

from

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London. \\ I

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The technicians who make up this new unit have
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films for the Government and Industry which
help to impart the information and emotion
necessary for the smooth working and living
together of people under changing conditions.
We wish to continue this work together; and we
welcome discussion with old sponsors, and new,
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^ A TALE IN A TEACUP

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The plan for National Parks — 2 reels

^ DOWNLANDS

Pattern of Britain No. 6 — 2 reels

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DOCUMENTARY

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INCORPORAT

FEBRUARY 1948

3RARY

N E

ONE SHILLING

DATA

has completed three
more productions

'ALL EYES ON BRITAIN'

A theatrical one-reeler for the Economic Information Unit
directed by Bladon Peake and Mary Beales.

'PRECISE MEASUREMENT FOR ENGINEERS'

An explanation of the work of the Metrology Division of the
Department of Scientific and Industrial Research directed
by Jack Chambers.

'HERE'S HEALTH'

A first announcement to cinema audiences of the National
Health Service, written and produced by Budge Cooper,
directed by Donald Alexander.

DOCUMENTARY TECHNICIANS ALLIANCE LTD 21 SOHO SOI ARK Wl Gerrard 2826

PHOTOMICROGRAPHY LTD

Specialists in Cine-Biology

J. V. DURDEN in charge of production

Whitehall, Wraysbury

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SERVICE

Includes

Optical Enlargement Printing
8, 9-5 and 16mm. to 35mm.
Sound-recording and Editing
of Client's own films. The
Service is comprehensive and
covers every requirement for
the making of 35mm. and
16mm. films, in colour and in
black and white.

Film strips are also handled.

To the end of 1947, B.F.U.
have made twenty films rang-
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cinemas to Schools films and
Technical Industrial films.

Contractors to II. M. Government

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FILM UNIT LTD

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LEATHERHEAD SURREY

Telephone: IK VllllKHI. \l> 3377

documentary film news

VOL. 7 NO. 62 FEBRUARY 1948

EDITORIAL BOARD

STEPHEN ACKROYD
DONALD ALEXANDER
MAX ANDERSON
EDGAR ANSTEY
GEOFFREY BELL

KEN CAMERON
PAUL FLETCHER
SINCLAIR ROAD
GRAHAME THARP
BASIL WRIGHT

EDITOR

DAVIDH BOULTING

SALES & ACCOUNTS

PEGGY HUGHES

Cover design by james boswell

CONTEXTS

This month's cover still is from Children Learning by Experience reviewed in this issue

13
14

15

16

17

Editorial

Notes of the Month

What shall it profit a man?
Ken Cameron ...

Graduation from Newsreel

James Harris

English Diary
Arndt von Raul en) eld

New Documentary Films

Noted by DFN Reviewing Panel

New Books on Film

More New Films

British Film Academy

Children's Cinema
D. George Bennell

Correspondence ...

Published every month by
Film Centre ill Soho Sq. London \V1

ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION 125. SINGLE COPIES 1.5.

... 18

19

20

21

21

22

. 23

24

FEBRUARY FILLDYKE

nriu dark, dank month of February is as good a time as

any other to look around. There is quite a lot goii
Parliament has debated the new Films Bill, and the I «m-
mittee of Inquiry is completing its investigations into the
British Film Institute. Now there is the chance that the in-
dustry as a whole may be able to pull itself together and
take real advantage of the opportunities offered hv the
Films Bill and by the dollar-saving situation, however that
works out. From the Film Institute inquiry we ma) hope
for the creation, at long last, of a real centre and focus point
for all those film activities which deal with the film as an art,
as a social force and as an historical phenomenon. 1 1 is to be
hoped incidentally that the new British Film Academy will
prove a really vigorous and forthright weapon for all those
in the trade itself who are tired of extravagance on the one
hand and shoddy ideas on the other.

As far as documentary is concerned the most important thing
needed is a new and lively approach to the problems of tilm-produc-
tion. We need fewer formula pictures, and more experiment, more
reality (look at the Italian films), more social courage, and more
gaiety and humour. One of the ways to achie\e this is to widen the
horizon by making closer contacts with documentary workers in
other countries. A good start in this direction was made during I 947,
The setting up of the World Union of Documentary after the Brus-
sels meeting was followed in this country' by the formation of a new
organization called British Documentary, designed not only to look
after our representation on WUD, but also to be a real action-
centre for all people connected with the documentary movement.
Whether British Documentary succeeds will depend entirely on the
amount of interest shown in it by its members, particularh the
younger ones; and this in turn will depend on the film-making oppor-
tunities becoming a good deal more exciting than the> are at present.

It w ill be important to seize every chance w hieh may be offered by
the new Films Act for v oluntary as opposed to sponsored production.
The development of the short-storv type of film along documentary
lines for instance is long overdue. Meantime a close watch must be
kept on the sponsored field, not least as far as the Government is
concerned.

Finally no one should forget that at Mexico Cit) the Mass Media
side of UNESCO was beavfl) strengthened. In particular there is the
plan tor international film production, b) which countries will be
asked to produce films for an agreed programme of 48 films, di\ ided
into eight series of six films each This countrv can make a big
contribution to such a scheme, not only in terms of direct produc-
tion but also by supplying technicians to othet countries ■
industries are not so full) developed as our own

14

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

NOTES OF THE MONTH

Congratulations

our last issue appeared before the announcement of the Birthday
Honours, but our congratulations to Michael Balcon on his Knight-
hood are none the less sincere for being belated. Of all people in
the British Film Industry, Balcon deserves honour, not merely for
his general services (which anyone can remind themselves of by
reading "Michael Balcon's 25 Years in Films") but also because of
his constant insistence on honesty and sincerity. We remember, too,
that he was the first to combine the experience of documentary
with the experience of the feature studio.

We also congratulate Arthur Elton on his marriage to Margaret
Ann Adamson, who is herself an experienced worker in docu-
mentary films, having been with the National Film Board of
Canada and with Stuart Legg in New York.

*
British Documentary

the first meeting of British documentary took place on January
14th. It was gratifying to note that somewhere about 150 people
turned up, representing every possible aspect of documentary,
from the big sponsors to the boy who makes the tea. The meeting
was introduced by Sir Stephen Tallents and addressed by John
Grierson, who came specially over from Paris for the purpose. It
looks as though British documentary is going to do a really im-
portant job, and everybody will await with interest the detailed
working plans which the meeting commissioned the Council to
draw up. The influence which British documentary can exert,
both at home and overseas, is considerable, particularly if it sticks
closely to its policy of giving the younger members of the move-
ment the fullest part in the urgent and responsible jobs before it.
Those who read the completely misleading report of the meeting
in John Bouverie's Diary in the News Chronicle may rest assured
that the new organization has been formed to help and not to
hinder the progress of the documentary film.

*
Films and the Colonies

the colonial films conference held by the British Film Institute
on Friday, January 16th, was a most interesting and well-attended
meeting. Sir Stephen Tallents, John Grierson, George Pearson and
others addressed the delegates and the following resolutions were
suggested at the end of the conference :

It is resolved that the Government should give immediate con-
sideration to :

1. The development of the Colonial Film Unit.

2. The provision of films for fundamental education in the
Colonies.

3. The training of Colonies for active participation in the active
production of films.

4. The wide extension of distribution facilities.

5. The training of Colonial citizens in the technique of distribution.

6. The development of research into the facts of both educational
and entertainment films to illiterate audiences.

7. The provision of an informed centre to collect and collate all
information on the use and production of films among the
primitive.

8. The production of films about the Colonies for the benefit of
the British Commonwealth as a whole.

9. Studying the possibility of raising the funds for the encourage-
ment of the above subject.

We hope to hear more of this most important question in the near
future.

The Films Bill

the bill's Second Reading took place on Wednesday, January 21st,
and its further consideration now passes to a committee of the
House. During the course of the next two or three weeks, therefore,
the Bill will be subjected to a more detailed scrutiny and the various
amendments tabled will come up for consideration. In the case of
the provisions for 'supporting films' the documentan and special-
ized film producers have pointed to the need for coping with
the problem of marketing conditions. Greater access to screen-
space is. by itself, not enough unless documentary and short films
can obtain a fairer percentage of the box-office takings.

*
Shorts

scientific Film Association Conference on Agriculture, held on
January 17th, was lively and well worth listening to. The speakers
included Mr Goodman and Dr Slater (Ministry of Agriculture).
Mr Vesselo (Central Film Library), Mr Kenny, Mr Fell and Mr
Anstey. Afterwards, in the evening, there was a film show.

*
the London Area Association of Film Societies has held its in-
augural meeting, decided on a constitution and formed a com-
mittee. We wish them good luck.

*
documentary film news has just prepared a list of the newer
documentary films suitable for showing to Film Societies. The list
names about 30 films and will be brought up to date every few
months. Price sixpence (post free) to Film Society secretaries.

*
the Ministry of Education has announced the formation of the
Educational Foundation for Visual Aids. Its functions will include :

(a) Securing production of visual aids through commercial under-
takings and other channels.

(b) Purchasing or obtaining visual aids for disposal to local educa-
tion authorities, schools, libraries and other educational insti-
tutions.

(c) Arranging at suitable centres for the exhibition, storage and ser-
vicing of visual aids.

(d) Assisting the formation of regional and local libraries on visual
aids.

(e) Facilitating the interchange of visual aids with the Common-
wealth and foreign countries.

(/) Arranging for the collection and dissemination of information
on visual aids.

*

following the University Films' Conference held last November.
it has been decided to hold a meeting of delegates in February
with the intention of setting up a Films' Council to enable Uni-
versities in the British Isles to exchange ideas and look into prob-
lems of production and distribution and accessibility of films use-
ful to the student or professor.

* * *

ki\i weekly wins the prize for the best headline of last month!
A short excerpt from the British Council's annual report mentioning
the production of films by the Central Office of Information is
headed

BRITISH COt NC'IL FILMS

A new Odeon Service.
Well, well! Rank marches on.

1><)CUMENTAR\ III \l M W S

15

Ken Cameron asks

What Shall It Profit a Man?

the body responsible for the organization and
the regulation of the working lives of those en-
gaged in the technique of British film production
is known as the Association of Cine and Allied
Technicians. This rather implies a proficiency in
technical executance as opposed to the more
peative work of the artist. This of course is not
intended, and a film always has been and always
will be known as the work of a director, or a
writer, or a producer. The names of those who
actually expose the film are rarely familiar to the
audience. Perhaps that is a little unfortunate, but
the lights of the more functional of the popula-
tion are apt to be hidden beneath bushels.

The technician is, after all, a very important
person. The most far-reaching of films of educa-
tional or social significance would for ever re-
main in the minds of those who conceived them
were it not for the individuals who press the
right knobs at the right time. But in docu-
mentary as in the feature film phrases such as
'creative treatment of actuality' and 'drama in
the living fact', coined by Grierson and hack-
neyed by his disciples, all ignore the work of the
men who act as pure technicians behind the
camera. And even the densest ninepenny must
realize if it was put to him that the increasing
number of studios soon to open or reopen in this
country will create a demand for skilled technical
people which will rapidly swallow up the un-
fortunate bulk of ACAT's list of unemployed.
And what are we doing to supply that demand?

Apprenticeship

The new apprenticeship scheme has been
planned and discussed far too long. It is absurd
that a plan of such obvious benefit to producer
and worker alike should only now be reaching
the stage of possible operation. Hitherto a poten-
tial newcomer to the industry could achieve his
wish only if he knew somebody of influence. And
then he was lucky if he entered the branch best
i suited to him, and phenomenally lucky if he got a
well thought out training, not only in that branch
but also in the allied crafts of those working
around him. And we cannot deny that a ground-
ing in editing would help a cameraman to do his
job well.

This apprenticeship scheme, evolved jointly
by the ACAT and the BFPA, is due to start
operation early this year, but as this is being
written the details are not fully known. It is,
however, recognized that newcomers to the in-
dustry can do so only by undergoing the training
that it entails. This should do a lot to cut down
the number of passengers carried by most pro-
ducing organizations. That section of film pro-
duction personnel which is supposed to work
with its head rather than its hands is a happy
hunting ground for deadheads whose contribu-
tion to the country's movie output is pathetically
small.

But even when this apprenticeship plan is oper-
ating, just how are we in documentary going to

get on? The dividing line between feature and
documentary is real enough by the very nature

of the films and those who make the n The in-
c\ uablc difference in salary ratings makes this line
much more formidable. Certainly the companies
who do not cater for the theatrical market cannot
be expected to pay the inflated salaries now pre-
vailing in the major studios: that is unless the re-
sults of the new Films Act are far more satis-
factory than we ever dare hope. But somehow or
other this fact must not prejudice documentary's
chances of recruiting worth-while newcomers.
And by worth while we also mean those who will
not take the first opportunity of leaving the
movement for the attractions outside. The tend-
ency to get into the industry by way of the docu-
mentary film, to get a good training there, and to
leave it as soon as his company is beginning to
get value for the training, has been far too com-
mon during recent years. The skill and adaptation
needed for our type of film is every bit as highly
developed as that for the feature picture — in some
ways a whole lot more so. Documentary is not a
school for Denham, and must not be looked
upon as such.

Crown Film Unit

Recent developments would indicate that a
larger proportion of Government-sponsored films
will be handed over to the Crown Film Unit for
production. This Unit at Beaconsfield has tech-
nical facilities which are, or soon will be, no
mean item in this country's film making poten-
tial. It has technicians whose standard of work-
manship during the past years has shown that
they are quite capable of giving the necessary
quality of work. But whether it has enough of
these vital factors to cope with all the work
understood to be coming its way is questionable.
It is not the easiest thing in the world to attracl
cameramen and soundmen who can undergo
with equanimity the rigours of a British location
in these piping days — and our best work is still
done many miles from the convenience of the
studio and the comfort of the home —and who
will produce technical excellence on the screen
in spite of the war-weary equipment which is all
that most of us can offer.

Certainly the blame for the dilatoi mess in put-
ting the new scheme into full operation does not
lie exclusively on any one body. Such a plan to
be efficient must cost mone>, and it is never too
easy to get funds for the most worthy ol sauscs

The Lafl of the Closed Shop

One wonders whether the attitude of ACAT
these days is entirely beyond reproach. I he-
Union is maintaining a rigid adherence to the
unwritten and quite unwarranted I iw of the

Closed Shop, and while bringing all its guns to
bear upon trivial and doctrinaire del tils it has
successfully avoided the main issue of keeping its
membership not only well looked after, but

/.;/. we must remind readers that the
expressed m am article (even one written M <j
membei •>/ the Board) do not net oincide

with those oi ili,' Board I D

united. Ii is certainly high tune tor those mem-
bers who do not altogether agree with piesent

take a less in tctive at tun ■
at their studio meetings and at the annual ge M
meeting, just precisely what they think. The re-
luctance of so many of the rank and lii
office and to attend the AGM leives the waj
too clear for those of an extremist viewpoint
whose eagerness to be aym everything and every-
body is not tempered by anj readiness to see
anybody else's point of view

Unfortunate

Just how much the policy which is sometimes
tantamount to obstructionism prevailing in &
units at the moment is dictated by the General
Council, and how much emerges from private-
decisions made by local shop stewards and their
intimate confreres is hard to determine It would
be unfortunate to say the least it' the In ion's
democratic ideals were jeopardized by the lew
autocrats who rule the far too rare full studio
meetings, and present fails </. omplis to their
obedient if somewhat sheeplike satellites They
smugly stigmatize their critics as reactionary, and
maintain their nattering-in-the-corner tactics un-
der the impression that they are considered the
altruistic saviours of mankind. Some of them are
all too quickly developing into the sell-appointed
destroyers of the goose that lays the golden eggs.

Money for Jam

In the past ACAT has done work of inestim-
able value. Salary rates and working condil
have reached levels undreamt of before the war,
although the cost of living has done its best to
keep pace. But can the General Council not see-
that all upgrade movement is bound sometime
to reach a point when it becomes downgrade'
And when one gets near that point it is wise to
stop and think for a moment. We must not pro-
ceed further with a policy which makes u m
siblc for an enthusiastic technician who
upon bis job as something more than a vehick
gaining his daily bread with butter and jam on
both sides -to work all night long it the spirit
moves him. The Union has done ere it work in
the past. Ok Hut the sweat shop has become
the closed shop, and the Malt' Crown I nil is
rapidly becoming the Money I 01 lam i

ii se the solution is obv ions if we can only
see it through. We, that is all o\ us w ho value

jobs and think our work worth while, must ex-
amine very thoroughly any action which tends in
any way to discourage rather than encou
production And it that action smacks too much
of stubborn inflexibility .^^^ not i ofconv

monsense, then it must tv gently but verv firmly
put in its place It is a pity, hi; I the

ordinary decent members of this industry arc
going to have to do a little quiet propaganda
work themselves <>' the skuld

the test.

16

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

the film overseas

Graduation

from Newsreel

by
James Harris

the New Zealand National Film Unit, which
came into being to hold the mirror to New
Zealand, has now to consider the projection or
New Zealand before the world. Involved in this
is a change in approach to subjects and a change
in style. Owing to local circumstances the change
is broadly one to Documentary from newsreel.

Until six years ago few things were rarer upon
the screens of New Zealand than scenes of New
Zealand life. The citizen of a country thus absent
from view, or seen only through foreign eyes and
lenses, is apt to think his country has something
lacking. Thus films of New Zealand, when they
did begin to appear in quantity, not only provided
a medium through which to pass wartime infor-
mation to the public, but also began to fill a blank
area in the outlook of the local picture-goer.

The 1941 event was the setting up of the New
Zealand National Film Unit, based upon the
existing Government Film Studios which had
made films of scenery for the Tourist Depart-
ment. The Unit's birth followed a report to the
Government made by John Grierson. It's war-
time raison d'etre was wartime publicity, includ-
ing internal national publicity, the building of
national self-confidence. The backbone of its
production programme for all of its six years of
development has been the newsreel NZ Weekly
Review. The Government concentrated their film
efforts upon newsreel for the very simple reason
that there being no commercial newsreel in New
Zealand this field was the easiest one in which to
get wide and regular distribution. In technique
however Weekly Review has averaged some-
where between newsreel and documentary, in the
manner of a cine-magazine.

At the present time Weekly Review averages
about 800 ft per issue, goes out on a 17-print
distribution and occupies the whole time of six or
eight of the production staff. The typical reel
contains three subjects, probably one sporting or
topical, one of farming or country interest, and
one industrial or scientific. Every few weeks
though the whole reel goes to one subject, and
these one-subject Weekly Reviews are in* fact
short documentaries made at a newsreel rate of
production. The problem before the Unit at the
present time is to make instructional films for
local use, and documentaries for overseas, with
the same speed and efficiency that it has developed
in the handling of its regular weekly release.

Though the NZNFU staff have experience in
documentary, nevertheless for any of them to
turn from the newsreel to other types of work
always proves to be difficult, the difficulty lying
not so much in doing the new thing well as in
doing it with the old efficiency, in keeping up the
speed that went into newsreel-making to a weekly
deadline when not working to a deadline at all.
New Zealand films like all films need to beofgood
quality or they fail in their purpose, but they also
need to be economically made, for many films
are required and stall" and gear limited.

A New Zealand National Film Unit Conference

In addition to the weekly newsreel release many
of the short newsreel items have been collected
into long 16 mm reels to give a general picture of
the life and the country, and issued to libraries
under the general title of New Zealand Diary.
Demands from London for 16 mm silent films
are also being met.

The main physical asset of the NZNFU is the
Government Film Studio at Miramar, just over
the hill from Wellington Heads and about six
miles by road from the city. The studio, a single-
story brick building, contains a 60 ft by 80 ft
sound-stage, offices, theatre, 35 mm and 16 mm
laboratories, cutting-rooms, workshops, vaults
and garage. Thus everything from scripting and
camera-repairs to dispatching the finished prints
is done in the one building. Equipment includes a
pair of Mitchell cameras for double-system sound
shooting, single-system sound camera for news-
reel work, a good assortment of modern lighting
gear and a couple of portable generators. When
the Unit first moved in only rack-and-tank

development was available for negative, but now
all development is by machine.

Up till now A'Z Weekly Review has been ali
capital things to the NZNFU: it has been back-
bone, mainspring, heart, soul and bread-and-
butter. It was this weekly reel that secured wide
theatrical distribution for the Unit's camera-
work, and it was the six years of working to a
weekly deadline that kept the Unit moving toe
fast to get into the rut of 'regular channels'
If the Government newsreel has to be dropped
(as may happen, since distribution to a public o1'
under two million is a difficult thing to make
pay) then its loss will be regretted by New
Zealand audiences, and by that small but import-
ant part of its audience, the troops in Japan
Whether the weekly reel is retained or whether i:
goes, the experience of turning it out has buik
up at Miramar a self-contained Film Unit which
should be able to turn with confidence to an>
oew tasks which the Dominion may require it to
perform.

OVERSEAS NEWS

UNESCO in 1948

The allocation of almost one million dollars for
Mass Communications is the largest single item
in UNESCO budget for 1948. It is to be spent on
the following main projects. An International
Ideas Bureau will employ creative artists and
writers to prepare stories of world co-operation
and achievement. This material will be used to
promote the production of articles, books, broad-
cast programmes, documentary and feature films
by member countries. In the field of radio
UNESCO will prepare special programme
material, and will set up flying squads of radio
experts to maintain contact between UNESCO
and the national systems. A World University oi~
the Air will provide radio programmes putting
leading personalities in education, sciences and
the arts on the air. The Survey of Press, Radio
and Film Needs will be extended to the Far East,
Latin America and South Asia. Loans, barter

schemes and exchange of technicians are among
the remedies proposed to meet the needs of
countries found to be lacking essential Pres^.
radio and film resources.

The main emphasis in 1948 will be on produc-i
tion. UNESCO'S Film Section has already!
drawn up a programme of 48 films which Hi
member countries are expected to include id
their current production programmes. The new-
budget allocations are designed to stimulate
further production in all fields of mass con>j
munication.

The Price of Peace

I M-SCO has been criticized lately in one or
two' British journals for failing in the past year to
get to ;-;rips with the problems of world education
and understanding. In a recent broadcast J. B|

Cont. foot col. 1 next pai.t

D()( I MEN I MO I II M M \N S

17

a German visits us

English Diary

it's hard to believe but it's a fact: here I am in
the train for British Ci\il Personnel on my waj to
England.

I had scarcely finished my last shots for a
documentary film— produced by the Junge
Film Union, Hamburg, for the Crown Film Unit
in London when the director, Mr Graham
Wallace and the supervisor, Mr Arthur Elton,
asked me if I would like to study film-production
in England. What a question! Naturally I said
'Yes' (thinking to myself: 'this may cause you
some trouble, to get permission'. And I had no
hope at all. I

Who will describe my astonishment, when
some weeks later I held in my hands a passport
with travel-permission and Dutch Visa!

And now I find myself really in the CCG-
Train, and every passing minute brings me nearer
to the Channel. I have now entered a sphere,
of which thousands of starving Germans dare
not even dream. The first step of the fairy-tale is
the dining-car. Tea with sugar and milk, meat,
sweets. I feel like in heaven, though somebody
next to my table says: "Really nothing particular.'

The train stops in Utrecht. No doubt, there is a
refreshment-hall. You may step in and buy cakes,
real cakes and chocolate — supposing you have
Guilders or Sterlings.

It was already night when we arrived at Hook
of Holland. A brand-new ship, ready to take us
over the Channel. My cabin heated, and with
warm water and clean towels. We passed through
the Customs. This time I had a good conscience.
The contents of my handbags, some poor under-
wear, old shoes and a very old suit could not
interest them. •

We are now in England, and again I find myself
in a dining-car. What a car. While eating I per-
ceive how my undernourished body begins to feel
stronger. But what will happen, if the waiter asks
for our ration-cards? Mr Wallace shakeshis head
Ration-cards? Not in trains or restaurants.

The train hastens through fields and meadows.
Everywhere I see groups of trees, standing amidst
the fields. Before I came to this country I was
told the English were dreary businessmen. But

Contd. from previous page

Priestley pointed out that countries are prepared
to spend very much more on propaganda over-
seas than they subscribe to UNESCO. In 1947,
Britain alone spent £6 million on the Foreign
Office's overseas information ser\ ices and the
British Council. By comparison UNESCO'S total
budget for a world programme is a mere £2
million, of which 75 per cent is subscribed by the
USA. This financial disparity has been expressed
in another way by UNESCO itself. The total cost
of UNESCO's programme for world education is
equivalent to the price of one light cruiser, or the
price of ten bombers. Can the price of peace be
assessed at such rates?

as I see these people must like nature; they
like those I ices. That means a good feeling for

the beautj of this world.

London — Liverpool St. Station. What a traffic!
Buses, buses, — taxisandcars. M\ goodness, what
a life! Well-dressed, well-fed people everywhere.

But thereat the corner a grey face, bad shoes, a
poor overcoat. Those eyes look hungry. They look
at me as if they would ask for help. Suddenly I
feel ashamed. I should speak to him. Excuse me,
good man, I cannot give you anything, I'm a
beggar somehow myself, coming from that big
Ghetto Germany. And I have to go back there,
to be hungry again and with very little hope for
m\ future. Maybe you do not know it, but you
are enjoying here peace-life, and for you this
world is open. You may go where you like to.

A cloud of noise sweeps this vision away.
Watch your step, Sir!' 'Oh, — sorry!' (This is the
first time that an Englishman calls me 'Sir'). Oh,
yes. I'm in England now. Look fust right and
then left! What an automat a modern person is.
AH these seventeen days in England I looked the
wrong way, when crossing a street.

Somehow I must have been yet under the
influence of war-propaganda, before I came to
this town; I expected to see at least fifty percent
of all buildings fiat. As I insisted upon visiting a
place in London where I could see any compar-
able (with Hamburg or Berlin) devastations, 1 had
to make a special trip to the South-East of
London.

It took mesometime before I becameaccustomed
to see shop-windows full of clothes, sweets, food-
provisions, fruits. They told me, that everything
was rationed, that's true. But in England you
may eat in every restaurant as much as you like
without ration-cards. I found the British House-
vvives quite nervous about the rationing in their
country. I wish each of them could come to spend
some weeks in Germany. No doubt, they would
feel like in heaven after their return to England.

Two questions asked to me made me smile: in
a corner of a secret place in London I saw a
balance. A sign on its top asked: Have rations
altered your weight? — AndinGlasgow a Scottish
lady asked me seriously if German rations were
much better than those in Britain.

As a film-man I am principally interested in
film-product ion. On my request I wasshownse\ era I
studios. They are quite busy there, and they arc
doing remarkable work. The outfit is superior.
Maybe they have a bit too main people on the
stage while shooting. There is a limit, above
which things become too complicated, if there is
too much personnel. I saw large studios and I
accompanied small groups on exterior-shooting.
Everywhere on my way I made the acquaintance
of a lady who is much estimated on the British
Islands Her name is 'courtesy'. \mt in fact,
politeness in public life, as it is piaetised in
Britain, is a very agreeable thing It makes dailv
life so much easier. People in this country like
their personal freedom: the) pretci small houses,
each for one family, But at (he same time the)
seem not to be interested in an) manifestation of

.4 short monthly release made t>\ the ( ol hat fust

heen completed ami will he reviewed in mn next

issue 'KRO Germany 1947* ma es wst-war film
hlstoi i by being the first film made in German)/ by
a team oj English ami German technicians. In this
article the cameraman oj the Junge Film- 1 nion
gives his impressions <>t a subsequent visit to
ind.

indh idualism l ondon has an enormous quantity
of small family-houses, but the houses ol i whole
qua! each otherexactly.

To make a I ondon Programme complete one
must have slvii a real fog in this town I had it.
What the) call here a fog should have a special
name. It would be an insult to the 1 ondon Fog to
call him just a fog. What I saw that evening, that
was a floating white mass. I his was a funis ; some-
thing like material, something you could touch
with your hands. You could feel it slipping up
your legs, permeating your clothes It entered
into your body through the nostrils, through
your mouth; and some minutes later it was
scratching in your throat. It pressed the smoke
down from the chimneys, it penetrated through
closed doors into the fiats; and you could see it
floating in the rooms. This while monster
strangulated the tratlic. Drivers had to stop their
cars and had to walk home, trains crashed —
damage and losses.

That night we had to grope our way from the
gloomy shine of one lantern to the next, and I
felt happy when at last entering the house.

Ten hours by train brought me to the cold
hills of Scotland, where I paid a visit to a group
of the Crown I ilm Unit. I was accepted
old friend, we soon were a big family. Film
people have a special 'something'. They find
the wav to each other quicker than other people
do.

My way back to London seemed to me like-
going home (Not because of the 'Pubs'. They
drink too much beer there.) I like the atmosphere
of this big town. It's full of activity, full of
optimism. This town is willing to rebuild what
war has destroyed, its inhabitants sa) 'yes'tolife,
and it is agreeable to deal with them.

My last impression of England: the man of the
Customs (I felt a bit nervous approaching the
long low table). But he asked me kindly about
what I had done in his country and how I liked it.
and he forgot about looking into my handbags.
(Thank vou. friend!)

And here I am again m the train on mv way
back to Germain lo sa) it frankly: I feel likea
prisoner whom they let tor a time oil. on his
word. This train has a special car with signs at the
windows 'For Germans' I he train-controlman
savs with a smile 'Reserved foi you.' I am the
only German this time. The other cars are quite
packed. Alter the first two hours the last car
bieaks down Ml passengers ol thai cai have to
move into m> reserved car.

We pass the ( ierman bordei Heaps ol i ubbish,
rums, begging children at (lie rails Mv heart is
full o\ contravening thoughts, it will take some

time before all new impressions have settled.

But I ma) s.n alread) now thai countr) over
the Channel is winking hard to rebuild, it is full
ivily, n wants peace

I was given the possibihtv to have a look on the

"other side I I Ivottci understanding this

I hank vou tor having give me this chance!

Arndt von Rautenfeld

18

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

NEW DOCUMENTARY FILMS

Apologies and Corrections

In our last issue we published some reviews of
films made by the National Film Board of
Canada. We would like to apologize for one
'printer's error'. In the review of Tomorrow's
Citizens 'unclean' should have read 'nuclear'.
Also, we have been corrected on several points.
Montreal by Night was made on 35 mm. and not
on 16 mm. as implied; it was made for the
theatrical market and is never shown on 16 mm.
Bronco Busters has never been shown in black and
white before — the COI cannot afford colour and
so the National Film Board had a black and
white print specially made.

We hope that the National Film Board will
accept the apologies of the Editor and we thank
them for sending in corrections so promptly.

Here is the Gold Coast, made for COI.

Camera and Direction: John Page. Commentary:
D. M. Williams. Music: Guy Warrack. Editor:
and Producer: Jim Mellor.

Theme. West Africa looks West.
Comment. There is in this film a wealth of
good and interesting material — well shot,
pleasantly photographed, often revealing — yet
the film itself fails to get the best out of it. In a
story as vital as the development of a backward
people, there should be no feeling in the audience
that it is too long; but, more than once, Here is
the Gold Coast produces the reaction of a glance
at the clock.

There are two main reasons why the film lags:
it meanders not a little inconclusively through its
subject and it is cursed by a singularly inappro-
priate and entirely supplementary musical score.
More attention to its story construction and to
the sound track (so weak in homely natural
sounds) would have turned this film, with the
same material, into an outstanding job. As it is,
it shows us much in the lives of the people of
West Africa that will be new to English audi-
ences: it helps us to understand and to regard
sympathetically many of their problems — and it
reminds us, too, that some of the biggest prob-
lems (malnutrition, for instance) are only too
international.

Atomic Physics made by GB Instructional.

Producer: Frank Wells. Written and Directed
by: Derek Mayne, MA. Photography: J. Parker,
I. Barnett, K. Talbot. Assistant Director: S. G.
Fergusson. Technical Advisor: D. H. Wilkinson,
PhD. Animation sequences by: GB Animation
Limited.

GB Instructional have produced a detailed
technical account of the subject in the five parts
of the film Atomic Physics, and upon it they
are to be congratulated.

The film makes no attempt to be other than a
clear technical exposition, on something like fifth
or sixth science form level, and is therefore
pretty advanced for general use. But provided its
five parts (about fifteen minutes each) are
screened separately, there is no doubt that most
adults at all interested in the progress of science,
would get much from it.

The forethought of whoever ensured the re-
cording on sound film of Lord Rutherford and
Professor J. J. Thompson is to be greatly com-
mended. Excerpts in the film of these two
scientists, describing some of their contributions
to science, are used directly as part of the com-
mentary. At the end is a short sequence of Pro-
fessor Cockroft putting into words once again the
condition of our survival — that atomic energy be
used sensibly. (This sequence, incidentally, is a
good piece of direction as is, indeed, most of
the film.) Two things must be said: in a sub-
ject of such international significance it would
have been a great gesture to give perhaps a little
more than full credit to foreign scientists. Where
the only speakers are British, and where so much
of the work has been done by British science, the
result is bound to seem, to some foreign eyes,
insular in conception. The film would have gained
in stature if we had heard but a fragment of, say,
Niels Bohr or Joliot Curie speaking in their own
languages.

The other criticism is a simple technical one,
that the commentary was sometimes a little over
full and, hence, hurried. (Did the scientists run
away with the film makers?)

One looks forward to hearing that this film
will reach its proper audience in schools, univer-
sities, scientific film societies, and libraries

New Town

throughout the world. In that setting it can be a
great landmark in British film making.
The parts are named as follows:

1. The Atomic Theory.

2. Ra\s from Atoms.

3. The Nuclear Structure of the Atom.

4. Atom Smashing: The Discovery of the
Neutron.

5. Uranium Fission: Atomic Energy.

For scientific film societies this film is ready-
made. But they will have to screen it in parts so
that their less learned members will not be left
behind. a scientist

New Town. Halas-Batchelor for COI.

Direct ion and Story: Joy Batchelor and John
Halas. Music: Matyas Seib:r. Voices: Jack
Train, Harold Berens, Dorothy Summers. Dis-
tribution: CFL. T and Non-T. 10 mins.

Theme. The theory of town-planning — without
tears.

Comment. There comes a time when all re-
viewers hanker after a film meriting nothing but
praise. And so, after the spate of dull and dowdy
documentaries of 1947, this slight but engaging
cartoon is indeed welcome. Here are more
honest laughs than in all the other films put
together — and, at the same time, a clear and
simple statement of the principles of town-
planning.

Introducing a new character, a shock-headed
optimist called Charlie, this colour cartoon is one
of a promised series of popular discussions of
present-day developments. If the others come up
to the standard of New Town, it will be a most
successful and useful venture. Lively, imagina-
tive, and having a very real sense of fun, the film
manages in its short length to pack in as well
quite a number of the best reasons for a new atti-
tude to the building of our towns and cities —
even finding time for a brief but delightful inter-
lude with Colonel Chinstrap whose particular
approach to re-housing takes the lico out of
pro bono publico.

As an introduction to the still controversial
subject of town-planning, it is excellent; but
needs to be followed up by more factual fare.
The pity of it is that it comes so late: both kinds
of films were wanted even more urgently three
years ago. However, no doubt the Colonel him-
self would be the first to join in the sentiment
'better late than never'.

Children of the Ruins, made bv Crown Film
Unit for COI.

Distribution: T and non-T CFL. 10 mins.
Theme. Children of the Ruins deals with the
sufferings of the world's children. Today,
millions are undernourished and diseased,
though this was true of many before the war. But
minds suffer as well as bodies. During the war
children lost their parents, homes, they learnt to
steal, even to kill. In pre-war Germany and Italy
they were taught to honour and obey the power
of a military State. Yet in main countries today
the barest essentials for teaching. e\en pencils,
are lacking. To repair some of the harm done to
children's minds is one of the jobs UNESCO is
trying to undertake.

Comment. Designed as a monthl) release for the
cinemas, Children oj the Ruins sets out to gi\e a
general picture only, ll relies mainK on library
material and its appeal is direct!) emotional. But
that is no excuse for a rather untid) script which
lends to blunt the course of the argument.
Nevertheless it is good to see a COI film on a
world theme made for theatrical showing.

[)0(1\!I:M ary film m ws

l'»

Patent Ductus Arteriosus. Crown I ilm Unit foi
Ministry of Health through COI. Photographed
by Harry Waxman, assisted by Dr Brian Stan-
ford. Animated by Science I ilms I td. Diagrams
supervised by Dorothy M. Barber Distribution
CFL non-theatrical. 25 mins.
Theme. The pathology, diagnosis and operative
treatment of Patent Ductus Arteriosus.
Comment. Though little employed, one of the
most valuable uses of film in technical subjects is
the recording of rare events for audiences with-
out opportunity for seeing them. In 1942a record
was made at Hillingdon Hospital of an operation
for the closure of a Patent Ductus, an event
sufficiently infrequent for it to have been seen by
only a small percentage of practising doctors
Since that time, ov\ ing to the system under which
films put out by the COI must have the sponsor-
ship of a Government department, it has appar-
ently languished in obscurity. Now at last, offici-
ally sanctioned, it emerges into the light of day
as a fully fledged film. Our bureaucrats need
have had no qualms; this is a first-rate job which
will be of great interest and value to doctors in
Britain and overseas.

Patent Ductus Arteriosus is a congenital con-
dition of the heart in which the foetal junction
between the aorta and the pulmonary artery re-
mains open after birth — until recently an incur-
able condition. Using the language of its audi-
ence the film covers everv aspect of the condi-
tion. Beginning with a diagram sequence to ex-
plain the basic pathology, it then demonstrates
the physical signs and symptoms and X-ray ap-
pearances in a case, and concludes by showing
the essential parts of the operation for ligaturing
the ductus with a commentary made by the sur-
geon himself at the time. Particularly effective is
the use of synchronized sound during diagnostic
auscultation and the demonstration during the
operation of the alteration of sounds when
closure is carried out.

Inevitably, in a film made to hinge round a
record, there are a few rough edges, but the only
serious criticism that can be made is of the
ending. Here, to round off the film, a few pounds
spent on a brief examination of the case after
operation would have been well worth while.

The Centre. Films of Fact Ltd. for Foreign
Office through COI. Producer: Paul Rotha.
Director: J. B. Holmes. Photography: James
Ritchie. Research and Assistant Direction
Langton Gould-Marks. Distribution: Non-T.
CFL. 20 mins.

Theme. The working of the Pioneer Health Centre
at Peckham.

Founded in 1935 the Pioneer Health Centre at
Peckham soon attained a world-wide reputation.
In this London suburb, two doctors originated
and carried out an experiment in sociology (or,
more correctly, human biology) of great scientific
value. Broken up by the war, the Centre has just
restarted; now with growing interest in problems
of 'Social Medicine' and with the introduction of
the National Health Service, its importance is
probably greater than ever before. To the COI
therefore all credit for promoting a film about its
work; but why a film which, for all its excellen-
cies, carries no real hint of the medical or socio-
logical significance of this unique organization?

The Peckham 'experiment' is described by its
founders as 'a study in the living structure of
society", and its function is inextricably linked
with problems of health. This is a lilm about a
:lub with good recreational facilities and some

■I
Here is the Gold Coast

kind of medical supervision attached. Is the
sponsor or the film maker to blame?

In a subject of this importance it is impossible
not to let the background influence one's judg-
ment ; and this is the more maddening because, if
divorced from previous knowledge, this is in fact
a very good film. Well written and directed, it
tells after a brief introduction about the Centre
and the facilities it offers, the story of one young
couple who joined it. They, like so many subur-
ban families, were bored, lonely and lacked any
opportunities for the development of their per-
sonalities in a communal life. The Centre pro-
vides the chance they need, and they make the
most of it until, as a part of the routine medical
check, it is discovered that the young wife needs
an operation. This she refuses to believe, and as a
result the family gradually drift away from the
Centre. In the end, of course, she weakens, has
her operation, and the family again return to the
Centre to find that communal focus which is
missing in the lives of most city dwellers.

This story the film puts over well; the char-
acters are natural and the interest is sustained
throughout. For those who have never heard of
'Peckham' it will serve to show how one com-
munity is solving some of the problems of urban
existence. That perhaps is enough for a start —
but the full study remains to be made.

Children Learning by Experience. Realist Film
Unit for Ministry of Education through COI, in
association with Film Centre

Director Margaret Thompson. Producer: John
Taylor. Associate Producer: Dorothy Grayson.
Camera: A. E. Jeakins. Commentary: Bruce
Belfrage, Distribution: Non-T. CFL. 40 mins.
Intended audience. Training Colleges, etc.

In his book I he First I ive v e.trsof Childhood'
Arnold Gesell observes the behaviour and re-
actions of hundreds of children in given tesi cases
under ideal laboratory conditions

[nteresti i ■ ts 'his son of thing ma) be to the
amateur child-psychologist, il is to p too

'guinea-piggish' to be worth) of mon th in text-
book notice of the teacher who is full; o cupied
in children in the concrete rather than the child
in the abstract

One of the March <»/ Tunc issue- * IS centred

round Dr Gesell's book and was a most interest-
ing film for parents and teachers .dike, but it w.is
of passing academic interest and the very set-up
of the one-way vision observation playroom
divorced the children in the film from children in
real life.

In the film Children Learning by Experiei
are shown shots of children plaving, working,
doing things in natural surroundings. The epi-
sodes are unconnected except by a very tenuous
thread of commentary, and the film differs from
many other documentaries in that it sets out
neither to teach nor to preach but only to illus-
trate to the student the kind of things which
children do at different ages and to suggest that
there may be causes for these actions and that it
is up to the intending teacher to study these ac-
tions. In effect the lilm says 'Children
different from adults. If you are going to teach
them you must try to discover how their minds
tick over. Here we show you some of the things
they can do or are likely to do at certain
Remember that this is only the average child tif
there is such a b^ing) and start your discussions
from there.'

As material for the training college, it is very
useful. Mans trainees enter the colleges with
small first hand experience o\' the habits of chil-
dren -this lilm. if seen not once but main n
will raise main problems in their minds and will
set them thinking about vital aspects ol the child
mind which would not otherwise occur to them.

The film is divided into two parts, the first en-
titled 'All children want to learn', and the second
'Children learn through activitv and experieti
i lie second section is subdivided into (1) pi ■
ing simple skills. (2) understanding the «
around, (3) learning at second-hand. i4) learning
through play and imagination.

v film about children and with good pk
of children has m\ initial advantage ova
other film. I his one is not about children in
accepted seme but the phi ">ld

set the cinem i audience ooh-ing and Bah

Some experts ma) not be so enthusi
its value, but some will consider u I cr-

prising thing the Ministl
done. One tin aged in

I

20

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

reading for the month

NEW BOOKS ON FILM

Sound and The Documentary Film: Ken Cam-
eron. With a foreword by Calvalcanti. (Pitman.)
1 5s. Od.

For all the literature on films, there are still very
few books on how they are made, other than
specialized textbooks. Though the documentary
movement has been particularly prolific in publi-
cation, till now directors, cameramen, cutters,
and soundmen do not seem to have thought it
worth while to describe their work in detail.
One might suppose films grow on bushes, or are
dropped down chimneys by storks for all the
public attention their makers give to the creative
processes of making them. For this reason alone,
Mr Cameron's book is particularly welcome,
and what he has to say is given weight by the
fact that he is not only the best soundman in
documentary today — his work includes both
Listen to Britain and Instruments of the Orchestra
— but also one of the best soundmen in the
British film industry.

The first part of his book, introduced by a
foreword by Calvalcanti, who is both a little
patronizing and a little bad tempered, deals in
a clear workmanlike way with the use of sound
in films, the functions of the sound-recordist and
the difficulties peculiar to his particular branch
of film production. It is always interesting to
listen to an expert describing his work in simple
terms, and in this case we hope that Mr Cameron
will be heard also by those of his colleagues who

film monthly
review

the magazine for the
intelligent film-goer

containing articles on

script- writing
documentary- films

producers

directors
film-fashions

treating the film
and film-making os

art

price 9d. from all newsagents or
10s. per annum post free from

Precinct Publications

50 Old Brompton Road SW7

make up the rest of a film production team, and
for some of whom the sound track is still only
an irritating accessory. He recognizes, too, that
a recordist's work does not end at the mixing
panel, but should embrace both laboratory work
and reproduction.

The second part of his book is a simple tech-
nical account of the electrical, mechanical and
photographic principles of recording. The third
part is a glossary of technical terms. There are
many illustrations and line drawings.

Making the Movies. Jeanne Bendick. (Paul
Elek Ltd.) \2s. 6d.

Here is yet another addition to the library of
volumes which explain the production of a film
from the script to the sneak preview to that
presumably dwindling number of people who do
not know. The book is illustrated by the author
with a large number of somewhat childish draw-
ings of equipment and processes of the film
world, but while it contains a fair amount of
accuracy of description, everything is treated
with such ingenuousness that one seriously
wonders whether it is intended for purely
adolescent consumption. Although no printed
reference appears to its possible American origin,
nevertheless the terms used, and indeed the spell-
ing of many of them have a distinctly Trans-
atlantic flavour. It is scarcely fair to grumble at a
work which does so little harm, but it seems a
great pity that paper and time and money should
be wasted in printing a book which attempts so
much and yet achieves so little.

Film, a Reader's Guide. Roger Manvell. (Cam-
bridge University Press.) Is.
This essay and bibliography form part of a
series issued by the National Book League.
Manvell's introduction is a short but precise
account of the main points one should pay
attention to if one is interested in the cinema. The
list of books should provide a useful guide for
the new reader. Unfortunately, many of them are
out of print, though they can be found in libraries.
Also there are a number of important books not
available here in translation which have had to be
omitted. Aspiring translators and publishers
please note.

Freedom of the Movies. Ruth Inglis. (University
of Chicago Press — agents, Cambridge University
Press.)

It seems a pity that writing was invented so long
ago. We can only vaguely imagine the effect of
the dawning power to transmit knowledge in
permanent form from one person to another.
But we can see this power as vital to the first
great 'cultural revolution'. The invention which
foments our second 'cultural revolution' —
photography, however, is still very much with
us. With motion, colour, and sound added, we
get the film.

Seen by most to be one of the greatest social
forces of our time, photograph) is becoming
generally known as a new way of speaking to
one another, as a was of using machines to help
us think and talk more deeply. (Sometimes, of
course, it just helps us talk more.) Yet a second

truth is no less important; film is a form of
expression which only groups of people can use.

Even the simple black and white snapshot can
only be made after camera and photo-film
makers have co-operated; and the subject has
to co-operate before the trigger can be pressed.
Club facilities (such as darkroom and enlarging
apparatus) are commonly used even by the
amateur. Thus photography is a group activity.
And film making is a group activity — with a
minimum group size, apparently of the order of
a million or so people. (A community below this
size — like Andorra or Luxembourg — seems too
small to have a film industry of its own.) Because
film making is this kind of group activity,
freedom, in the commonly accepted individual-
istic sense of the word, is one of the things it is
conspicuous for not having; the conception
'Freedom of the Movies' is thus in an important
sense a contradiction in terms, and the book
which Ruth Inglis, of the American Commission
on Freedom of the Press has written, sets us
pretty clearly on the path to that conclusion,
without itself stating it very clearly.

'Freedom of the Movies' is largely an account
of the censorship of films as it has grown up in
the United States. Two things may come new to
many; firstly, censorship both in America and
Britain is a procedure imposed by the film indus-
try itself. "The economic necessity of mass audi-
ences has made the industry eager to please every-
one', and profits cannot be risked at the hands
of unpredictable pressure groups. Secondly, the
censorship boards seem to have no statutory
authority. Any film, censored or no, may still be
the subject of litigation on the grounds of
slander, libel, obscenity, sedition, or similar.
The Commission on Freedom of the Press sets
out six recommendations in a Statement. The
first of these gives the flavour of the whole:
The constitutional guarantees of freedom

of the Press should be recognized as including

motion pictures. The growing importance of

the documentary film gives fresh emphasis to

the need.

This reviewer, irresponsibly perhaps, finds the
unrelieved comprehensiveness of the "socio-
logical" style a strain. The only relief comes from
that mood of levity induced by reading the
Production Code itself, quoted in full in its
present form.

But apart from this the book fails to satisfv
because it does not recognize that there is
wanted today a deeper, more complex conception
of 'freedom' than served in earlier times. One
does not demand that the sociologists should be
inspired to provide this, but they must know wc
require it to come into existence.

DFN COMPETITION No. 2

Mam people grumble at the programmes dished
up in the ordinary commercial cinema. Here is
the opportunity to get rid o( some of the pent-u:1
venom.

Competitors are invited to write a letter of
remonstrance to a cinema manager whose pro-
grammes are not to their taste. Letters should be
limited to 200 words and entries should reae i
the 1 dnor before March 1st.

The usual prizes of a guinea and half a guinea
are offered and results will appear in the April
issue.

DOdMEMARY FILM NEWS

21

MORE NEW FILMS

(Cont. from page 1 9)

61m;

the training of teachers must see this
whether they use it or not is up to them.

A TEACHER

National Film Board of ( 'anada

La Poulette Grise: Norman McLaren.

Fiddle-De-Dee : Norman McLaren.

Cadet Rouselle: Jim McKay and George

Dunning.

When Norman McLaren was a member of the
GPO Film Unit, way back in 1938, he made an
experimental film, an animated colour film of the
so-called "cartoon' variety, called Love on the
Wing. In what now seems a somewhat crude
offering he broke new ground, and gave us some-
thing quite fresh and different. In La Poulette
Grise he has developed and polished his art to
such a remarkable degree that we really feel that
we have something new in the cinema. When the
little wooden loft doors which open his series of
Chansons de Chez-Nous open, we are carried for-
ward into a dreamlike world of fantasy and
imagination that has an indescribable charm and
beauty all its own. Not only is its technical
fluency thrilling, but somehow or other McLaren
achieves a weird stereoscopy that seems to take
us right forward into the middle of the picture.
He gains a depth and intimacy unsurpassed by
all Disney's Multiplane cameras. And one visual
effect is varied and transformed so skilfully and
gracefully that we find ourselves looking at some-
thing else without quite knowing how and when
the change took place. The plaintive quality of
the French-Canadian folk song makes La
Poulette Grise a wonderful companion to his
earlier and gayer C'Est UAviron.

Fiddle-De-Dee is very different. Here McLaren
has reverted to the style of colour rhythm origin-

ated by Len Lye in his never forgotten Colour-
box, and subsequently rather Indifferently copied
by Disncv m Fantasia. A gay little violin tunc is
accompanied by abstract colour patterns on the
screen. It is all delightfully done, but as one of
the Review Hoard remarked, somehow dis-
appointment comes at the end because we are
not urged to post early for Christmas.

1 inally, Cadet Rouselle is much more ortho-
dox. The quaint cartoon figures delightfully
illustrate the song, but it relies for its effect more
upon the charm o( the folk song than upon the
originality of its technique.

All Eyes on Britain. Data for COL

Producer: Donald Alexander. Directed and
Written: Bladon Peake. Associate Directot
Mar) Beales. Camera W. Suschitzky and K.
Kettlewell. Distribution 1 he. itrical and monthly
release. COL 10 mins.

In the 1930's a foreign writer, turning a piercing
and cynical eye on Britain, remarked that, in
addition to claiming to be the most modest
people in the world, we also claimed that we
held the lead in everything else. This film shows
that nothing has changed in the intervening
years, except perhaps that what used to be a tacit
assumption of superiority has become exceed-
ingly vocal, with a suspicion of an hysterical
edge to it. One may perhaps ask whether all this
whistling in the dark is really necessary.

In All Eyes on Britain we see foreigners of
every creed and colour flocking to Britain to
congratulate us on our achievements in as many
fields as can be packed into ten minutes. With
one voice but many accents they say to the
audience 'You see, you do it so much better
than anyone else.' The treatment that the makers
have chosen for this theme is a fantastic one —

by Hellzapoppin out of Upturne eir

object has doubtless been to avoid at all CO
the pedestrian, unimaginative approach for
which so many documentaries hav< inly

criticized; but they have unfortunately not al-

wavs remembered the cardinal rule that the
audience must be able to follow •■ i on.

I he beginning of the film particul irl> is exasper-

l> confusing, less on account of the .
ception than of the presentation.

The Government's purpose in spo isori
Monthly Release is presumabl) to bolster M
it imagines to he the sagging confidence of the
people; but what the effect will be is another
niattei I here are many reasons for thinking that
films of this kind encourage the inert com-
placency which is one of the I
besetting vices. Perhaps the Go
now consider sponsoring a film shi
ers flocking to this country to complain with
un-British bluntness about the shoddiness of
some of our exports and the inefficiency of some
of our institutions. It might have to be more
than a one-reeler.

The Young Housewife. Anglo-Scottish for Scot-
tish Education Department and Ministry of
Education through COL 10 nuns.
This film is about the education of teen-age girls
in the domestic sciences. It shows how, at a
particular Scottish school, the pupils learn to
plan the housewife's day, and to carry out
various homely tasks in a way which will fore-
stall the criticisms of their future husbands. The
film is not ambitious, but it is made with skill and
has something of the simple and tidy adequacy
of a kitchen table. Here and there, there are neat
touches of characterization and humour, and
the girl who plavs the principal part does SO
without fumbling. To say that there is nothing
outstanding about the direction and camera-
work is no more than saying that they have no
noticeable faults.

THE BRITISH FILM ACADEMY

the British hlm academy is a new organization
founded by the film-makers of Great Britain. It
was first formed as the result of a conference held
in the autumn of 1946, to which a large number
of distinguished film-makers were inv ited. At this
meeting a Committee was elected to prepare the
Academy's constitution and policy and arrange
for its formal registration as a non-profit-making
company. The Chairman of this Committee was
David Lean; the remaining members were the
Hon Anthony Asquith. Michael Balcon, Sidney
Cole, Thorold Dickinson, Sir Alexander Korda,
Frank Launder, Ronald Neamc, Michael Powell,
Carol Reed, Paul Rotha and Harry Watt. In
August, 1947, Dr Roger Manvell was invited to
become the first Secretary-General of the Acad-
emy, and began his work in October, when the
first official General Meeting of the members of
the Academy was called. Nearly a hundred film-
makers were present at this meeting ; the Consti-
tution of the Academy was ratified, and its aims
can now therefore, be outlined.

The introduction to the Academy's Constitu-
tion read as follows:

The British Film Academy is an organization

founded by the creative film-makers in the

United Kingdom for the advancement of the

art and technique of the film.

The aim of the Academy is to stimulate ex-

ceptional creative work and to encourage ex-
periment and research in all branches of the
industry.

The Academy will co-operate with organiza-
tions in this country and abroad which advo-
, catc similar ideals of international understand-
ing and favour the development of the arts.
The Academy will start at once to build up a
library of British film records, books, scripts,
designs, musical scores, photographs and other
material ot importance. When this collection has
assumed suitable proportions, the Academy
hopes to promote or advise on the publication of
books on the film, exhibitions of British film
designs and photography and concerts ot British
film music. It will also encourage ami jsMst in the
compilation of world film statistics and in
tion. The work of organizing the Academy's
records and statistics is being undertaken by
Miss Rachel Low, who joined the staff as Librar-
ian and Statistician in Deceml

In the branch of public relations the Vcademy
will ad as an organization representing the v iews

ol the creative film-makers in the I nited King-
dom. It will establish contact with all groups
concerned with the artisik and technical ad-
vancement of the film in the I nited Kingdom, the

British Commonwealth Ol Nations and all othel

countries. It will also co-operate « nh educational

organizations for the better appreciation and
understanding of the cinema, and will eno
the foundation of university departments of film
studies. It will encourage and possibly at a later
stage, promote research and experimental work.
It will make awards of merit for outstanding
artistic, technical and scientific achievements.
Finally the Academy is prepared to assist in the
organization of film festivals at home and al

For its members the Academy will arrange lec-
tures, del ates .\\k\ private viewingS ol' films. It is
obviously of the greatest importance thai !
film-makers should meet informally to discuss the
development o! their art among themselves and
with distinguished colleagues from abroad; the
Academy hopes to become a centre foi
activities.

I he affairs of the Academy will be sup.
hv a Council elected from among the members.
Membership itself is div ided into two catfi
people rendering outstanding service to the
cinema ma> Denominated by Academy members,
either as Honorary Members oi as Members.
Honorary Membership will normally
foi distinguished film veterans, production
lives ..i^\ notable lilm-ma-..
membership is open to film-makers work
production in British studios or on
research in connection with the film.

22

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

Newcastle experiment

Children's Cinema by D. George Bennell

it is frequently said that the noticeable lack of
discipline in children's matinees on Saturday
mornings cannot be improved without imposing
such a strict 'class-room' atmosphere as would
spoil the children's enjoyment.

This is one of the statements that can be dis-
proved by a visit to the experimental Cinema
Club organized by the Northern Counties
Children's Cinema Council at Newcastle-on-
Tyne.

There, soon after 9.30 the children began to
arrive at the lecture hall above the News Theatre
on Pilgrim Street. Two youngsters were giving
out questionnaire forms, coloured for ease of
analysis — pink for girls and blue for boys. Two
or three grown-ups were giving out programmes
and taking money from those children who have
not paid at school. No ushers were needed: the
children find their own seats, joining their friends
in an easy, natural manner. There is no queueing,
no pushing and no shouting either by the children
or the attendants; the children have come for an
outing and they enjoy their morning gossip be-
fore the show begins.

At about 10 o'clock lights went out, the film
began and within a few seconds the voices of the
children were hushed. This was a colour film,
The Nations Wealth; the print was somewhat
dark and the light fluctuating but the children

expressed their appreciation at the end. Then
came The Beginnings of the Cinema, a completely-
silent film showing examples of the early days of
cinematography. It is important to note how
interested the children were, e\en in an old,
silent film.

The next film was a coloured cartoon and the
children hailed the title with expressions of
delight; but at the end they gave it much the same
applause as they had given to the other films.
Canadian Landscape, a beautiful colour film
showing the work of the painter, A. Y. Jackson,
completed the first half of the programme.

When the lights went up for the interval, Mr
Tunnah, the Club Director, climbed on to the
platform and asked the children to fill up the
questionnaire form. 'Do not try to put down what
will please us,' he said. 'Put down just what you
think. Jf you like the film very much, put a cross
underneath "Yes"; if you do not like it, put a
cross underneath "No"; if you think it is quite
nice but not very good, just leave it blank. Now
with regard to the next programme : we are hoping
to make it a double number, that is, eight pages
instead of four. But we shall need your help and I
should like you to send in as many lino-cuts and
poems as you can. The competition this month is
to write a ghost story or play so will you do your
best to send in entries.

THE FINAL STRAW

I hardly ever shave or have my hair cut,
1 slop about in dirty corduroys;
On Friday nights you'll find me at 'The Pillars'
Commingling with the Documentary Boys.

I've never missed an article by Grierson,
I think I know Pudovkin off by heart;
I've lent a cigarette to Arthur Elton —
You'd think, to say the least, I'd made a start.

I've shouted out that Rank is Britain's Danger,
The Daily Worker's with me day and night;
I've shared the lift with Anstey at the Gargoyle,
And once I changed a wheel for Basil Wright.

I'm always thinking up new camera angles,
I'm more 'Avant' than the keenest 'Avant Garde'
So, all in all, my treatment by the Unit
To say the very least was somewhat hard.

I handed in an outline on Neurosis,
At a meeting I said Korda was a Curse;
I wrote a script on Dysentery in Miners
With a commentary in very pregnant verse.

A five-reeler on the drains of Wolverhampton —
A subject which I've given all I've got —
And a feature on the Textile Workers' Birth-Rate
Are waiting in my brief-case to be shot.

I might have made an epic on Diphtheria,
Or a Poem on the Trend of Workers' Flats . . .
So 1 leave you to imagine what I told them
When they handed me a trailer . . me! . on RATS.

G. B.

'The next item is Christmas Cards. The com-
mittee have been thinking of making Christmas
Cards for members and we want to know how
many of you would like one.' (About three-
quarters of the children put their hands up).
'Then we also thought of having a Christmas
partv ; I am afraid the refreshments will be very
small, only tea and a bun, but how many would
like to come?' (Almost all the children were
thrilled at the prospect.)

In the second half of the programme the
children saw The Swan, a nature film of the
swannery at Abbotsford; Safety First, a silent
film of Harold Lloyd; and Wild Elephant Round
Up, a thrilling sound film which showed the
capture of wild elephants in Africa.

Thus, another of the popular statements had
been disproved. The Cinema Council have shown
that it is possible to give children a series of
interesting, entertaining and even broadly
educational programmes without recourse to
second- or third-rate features or shorts. Some-
times the programme consists of a number of
short films and sometimes of only two larger
films. But the result is the same: the children
thoroughly enjoy their own film shows.

A third important matter is the fostering of a
real club spirit. Some appreciation of this has
already been given and further evidence of it is
afforded by the children's behaviour at the end of
the show . When they go home, there is no helter-
skelter down the stairs, for many of them stay to
chat with each other and with the grown-ups. It
was, in fact, this need for time for conversation
that prompted the Committee to separate the two
shows which last year were given consecutively,
but which this year are arranged one in the morn-
ing and one in the afternoon.

During the week the Committee meets. This
is composed largely of children and they make the
real decisions. It is for their benefit that Mr
Tunnah has asked for the numbers of children
who wish to attend the party or who want
Christmas Cards. Upon that response the Com-
mittee can decide whether it is worth while
printing cards and holding the partv.

The w ork of the Northern Counties Children's
Cinema Council during last winter is explained
in the report which they have published (price
Is. Id. post free from Mr F. R. Griffin. 138
Holystone Crescent, Newcastle-on-Tv ne).

The number of children, 250 at a time, is easy
to handle. It could possible be increased to 350 if
the room were larger, but this figure is probablv
the maximum that could be treated as a collection
of individuals instead of as a massed audience.

Of course, the Club has the great advantage
that membership is a privilege: the numbers
could easily be doubled if facilities were available.
The important result of limiting the membership
however, is that the general atmosphere is one of
confidence and real enjoyment, reflecting the
spirit of a genuine Club with all the members
working together for the common good. It
provide^ an example for the rest of the country,
but in order to succeed as it has in Newcastle it
needs the whole-hearted co-operation of the
teaching profession.

!)()( I Ml. N I \KV FILM M \\S

23

CORRESPONDENCE

)eath of British Documentary?

>ear sir: The sensitive observer had no need to
wait the verdict of the Brussels Film Festival to
earn that the young genius of British documen-
ary had died a premature death. Of course the
xcuse is that there has been a war: but the war
las not reduced the number of these films, rather
itherwise. It is not quantity that has died, but
luality.

Films are appearing in greater numbers and
vith greater technical proficiency, but — and here
5 the disturbing thought — with a depressing lack
>f inspiration and character.

Documentary had small beginnings, non-
xistent finance and infinitesimal technical
acilitics. To start on a film one required vast
•nthusiasm and tremendous belief in the worth-
vhileness of the subject to be filmed. The world
vas full (and still is) of subjects strong enough to
nspire this enthusiasm, and here was a com-
nmitively new medium with which to bring real
hings to the social consciousness of multitudes
)f the people.

Subjects were chosen: they saw the light as
ough drafts. The enthusiasts talked to many
)eople and in strange places ; some thought they
vere mad. Little by little the jewels of truth
imerged from the dross. The rough draft in the
lands of the prime mover (who was usually the
director and cameraman rolled into one) became
i little less rough and took shape, the film be-
:ame alive, not always on paper, but sometimes
:rystallized in the mind of the director — not in
srrns of trolley shots, mixes, zooms and such
ike, but of hot facts, intimate disturbing realities
af existence of which humanity is made up and
#hich could be captured by the camera.

Now to express this belief in its chosen
medium. Where can a camera be begged or
borrowed? Who will give or lend some money? —
not with which to pay high salaries, but just to
Duy film stock, for the early workers were more
interested in their subject than in a rising bank
balance. These were the real difficulties which had
to be overcome before a start could be made.

Gradually the shape on paper and in the mind
became the shape on film. Work was often
physically hard because one was not in those days
surrounded by a band of skilled assistants. Often
it was exasperating. The camera, a borrowed one
and not so good after all, was often tempera-
mental. But finally the desired effect was obtained
never of course so good as was intended : but in
fime — and sometimes it was not so long — the
finished picture emerged ; technically it was
usually bad, sometimes shocking, but gleaming
through the technical deficiencies there shone the
light of truth and sincerity.

On such slender foundations as these was built
the fame of British documentary.

Let us consider now the conditions which
exist today, out of which has grown the disease
and demise of British documentary quality.

films of documentary class are not now
produced by impecunious but enthusiastic tree-
lances, but b> production companies some ol
which, to their credit let it be said, are not
primarily concerned with making large profits.
^ sponsoring body commissions a film to be

made on a given subject, and a directoi is bi icled

to make an investigation and write a treatment
w inch, under the produce 's eye, confoi ns to the

policy and tradition of the production company.
The treatment is now passed on to the sponsoi .

who will appoint a committee to cor idei the
work. More often than not the members of this
committee, though experts on the subjects ol the

film, know nothing at all about film con u uction
or the impact of the filmic medium on the mind
of an audience.

I he committee proceed to analyse .uid dis-
integrate the treatment, so carefully built up by
the director who knows the possibilities and
limitations o\' the screen each memlvi idvances
and insists on his own particular point of \ icw.

Sometimes there are several separate com-
mittees to be placated, [he writer knows of one
case where five committees scattered up and down
the country all had to have their say, and this
number may not be a record. The result could
only be confusion worse confounded.

Treatments produced under these conditions
are, at their best, composite affairs, and a director
who starts on his shooting script with this back-
ground, and from this confusion ol ideas and
tries to rescue a crystal line of filmic thought has a
heart-rending job on hand.

When the committee of non-filmic experts
(who have by this time become filmically self-
important) demand to see the shooting script then
the battles have to be fought all over again.

By this time any original enthusiasm, which
the director once had for his subject has long
since evaporated and when the picture at long
last attains completion, producer, director and
unit have indeed been clever if they have com-
bined most of the ideas of the committee and
succeeded in preserving a semblance of sanity in
its presentation.

Under these conditions a director with great
potentialities may produce very indifferent films.
Having been diverted from his true creative
sphere he attempts to make up for the deficiencies
of his script, of which he is only too conscious,
by resorting to every technical trick he can bring
in to rescue the film from dullness.

Documentaries have thus lost their original
art of presenting truth by the power of simple
sincerity and are becoming merely clever.

Where lies the light? If there must be commit-
tees and it seems there must, let them contribute
to the film (instead of destroying it) by collecting
and collating all the facts relative to the subject,
and in their relative importance, before ever the
treatment is started on, for which work they are
probably well qualified, then leave the archi-
tecture oi' the picture entirely in the hands of the
producing company, who surelv are the most
competent people to deal with it.

Yours truly,

RON VI l> (. VKOINER

Realist Film L nit

9 Gt Chapel St, London, III

Serapbook for 1922

Di vk sm: l have always felt the past policj of

anonvmous reviews in the l>\l w> be open to
m .tin objections, and am glad to see thai recent!)
these objections have been met in some measure
by herding all the newer members ol the editorial
into a lev icvving pen I ccms that,

while avoiding the possibility of the unbalanced

individual anonvmous review, 1)1 \ lias merely
opened the doors to an unbalanced colle<

one. I refer to the review, in the January issw
'hook for \'->22. which is grudgingl)
corded |ust under two hundred lukewarm words,
while another theatrical short, Montreal

it, of no significance, gets almost double the
space in the same issue.

1 have seen Si rapbook (bi 1922 in the cinema,
and in private, and have been stuick noi only by
the way it grips its audience throughout its
length, but also b) the force of the perspective it
gives to our present-da) lives and prob (
Looking back twenty-five years, to a time when
another generation was wistfully regarding a
mythical 'golden age", shows up our own
glances over our shoulders todav as the unrealistic
indulgences the) are. I hat implication in the film
is unmistakable: and I can think of lew more
apposite or needful exhortations of the moment
than that we should face forward to the future and
not lean backwards to the past. The pity is that
the film was not made a year earlier.

Admittedly, the film frankl) shows more than
a little interest in the 'box-office' , but I submit
that the very positive message it contains should
not have escaped fourteen alert eves and
Peter Baylis and his team are surely to be con-
gratulated on having conceived, and so deftly
made, a film which is likely to provoke construc-
tive thought in its audiences at the same lime as
being a rattling good piece of entertainment.
Yours truly,

111 GH VII M VKKI. VIO

Themlif Cottage, Swen Lane
Hallerbull, Looe, Cornwall

If you want </ reliable film-guide

read

Contemporary

CINEMA

now in its second volume

Monthly Illustrated One shilling

The recognized point of contact between
the Church and the Film Industry

•Revii ROG1 R M \s\l I I.

the Film Critic. Author. Secretary-*
era!, tor the British Film Academy

Also on Editorial .1 Board:

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24

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

CORRESPONDENCE (contd.)

The Nadir Films Controversy
Two more letters:

from Hector Bathos

dear sir: As Mr Phillip Mackie, in his article
'Production History of a CO! Film', mentions
me perhaps you will permit me to make purely
personal comments — much as I normally deplore
unilateral action of any kind.

Mr Mackie is not quite correct in saying I was
'free to direct the film'. At that time Pipette Suc-
tion had reached a crucial stage (the start of the
third year of writing), and I did not then know
that Blancho Application Technique, which had
only been recorded unsuccessfully with four
different commentators, would be accepted as
spoken by Graham Suave. Therefore, though not
physically busy, I had a full and worried mind,
and as a result never achieved a firm grasp of
Exteriosis — did not even catch it.

Mr Mackie suppresses the fact that the briefing
was attended by only nine people, of whom a
mere six were subject experts. My heart sank,
that afternoon, because I realized that really pro-
tracted disagreements, such as we were enjoying
with Pipette Suction, would not be possible
among so few consultants. I should not have
nearly enough time to ponder deeply.

Though it may be tactless to refer again to
Pipette Suction, which war- not a COI film, I do
think that the procedure adopted during its pro-
duction (though far short of ideal) should be set
against that of Exteriosis. We had a committee
of sixty, from which we formed five sub-com-
mittees, each often members; one sub-committee
for research, one to supervise the writing, one to
supervise the shooting, one to view the rushes
and one to superintend the editing. (As our cut-
ting room is small, the latter sub-committee had
to be sub-divided, working alternate shifts; but
all members always debated every cut, mix and
choice of shot.) I shall never forget my elation
when the eighth re-take of shot ninety-two was
chosen and I was able to appreciate that, just as
no single word of the script had been written by
myself, so had no single shot in the film been
directed or edited as (unaided) I should have
done it.

This was not the case with Exteriosis: there
was too much of 'me' in it (about three per cent
alas). But the fault arose out of the decision
(which I opposed) to hurtle from investigation to
show copy in two years, and the paucity of
advisors of all kinds.

Let us sit together around tables larger and

ever larger, in rooms bigger and ever bigger,
talking more and ever more until our fine ideal
is at last achieved: until the writing of a film
becomes a lifework. Then cameras, lights,
studios — even film stock itself — will be no longer
necessary, and the heavy expenses which short-
sighted production managers would have us
merely reduce, will become totally unnecessary.
Yours faithfully,

HECTOR BATHOS

Nadir Films
and from Phillip Mackie

sir : f was glad to see Nero Nonflam's letter about
the Nadir film, A Stitch In Time. Nero is an old
friend of mine — many a time, in the bar at the
French Club, we have wagged our heads over
Aims and Achievements — and he will not mind
a couple of footnotes from me.

Nero is distressed by the absence of any refer-
ence to the producer. Of course, the producer
was around the place most of the time, except
for a Festival here and a lightning trip there. But
1 tried to keep my history as simple as possible,
and if I'd brought in the producer I should have
had to explain that complicated and tedious busi-
ness about how Hector didn't get on with Teddy,
and Clarence couldn't work with Pauline. Nero
wouldn't have liked me to rake all that over
again.

Nero has been misled by my words, 'Bathos
and the PCO have a drink together'. 'A drink' is,
of course, a collective term: a number of drinks.
Hector and I paid alternately, and for my part
I only wish I had an expense account.

1 don't want to go over the budget business
again ; it's already cost me a week of my life
and a packet of aspirins. May I just say that we
asked for a simple straightforward £4,000 job,
and it was really a little naughty of Nadir to
write in that crowd scene at Runnymede that
bumped up the final cost to £6,340. It was a good
scene, though, and I for one was sorry that
Hector took it out at rough-cut stage.

As for the factory shows, I do wish Nero had
been able to go to one or two with me. It was
really most encouraging to hear the expressions
of surprise and delight at seeing an amusing
documentary film.

Finally, may I wish the producer the best of
luck in the feature world? There, I am sure, he
will never have a project canned, a script revised
or a budget cut ; and his creative abilities will
find the complete freedom that they deserve.
Yours, etc.,

PHILIP MACKIE,

Films Division

Hans Andersen

sir: In these latter days the fragments of the
distorting mirror broken by the demon in the
imagination of Hans Andersen have obviously
become widely dispersed among film makers. In
consequence the public are daily tormented with
cleverness, cynicism, bitterness and distortion,
while it longs for beauty, truth, humour and
tolerance. There has been a noticeable defection
of little Kays from their little Gerdas in the film
world.

Would it were possible for some public-
spirited individual to form a "league of Little
Gerdas".

Alternatively, could not the managers of
cinemas arrange for us to put our feet up?
Yours sincerely,

PATRICK BLACK

String of Beads

sir: Your Reviewing Panel state, in their notice
of this Company's String of Beads in your
January issue, that no theatrical distribution
could be obtained. I am glad to say that this
situation has altered and that the film will now
be distributed in this country by Metro-Goldwyn-
Mayer.

Yours faithfully,

PAUL FLETCHER

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It is certain that I nglishmcn played an
important part. As long ago as I8(
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cinematography, and about 1889 a patent
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applied for by W. Friese Greene and
\1. I vans. Today the cinema is our Teat
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realise what the cinematograph ind
owes to the workers in many branches ol
science and technology, and not least to
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basis of the industry, is a chemical achievement. This must be transparent to give clear images
after great magnification, resilient and tough to stand great strain. It must be so treated that
the danger from fire is reduced to a minimum. The hand of the chemist is indeed traceable from
the make-up of the actors to the lamps in the projectors. In the apparatus used for the sound-
recording rare metals are needed : in the lenses of cameras and projectors, optical glass of the
highest quality : in the colour-photography, pigments of the truest and most us id colour. The
sets for the ballrooms and palaces of the cinema's Cloudcuckoodom involve the use of large
quantities of paints, quick-drying stucco and plasters: the costumes and
draperies must be dyed. The tale is continued into the cinema theatre itself, in
its decoration, its disinfection, its air-conditioning. When next you sit in
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'You cannot drink tea out oj a teacup without the aid oj the Five
Towns . . .you cannot cat a meal in decency without the aid of the
Five Towns. For this the architecture of the Five Towns is an archi-
tecture of ovens and chimneys ; for this its atmosphere is as black
as its mud; for this it burns and smokes all nicjht . . -for this it
lives crammed together in slippeiy streets where the housewife must
change white window-curtains at least once a fortnight if she wishes
to remain respectable; for this it exists.' ThcOkiwives'Taie-ARNOLDBENNETT

We hope we nave revealed in our Him ' EIVE TOWNS',

directed by TERRY BISHOP, some of the qualities of the

people who, by their industry anil craftsmanship, have made

English Pottery famous all over the world.

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Managing Director: Paul Fletcher

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IU««IV4<Ct.

DOCUMENTARY

\tf

INCORPORATING DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

MARCH 1948

ONE SHILLING

REALIST FILM UNIT

FROM OUR INDEX OF PRODUCTIONS

UNDER A: AGRICULTURE: — clamping potatoes (m.o.i.). clean

MILK (M.O.I. ), CULTIVATION (M.O.I.), DITCHING (M.O.I.), FACTORS
OF SOIL FERTILITY (I.C.I. ). GARDEN TOOLS (M.O.I.), THE HARVEST
SHALL COME (LCI.). HEDGING (M.O.I. ), LAND DRAINAGE (I.C.I.),
LIME (I.C. I.), MAKING GOOD HAY (M.O.I.). MAKING GRASS SILAGE
(M.O.I.), POTATO BLIGHT (M.O.I.), RESEEDING FOR BETTER GRASS
(M.O.I.), ROVAL SHOW (SHELL). SAVE YO'JR OWN SEEDS (MO. I.),
SIMPLE FRUIT PRUNING (M.O.I.), SOIL NUTRIENTS (I.C.I. ). STOOKING
& STACKING (M.O.I. ), STORING VEGETABLES INDOORS (M.O.I.),
STORING VEGETABLES OUTDOORS (M.O.I. ), WINTER WORK IN THE
GARDEN (M.O.I.).

All these films are available from the Central Film Library, except Royal Show
which Is only just completed. Realist does not rent or sell copies.

9 GREAT CHAPEL STREET Wl

GERRARD 1958 MEMBER OF THE FEDERATION OF DOCUMENTARY FILM UNITS

John I Li Lis and Joy Batchelor

have pleasure in announcing the birth of

GODPARENTS C.O.I.

YOU WILL BE ABLE TO SEE CHARLEY IN 'NEWTOWN' AT
WEST END AND LOCAL CINEMAS FROM MARCH ON

HALAS & BATCHELOR (f.d.f.u.)

IOaSOIIOSOI ark

GEKRARD 7(>'81-7()82

The Film in Print

SOME

BRITISH

FILM

INSTITUTE

PUBLICATIONS

THE ART OF THE CAMERA
By Frederick Young 6d.

THE FILM AS A VISUAL ART
By George Pearsen 6d.

AMATEUR FILM MAKING
6/ George H. Sewell, ARPS 6d.

SCREEN WRITING
8/ Bridget Boland 6d.

THE DOCUMENTARY FILM
8/ Donald Alexander 6d.

THE PRODUCER
8/ Sir Michael Balcon 6d.

THE FILM DIRECTOR
By Charles Friend 6d.

THE ROLE OF THE
DIRECTOR
By Thorold Dickinson 6d.

SOUND IN FILMS
8/ Ken Cameron 6d.

INCIDENTAL MUSIC IN THE
SOUND FILM
By Gerald Cockshott Is.

FILM EDITING
By Sidney Cole 6d.

If you would like us to send you
a complete list of publications
please write to

TH£
BRITISH FILM INSTITUTE

i Great Russell Street London WO

AN INDEPENDENT ORGANIZATION
FINANCED THROUGH HM PRIVY COUNCIL

DOCUMENTARY film news

/OL. 7 NO. 63 MARCH 1948

EDITORIAL BOARD

STEPHEN ACKROYD
DONALD ALEXANDER
MAX ANDERSON
EDGAR ANSTEY
GEOFFREY BELL

kl \ < \ Ml RON
PAUL FLETCHER
SIN (LAIR ROAD
GR A H AME 1 H A R P
BASIL WRIGHT

EDITOR

DAVIDE BOULTING

SALES & ACCOUNTS

PEGGY HUGHES

Cover design by james boswell

CONTENTS

This month's cover still is from Five Tonus reviewed in this issue

Editorial

Notes of the Month

Summer in Peine
Graham Wallace

O Canada ! We stand on guard for thee
John Grierson ...

Progress in Brazil
Brian Strange ...

Films of the Month

New Films

Nationalism and Internationalism

R. !■;. Whitehall

A Technician at a Conference ... ...

Close-up: Basil Wright ... ... ...

Correspondence ...

Published every month by
Film Ontre '.I I Soho Sq. London \V I

ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION 1 2s. SINGLE COPIES \s.

25
26

27

28

29
30
31

32
33
34
36

MARCH MERRYWEATHER

mi ill ms mi i has proceeded in unspectacular fashion through the
machinery of the House. In the Committee Stage members went
solemnly through a tray full of amendments, showing in many eases
a surprising grasp of the complex details of the industry. Most of the
questions of substance they raised were, however, carefully headed
off by an adroit move on the part of the President of the Board of
1 rade. When pressed to accept amendments designed to improve the
marketing prospects for British films, he referred questioners to his
proposed Committee of Inquiry into distribution and exhibition.
There the matter was left to rest.

The outstanding aspect of the Bill so far has been the low temper-
ature of the discussion both in the House and outside. I ew heated
exchanges have taken place on the floor, and there has been singu-
larly little comment in the national Press. Those who remember the
Bacon-Bogart diatribes of last year and more particularly the vast
telegram campaigns organized by exhibitors at the time of the 1938
Act, expected much more Same than smoke.

In part the unsolved issue of the Import Tax must be held respon-
sible for this tepid reception. Also it would seem one of those odd
quirks of public interest which veers and changes with strange
suddenness. At least the business of framing new legislation should
have been much easier in consequence. But is the resulting Bill likely
to be any more effective than the old Act?

The Bill, when lirst presented, was called by some unambitious
and timid. What has happened in Committee Stage has not altered
that impression. The President of the Board of Trade has had second
thoughts about one or two points but none of them are major issues.

To give British producers protection against the overwhelming
volume of American film imports is necessary, but by itself, not
enough. Anyway at this very moment, when no American films are
coming into the country, it is like building a rampart to keep out the
sky. It is argued that protection is the sole purpose of these Films
Bills and that it would be improper to extend their scope. But in fact
the new Bill does touch on fresh issues affecting the wider operations
of the industry. It legalizes the gentleman's agreement given by the
three circuits several years ago to limit their further expansion. It
incorporates the Board set up in October 1946 to select six independ-
ent feature films a year for circuit distribution. In other words, u
admits that more is needed than mere protection against foreign
imports. The chief criticism is that it does so little more, just at the
time when prompt and effective action is needed to get British film-
making out of lis present ensis with studios idle and technicians
unemployed. More and regular finance for production is one of the
industry's main needs. A Government film finance corporation has
been mooted for years rumours are in the air once again, but aie
they to be taken seriously? I he Report on Monopob rendencies in
the industry showed that the whole distribution a\i>.\ exhibition side
needs prompt attention ami itself made a number o\ valuable le-

commendations. But that was ovei three years

The new President ol the Board o\~ hade has ahead) shown a

very considerable grasp ol the film industry's thomiei problems.

But will he be able to break with the traditionally timid policies o\
his permanent officials? At the moment it happens thai there is

nothing for the Bill to protect British producers against, it would be

more than uonieal if the next move found the (io\einment with
nothing to protect.

26

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

NOTES OF THE MONTH

John Grierson

followers of the documentary film will find a special logic in
John Grierson's return to England at this time to oversee Govern-
ment film-making. Britain's key position today in the world of
economics and politics provides crucial tasks for the informational
film-maker. Both in North America and later with UNESCO, John
Grierson has during the past nine years made a signal contribution
to the use and the development of the factual film. He returns to
London to find in existence many of those things for which he
pioneered in the early days of documentary — Government film-
making centralized under a single agency, the State in possession of
its own Film Unit. Yet few will claim that Government films are
at present either fully effective as propaganda or even half satisfy-
ing as art. It is safe to assume that John Grierson will achieve lively
improvement in both directions. And our guess is that he will begin
by suggesting that instead of sitting in the dining-room and com-
plaining about the food, the cooks should take off their coats and
get to work in the kitchen.

Academic Honour

the documentary film movement has not been openly honoured in
the academic field during its brief — but not all that brief existence.
We shall all, therefore, find an exceptional warmth of appreciation
in the so well-merited honour done to John Grierson of the Univer-
sity of Glasgow, which has now invested him with an LL.D. In this
action the University of Glasgow is doing much more than honour-
ing one of its more electrifying alumni, it is in fact, honouring on a
national and international scale, the untiring efforts of an excep-
tionally gifted and hard-working individual on behalf of a new,
lively and constructive approach to civic education throughout the
world. The only wonder is that the honour should be single and so
belated. Certain other Universities — and not only in the British
Isles — might ponder the implications.

The Cultural Needs of our People

ON February 19th while the Lords continued somewhat academic-
ally to debate the new Films Bill, the Commons passed an amend-
ment to the Local Government Bill giving local authorities wide
powers to provide entertainment of all kinds. For the first time
they can set up theatres and run exhibitions and concerts and also
their own cinemas and film shows. They can even provide their
own bars ! The revival of interest in the arts during the war showed
how narrow had been the choice of entertainment provided com-
mercially. Wise and imaginative use of their new powers by local
authorities can spread enormously the cultural opportunities avail-
able in all parts of the country. This need is as great in films as it is
in the other arts.

Religion and Films

the first films to be made officially by the Church of England were
shown privately on February 9th in London. They have been
financed by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. The
first, entitled The Coming of the Light was produced by the Rev
G. L. Wheeler in consultation with the Production Committee of
the Church of 1 ngland Films Commission (which is being super-
seded by the new advisory Church of England Film Council with

SPCK as its Executive Agency). The second film, entitled Your
Inheritance, was produced under the direct supervision of the
Production Committee of the Commission.

Both films are primarily instructional and are designed to be used
in conjunction with other modes of teaching, whether in hall or in
church.

The Coming of the Light is intended to be used in connection with
lectures and classes, for Youth or Further Study (Adult) purposes.
It employs topographical and diagrammatical sequences to
illustrate the history of the Church of England, from the earliest
times down to the sixth century. It is planned as the first in a series
of historical instructional films.

Your Inheritance is primarily intended for adult churchgoers. It
is meant to bring before them visually what the Church can mean
to them, and that the Church's fife is in its members and not in its
stones.

It is hoped that the DFN Review Board will be able to see these
films in the near future.

Shorts

Edinburgh this year hopes to beat last year's record. The Festival
of Documentary Films is to last three weeks — roughly from
August 22nd to September 7th. We hope to keep readers advised
as to the plans for the Festival.

We hear from Evans Medical Supplies that their pharmaceutical
film Take Thou has proved so popular that additional copies have
had to go into the Central Film Library.

Numbers 4, 5 and 6 of This Modern Age Series are now available
for the use of film societies on 16 mm. These three films are entitled
Fabrics of the Future, Thoroughbreds for the World, and Palestine.
They may be hired from GB Film Library and our reviews of them
will be found in DNL, Vol. 6, No. 56.

John Curthoys' productions and Unicorn Head have moved
to new and larger premises at 177 The Vale, Acton, London, W3.

Sub-standard exhibitors have formed a 16 mm Film Exhibitor 4
Guild with a temporary address at Whitehall Cine Service. 11<
Whitehall Road, Bristol, 5. There is, apparently, some possibility
that the CEA will not recognize such an organization.

James Madill of Glasgow has won first prize in the recent Central
Office of Information script writing competition — John Harpe:
Nelson of London came second. Over 500 scripts were sent in from
all parts of the world.

Congratulations to COI for taking advantage of a week when
there were no new feature films for the Critics Circle to see. The
quickly organized a show of documentaries instead and invited all
the critics. Couldn't this be a regular practice'

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

27

Germany 1947

Summer in Peine

by
Graham Wallace

peine is a small country town lying between
Hanover and Brunswick in the British Zone of
Germany. The town and the surrounding dis-
trict or Kreis had been selected as the location
for a short documentary on Germany today.
The film dealt with the work of an English
civilian officer working in the Control Com-
mission for Germany -the Kreis Resident
Officer. It was a monthly release for the COI
and was intended to show something of the
work of an individual in the CCG and of life
and conditions in Germany.

Life in Peine is typical, on a small scale, of
life all over Germany. Here we find all the
problems of the Black Market, shortages of
clothing and food, overcrowded accommoda-
tion, idle factories and refugees that were the
concern of the central character of our film —
the Kreis Resident Officer.

The production unit making the film was a
mixed one, with English and German techni-
cians working together. The director and unit
manager came from the Crown Film Unit; the
cameraman, his assistant, editor, electricians,
production manager, script girl and sound tech-
nicians came from the Junge Film-Union of
Hamburg. Our film was a joint production of
these two units.

It was late in August when we arrived in
Peine to start shooting our film. It was some-
thing of an experiment for a mixed crew of
English and German technicians to work to-
gether on a film. We did not know how it would
turn out. At first we were stiff and strange to-
wards each other, living together in a German
hotel, with the language barrier preventing
mutual understanding. After a few days, when
the barrier of nationality ha j been dropped, we
became a team of technicians working together

to make a film, conversing in a mixture of bad
English and guide-book German, with the ex-
ception of the cameraman who claimed to
speak five languages fluently and certainly had
good English.

The concept of a straightforward factual
documentary film dealing with real people and
their daily work was foreign to the German
technicians. Their Dokumentarfilm and Kultur-
film production consisted for the main part of
excellent instructional films or pretty studies of
'Spring in an Alpine Valley' and other well-
worn themes. To take a camera and lights into
a small hall packed with truculent refugees
from the East was a new experience for the Ger-
man technicians. They had to be convinced that
it tt.iN not necessary to engage an actor for
every part in the script. Once our technique was
understood, they willingly fell in with the
straightforward presentation of our theme,
without undue elaboration.

Shooting a film in Germany is very much
harder than working under the most trying con-
ditions in England. There is an almost total
shortage of film-making material and equip-
ment and there is the personal problem. The
fust thought of every German technician is
food. Like everyone else in Germany, they are
strictly rationed on a low level, though they are
entitled to draw heavy workers' rations. Even
these, by English standards, are meagre indeed.
Of course the English members of the unit
were able to help out with part of their rations.
By our present-day standards German techni-
cians are poorly paid, but their wages are set-
tled by the German administration. Much of
their salary went to buying extra food. Trans-
port is difficult for Germans. We had to wait
five or six days before the camera assistant and

This still from KRO Germany 1947 is reproduced from COI's Monthly Review of January
by permission of the Controller of His Majesty's Stationery Office

Graham Wallace is Director of 'KRO
Germany 1947', a joint production of
Crown Film Unit and Junge Film-Union,
Hamburg. The film was issued as a
monthly release for January, 1948, and
is reviewed on page 31.

electrician could get a permit to leave Berlin
and travel on the inter/onal train to join the
unit in Peine. Local transport in the waj ol a
car or lorry was almost unobtainable: at one
time we transported .mm lights through the
stieets of Peine on a horse-drawn

We had brought with us as much as pos-
sible from England. All our stock, both nega-
tive and positive, bulbs for the lamps and all
the oddments like camera tape, empty tins,
chalk, black paper and Windowlite— all unob-
tainable in Germany.

Our worst headache proved to be the pro
cessing of our film. We had decided to have it
processed out in Germany rather than go to the
trouble of flying it back to England and then
sending it back to Germany for viewing and
editing. Our experience showed that this would
have been the easiest and quickest course to
follow. There are several laboratories working
in the British Zone, but they are small and im-
provised establishments, possessing only one
machine for developing and printing. They are
subject to frequent current cuts and cannot
work for days at a time, until there is a guaran-
tee of current being available for long enough
to run a roll of film through the bath. During
our twenty days of shooting we had only seen
one small batch of rushes, though we had been
promised a five-day delivery period. After the
shooting was finished we found all our
material lying untouched in the laboratory, with
many excuses for the delay in processing. In
desperation we sent it all to a laboratory in
Berlin and were able to view our rushes a week
after the completion of shooting!

When shooting interiors we ran our lamps off
the local electricity supply. This was never con-
stant for more than a few consecutive minutes.
All the members of the unit had to stand by the
lamps ready to move them forwards or back-
wards with the voltage fluctuations. The cam-
eraman could never put his light meter down
for a minute, but had to be continually check-
ing and rechecking the light so that we cou\<.\
have it constant for long enough to do a take'.

From the people of Peine we had manv
varied reactions to our shooting in their town
In general they were helpful and generous with
their time, but there were exceptions. 1 here
was the Burgomeister of the town \t first he
willingly consented to appear in the film. I atei
on. when required for some retakes, he was
most reluctant to appear. Apparently he had
been accused by his colleagues on the t ouncil
of undue 'collaboration' with the English and
he was fearful for his ic-election at the forth-
coming municipal elections. Then there '.■.
the refugees in a school hall; three hundred ol

them living together in cramped quarters,
sleeping on straw on the floor I he) regarded
out operations as a put-up propaganda job h\
the English and demanded to know what we
aie going to do about sending them back home

or giving them proper accommodation.

\g.un and again we received great help and

k ontinued fool < olmmn l •

28

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

To the Seven-Headed Board of Review of DFN

sirs: When you set up that Reviewing Panel,
1 had my doubts as to how you would fare if
some of your less composite selves got the gang
into a judgment that was seriously challenged.
This, so to speak, is it. If you tell me your com-
posite self has no body to be burned, and no
soul to be damned, you had better listen a
moment, for I am going to have a shot at both.
I am concerned, if you please, with the page
of criticisms on recent Canadian films in your
January issue. I am concerned for two reasons.
The first is that I was once associated with the
National Film Board in a local, more or less
Red Indian capacity, and have a regard for the
people who work there, and I could not believe
on the face of it that they were as bad as you
compositely, or uncompositely, said they were.
The second reason is that I went to see four of
the seven films you reviewed and now say quite
simply, for what it is worth, that your criticism
was thoughtless, and from any serious point of
view, either in documentary leadership or docu-
mentary criticism, inadequate.

Here is a group of films all coming from a
not unnotable unit. There are people like
McLean, Beveridge, Jackson, Blackburn,
Applebaum, Weisenborn, Budge Crawley, not
to mention Stuart Legg, around, and they are
all pretty good people with a good sense of
documentary and, shall we say, a certain
measure of taste, and yet DFN cannot find a
good word to say for any one of seven of their
films. This one Broncho Busters is 'just a pro-
gramme filler', Tomorrow's Citizens 'purports
to examine' this and that and 'suffers from
severe indigestion' and is 'slick, shallow and
smug' (just nark at them, Stuart!), and 'does
not succeed'. Another one 'falls from the frying
pan of dullness into the fire of obscurity'. Mon-
treal by Night is yet another 'programme filler'.
Condition Improved, which is about occupa-
tional therapy, save the mark, was no great
good because 'it may be questioned whether
such a survey which consists essentially of
linked examples is really the most convincing
approach to the subject'.

For good measure, there is a certain sniffing
at the NFB information sheets as though your
august composite Panel was not concerned in
reviewing the films but in reviewing the good
old hooey which goes with publicity sheets the
world over.

I have in my time kicked some films around,
but I doubt if I ever was totally sore about
seven in a row and when I see seven good men
and true being sore about seven in a row I find
it quite a phenomenon. I even doubt if it is pos-
sible, either in good criticism or good manners.
Good manners we shall leave aside, except to
say that the Canadian boys can be articulate
too, and it does nobody any good to be
superior, and start a slanging match over each
other's films which no one can win. Who, for
example, is anyone in documentary to talk
about a 'mere programme filler' when so many

of the damn things don't even manage to hit a
theatre programme? Whatever their virtues or
failings, the Canadian films referred to did
manage to do just that.

As for good criticism, I would say, in gen-
eral, that one element of it is to say what is
good as well as what is bad and it is only the
tyro who finds a warming virtue in the con-
tinuing negative. But let us take them one at
a time remembering that, of the films men-
tioned. Tomorrow's Citizens and Montreal by-
Night were made for theatre showing and the
ten-minute attention of a mass audience.

I see that Bronco Busters, in a snappy in-
nuendo, is described as 'static' and only moves
because it happens that there are some fast
horses and dogies in and around. It is. more-
over, a 'pretty ordinary piece of film-making
which could have been made anywhere on the
North American continent'. Here is one re-

son

viewer who says the picture is fast and that it
is the best rodeo item, with more working
detail, that has come along in a long while and
that it will certainly excite the children every-
where. For my money, I would have liked to
see more of the Royal Show aspect of the Cal-
gary Stampede, with the big Herefords in from
the foothills, but the atmosphere is good and
ordinary Calgary and nowhere else I assure
you, and not without a certain reference back
to windbreaks and sundry other aspects of pro-
gressive farming which I thought moderately
thoughtful on the part of somebody.

Maybe it is true that the local idiom in
Canada is a trifle corny, but whose local idiom
is not, if you follow my meaning? I'd say that
here often is fast and sensitive camera-work
and good reportage in anyone's language: of the
boys from the farm showing their paces at a
local agricultural show in the shadow of the
Rockies. The film looks it and it is and does not
pretend to do any more. When did I last see a
film as good about the Bath Show?

Tomorrow's Citizens is another, more serious

matter altogether. The task was to produce a
serious film editorial for theatres on a world
subject: in ten-minute length. To my know-
ledge, it had never been done before and repre-
sented an experiment which was important for
all of us. I have, myself, been so technically
interested in the problem that I must have seen
the film seven or eight times. Your review does
not seem to be even conscious that in seeing a
ten-minute theatre discussion of educational
principle and ideology, it was seeing a very rare
bird indeed, not to mention a very literate ac-
count of the ever-recurring gap between tech-
nological progress and educational substance.

There could be a deal of argument about the
formula used. My own complaint is that the
film proceeds too much by assertion and too
little by easy illumination; but. I'm damned if
I can see at this stage how a one-reel editorial
form can do otherwise, any more than the shor-
tened editorial forms of, say, the New York
Daily News.

The tabloid shape tends to a propaganda
shape and it is true that Tomorrow's Citizens
hits you on the head and is done with it. But
when your review talks of 'biting off more than
it can chew' and being 'slick, shallow and smug'
this, too, is proceeding by assertion and with a
vengeance. In my view, it is not 'shallow' be-
cause it does in fact raise what has been one of
the profoundest problems before education
since Marx first posed it in the Poverty of
Philosophy a hundred years ago. Nor is a film
'slick and smug' which goes to the pains of fit-
ting the subject within a world framework
which includes Fundamental Education and to
the courtesy of including an almost incredible
variety of international illustration.

I would have thought, among other things,
that a film which attempted to describe the
British documentary school's theory of 'bring-
ing the world alive to the citizen' was worthy of
greater consideration. That apart, I would cer-
tainly have expected a professional journal to
take note of the superb use of sound to pace
and punctuate the narration, the extraordinary
economy and integration achieved by the de-
velopment of visual metaphor, and the dry
editorial violence of. say, cutting 'the proper
study of mankind is man' into the baby chitter-
ing to death after Hiroshima.

However these one-reel editorials develop —
and we shall hit the theatres everywhere if ue
can develop them simply, clearly and dramatic-
ally— here, I suggest, is an object lesson in what
a pioneer effort involves in the matter of tech-
nique. It should not have been missed as such,
if only to develop the appropriate argument
and clear the ground for further effort.

I shall say less of Montreal by Night, for it
is, as you say, 'a modest little film', but wh\
please are you so rattled that, having little to
say for the film itself, you dive into the in-

{Continued on page 35)

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

29

Overseas

Progress in Brazil

by
Brian Strange

IN Brazilian documentary the chief source of
inspiration has been Professor Roquete Pinto,
an eminent scientist, man of letters and above
all a pioneer in the de\elopment of the 'mass
media', both of film and radio. As early as 1910
he established the first film library in the
National Museum and later placed in it the
documentary records of research carried out in
the interior of Brazil by the Rondon Commis-
sion. As in most other countries it was not until
non-inflammable 16 mm stock became avail-
able that there was any general appreciation of
the possibilities of using films in the classroom.
By 1933 the educational authorities of the
Federal District were making arrangements for
film distribution to schools in the area around
Rio de Janeiro, but sc\eral more years had to
elapse before an attempt was made by the cen-
tral government to organize this service on a
national plane. Then, in January, 1937, the
President authorized the establishment of the
Instituto Nacional de Cinema Educativo with-
in the framework of the re-constituted Ministry
of Education. Roquete Pinto was appointed its
first Director and held this post until March.
1947. The terms of reference of this new de-
partment were that it should supervise and pro-
mote the use of cinematography, both as an aid
to instruction in schools and also in the wider
field of public enlightenment. To this end it was
equipped to produce films (16 mm for schools
and 35 mm for public cinemas), to distribute
them on request throughout Brazil, and in
general to act as an information centre. Tech-
nical advice and copying facilities were to be
supplied to any privately-owned film unit, pro-
vided that its productions could be classed as
educational.

The INCF under the supervision ol its pre-
paratory commission had in fact ahead) pro-
duced }2 films, with subjects ranging from the
celebration of a national holiday to the pre-
paration of vaccine against rabies. By the end
of 1946 a total of 306 had been made available
for issue. 235 in 16 mm (mostly silent) and the
remainder in 35 mm sound. In addition, 233
16 mm and 117 35 mm films had been a, quired
from various outside sources, by purchase or
presentation: but reference to the catalogue
reveals that these are not all strictly educational
and include Felix and Mickey Mouse cartoons.
The rate of 1NCE production has slowed up in
recent years, probably owing to the fact that
the financial grant from the Ministry of I duca
tion has been considerably reduced, and also
because of an acute shortage of 16 mm film
stock, this resulted in only three 16 mm and six
35 mm films being issued for 1946. It is some-
what difficult to sort out and classify the INCE's
own work under the usual headings. There are
a good many medical films, most of which I
think were made in collaboration with the Uni-
versity of Sao Paulo, and again there seem to
be a certain number definitely designed for use
in technical schools. But apart from such spe-
cialist material, the natural tendency has been
to choose subjects which particularly relate to
Brazil itself— its fauna and Bora, its industries.
places of interest, the lives of famous men of
letters and science, and studies of national insti-
tutions. For instance, plans for the future in-
clude a series of documentaries dealing with
the various types of farms and plantations
throughout the country. On the whole, the
idea seems to have been to produce not so
much the instructional type of film as one

which would give a genei il pictuie of back-
ground information, in mh1 b h ly as to appeal

to a wide range Of audience. Perhaps because

ol tins genera] approach, l sometimes bad the

impression that there had been Insufficient cei

tainty as t>> the purpose and direction of a film;
although it is hardly fair to judge by the limited
number that l have seen, rechnically, these

were still a little rough anil uneven m quality,
with flashes of genhu m direction and ph
graphs' all too often dimmed by lack of pn '
siona] polish Also, there seemed to be a tend-
ency to allow the eye of the camera t-1 be
diverted from the argument bj considerations

purely aesthetic and to wander ofl taking pietts
pictures at random (an easy matter in Brazil)

\s tor distribution, the 100-odd schools in
Brazil which possess projectors order then
films direct or via their representatives in Rio
otherwise, where the distance is not to
the l\< I i. mi send a machine from its own
pool. In 1946 there were 553 film-shows gi\cn
in schools all over the country. At the same
time teachers are ctriciently provided with the
latest information by I) Hilda Smith de \
concellos. who is in charge of the library origin-
ally founded with 600 hooks from Koquete
Pinto's own collection and new containing over
2,800 titles. While a large percentage of this
total consists of general reference books for
the use of documentary workers, the specialist
sections dealing with film history, production,
criticism, etc., are remarkably full and include
most of the standard classics, from the works ot
Pudovkin to The Factual Film. Among the
periodicals, mostly North American, I noticed
copies of La CinematograpMe t ram a&Se and
Sight ami Sound.

The whole organization is now directed b>
the able and charming Dr Pedro Gouveia Filho,
supported by Sr Humberto Maura as chief
technician and an enthusiastic stall It is to be
hoped that before long some of these pioneer
workers will be able to \isit documentary units
in Great Britain, and that in the near future we
shall see some of the 1M I 's productions at an
International Festival.

( Continued from page 27)

friendship from the people of Peine who ap-
preciated what we were trying to do. They felt
strongly the lack of mutual information about
cur two countries and if our little film would in
any way help to promote an understanding of
German problems in England, then they were
quite willing to help. The fact that English and
German technicians were working together to
make the film helped a great deal, though it
aroused deep suspicion in the minds of the Rus-
sians guarding the frontier between the two
Zones when we were shooting there. This was
our only serious antagonism, otherwise we
might well have been making a film in the Eng-
lish countryside, instead of in Occupied Ger-

my.

And when the shooting was finished and the
unit broke up, the two English technicians had
a much deeper insight and understanding of
Germany today and the difficulties under which
the German technicians work. The German
technicians, too, had learnt something of the
English tradition of documentary film produc-
tion and later the cameraman was able to visit
England for two weeks to study our methods at
first hand.

A still from Rhodesia

fj this your Country* which will be reviewed
in the April issue

30

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

FILMS OF THE MONTH

^ International

Voices of Malaya. Crown for Colonial Office
through COI. Made by: Ralph Elton and Terry
Trench. Photography: Denny Densham. Com-
mentary: V. S. Pritchett. Music: Elizabeth
Lutyens. Unit Manager: Eric Hudson. Assistant
Directors: Clive Freedman. Yussef Khan, Lee
Meow Seong. Assistant Camera: Osman Bin
Sansubin. Sound: Red Law, Jock May. Sound
Editor: Jean MacKenzie. Assistant Editor: Paul
Shortall.

'Orang-wayang-gelap' — - maker-of-shadow-
shows. Years ago. a former co-operative organ-
izer from Malaya so described me on the fly-
leaf of a book he had written. I hereby formally
renounce all claim to the title in favour of the
man who has really earned it — Ralph Elton,
with his new film. Voices of Malaya.

Let me not be misunderstood. The title was
a high compliment, and Elton deserves it. So
does Terry Trench, who edited his way through
the mass of material Elton shot. Voices of
Malaya has been made by a team gifted with
what a student in another film, not yet com-
pleted, describes as 'the cosmological eye'- —
the capacity to look out beyond the windows
of Government office and film studio and com-
fortable Englishman's castle to the red, yellow
and black men and women who mostly people
this world in the process of rebirth, and, rare
gift, to understand without patronizing them.

In the first minute or two, I was not sure.
Five races of Malaya — Five Faces — perhaps it
was only to be another enlightened travelogue.
Alexander Shaw, who was there ten years be-
fore Elton, and who made that film, will, I think
understand and not be offended. But, even in
these sequences, once the Sakai had been dis-
posed of, without too many drumtaps or
dances, there already began to be a difference.
Each new race came visually, by boat, and did
not depend for their introduction on the words.
And the words themselves, freed from the
necessity of being obvious, were expressing so
much that was vigorous and unembarrassed.
In the Malay sequence there was an uncom-
mented shot looking at first high up a palm-tree
from its base to a monkey shinning down to-
wards us, and then tilting down the whole tre-
mendous length with the beast until he reached
the Malay waiting for coconuts at the bottom.
(Denny Densham, by the way, has done a job
of photography on this film, which puts him
well up in the ranking list of documentary
cameramen.) That shot was so memorable, that,
although no words covered it, enormous weight
was carried over into the speech of the ambi-
tious Chinaman, hundreds of feet later, who ex-
plained that his people did not wait at the
bottom of trees for coconuts, but sent the whole
family up to fetch them down.

So, on to the Europeans, and to the Indians
who flocked from their own overcrowded
country into rich Malaya to work for them.
Shots of railway engines and factories, and a
cynically written commentary, spoken with
fruity self-satisfaction, to explain the value to
Malaya of Western progress. Volte-face again :
after twisting the tails of his countrymen, Elton
is mature enough to give them full credit for
their hospitals and their schools. Singapore

spreads across the screen, and we recognize it
fairly for that mixture of the very good and the
very bad that is every modern city.

And then, suddenly, visually. Singapore is
smashed, and we are pitchforked into the
middle of one of the very few intelligent re-
ports that have reached us from those coun-
tries where the war was a matter of solid op-
pression by alien armies of occupation, instead
of only a question, however terrifying, of
bombs and threatened invasion. I remember
particularly the Japanese officer at his tidy
desk being served so decorously with tea in a
dainty cup, remember it perhaps mainly be-
cause of the contrast, after the ultimate vic-
tory, of the English officer sitting at the same
desk, now cluttered with bumph, swilling tea
from a gigantic mug, and settling down, for
want of a secretary, to thump away at his type-
writer over the fade-out. That's maybe not a
very important example of Elton's reportage,
but it will serve as a proof of how far he has
managed to get from reliance on mere words.
Wait for the aftermath, the skeleton who might
be man, woman or boy, lying not as a dead
still-life on the pavement, but living and en-
joying the cigarette which somebody is lighting
for him, and you will see what I mean. Of
course, there isn't enough of it, there never is,
but very few shots are wasted, and the sum
total is somewhere near the journalistic impos-
sibility of making what happened in Malaya,
and the quality of the people who live there, at
least as real as, say, the story of France be-

tween 1939 and 1944, and as sympathetic as
the members of the French 'Resistance.

The film doesn't end very well. Who can end
such a film well nowadays, when the best that
can be said is that the five races are at least
settling down with equal rights of citizenship,
and trying to make a go of it? I think I should
have finished more quickly, and got out of the
difficulty that way, but, after all, it was not
Elton's fault that Indonesia was only just across
the road, so to speak, and that tact prevented
him from drawing parallels. His film deserves
the widest possible theatrical showing, and if the
renters want it shortened, well at least he has
left himself a convenient way of pacifying them.

ir Industrial

Five Towns. Greenpark for Board of Trade
through COI. Producer: Ralph Keene. Director:
Terry Bishop. Associate Producer: Paul Fletcher.
Camera: Ray Elton. Additional Photography: Jo
Amsor. Story: Randall Swinger. Editor: Peter
Tanner. Music: Guy Warrack. Distribution:
Theatrical at present — later non-T. CFL. 50
minutes.

To anyone who has never been to the Pot-
teries, nor into a works devoted (this verb springs
to mind after having seen the film) to the making
of china, Five Towns will give a rounded and
essentially human account of that craft. And
what a craft it is! There is no more lovely nor
satisfying industrial sight than the master-potter
creating a sharply intelligent vase out of the
dullard lump of wet clay on his wheel: and it is
to the credit of the director that we are allowed

Voices of Malaya

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

31

five Towns

to see practically the whole process. As the clay
spins and is deftly moulded, the audience can
sense the generations of craftsmen behind the
potter's eager, firm and restless fingers. Here is
pride in work — and work to be proud of.

This atmosphere of pride, this sense of crafts-
manship, pervades the whole film: an impression
encouraged by the personalized treatment of the
story and the warm handling of the characters in
it, whether they be members of the family whose
existence in the film knits together the various
pottery processes, or chance workers in the fac-
tories. This relating of a general theme to a per-
sonal story, which, judging by the films to be
seen that essay it, is an extremely difficult thing
to do, in Five Towns is almost entirely successful.
The people appear real and ordinary, their sur-
roundings genuine, and the story simple (it
centres round the arris al of a bride-to-be from
London, to whom the Potteries were as much of
a mystery as to the reviewer). Terry Bishop keeps
both the family story, and the larger canvas of
the Potteries, human and clear, while revealing
the processes themselves with an adroitly fluid
camera in a manner which maintains their fas-
cination to the layman and builds up to the ex-
citing climax of the potter and his vase. These
factory processes have been admirably photo-
graphed in a lustre-full "high-key" style, which
makes the most of china's three dimensions and
cheerfully airs the more modern works. The
dialogue is understandable, for it avoids the 'pit-
fall of heavy dialect — so often mistakenly wal-
lowed in by documentary in superficial search of
character: although audience-interest in local
speech is recognized by* glimpse of rich 'Pottery-
talk'. Altogether, the film is a polished piece of
work which it is a pleasure to see for its own sake
as well as for the information it contains. If the
curtain be lifted occasionally to reveal some pro-
ducts of the Potteries that are both hideous and
useless — notably some terrifying china baskets of
flowers— that is a very proper revelation for a
film to make.

Some will be disappointed that Five Tbwni in
not a more penetrating social studs. We learn
nothing of occupational diseases, rates of pa) .

(Continued on page 35, col. 3)

NEW FILMS

Your Children's Meals. Made by Realist Film
Unit for the Ministry of Health through COL
Producer: John Taylor. Director\Camera: Alex
Strasser. Music: Horace Somerville. Camera
operator: Fred Moore. Editor: Cliff Boote.
Distribution: non-T; 16 and 35. 15 minutes.
One of the now famous "Your Children's' series
in which the Realist Film Unit and the Ministry
of Health have collaborated so successfully, this
is not, as you might imagine, a factual survey of
child dietetics, but a lively and imaginative
attempt to make parents understand the rhyme
and reason of good feeding habits.

In a series of incidents the film makes points
about such things as fussy or 'difficult' feeders,
the need for attractive food, children's liking for
company, the need for regular meal times, etc.
Children are such individual animals that it is
difficult to generalize about them; inevitably one
is left with doubts about some of the advice
given — for example that parents should conceal
their own food likes and dislikes. But the idea
of the film is not, presumably, to provide ready
made solutions to every situation but to make
parents think about the problems of feeding from
the child's point of view as well as their own,
and in this it should be successful. Well directed,
the iilm is notable for an ingenious use of sound
and v isual effects.

KRO Germany 1947. COI Monthly Release
made by Crown Film Unit. Director: Graham
Wallace. Camera: Arndt von Rautenlcld.

I a film which tells the story of the work of

a Kreis Resident Olficcr--a Kreis being one of
the sections into which the British /one of Ger-
many is divided for administrative purposes.
Quietly, as we follow the KRO through a i> pic.il
day. the film shows the difficulties; the ruins.
the iefugces, lack of houses and food, shortages
ol every kind, the hoarders and the smugglers.
Somehow these have to be coped with — and to
the best of his ability the KRO copes.

To make a film about Gei nany with a joint
team of British and German technicians and to
make it a COI monthly relea e must have been
a brave decision; for there are lew subjects that
arouse such conflicting emotions lis the treat-
ment of Germimv today. German) is destitute

but the Germans brought misciv to millions and
might do so again if the) had the chance; can we
on that account remain indifferent to their
present suffering? KRO presents the facts, it
offers no comment. To have made a film which
steers its way between the Scvlla and t harybdis
of pity and hatred, and which holds the attention
throughout, is a considerable achievement.

Some o( the difficulties ot miernation.il collab-
oration which were overcome in the production
of KRO are described in an article elsewhere in
this issue; it only remains to add that no one
seeing the film would have suspected them.
Unanimously the Reviewing Board had only one
grouse; what happened when the KRO went out
after the smugglers, and what happened in his
court next day? Many documentaries are too
long. This one is too short.

Report on Industrial Scotland. Crown for COL
Directed, written and edited by A. S. Graham.
Distribution: T. to Non-T. 10 minutes.

This is the third in a series (Report on Coal,
Report on Electricity) which has a similar
aim to radio's Progress Report. Incidentally,
for the record, Crown were two months ahead
of the BBC. The issue under review deals with
industrial development in the central belt of
Scotland, stretching from Glasgow to Edin-
burgh. Sixty thousand people have emigrated
from the area since VE day, and, in an endeav-
our to halt this drain on manpower, new fac-
tories are being built, with an emphasis on
light engineering and on jobs which can be
done by women.

The difficulty of compressing this story into
ten minutes has not been entirely overcome.
Consequently, the treatment seems hurried and
rather confused : we are left with an impres-
sion of great activity, but with little understand-
ing of the problems, and. therefore, of how far
this activity is likely to solve them. Partlv. this
is the fault of the commentary: delivery is
fresh and interesting, but somehow the voice
just lacks sureness and authority.

But. whatever its teething troubles on ques-
tions of presentation, this series is to be warmly
welcomed. It is tackling an urgent and import-
ant job. and a few more films like it would en-
able us to feel that Government information
was beginning to live up to the needs of the
country's situation.

Overseas Trade. World Wide foi Banking In-
formation Services in association with Film
Centre Producer: Ralph Bond. />. I ales

de Lautour. Camera Geoifrev Miliums Com-
mentary: Robert MacDermott. DistribtWi
Non-T. 20 minutes

An attempt to explain to the uninitiated the
mysteries of international current v exchange \
purely undramati/ed film which tells how some-
thing works or anything is done cm always have

its uses I his him does not strike on<: as ..
saiistactorv in this reipecl its handling is

clumsv and its whole conception muddled. 1 1
feels that the subject, potentiallv tascmating.
deserves a more inspired treatment. I his
film will fill a gap until a better one

32

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

Nationalism

and

Internationalism

by R. £. Whitehall

the first Internationa! Film Workers' Congress,
held in Czechoslovakia during 1947. passed a
resolution reading:

Screen art is the most universal and lively
medium of expression and spreads human
knowledge and all artistic and social aspira-
tions of the people. It is most democratic by
nature, and a most remarkable instrument for
bringing nations nearer to one another, and
promoting a new feeling of common respon-
sibility which will bring peace to the world.
That nation can only speak peace unto nation
when the barriers of racial hatred and rabid
nationalism have been swept away is only too
true ; that the cinema is the most potent medium
to do it is obvious ; that the cinema has been, and
still is, grossly misused for this purpose is only
too evident.

The driving force behind most films being
made now is still hatred, and hatred is the fester-
ing sore in which the microbes of war germinate.
That the countries of Europe should make films
dealing with national hatreds was only to be
expected, but that former allies should now
indulge in name-calling through the medium of
the cinema while their statesmen chant bitter and
uncontrolled psalms of hatred in the world's
councils is a disheartening spectacle.

It is not without interest that the annual report
of the American Civil Liberties Union, issued
just before the notorious Committee of Un-
American Activities investigation opened, re-
corded that progress in the basic freedoms had
been halted during 1947, and that hardening of
feeling in the States towards Communism had
been reflected in the suspicion with which pro-
gressive measures and opinions had been
greeted.

This feeling, running at times into the high
hysteria unparalleled since the Bolshevik scare of
1920, has been crystallized by the Hollywood
probe, and the ideas — ranging from innocuous to
mildly Socialist — which may get one branded
as a Communist, a crypto-Communist, or a
fellow-traveller, have been dragged into the open.
Fortunately for Hollywood, at almost the same
time Mr Dore Schary, vice-president of RKO-
Radio, was writing, with regard to his produc-
tion of Crossfire, that if the cinema reverts to the
'sedative function' it will stagnate.

Crossfire is the first of a series of films in which
racial prejudice comes under devastating attack,
with its outspoken criticisms of the bigotry
characterizing relationships between Gentile and
Jew.

Unfortunately Hollywood has not yet at-
tempted to combat or abandon the stereotyped
characterizations of coloured people in its films
— the 'mammy' smiling all over her lovable old
face, the 'comic relief terrified of the darkness or
the elements — the implied statement that
coloured people should be relegated to inferior

social positions. These things constitute a re-
statement of the exploded theory of race as
surely as any of the films from Nazi Germany did.

Meanwhile, from Moscow, come reports of
anti-British or anti-American sentiments in new
Soviet productions. The Battle for Stalingrad
supports the view that the Western Powers waited
until Russia had sufficiently weakened German
military might before invading Western Europe.
Admiral Nakhimov, a biography of the defender
of Sebastopol in 1853, is not notably conciliatory
in its picturing of the British, although in this
particular instance there would be as little use in
suppressing the conflict of Britain and Russia as
there would be in suppressing the conflict of
Britain and France in the screen version of
Henry V.

Unfortunately the inopportune time of appear-
ance, and the fact that the ideological content is
in line with the official propaganda must place
Admiral Nakhimov on the list of those films
which are not likely to spread knowledge and
understanding of fundamental problems, or
create international goodwill.

In Britain producers are too busily engaged on
other things to worry about the ideological war
being conducted through the medium of the
screen elsewhere. If Britain has no Iron Curtains
or Soviet Spies (subjects announced by American

companies) in immediate prospect, she has no
constructive ideas either, with the possible ex-
ception of Paul Rotha's 40-minute documentary,
The World is Rich, which, on being shown to the
representatives of forty-eight nations and eigh-
teen international organizations at the Food and
Agriculture Conference in Geneva, was called by
Sir John Boyd Orr, 'this superb contribution to
international understanding'.

It has been left to the smaller European coun-
tries to make the most valuable contribution to
the cause of international amity. Switzerland
with The Last Chance, and Italy with a series of
beautifully conceived productions, beginning
with Open City. This film, in which Roberto
Rosselini believed so implicitly that he pawned
many of his personal belongings in order to com-
plete, is not an expression of hatred, it is not
'anti' in any factional sense but a drama, rather,
of the eternal conflict between the good and evil
in men. Perhaps this is because the film is based
so very closely on life, with each of its chief pro-
tagonists— the priest, the underground leader,
the Gestapo chief — being taken from real life.

Vivere en Pace goes even further, in that it can
look at the immediate past without bitterness.
There is no hatred for the Germans, rather a pity
for the shambling little man who is left in the
Italian mountain village as a symbol of the
'herrenvolk'. There is good and evil in all men
and all nations, and the Italians, out of all the
film-making nations, seem to be the only ones
capable of accepting it.

If the promotion of international understand-
ing, with its ghastly alternative, depended on
such films as Mrs Miniver or Song of Russia,
both frequently cited as examples of films made
for the specific purpose of familiarizing one
group of people with the problems of another,
then the cause would be hopeless, but the Italians
have demonstrated that the screen is the finest
medium for the propagation of peace and justice
in this one world.

DFN COMPETITIONS

RESULT OF COMPETITION First prize

No. I

the spirit of Elizabethan days is not very easy to
capture, but competitors have worked hard and
sent in many excellent entries. One of the clever-
est came from France and took the form of
quotations — it was an ingenious idea but did not
quite keep to the terms of reference. Francis
Bacon, Marlow, Hayluyt, Shakespeare and
Raleigh were the most popular script-writers.
Particularly good was 'The Uses of Shepherdesses:
an important contribution to the increase of
productivity in Rural Areas: by Nick Breton',
and we must also mention 'Players Please by
W. Shakespeare: a film to encourage the tobacco
trade".

It has been difficult to select the winning entries,
but first prize finally goes to John Shearman.
Basic Films, 18 Soho Square, Wl, partly for his
excellent Elizabethan English and partly because
he seems best to have translated our Central
Office of Information into Elizabeth's Privy
Council.

A good second is 'Swiss' who is especially to
be commended for being short, sharp and to
the point.

ELIZABETH REGINA

PRIVY COUNCIL FYLMS DYVYSION

Programme of Fylms Destyned for Production
in ye Fynancial Year of Our Blessyd Lord 1588 9.

For Ye War Office

THUNDER OF YE HARQUEBUS

Ye passyinge of ye Longbow e and yts replace-
ment by firearms of divers kinds as weapons for
Hyr Majestie's Soldiers and Militiamen.

Scrypt: Christopher marlow

For Ye Admiralty

MEN OF THE FIRESH1P

With a synchronized yntroductorie discourse by
The Lord Howard of Effingham.

Scrypt: RICHARD HAKLUYT

For Ye Board of Trade

YE SMOAKINGE OF YE POTATO ROOT

An account of ye advantages to be gained for
the Queen's subjects at hoame from Trade beyond
the Seas, especially with ye Neu Discov'rd
Virginias.

Scrypt: sir W. raleigh

DOCUMENTARY FILM'NEWS

»

For Ye Ministry of Health

STAKE, RACK AND BLOCK

Thyr use against the Diseases Politick of our
Tyme, together with Remedial Action where
Applicable.

Scrypt and Technical Advysor: j. KETCH

For Ye Ministry of Agriculture

YE BACON CONTROVERSY

From a Treatment by Win, Shakespeare.

Scrypt: Francis bacon

For Ye Ministry of Education

THE QUEEN WE LOVE

A Trybute to Hyr Sovran Majestie GLORIANA
our Ruler and Royal Mistress.

Conceived and Executed by Robert devereaux,

EARLE OF ESSEX

Given at our Palace of Nonsuch, 1588.

John Shearman

Second prize

War Office
Doe Not Let's Be Beastlye to the Spaniards —

SHAKESPEARE

Admiralty
Goe West, Young Man raleigh

Board of Trade

The Guild Must Goe Fletcher

Health
Pox 1588 jonson

Agriculture

Doe Not Fence Me In bacon

Education

The Worlde is Round hackluyt

Nom de Plume: Swiss

DFN COMPETITION No. 3

The usual prizes are offered for a letter (not over
200 words) to a kindly but inquisitive aunt who
wants to know how documentary films differ
from other films. Competitors should remember
that the word 'documentary' has been applied
to almost every' kind of film from the abstract
cartoon to features like The Grapes of Wrath.
Entries should reach the Editor before April
1st. Results will appear in the May issue.

NEWS FROM
UNITED NATIONS

\i ihe second Regular Session of the United
Nations in 1947 the budget of the UN Depart-
ment of Public Information for 1948 was dras-
tically cut at the instance of Britain, USA and
USSR. It was decided that Visual Informa-
tion should suffer most in view of the high
cost of its material and manufacture and the
1948 films programme was, therefore, com-
pletely abandoned. UN are now hoping that
governments and private companies will make
the necessary films at their own expense
UN will willingly assist with information and
library material but cannot offer any financial
aid.

Films from the 1947 programme will be dis-
tributed throughout 1948 so that the gap in
production will not be felt until next year. The
People's Charter is the only UN film available
here to date and it is having excellent book-
ings through ( FL. The next one. Searchlight
on the Nations, will shortly be available for
theatrical distribution.

A Technician at a Conference

the professional scientific film-maker who
attended the Scientific Film Association's Con-
ference on Films in Agriculture on January
17th, came away feeling about as low as a
sheep's stomach worm. He went there hoping
to learn something and more or less prepared
to be told how to do his job by agricultural
experts who would undoubtedly throw him
head-first into the midden if he tried to tell
them how to run their farms. His expectations
were more than fulfilled. He and his colleagues,
a decent and hard-working lot on the whole,
were accused :

(1) of making the changes between scenes
too quick (boy, order up a 48 frame cut from
scene 127 to scene 128); (2) of choosing com-
mentators with (a) Oxford, (/>) other university,
(r) local, (d) non-local, (e) unintelligible, and
(/) non-Scottish accents, none of which are ac-
ceptable to the farming audience; (3) of pan-
ning the camera too little, but (4) of paying too
much attention to camera work and general
technique; (5) of including (a) too much and
(b) too little veterinary detail; and (6) of mak-
ing films for specialized audiences which are
unsuitable for totally different audiences. In
addition he was urged to pay more attention to
tempo and construction, but to write scripts
without any Long Shots, Close Ups or other
esoteric camera instructions, and he was ad-
jured to investigate his subjects more closely,
to consult more people, to think more care-
fully about this, to examine that more fully, to
give more attention to the other, and simul-
taneously to reduce both his costs and his pro-
duction time very considerably or else!

All this the professional film maker bore
calmly, especially as his self-respect had been
judiciously restored by the exhibition of Arti-
ficial Insemination, but his patience and good
temper finally broke when someone implied
that after finishing shooting on Sex in the Sun
on a Friday he turns briskly to his unit and
says through a Sol Hogwasch megaphone,
'OK boys, Monday we go to town on Parasites
of the Uterus in the Ruminant Ovis Aries.' At
this point a number of professional film makers
very rudely shouted out 'Nonsense!'; they now
wish to apologize to the Chairman for a breach
of good manners which was only committed
under extreme provocation.

The professional film-maker again began to
utter short sharp yelps of agony at the news
that he wastes far too much time on location
waiting for perfect lighting conditions. The
writer has just (January, 1948) spent two weeks
(and expects to spend several more weeks)
waiting on location for the right weather con-
ditions to shoot a film sequence. Every day he
and his unit leave London far too early in the
morning in order to arrive in a part of the
country which they heartily dislike by ten
o'clock, when the sun might conceivably be
shining. As it is not shining they wait, in a
rather cold Nissen hut, sitting on hard wooden
boxes, with the general noise at a higher level
than they can comfortably tolerate, till three-

thirty, when the -.un can be presumed to have
set. Then they return, and do it all over again
next day. Occasionally they gel a shot, but only
by being all ready to get going as soon as ,,
fair cloud-break appears. I hey cannot go far
away from the Nissen hut in case of a sudden
change in the prevailing gloom. They are
browned off. They are not doing this for fun.
from perversity, nor to put the costs of the film
up artificially. They actively dislike doing it.
But they have learned by dire experience that
if they shot in the wrong conditions they will
not make a satisfactory film. Their sense of
professional responsibility keeps them waiting.
They would not waste time boringly on loca-
tion, when they might be doing something in-
teresting elsewhere, without a very good reason,
and nor would any other unit.

A speaker at the Conference alleged that
film could be of little use in agricultural re-
search, since phenomena recorded on film
could not be accurately measured. He spoke
without the facts. As long ago as 1936 the
bouncing qualities of steel ball-bearings were
being accurately measured (as part of a routine
sampling) by slow motion cinematography and
subsequent frame-by-frame analysis. The side-
ways movement of a railway coach wheel on
the rail at various train speeds and at various
stages of the life of the wheel were filmed and
thus accurately measured and compared at
about the same date. In both these cases no
other suitable technique presented itself, and
the investigations could not have proceeded
without the use of cinematography. More re-
cently, and especially during the war. motion
picture techniques have been widely adapted to
research into physical and engineering prob-
lems. There is no reason to suppose that these
techniques are inherently unsuited to agricul-
tural research.

The view that there is no place for the non-
professional film-maker is, of course, unten-
able, but it is interesting to note that when films
of a technical or instructional charactei are
open to criticism, it is generally found that
they fail in one or more of three respects.
either they do not say the right things, or the\
try to say unfilmic things, or they fail in clarity
of exposition, either b> word or picture V
these kinos. of failure are due not to too much
professionalism, but rather to insufficient pro-
fessionalism in investigation and production

Edgar Anstey gave .meat satisfaction with
his defence of the professional production o\
the kinds of film needed in agriculture Hi
cutting room, with moviolas, film bins, strips
of film and re-winds was a maMerU piece oi
description. A pity, perhaps, that it contained
no human occupant; that harassed looking
charactei in a pullover, the editoi. had pie
sumably crept out for a quiet dig at his allot-
ment.

So the professional film-maker, having had
a quiet dig at the ( onl'ciciKc. must now

back to his location, tust expressing warm

thanks to SI \ foi B stimulating and excellent!)
provisioned vla>

34

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

BASIL WRIGHT
CLOSE-UP

it is now 18 or 19 years since young Basil Charles
Wright arrived in our then slender midst, with a
great family tradition of liberalism, a classical
degree from Cambridge, and two exercises in
film which derived from neither. The first was a
study in nudity and popped back and forward
between diving boards and water splashes in a
manner then greatly affected by the discards
from the Cambridge Football Fifteen. The
second was about a haggard young character
who threw himself about from chair to chair,
gazed periodically at the rain in the window,
then spread red-currant jelly all over his face so
that he could more realistically commit suicide
under a bus in front of the National Gallery.

Both efforts were so delightful that Basil
Wright was (a) given two prizes for enthusiasm,
and (b) put to honest work at 25s. a week. For a
period thereafter he concentrated on Canadian
apples and Burma teak in 500-feet lengths,
presumably in preparation for a career in the
City. He thereby so gained the habit of brevity
that, invited on one momentous occasion to re-
cut a feature, he promptly shortened it to a
rather bad one-reeler.

John Taylor, who was about 7 at the time and
pushing the EMB barrow from door to door, in
shorts and school cap of questionable origin,
continues the narrative. 'Young Bas,' he says
'then started out on the next stage as Director-
Cameraman,' and 1 quote. This, one remembers,
was a film originally called Shepherd's Spring
which was a good title, only Box Office reared
its caliban head and called it O'er Hill and Dale.
What happened was that B. W. listened to a
certain great shepherd called Martin in a pub in
Hawick, Scotland, took quiet and gentle account
of his betters, as is his genius, and made one of
the nicest things done in these days, in the matter
of a week. It is quite certain that Martin, like
that other great man Chaplin, produced,
directed and acted the film, but our Basil was
the boy who was there. He was then rightly
heralded as the most promising poet in the group.
This aesthetic demonstration cost £120 and it
made ten times its money with a musical fol-de-
rol attached, to make you weep. A recent film
on the same subject which cost probably twenty
times as much, did not know what it was about
when it came to the cloud shadows hurrying
across the hills, and this may be because it did
not have Basil or, especially, Martin. This, how-
ever, is the merest guess. To be young, and good,
and humble, and search instinctively and con-
fidently for the qualities we once saw in the
poetry books, seems to become increasingly
difficult. Is it conservatism? Is it socialism? I
never know.

At this point, our character had, so to speak,
proved himself. He was the cheapest director
around and so proud of it that on an unaccom-
panied trip to the West Indies he made six films —
Windmill in Barbados, Cargo from Jamaica, etc,
etc. — on a negative allowance of rather less than
two to one. The net affect of this was to give his
producers false ideas of his powers ever after-
wards. The economy of his vision they took for
granted ; the luxury of exotic habits incidentally
acquired was something else again. The more

serious issue came to a head in the publication
of the only great work on Rum Swizzles ever
presented to Alcoholics Anonymous, and the
organization of the best party between the
wildish 90's and Princess Elizabeth's wedding.
His closer friends avoided it but stayed on the
telephone with strong police contingents nearby
to be rushed to the spot in case of necessity.

In some manner or other he sandwiched into
these looser days a quiet little film about the
country coming to town and took it so seriously
that he acquired a claypit in Essex and started
the impossible task of turning it into an exercise
in horticulture.

Song of Ceylon came in here and it is a curious
story. It was not invented, as some say, because
of Gervais Huxley's Ceylon Tea Propaganda
Board. It was invented because John Taylor had

gone off with Robert O'Flaherty, the well-known
descendant of the God-save-us-from-the Ac-
cursed O'Flaherties, on a two-year holiday in
Aran, to say the least, had gone native. Like the
first Russian Ambassador to the Court of St
James's, he was dropping £5 notes and other
sundries indiscriminately. His hair was long to
his shoulders. He had achieved in Aran the slap-
happy state of total emancipation. Some of us
felt that a visit to the Orient was called for,
where the influence of O'Flaherty, Pat Mullen
and Tiger King, might be countered, if only a
trifle, by contact with the Sahibs east of Suez.
Personnel management was more or less at its
best in these days. Wright was sent along to do
something about the Buddha on the side.

B.W. took Song of Ceylon so seriously that
one doubts if a director ever went on a journey
better equipped in knowledge of the region he
was to visit, and from the deeps. A dozen others
helped him on his return, and particularly
Walter Leigh and Cavalcanti, but the man who
knew about the drums from the beginning and
reached into a sense of this other people, was
this liberal scion of a liberal family, making
poetry out of his liberalism. It was nice to see,
and maybe many more things should happen
that way out of the blood and basic. When this
writer thinks of Song of Ceylon it is not for the
pieces of sound experiment but for the other-
world quality achieved by a young man who gave

himself up to his subject. Incidentally, Song of
Ceylon was one of the few films ever made with-
out thought of the audience. We said for once,
the hell with the audience, let the bastards wait
even if the shot is 175 feet long and prayer in
any case should be sweet and slow. It was, in the
highest sense, a personal film. In the meantime,
one should add, John Taylor fulfilled the actual
contract with the Tea Propaganda Board,
tuxedo and all, and disappeared to a university
somewhere to polish up his Irish. It was quite
the prettiest combination of talents while it
lasted.

Here, he takes over the story himself. 'By now,
Wright was Senior Director. The Unit, renamed
the GPO Film Unit, had been growing and
Wright had to take over some of the production
and administration work. Documentary ex-
tended every year of its first fifteen years and
someone had to help train new people, start
new Units, produce, dig up films, and all the
other thankless jobs. This, of course, was the
end of many of the best of the directors. Nearly
always it was the same story. A director would
do some production work, but would make one
or two films a year. In the end they always
became so involved on the production side that
direct film-making became impossible.'

This is true enough. Wright, Legg, Rotha and
half a dozen others were prevailed upon in one
measure or other to give up their own film-
making so that a new generation of film makers
might have service and guidance. Wright was
the first of the sacrifices and, with his immensely
immediate sense of film and film-making, it was
almost in the nature of a personal hurt. His co-
operation at this strategic moment in the develop-
ment of the documentary film should be the
more warmly noted for what it represented in
service to others than himself. It is now com-
monly allowed that he is one of the best producers
in the group as he is certainly one of the most
tutored in public service and one of the most
sensible in common council, but those who know
him know also that he could cut the pants off
any cutter in the business, and feel and see the
memorable image as few are born to do. The
script of Night Mail was Wright's, though the
shooting detail of Watt was out of his rough,
rich self, and the cutting was Wright's though
Cavalcanti in a burst of inventive quality gave it
its sound line. It was perhaps Wright's last outing
as Jimmy the One on the fo'c'sle head.

John Taylor goes on, 'He was Studio Manager
at Blackheath, he started Realist — he ran Film
Centre — he was producer at Crown — adviser to
the MOI — started International Realist — and in
the meantime had a hundred and one odd but
necessary jobs. He served on Quota Committees
— was a member of ASFP — financed World
Film News — and edited DNL. He promoted
hundreds of films and produced and advised
possibly on a thousand. He lectured, wrote
criticisms for several papers, and served on scores
of organizations and committees.

'Unfortunately for Wright, he was the most
successful of the documentary producers. It was
not only that he produced many of the best films
such as Men of Africa, Children at School. Face
of Scotland, The Harvest Shall Come, Neuro-
psychiatry, Diary for Timothy and Children on
Trial, but, for some unknown reason, he was
trusted and confided in by all and sundry. The
sponsors trusted him — the units — the producers
and the technicians — everyone was willing to
take his word.

!)()( I Ml MARY I 11 \1 M Us

35

but

is ,i;
mi
j

IDtjm

'ih:\

'In the middle of a violent dispute between
wo bits of documentary, you would find that
)oth sides were consulting him, even if he was
^artisan. If someone had a nervous breakdown,
vas in debt, or his wife was leaving him, it was
ilways Uncle Bas who was rung up to advise the
)est doctor, arrange a loan, or go and get the
vife back. There is no overdrawing of the strange
artues of Uncle Bas,' concludes John Taylor.

But this, this other observer says, was plain
mough to see and why. Wright is a born artisi,
)ut he was born also into a tradition of public
;ervice and, like so man) others of his kind, he
las sacrificed art, which must forever be in some
legree selfish, for the other and Roman order.
Whether it is right to do so, anyone can speculate

upon. There, I say, goes a very perfect gentle
knight, as gentle as one knows.

Today, Wright continues in the quiel habits
of liking concerts and the ballet, and reading
immensely and in the classical manner; he still
persistently and impossibly digs in his 1 ssc\
claypit ; he is grey as he should not be, hut has a
capacity for going dark again when he feels good ;
he has stooped shoulders but will straighten him-
self miraculously if he finds his old fine wit
flashing again: he slopes over bars ordinarily,
but in Paris, of all places, lives like a monk. He
is, in fact, at 40, going through the difficult
period of deciding whether to grow old or young
again: and one would suspect, and this for the
better, that he is a little weary of well-doing. He

in incidentally one of the few amongst us who

can afford the luxurj ol "im orae tune to the
dilemma,

Wright today can have pretty well anvthing
he likes on the public service side of documentary

in the UN, in the British (i eminent service,
or elsewhere. He has acquired ill the talents and
training for the desks ol responsibflit) Oil the
other hand, one suspects there was something
we did not make over when we turned him into
a producer If the original, and native, and highly
personal talent spurts again, he would be the
best directorial bet in the business. This is one
bet placed that Basil Charles Wright will, after
long years, be out on location again with the
spring. G

GRIERSON TO REVIEW BOARD (Continued from page 28)

formation sheet and give that a kicking around
instead? Is it maybe that you just don't like
Canada or something? Forgive me if, liking
Canada very much in general and Montreal in
particular, I say that 'this modest little film' has
a very nice music track with some pleasant
snatches of French-Canadian music and not
least the snatch from La Claire Fontaine. Per-
mit me to say that whatever the blurb says —
and they do, you know, everywhere in the world
— the film itself is modest in tone and, except
maybe for the little French-Canadian girl who
grins too much, and I never liked these loving
couples wandering through films anyway, it is a
film which makes you feel warm about one of
the warmest cities in the world.

And lastly, as to Condition Improved. This,
to my mind, is a good clear unpretentious re-
port, where the film producers have quite
rightly not tried to put their techniques, or
whatever you call them, between their sub-
ject and the functional exposition of occupa-
tional therapy which they were asked for.

It seems to me not very useful to condemn
a film for not doing what it was never designed
to do. It was supposed to be a general intro-
duction to occupational therapy with a wide
range of examples in the different fields of
treatment, and. I think it is. with the exception
of the psychiatric sequence which seems to
have been butchered somewhere along the
line. It is true that the material is sufficient
for a dozen or more detailed films, but it is
strictly as a general introduction that this film
presents itself. The fact of the matter. I am
assured, is that the film has done its job and
has been well received by audiences of doc-
tors, nurses and relatives of patients for whom
it was intended.

What all this amounts to is not that every-
thing from Canada is good. I love Canada
dearly but. in some respects, it is not good at all.
I say this just to demonstrate that I can be as
stuffy a character as your composite self in
certain matters Canadian.

I have the impression, for instance, that
Canada is not very knowledgeable about poli-
tical philosophy or the law, especially in the
higher branches of these disciplines, though
on the other hand it is enormously good at
economics. It is somewhat crude in parlia-
mentary debate and there are more cockerels
crowing on local editorial dunghills than you
could conceive outside I.illiput. but on the
other hand, it has a remarkable Institute of

International Affairs and solid groups of polir
tical study in every town in the country.

Its public life lacks courage and Canada is
the village that voted the earth was Hat. in the
denial of its size and destiny. Yet, its careless-
ness of distance is fantastic and its individual
adventures into the Arctic, epic. Its educational
standards are in many quarters grotesque and,
in some quarters, subject to a species of pro-
vincial fascism which is both ignorant and
vicious. Yet, the library work, the adult educa-
tional developments and the extension services
of the voluntary associations are heartening
and good.

Canada, especially, can be a great bore when
it tries to match its sophistication with the
larger and deeper versions thereof. 'Sunset, and
evening star and one clear call for Bill the
lone fisherman.' But over and under these
variations and anomalies, there is a profound
element of common sense and good taste about
Canada and Canadian life which is a precious
thing to knowtj

This the Film Board reflects and demon-
strates. It is a relatively young unit. Its st^le
is based on a policy of doing a large number of
jobs with the money it has and they are all,
except for the work of Norman McLaren's
experimental unit, practical jobs fitted to a par-
ticular need and a particular audience. In its
effort to do as many jobs as possible, it does not
spend nearly as much money on a film as we do
in Britain.

Inevitably and for these reasons, its style is
a reportage style which avoids the larger flights,
though indeed the quality of reportage camera
work, the development of editorial economy,
and pace, and the creative use of music and
sound represent valuable and certain pro
The larger flights 1 am sure will come and all
the more surely now that so mans have learned
that the first thing first is to handle a narra-
tive. I even believe, as 1 watch some of the
more complex approaches to documentary,
that it might be better if many others followed
the Canadian example for the simple.

Whatever you say of the ( .inadi.m films,

i re seen evei \ where in ( anada, are put ol

the life of the nation; and the people w ho make

il ire happy in a sense of public service

n/ed. and there is none ol that sense of

frustration of which one hears so much com-
plaint in England. It may be that, now and
again, they are a trifle too simple, but suielv
the exchange of personnel to and from l mope

— not to mention a more thoughtful criticism
on the part of DFN — would soon cure that.

If you think that, out of personal affection
and regard, I am prejudiced, be sure I am. But
if you want to make anything of it, at least you
won't find me a composite individual to go
after. I am at your service.

JOHN GRIERSON

FILMS OF THE MONTH

(Com. from page 3 1 )
relations between employee and employer, and so
on — in fact the film skirts the battleground of
social progress. On the whole, that criticism,
while indicating a real gap in the subject-matter,
would be unfair, for the film gives the appearance
of being first and foremost concerned with the
description of an age-old exercise of a skill, and
it is some measure of its success that it manages
to do this in such glowing human terms that we
miss the fuller study. That it also manages to
include by implication such things as a mild con-
demnation of the older types of furnaces which
pollute the air of the towns with their belching
smoke, and to invest a more progressive works
like Wedgwoods with a greater air of spacious-
ness ami mechanical efficiency, is perhaps all we
can expect from what is so much a process film.

\ fairer criticism, taking the film at its face-
value, would be of a weakness in the story' of the
family (centring round the son and his fiancee),
which lacks precision in its later development. In
their stor>. there is no compensating peak to
match the careful unfolding of the pottery pro-
cesses.

However, a film with such a desirable accent
on the human being and his acquired skill, and
bearing so much of interest, merits the widest
showing in cinemas and outside them; not only
because it is a satisfying piece of film-making, but
also because it captures in a kmdlv wav the daily
work of men and women engaged in one of OUT
most intriguing and famous industries

VISUAL UNITS

sir: Here is some information that I
couldn't give Marjorie in her charming letter
in your January issue. I he Visual Unil

Supply in its entirety cost £6,393 to province.
I he ( Ol man is now quite sure

> .'ins sincerely .

HI Ms I ORM vs.
Films l>n im. ■•: ( ( '/

36

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

CORRESPONDENCE

Trade Unions from Ralph Bond

sir: It is good to know that the views expressed by
Ken Cameron in your latest issue 'do not neces-
sarily coincide with those of the Editorial Board".
Ken, if he will forgive my saying so, has indulged
his imaginary grievances against ACT in a
manner that does no credit to his customary
scientific thinking.

He says that ACT has failed to keep its mem-
bership (1) well looked after and (2) united. As
to (1), he quickly contradicts himself by announc-
ing that ACT has done 'work of inestimable
value' and that 'salary rates and working con-
ditions have reached levels undreamt of before
the war', so I'll leave it at that.

As regards keeping the members united, few
will dispute that ACT has successfully created a
Trade Union uniting studio technicians, docu-
mentary technicians, laboratory and news reel
technicians — to say nothing of technicians in
television, cartoon animation and still-strip
companies, stock manufacturing companies,
like Kodak, and equipment companies, like
British Acoustic. All sections have their own
particular problems; all have found that they
have been well served within the very broad and
democratic structure of the Union.

Ken Cameron charges ACT with obstruction-
ism, but produces no single instance, unless it is
his complaint that an enthusiastic technician
cannot work all night long if the spirit moves
him. This old tale has been trotted out for years.
It's the excuse for every Union-buster in the
country and the same argument could equally
apply against trade unionism in the mines or in
transport, or any other industry. I don't suppose
anyone at Crown will object if Ken's spirit
moves him to work all night but the local ACT
Committee would, quite rightly, have something
to say if his spirit required the presence of num-
erous other technicians who might reasonably
prefer to spend a few hours in bed. After all,
film making is a collective job and a Union is
not to be blamed for establishing the greatest
good for the greatest number.

I heartily agree with him in asking for mem-
bers, who disagree with ACT policy, to take a
more active attitude. There may be a few auto-
cratic shop stewards; if so, I haven't met them;
neither have I met the extremists ' . . . eager to

be agin everything and everybody' but, if they
exist, it's up to the members to take them in hand.

The point — completely ignored by Ken — is
that ACT encourages such rank and file activity
and has constructed machinery which, in my
experience, is more democratic from bottom to
top than any other Trade Union I know of.

Unsupported accusations, vague generaliza-
tions, petty references to 'sheeplike satellites' and
petulant innuendoes about 'autocrats' are not
going to get anybody anywhere.

ACT has done a big job apart from improving
the standards and status of its members. The very
Apprenticeship Scheme to which Ken refers has
been fought and campaigned for by ACT over
many years and has at last secured the support
of employers. ACT has given a lead on all ques-
tions affecting the health of our industry; its
policy has been progressive, democratic and
imaginative.

I suggest that Ken Cameron should, as befits
a leading and respected technician, pull his weight
in ACT in a constructive manner instead of
narking at all and sundry.

Yours sincerely,

RALPH BOND

40 Parliament Hill, NW3

Ken Cameron Replies

sir : Ralph Bond has answered me, with flattering
promptitude, lucidly and almost convincingly,
in the terms one would expect from such an
ardent pillar of trade unionism. He has in fact
repeated the admirable aims of a well-ordered
and well-organized body of workers. But he
makes the fundamental mistake of failing to
distinguish between theory and practice. He has
misread my comments upon the success of ACT
as the technicians' fairy godmother. I said very
emphatically that 1 have nothing but praise for
so much of the work done in the past. As far as
our unity is concerned, certainly ACT has
succeeded in binding together technicians of all
categories, but they are bound with bonds of in-
flexible steel, forged by those who prefer to be
known as brothers rather than members into
something approaching an instrument of social
blackmail.

Ralph says that my grievances are imaginary.
That is where he is so terribly wrong. They are,
it is true, largely indefinable. They are caused by
an attitude in the minds of those who at present
settle our destiny. There are occasions in every
walk of life, and the film business is no exception,

when rules and regulations must be interpreted
with common sense as well as discipline : when
even a little sense of humour — so terribly lacking
— could be so vitally useful.

He implies that I am a union-buster because
I 'trot out' the old case of the technician who]
might want to work all night. Does Ralph never
think of his work after six o'clock? Does he never
wake up in the night wondering how on earth he
is going to solve some problem that the morrow
will bring? If not it's a pretty poor look-out for
World Wide Films.

I see eye to eye with Ralph on so much that he
has said. It is what he has ignored — perhaps even
does not know, although that is hard to believe —
that gives me cause for worry. Nor only to me.
because I know that I am far from alone in my
opinions. We can all see if we only look in the
right direction the number of man-hours wasted
through union officials holding meetings to solve
problems which would not even exist if they sim-
ply concentrated on the jobs for which they are
paid.

He suggests that I pull my weight in ACT, and
not nark at all and sundry. Is ACT so perfect
that it defies criticism? Or does it just resent it?
I am not narking at all and sundry. 1 am simply
trying to have a crack at the minority who mis-
take the shadow for the substance.

KEN CAMERON

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/ N E 1/ !

( Rl DIT for the actual invention of the
cinematograph is difficult to apportion
It is certain that I ngl hmen played an
important part. As lot
John Herschcl published a theory of
cinematography, and about 1889 a patent
for a cinema camera and projectoi
applied for by W Friese Gret ic and
\1 I \ans. lodav the cinema is oui
relaxation. Hut how main of us who go
to "the movies", who watch the latest
performance of our particular " star ".
realise what the cinematograph industry
owes to the workers in many branches of
science and technology, and not least to
the chemist? No other form of entertainment owes him so heavy a debt. Celluloid itself, the
basis of the industry, is a chemical achievement. This must be transparent to give clear images
after great magnification, resilient and tough to stand great strain. It must be so treated that
the danger from lire is reduced to a mini mum. The hand oft he chemist is indeed traceable from
the make-up of the actors to the lamps in the projectors. In the apparatus used for the sound-
recording rare metals are needed : in the lenses of cameras and projectors, optical glass of the
highest quality : in the colour-photography, pigment soft he truest and most m\ id colour. The
sets for the ballrooms and palaces of the cinema's ( loudcuckoodom involve the use of large
quantities of paints, quick-drying stucco and plasters: the costumes and
draperies must be dyed. The tale is continued into the cinema theatre itself, in
i s decoration, its disinfection, its air-conditioning. When next you sit in
your favourite cinema, think for a moment of the patient work in laboratory
and factory that has enabled you to see the wonders of the world or the finest
product of the cinematograph stud :arly and still at so modest a p

FILM WOIKKSIIOI* LTII

(Managing Director: Max Munden)

The technicians who make up this unit have
for seven years planned and executed specialised
films for the Government and Industry which
help to impart the information and emotion
necessary for the smooth working and living
together of people under changing conditions.
We are making films for Government depart-
ments; and we welcome discussion with old
sponsors, and new, who still have a social job
to do in which film can play a part.

1 1 Arjjivll Nir«'«ki Oxford Cir«*us London Wl
<Hkrrar<l 15177

SIGHT

and

SOUND

A cultural Quarterly

MONTHLY FILM BULLETIN

appraising educational

and
entertainment values

Published by : The British Film Institute
4 Great Russell Street, London, W.C.I

//' you want a reliable film-guide

read

Contemporary

CINEMA

now in its second volume

Monthly Illustrated One shilling

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the Church and the Film Industry

Reviews by ROGER MANVELL

the Film Critic, Author, Secretary-Gen-
eral, for the British Film Academy

Also on Editorial Advisory Hoard:

BISHOP OF BLACKBURN

SIR MICHAEL, BAI.CON

EDGAR ANSTEY

Editor: THE REV. G. L. WHEELER

Assoc. Editor: P. W. TWINING

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I.AM S

DATA

deplores

the spate of misrepresentations of current problems by those
who persist in publicizing an imaginary catastrophe. Documentary
has been given every chance to present its case on such matters as
the Marquand Inquiry, the new Cinematograph Films Bill, the
British Film Institute Inquiry and the reorganization of the Crown
Film Unit. By offering positive and valid suggestions, we can
guarantee our own future. Our contribution to 1948 will shape
our opportunities for the next ten years.

Documentary Technicians Alliance Ltd 21 Soho Square ^ 1

Gerrard 2826

III! Mil NYU l'RISS. lONIH'V \SD HI RTIORO

DOCUMENTARY

77

INCORPORATING DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

APRIL 1 948

V5>

ONE SHILLING

SSsJl?

w*;&V

V.

oo

e*f*

BLACKHEATH

FILM UNIT

ANIMATION

(By D. Shaw Ashton)

Puppets in colour for
'Trouble in Toy town' 16mm.
Puppets in monochrome for
'Crossroad Drill' 35mm.
Diagrams in monochrome
for 'Sheffield Water Dept'
16mm.

(By R. A. Cathles and
N. Owens)

Diagrams in monochrome
for 'CO., and Draught'
35mm.

PRODUCTIONS

COMPLETED

since September 1947

'Cycling Proficiency' for

RoSPA. 35mm.

'Crossroad Drill' for RoSPA.

35mm.

'Meddocream Way' for

Meddocream Ltd. 35mm.

'The Answer' for New Ideal

Homesteads Ltd. 16mm.

FILM-STRIP SERVICE

BFU's comprehensive Ser-
vice now includes all or any
of the work necessary for the
production of film-strips.
Trade inquiries invited for
the optical enlargement of
8mm, 9* 5mm and 16mm to
35mm.

BLACK HE ATH
FILM UNIT LTII

9 NORTH STREET
LEATHERHEAD SURREY

LKATIIERUEAD 3377

DATA

greets

JOHN GRIERSON

DOCUMENTARY TECHNICIANS ALLIANCE LTD. 21 SOHO SQUARE Wl. GERRARD 2826

C

IN EM A

»

CREDIT for the actual invention of the
cinematograph is difficult to apportion.
It is certain that Englishmen played an
important part. As long ago as 1860 Sir
John Herschel published a theory of
cinematography, and about 1889 a patent
for a cinema camera and projector was
applied for by W. Friese Greene and
M. Evans. Today the cinema is our great
relaxation. But how many of us who go
to "the movies", who watch the latest
performance of our particular " star '".
realise what the cinematograph industr>
owes to the workers in many branches ofj
science and technology, and not least to
the chemist? No other form of entertainment owes him so heavy a debt. Celluloid itself, the
basis of the industry, is a chemical achievement. This must be transparent to give clear images
after great magnification, resilient and tough to stand great strain. It must be so treated tha: I
the danger from fire is reduced to a minimum. The hand of the chemist is indeed traceable Iron
the make-up of the actors to the lamps m the projectors. In the apparatus used for the sound
recording rare metals are needed : in the lenses of cameras and projectors, optical glass of the
highest quality : in the colour-photography, pigments of the truest and most \i\ id colour. The
sets for the ballrooms and palaces of the cinema's Cloudcuckoodom involve the use of large
quantities of paints, quick-drying stucco and plasters: the costumes and
draperies must be dyed. The tale is continued into the cinema theatre itself, in
its decoration, its disinfection, its air-conditioning. \\ hen next you sit in
your favourite cinema, think for a moment of the patient work in laboratory
and factory that has enabled you to see the w onders of the w oi Id or the finest
product of the cinematograph studio so clearly and still at so modest a price.

DOCUMENTARY film 1IVUS

VOL. 7 NO. 64 APRIL 1948

EDITORIAL BOARD

STEPHEN ACKROYD
DONALD ALEXANDER
MAX ANDERSON
EDGAR ANSTEY
GEOFFREY BELL

KEN CAMERON
PAUL FLETCHER
SINCLAIR ROAD
GRAHAME THARP
BASIL WRIGHT

EDITOR

DAVIDE BOULTING

SALES & ACCOUNTS

PEGGY HUGHES

Cover design by JAMES boswell

CONTEXTS

Editorial

Notes of the Month

Art and the People
Sinclair Road

Sixpence on the Rates? \

New Documentary Films. .

This Modern Age

Films and the National Coal Board

A Musician's Approach to the Documentary Film
William Alwyn

Ross McLean
Alan Field

Why Scientific Film Societies?
James W. Oswald

Correspondence

{

37
38

39
40
41
42
43
44

44

45

46
47
48

Published every month by
Film Onirp :t I Soho Sc|. London Wl

ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION 12 5. SINGLE COPIES \ S.

WHICH HUNT?

rr may be too niucli at this stage to hope to find unanimity in
the bewildered, muddled, dollarpounded, scatter-brained, boom-
slumped and junglebooked collection of human oddities which make
up the film trade. But anyone who has kept an eye on the far-too-
successful idiocies of the Committee on un-American activities might
well feel that now. and not later, is the time for the Hritish film
industry to think very carefully about the implications of the current
purge of Communists instituted by the Labour Government. I)f S
does not play party politics, and we are quite prepared to believe
or disbelieve, in the danger of having party members
within certain areas of the Civil Service; but there is, on any and
every count, something nasty about the secrecy, the lack of public
judgment and right of appeal, which enshrouds the measures
announced by Mr Attlee. Both on general grounds of the wellbeing
of the State, and because there are not a few film-workers who are
in the direct employ of the Government (and there'd be lots more if
ACT had its way and nationalized us), all people in the Trade should
ponder carefully the long-term implications of the purge. Will it
turn into a witch-hunt? And if so, which witch hunt? Against
traitors, or against 'progressives'? These questions are of especial
importance to all members of the documentary film movement and
their 'fellow-travellers' (teachers etc), because the documentary
movement has been, and will continue to be closely identified with
progressive thought and action, both on the national and the inter-
national front. Documentary has never accepted any political labels,
and has never identified itself with any political party. This has not
prevented it from being accused from time to time of being pillar-
box red, or, on the other hand, of being the lackey of big business
and monopoly capital. It has survived both accusations because
both are false.

But the implications of the present anti-Communist panic — and
they are possible implications, and no more than that are some-
what disturbing. It is certainly alarming to read in a Times leader
(approving the purge)acondemnation of Communism on the grounds
that it is 'an international creed, dedicated to a crusade that over-
rides patriotism'. Shades of Nurse Cavell! Poor Sir John Boyd Orr'
Poor Julian Huxley! Miserable Trygve Lie! And thrice, thrice miscr-
abledocumentar> film maker' The Times leader continues, 'the faithful
and their camp followers cannot fairly expect to be trusted in
positions of responsibility bj the unbelievers who are in an over-
whelming majoritj and who retain an impenitent, bourgeois prefer-
ence for putting the count!) first*. Well now. we can all understand
what the poor feader writer was trying to saj in this particulai
text, and without the guiding hand of an editor like Harrington
Ward; but that does not alter the fact that a Times leader writer
should so allow himself to be panicked as to express, m an) context
whatsoever, so unfortunate a sentiment, a sentiment which, if acted
on. would make it wise for most documentary workers to hand them-
selves over to their old colleague Detective Inspector ( ain without
more ado.

We do not in fact SUggesI that the situation is serious yel We
do not in fact support cither the Russian or the \mencan thesis
Hut we ^\o ask the film industry, and documentary in particular, to
he extremely vigilanl lesl the creative and social urge tend to he

engulfed in an undiscrimmating political panic I hiis. having our-
selves looked under the bed for a moment, we beg others not to <\^
it for too long; too protracted a SCTUtin) ma) re\eal somethin
unpleasant; cracked, and without a handle

38

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

NOTES OF THE MONTH

The New Films Agreement

talks taking place between the Board of Trade and leading
Hollywood representatives over the future of American films in
Britain ended at the beginning of March in a compromise. Briefly,
this agreement, covering a period of four years, guarantees Holly-
wood a minimum annual remittance of 17 million dollars, plus a
sum equivalent to the amount earned by British films in America.
The money earned by Hollywood films over and above this total,
which will probably be some 10-12 million pounds judging from
past figures, will remain in this country, and its use will be regu-
lated by a Joint Committee of the British Government and the
Motion Picture Association of America. Up to two and a half mil-
lion pounds may be invested, in the first two years, in approved
commercial or industrial undertakings, and a further sum may be
used in encouraging the arts, but the greater part of this surplus
will be directed into the British film industry itself, for financing the
improvement of studios, the purchase of story rights, the produc-
tion of films, and so on. In return for this agreement the Govern-
ment has withdrawn the 75 per cent import tax on American films.

Under this agreement the actual dollars which Hollywood will
be taking out of this country will be only a little more than was
envisaged under the import tax, and there is some incentive to
Hollywood to promote the showing of British films in America,
since they will be able to take out extra money accordingly. On
the other hand, Hollywood will be assured of at least four or five
million a year, regardless of the quality of the films they send us,
and however the distribution of British films increases in the USA
they cannot earn dollars, as Hollywood remittances will merely
increase correspondingly. Financially speaking, therefore, the
agreement is fairly well-balanced, but the section relating to the
investment, mainly in the film industry, of the balance remaining
in this country is not so attractive. While Hollywood will not be
able to buy up British cinemas, at least not without the permission
of the Board of Trade, it will be able to dominate production to
an extent not possible in the past. The British film industry stands
in urgent need of capital to finance production, but if this capital
is to be drawn from American sources, there is a danger that it
may mean the production in Britain of a large number of imitation
Hollywood-type films, which could only lower the prestige of our
technicians; and it may lead, too, to an even worse shortage of
facilities available to the independent British producer. On bal-
ance, therefore, one can only view the whole agreement with the
greatest concern.

The main interests in the British film industry gave the Govern-
ment no real support in its negotiations with Hollywood, and no
effective evidence of the promised increase in production, while
the Secretary of the CEA in an article in the Kinematograph
Weekly after the conclusion of the agreement complacently con-
gratulated himself and his members on their success in getting
the tax removed. The situation will not improve unless the industry
itself shows a greater willingness in future to assist in stabilizing
the national economy.

Hamburg Film Society

the Hamburg film society had its first showing on February 16th.
The programme included Helmut Kautner's film Unter die Brucke,
banned by the Nazis during the war, and Song of Ceylon. The
Society is under the joint presidency of the Regional Commissioner
and the Burgomeister, and is managed by a British and German
committee. Membership of the Society is limited to 1,000 persons,
of whom not more than 300 may be British. The aims of the Society
are as follows :

(0

The display, to a selected public, of feature and documentar,
films of outstanding artistic or historical merit, and in particu
lar of such films made before 1933 in Germany and abroad
and after 1933 abroad.

The rapprochement of the film industry and the public,
(hi) The exchange of ideas between members of the German film
industry and the British.

(ii)

Young People's Film Club

it is proposed to form a Film Club for London schoolchildren—
mainly from secondary and public schools.

The idea is to encourage a critical appreciation and under
standing for good films — educational, instructional and enter-
tainment films of all nations.

The shows will in some cases be centred round topics (Life at
Sea, Animal Behaviour, Planning of Cities past and present, etc.,
etc.). Short talks given by experts, will often introduce the films,
and discussion will be encouraged. Good music, related to the
films, will be played by the children in the interval.

Seven shows are planned at intervals of three to four weeks on
Friday evenings. A subscription of 10s. is suggested for the season.

Headmasters of all secondary and public schools in the London
area have been written to with a view to finding out how they feel
about the idea and how many of their staff would wish to co-
operate.

Twenty-nine Years

H. bruce woolfe started life in the film industry 29 years ago when
he founded British Instructional Films. Since then he has had
more than a thousand films to his credit. On Wednesday, March
17th, he retired from the Chairmanship of the Association of
Specialized Film Producers and that body gave a luncheon in his
honour. DFN would like to add to that tribute in these columns
and, on behalf of its readers and its Editorial Board, to congratu-
late Mr Bruce Woolfe on his long and outstanding service to the
film industry. We hope that his name will continue to be connected
with the trade for many years to come.

Shorts

the Minister of Education has appointed the following to be Gov-
ernors of the Educational Foundation for Visual Aids : Sir Rolande
Wall, MC (chairman), Dr W. P. Alexander, Mr J. Beddington.
CBE, Sir Ifan ab Owen Edwards, Sir Henry French, GBE, KOB.
Mr W. Griffith, Mr F. A. Hoare, Mr H. D. Hughes, MP, Mr S. H.
Marshall, MP. Mr G. G. Williams, CB, deputy secretary to the
Ministry of Education, will act as assessor to the Governors.

Glasgow has, by a majority of one vote, recommended the finance
committee of its Corporation to investigate the question of civic
cinemas. It is good to see advantage taken so quickly of the amend-
ment to the Local Government Bill. They hope to concentrate on
the cultural aspect of film shows and not to attempt to compete
with the usual form of entertainment cinema.

the BFPA is allocating ten Film Fellowships among the studios
— nine students will come from European countries and one from
China. Shell Petroleum are also giving two. This is in agreement
with the UNESCO proposals.

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

39

Art and the People

by

Sinclair Road

ntei

k new deal for the arts is slowly taking shape in
Britain. Sometimes development seems more by
accident than design but the task is a difficult one.
One cannot order and arrange the production
and supply of paintings or music or even films, as
simply as one can provide the manufactured
goods which people need. At the same time there
are a number of very practical steps that have to
be taken. In the first place, the creative worker
needs the financial support which will enable him
to follow his trade. Second, he needs a direct and
.-, productive relationship with the public. The pic-
ture of the artist, living on coffee and crumbs in a
garret writing or composing for himself alone
stuff which no one else reads or hears, and who
5 finally turns out to be a genius after a tubercular
death, may be romantic, but it is utterly wrong.
It is another symptom of a society which is out of
joint. In an age of full employment everyone
should be enabled to work, whether their skill is
at the lathe, the loom, the easel or the camera.
On the other hand, it is no good creating the
financial and social conditions in which the artist
can work, without ensuring at the same time that
the public has easy and ready access to the results
of his work. An attentive and responsive public
is a key to the whole problem.

During the war years the number of people
who went to the theatre and to concerts and who
set foot in art galleries for the first time vastly
increased. In the case of films too there was the
beginning of a far more critical interest in what
was being produced. At the end of the war the
country was faced with the problem of giving this
increased interest a more permanent framework.
The Arts Council became an established body to
develop music, arts and drama. Government
sponsorship of films continued. There is much
debate now about the further assistance which
the Government must give to the film industry to
allow film-making in Britain greater scope and
opportunity. But again a practical problem
arises. There is a lot that the State can do out of
public funds to support the arts; but encourage-
ment from the centre is useless without a genuine
local response.

Till now local activity has been inhibited by a
number of things. Principally local authorities
have not had the statutory power to go into this
very important section of local life. There ha\e
been a few exceptions. Under the Holidays-at-
Home Campaign city councils had the authority
to provide concerts and entertainments of all
kinds, but only so long as the war lasted. Seaside
towns have also been allowed to spend a little
money on entertaining their visitors. But by and
large there has in the past been no country-wide
sanction for civic encouragement of the arts.

Now, the picture has been completely changed
by the new Local Government Bill, which em-
powers local authorities to spend up to 6J. of the
rates on arranging entertainments of all kinds.
They can sponsor their own theatrical companies
and orchestras, acquire or even build concert
halls, theatres and cinemas. For the first time the

&

power to provide the facilities for people to enjoy
the arts is available in Britain.

In part these clauses in the Local Government
Bill are an indictment of commercially provided
entertainment which has failed in a number of
respects to provide what is needed. In part it is a
necessary development in the process of making
educational and cultural facilities freely available
to the public without whose interest and support
there can be no real stimulus to the artist. And
this is no idle phrase. If one looks back over the
past one finds that solid public participation is an
almost invariable condition of a period of
artistic achievement.

The opportunities which the new Local Govern-
ment Bill provides are clear. But will they be
taken? A new order on the Statute Book particu-
larly when it is one of this kind, depends to a very
large extent for its success on the degree of popu-
lar response. In other words much of the initia-
tive now rests with all the local voluntary groups
in the country, on the institutes, on the drama,
music and film and other societies, to see that
their local council uses its new powers and uses
them wisely. When one compares the present
status of the various arts and entertainments, the
fact that there are only 200 theatres in the
country, even fewer concert halls, as against some
4,700 cinemas, indicates obvious priorities for ac-
tion. On the other hand, the enormous pre-

ponderance of cinema facilities should not blind
one to the limitations of the entertainment they
provide. In fact, the commercial cinema offers
only a very narrow choice of films. The vast
majority of the public is not at present able to see
films made by other countries apart from Ameri-
ca. Nor is it able to sec by any means all the films
made in this country. The fate of documental)
films trying to get the cinema distribution is the
obvious example. The rapid post-war growth of
the film Society Movement which now numbers
as many as 150 societies is an example of the de-
mand. But film societies have consistently been
hampered to their development, by lack of halls,
lack of projectors, the cost and difficulty of
getting films to show. It is at this point that local
councils can help. They should see to it that no
local film society is being hamstrung by lack of
facilities. They may even go to the length of
establishing civic cinemas to ensure a wider
choice of film entertainment than is available
commercially. They can even promote the pro-
duction of films.

The pattern of what is needed and can be done
is the same for the other arts as well. In all cases,
too, it is up to those who have struggled against
every kind of difficulty in building up local socie-
ties to see that their council gives the help and
encouragement that is needed if the arts are to
have their proper place in our national life.

A Still from The British Are Tliey AftittiC?

40

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

In February an amendment was put before the
House which may have far-reaching consequences
in the world of civic education. Local Authorities,
under the amendment to the new Local Govern-
ment Bill, have been given the right to increase the
rates by any amount up to sixpence in order to
provide in their areas such facilities for music,
drama and films as they may think necessary.
'DFN' has asked for opinions from a wide selection
of Local Authorities — many of them are not, as
yet, prepared to make any comments. We print all
we have received to date and hope to hear from
readers on this point which must be of vital im-
portance to anyone living anywhere in these
islands.

ALEC SPOOR of the National
Association of Local Government
Officers sets the ball rolling with
these observations —

to all interested in good films, and good docu-
mentary in particular, the Local Government
Bill now in its final stages in Parliament, is the
most heartening thing that has happened since
Sir Stephen Tallents gave Grierson and his boys
their heads at the Empire Marketing Board in
the late 'twenties. For, rightly used, the Bill
can open the way to a great renaissance in the
making, the showing and the appreciation of
film.

One clause empowers borough and district
councils to provide theatres and cinemas, to
give in them entertainments of any nature, and
to subsidize those entertainments to the extent
of the product of a sixpenny rate. Another em-
powers them to make, to join in the making, or
to contribute to the cost of films about their
work.

Here we have the opportunity, at one blow,
to get fine documentaries made, and — what is
surely even more important — to get them
shown and appreciated.

Already one or two local authorities have
made films about their work. Rotha produced
A City Speaks for Manchester, Jill Craigie The
Way We Live for Plymouth. Both are fine
films— but A City Speaks has not been seen
outside Manchester and one or two provincial
towns, while The Way We Live was given a
theatrical distribution only after the news-
papers had kicked up a fuss over its suppres-
sion. Other local government documentaries
have been seen only in the village hall — factory
circuit of the COL

Yet local government offers a tremendous
and fascinating field for the film-maker. Its
fight against squalor and disease; its struggle to
replace our blighted slums with worthy homes
and communities; its work in succouring the
sick, the old, the blind, deaf and crippled; its
efforts to bring education, culture and the op-
portunities of a fuller life to all — all these are
the raw material of film, possessing, in the
hands of the imaginative director, all the ele-
ments of drama, conflict, humour and living
humanity. Many councils have wished to make
them — but they have been prevented by lack
of powers or, where they had the powers, by
the reluctance of the commercial exhibitors to
show the films they sponsored.

The Bill removes both those obstacles. There
is now nothing to prevent a local council, or
a group of councils, making films about their
work — and getting them shown in their own
cinemas.

Sixpence
on the

Eventually, we may hope to have civic
cinemas in every town in the country, ready —
uninhibited by the prejudices of commercial
exhibitors — to show good documentaries of
every kind, to screen the best feature films of
every country and every period in film history,
to run courses in film appreciation, and to give
special shows for local groups interested in
films of a particular type, catering for the
specialist as well as the general audience.

Such civic theatres will not be mammoth
'Super-Colossals' with organ and stage shows.
They will be small, friendly, intimate places,
with opportunities for meetings and discus-
sions, focal points for local film societies,
centres of intelligent local life, capable of de-
veloping a new, more critical, yet more appre-
ciative film audience eager for new and more
intelligent films.

Here is the opportunity. How far it will be
seized depends upon our local councils — which,
since it is we who elect them, means us.

LAMBETH is well alive to the
use of film in Civic Education —

in the past entertainments have been confined to
band concerts and performances by concert
parties, arranged by the Public Services Com-
mittee, in the Council's open spaces.

The Council's Public Relations Committee,
formed about 18 months ago, embarked upon a
policy of giving public shows of documentary
films relating to local government and current
affairs. These shows have been arranged in associ-
tion with the Central Office of Information who
have provided the films, projector and operator,
the Council undertaking publicity and general
administrative details.

Our experience might be summarized as
follows :

{a) The films are invariably well received. A pro-
gramme of four or five documentaries does
not seem too 'heavy going'. The shows have
been particularly popular among old people,
some of whom expressed a preference for this
type of film over a feature film.

(6) An informal discussion on the films is usually
welcomed after the show, and invariably pro-
duces intelligent criticisms and suggestions.

(c) Audiences only build up in number slowly.
We had audiences of 20-30 at our early shows
but these have now increased to 100 or more.
Dates, however, should be chosen carefully.
We have distributed our shows all over the
Borough, — a local 'clash' of dates has a
disastrous effect on numbers.

(d) It has been found a good plan to offer shows
to local organizations, letting them make the
necessary arrangements. Such shows are

Rates?

usually open to the public, and may bi
advertised, but an interested nucleus c
audience is ensured.

The Council have recently acquired a projecto
of their own but no detailed decisions have >e
been made as to how it will be used.

The main difficulty about the provision o
other types of entertainment is the lack of suit
able accommodation. The only premises suitabh
for an orchestral concert, for example, are th>
local theatre, which is expensive and not larg>
enough. However, the Public Relations Comm.t
tee are at present considering the possibility o
providing one or more such concerts in spite
these difficulties.

The question of the extent to which the Coua
cil will use the wider powers allowed under th<
new Bill has not yet been considered, but agaii
premises are a difficulty.

EALING has been to the fore it
local enterprise. They have hac
special measures passed to enabh
them to run their own theatre am
they lose no opportunity to presen
culture to their people —

local government is losing many of its power
for the practical administration of the local ser
vices, and if the spirit of democratic dealing i
to be kept alive in the lesser authorities, othel
likely branches of activity must be explored.

The publicizing of the work of the loca
Council, the production of local guides an>
news sheets, the holding of civic exhibition
and the dissemination of information on a]
local matters has already been undertaken b
many authorities, principally with a view to re
awakening the civic consciousness of the citr
zens or townspeople, not as is commonly sup
posed simply to justify the rate demand.

Having sufficiently disturbed the prevalen
apathy and aroused the enthusiasm for loca
matters in at least a small percentage of th
electors, local Councils must have a prepare'
plan showing to what end the energy of thes*
townspeople may be turned. I suggest that
determined cultivation of the Arts is sufficienth
important to warrant the interest and patrona^
of any local authority. By that I do not mea
merely the opening of an art gallery
museum, or the formation of a municipal or
chestra. Most existing art galleries bespeak re
cultivation but incarceration of art. A local an
committee must cultivate the talents of thos
townspeople who might otherwise be 'born I
blush unseen'.

In local social and cultural activities are I
be found the true riches and fullness of livir

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

41

Ealing's Theatre

ind it is to extend to every citizen the oppor-
unity of discovering this for himself that these
ictivities should be fostered by the local autho-
ity. Amateur dramatics are usually tolerated
n a kindly fashion because for the most part
hey are confined to makeshift and inadequate
:acilities of presentation. Nothing succeeds
ike success and, given a modicum of support
Tom statutory sources, many amateur drama-
uc societies would flourish into stable inde-
Dendence. Success begets enthusiasm and en-
thusiasm is infectious. If the various local cul-
tural societies each received a measure of sup-
port from the local council, the resultant suc-
:ess of each would be more participants in,
ind less spectators of, the passing parade.

If local authorities will adhere to the prin-
:iple of fulfilling a local need' I can foresee no
possibility of a clash between them and com-
mercial entertainment, nor any waste of the
ratepayers' money.

BA TH runs its Festival in May

These questions are posed by the Spa Direc-
tor of Bath. The answer to them will, we hope,
become clear in the next few months. We invite
our readers to join in the discussion.

bath, like certain other resorts, has had special
powers for a long time by means of a Private
Bill to organize entertainments and publicize
attractions. In fact Bath was the first resort in
this country to have a regular season orchestra
and that was started in the year 1709. The intro-
ductions of powers to all local authorities to
run their own theatres whilst in its broad as-
pect, seeming to be of value generally to people
of all towns, will bring many problems.

Will municipalities be able to enter into
direct competition with private management of
theatres in the booking of plays? Will the pro-
posals increase the number of touring theatrical
companies and tend to lower the standard?

Will there be a tendency to increase output
in the film world and will this lower the stan-
dard of film production? What chance of sur-
vival will a municipal cinema have in view of
intensive competition?

Will it lead to nationalizing of the industry?

Could any nationalized art be a success?

People nowadays even in small towns want
the best entertainment. Will the powers under
this Act give them the best?

LIVERPOOL has a corporation
which owns its Philharmonic Hall.
They passed a local amendment in
1936—

the amendment to the Local Government Bill
enabling local authorities to organize their own
theatres, cinemas, and concerts, is not likely to
be of immediate interest to the Liverpool Cor-
poration.

A clause in the local Act of 1936 gave the
Council powers which fell short of the new
amendment only by the omission of authority
to provide cinema entertainment. The use
made of these powers would appear to indicate
that the city is not dissatisfied with the com-
mercial forms of entertainment available to
citizens.

The two principal municipal ventures have
been in the fields of music and open-air enter-
tainment, and here the city has offered the
public opportunities for enjoying cultural en-
tertainment which could scarcely be practic-
able on a commercial footing.

The Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, one of
Britain's finest concert halls, is owned by the
Corporation and its use is granted to the Phil-
harmonic Society and Orchestra under an
agreement by which the Society receives an
annuity of £4,000 on condition that a specified
number of concerts are available at reasonable
prices. Last year, the Society received a further
£4,000 from the Corporation, largely on ac-
count of losses sustained after a full season
which included a number of first performances.

The Parks and Gardens Committee have for
some years developed an interesting pro-
gramme of open-air music and drama which
has ranged from Punch and Judy shows to
Opera. An open-air theatre has been built in
Calderstones Park, and last summer amateur
societies were invited to provide a season of

plays which attracted a large public.

Ownership of the Philharmonic Hall, which
is equipped with the most modern sound film
apparatus, has enabled the Corporation to
assist to some extent in the presentation of
documentary and artistic films. I he Merscyside
Fil n Institute Society receive preferential
terms for the use of the Mall, and their regular
showings are usually assured of capacity
houses.

ST PANCRAS is one of the most

advanced of all the London
boroughs. This interesting sum-
mary tells of the work they have
done and are doing and suggests
ways in which they may profit from
their new powers —

What has been done in the past re films and
the arts?

1. For the past twelve years the Education and
public Libraries Committee of the Borough
Council has carried out 'extension activities'
both for adults and children. These are
tabulated below:

(i) Adult. Weekly talks throughout the winter,

by prominent individuals in various fields.

These talks make use of films where they are

appropriate, e.g. Frances Pitt and her nature

films.

(ii) Special three-cornered discussions in the

Assembly Hall of the Town Hall, e.g. Arnot

Robertson, Straus and Hadfield on 'Good and

Bad Books'; Stephen Williams, Macqueen-

Pope and Val Gielgud on 'The Theatre'.

(iii) Parents' evening in 'Book Week'.

(iv) Play-reading groups meeting weekly in

two of the Libraries.

(v) Discussion groups and listening circles are,

at present, being organized at other Branches.

(vi) Summer concerts in the Council's gardens

and open-spaces.

(i) Children. 'Book Week' is held each year

(see special pamphlet).

(ii) Talks to children weekly throughout the

w inter (see pamphlets).

(iii) Play-reading circles are held weeklv at

several of our Children's Libraries

(iv) Radio Listening Circles are also held.

(v) The Children's Librarians give regular

'story hours' throughout the year during the

winter, in the Library; during the summer, in

the gardens.

(vi) At 'Children's Corner', our main

Children's Librar>, a very active Puppet

Circle has been formed. A group of children

are making puppets and clothing them;

another group are writing and studying

puppet plays, and how to produce them.

Eventually, the Circle will present its own

plays, using puppets made by its members

(vii) An International Correspondence Group

is also held at 'Children's Corner". The

children conduct a regular correspondence

with other children's libraries all over the

world.

2. Pamphlets describing adult and children's
lectures are enclosed.

3. In 1946, the Borough Council sponsored
the formation of the St Pancras Arts and
Civic Council which co-ordinates cultural

(Continued foot column 1, page 4~i

42

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

NEW DOCUMENTARY FILMS

Rhodesia — Is this your Country? G.B. Instruc-
tional for Southern Rhodesia Government.
Written and directed: Alastair Scobie. Photo-
graphy: James Allen, Frank Goodliffe and
Ronald Shears. Editor: Oscar Percival. Distribu-
tion: Non-T. 16 and 35 mm.

Theme. This is a film for emigrants, giving them
an idea of the kind of opportunity in Rhodesia
awaiting the skilled man or the man with capital.

Comment. If the prospective immigrant notices
nothing lacking in the content of this humdrum,
superficial survey of a robust country, then it is
likely that he is the kind of man for whom
Rhodesia is looking. According to the film,
Rhodesia offers sunshine, sport, plenty of food
(and drink), no irksome chores (there is plenty
of native labour to do all these), and a com-
paratively high standard of living (for the white
man) to anyone prepared to work hard and ask
no questions.

But the discerning emigrant will spot a number
of awkward things: that the enormously greater
native population is confined to much less than
half the area of the country: that, in spite of
attempts in the film to cover it up, a suburban
snobbishness emerges only too clearly: and,
above all, that pursuits of the mind are wholly
ignored — worse still there is no evidence in the
film that anyone recognizes their absence.

Creatures of Comfort. Realist for British Gas
Council in association with Film Centre. Pro-
ducer: Brian Smith. Director and camera: Alex
Strasser. Music and Effects: Horace Somerville.
Commentary: David Tree. Distribution: B.G.C.
non-T. 18 mins.

the thing which strikes one most about a high
percentage of the Realist films is the wealth of

visual imagination employed. One can usually
see what the director has been trying to do and
can see, too, that he has spent a great deal of
time and thought and enjoyed himself in the
process. Creatures of Comfort is a good ex-
ample. It points a sly finger at the notorious
discomforts of the English house. The quaint-
ness but impracticality of the plumbing. The
draughts that whistle round the back of one's
neck while one's legs are being roasted by the
fire. The film also gives a clear exposition of
the principles which should be respected in
heating and ventilating a house. Builders please
note! The visual illustrations which are used to
bring the story home are vivid and amusing.
The commentary, too, has a dry humour. But
the laugh in the end was on your reviewer, he
went home after seeing the film to find the
pipes in his own house well and truly frozen.

Town Rats. Crown for Ministry of Food through
COL Director: Geoffrey Innes. Camera: William
Chaston. Sound: Jock May. Commentary:
Deryck Guyler. Distribution: CFL. 20 mins.

Theme. The habits of rats and how a local rat-
catching department uses its knowledge of
these to rid a small area of these pests.
Comment. The modern rat appears to have no
musical appreciation; so the problem of rid-
ding a town, or even a small part of a town of
its unwelcome and dangerous rat population is
far more complex than that which faced the
'de-rodentator' of Hamelin. Today, a local
authority approaches its rat menace much as
Scotland Yard combats crime — with investi-
gators, catchers and even an information room,
complete with map of recent outbreaks. Not
unexpectedly, however, the methods of catch-
ing the four-footed criminals are very different.

Creatures of Comfort

and it is doubtful if some of the scenes in this
film would find their parallel in a film of our
police force.

The film is commendably clear and free
from any pretence of being other than a
straightforward account of a local problem
and its local solution. That it chooses to local-
ize its story is, perhaps, a disadvantage because
if makes the rout of routs seem, if not easy, at
least practicable; which from all reports is
neither the case regionally nor nationally. This
aspect aside. Town Rat should encourage I
people to use the organization at their dis- I
posal and so help to keep within bounds a far
greater menace than most people imagine.

Much patience must have gone into the J
making of this film. The unit is to be congrat-
ulated on having got such lifelike (and death-
like) performances from the main characters.

Your Children's Sleep. Realist for Ministry of
Health through COI in association with Film
Centre. Written and produced: Brian Smith.
Directed: Jane Massy. Music: William Alwyn:
Camera: A. E. Jeakins.

Theme. Why children can't sleep if they don't,
and what they do with it if they can.
Comment. There are all too many films these
days which it is impossible to see without
yawning, but the one film that might be ex-
pected to have a yawn in it is singularly free
of any such effect. Your Children's Sleep steps
out very firmly with the right foot almost be-
fore the opening titles are off the screen, so
arousing the sympathy and interest of the audi-
ence from the outset. It carries these to the end
of its friendly, simple account of typical
children and some of their problems of sleep-
ing and not sleeping. Imaginatively made,
with a warmly human commentary, this is an-
other of Realist's excellent series of first-rate
broadly educational films which deserves to
be shown everywhere.

Space forbids the fuller review this film
most certainly merits.

They Travel by Air. Public Relationship for
British Overseas Airways in association with
Film Centre. Director: Richard Massingham.
Camera: J. Burgoyne-Johnson. Editor: John
Waterhouse. Script: Tony Roberts. Music:
W. Lambert Williamson.

Theme. A demonstration to the staff of BOAC
of the importance of courtesy and control when
dealing with air travel passengers.
Comment. To say simply that this is a staff de-
monstration film is perfectly true. It is, however,
as a piece of film-making, very much more than
that. It contains in great abundance that quality
so rare in the documentary cinema, the quality of
intelligent humour. Dr Richard Massingham,
whose work is so well known to us, has done
his job — the job of persuading BOAC stewards
and attendants that the passenger is always right
— sincerely and thoroughly. And he has also suc-
ceeded in making the lesson extremely funny.
From casting to cutting it is a gem. He has picked
out the awkward people so familiar, the truculent
and the talkative, the nervous and the nagging,
and has handled them so well that they scarcely
know we are laughing at them. And if, as usual,
he appears in the film himself, he surely has every
right because he is the best actor of the lot.

(Continued foot of opposite page, col. 3)

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

41

THIS MODERN AGE

No. 16

The British -Are They Artistic?

Theme. A discussion on the cultural life of the
people of this country, and their reactions to
drama and the arts.

Comment. This is surely a subject offering vast
scope for the imaginative documentary producer,
but, regretfully, we feel that he has ended up a
little breathlessly, just after the boat has left. It is
a very good attempt. The great strides made in all
forms of culture during the war are dealt with
well, and considerable effort has been taken to
give us a fair cross-section of contemporary
opera, ballet, and so on. Are we as a nation
artistic? The question is scarcely answered. But
there is an uptilted-nose atmosphere about the
film which gives a slightly uncomfortable im-
pression of snobbery. One can miss Albert
Herring at Glyndebourne or Checkmate at
Covent Garden without being a complete intel-
lectual moron, while according to the film the
alternative is the pornographic peepshow. This,
of course, is absurd. But the middle course of the
ordinary entertainment of the people is not there.
That vast happy medium which provides the re-
laxation for the millions seems to fall into a
valley not penetrated by the Modern Age
cameras. While for some obscure reason the
legitimate theatre as most of us know it is
virtually ignored.

We hear some good sense from Norman
Collins on the problems of the present-day book
publisher and from Robert Donat on the future
of the cinema. There is also an interview with
C. B. Cochran, the substance of which has com-
pletely escaped us, but which left no particular
impact on first hearing other than a disturbing
inconsistency on the part of the recording which
positively gave to C.B. a dual personality.

But there is a point of criticism about which we
feel strongly. And this is common to the whole
series of This Modem Age. The narration is un-
deniably bad. Not only has the commentator a
voice lacking in all vigour and a delivery which
is monotonous. But there is the impression that it
has been recorded in a telephone box. This is a
point of criticism which deserves the attention of
the producers. The series is an important one.
The subjects are usually absorbing and the mes-
sages behind them forthright and refreshing. If it
is to be a British March of Time — and the com-
parison is meant to be a compliment — then those
behind it must realize that the commentary is just
as important as, and probably a whole lot more
important than, the visuals. The narrator must
mean what he is saying, and say it as though he
means it. Just now he sounds as though he might
be reading the prices in a seed catalogue.

No. 14

Jamaica Problem

the development of self-government in the
Colonial areas was speeded up considerably
during the war years. In the case of Jamaica a

Land Short of People

new constitution was granted in 1944 on the
English parliamentary pattern with universal
adult suffrage, although local politicians make
capital out of the fact that ultimate power still
rests with the Governor. But the crucial prob-
lem remains an economic one. There is still
little or no industry and the prosperity of the
country is geared almost entirely to the uncer-
tain prospects of one or two crops, principally
bananas. Any failure in the harvest or the mar-
ket means poverty for the island. Economic
development is therefore the overriding con-
cern of the Jamaicans.

This Modern Age has presented the picture
honestly and well. One thing only it fails to
make clear enough — the equivocal nature of
the local leader, Bustamente, whose campaign
for full sovereign rights has more in keeping
with the antics of South American dictator-
ships. Power rather than the economic and
social development of the island appears to be
the principal motive of this demagogue who
dominates the local scene.

Visually, the film is effective. The unsettling
orgiastic undercurrents in Jamaican life are well
illustrated by the jivings of a local priest and
his servitors as they initiate a new member of
the flock. The same uncontrolled emotional
fervour goes of course into the frenzied sup-
port of Bustamente. The commentary, how-
ever, generally lacks punch. One could imagine
The March of Time making more of the visual
material by a better choice of words or more
subtle inflection. Nevertheless the film is a valu-
able addition to the picture which This Modern
Age is building up of the pattern of develop-
ment within the Commonwealth and Colonial
Empire.

No. 15

Land Short of People

Theme: Round a continent in twenty minutes.
Comment: To have told our ancestors that one
day people sitting more or less comfortably in
arm-chairs could have the experience of get-
ting to know a continent in less than half an
hour would have evoked a forthright 'Impos-
sible!' This film does little to confound such an
opinion, for in covering so much ground al-
ready familiar to many people it misses the
chance of probing more deeply into Australia's
problems and opportunities. A young and vital
country like Australia deserves a less superfi-
cial survey than this.

And why must the commentator shout?

They Travel by Air (contd.)

This film emphasizes what has for some time
been something of a puzzle. Dicky Massingham
can put ordinary people doing ordinary things in
front of the camera so thai thej .ire really
amusing and entertaining as ordinary people can
be. How is it that he has not been snatched up by
the feature boys? Good fun is so missing in
British feature films that one would think there
would be room there for someone whose vv it and
sense of cinema are obviously so beautifully
balanced. Still, why should we grumble? But
Massingham has been long enough at the stall
training film game, with its limited opportunities
and relatively minor exhibition. It is high time
he took a header into a much more ambitious
field.

44

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

Films and the National Coal Board

by H. K. Lewenhak

when the National Coal Board was set up
ii could not go ahead and create a brand new
industry of its own; it had to work with and
on the materials it had taken over. The
same is true about the National Coal Board's
film side. It, too, inherited a number of ready-
made films and an incomplete film programme,
together with a number of established connec-
tions. So, in formulating its film policy, the
Public Relations Branch of the Board at no
time had the ideal and idyllic opportunity of
sitting down before a clean plate. In formulat-
ing its own film programme, it had to adapt and
to make do.

From the past, it took over a number of good
popular instructional films which had been
made under private enterprise and which, apart
from being somewhat out of date from the tech-
nological point of view, did give the layman
some idea of how a mine worked. We con-
tinued with these films and they were widely
shown by Recruitment Officers, also forming
the main items on the programme of our
Mobile Cinema Vans. Valuable experience
with these daylight vans as recruiting media
had been gained while operating under the
Ministry of Fuel and Power, and on this basis
the campaign with them was continued and ex-
panded. From the Ministry of Fuel and Power
the Board also inherited a number of straight-
forward training films and one or two uncom-
pleted documentaries.

For the first nine months of their official
existence, the Board also continued to operate
under the Ministry of Fuel and Power's vote
with the Central Office of Information, who
made films for the NCB cost free, as an Allied
Service. It was, however, open to the Board to
commission any other films outside their ar-
rangements with the COI, provided they bore
the cost themselves. The Ministry vote ended
in September, after which time the Board, like
any other industrial sponsor, had to pay for all
the films they commissioned. Limiting this,
however, it was decided that, as recruiting to
the mines is a question of national policy, all
direct recruiting films should be made for the
Board by the Ministry of Labour through the
Central Office of Information.

Out of this tangle of half finished films, pre-
vious commitments, etc., an attempt was and
is being made to hammer out a comprehensive
film policy.

Before any film is commissioned, we take
great pains to get quite clear to whom exactly
the film is to speak and exactly what we want it
to say. This may not be a startling innovation,
but has often been omitted in the past.

The most important of all is the question of
distribution. What sort of distribution is de-
sired is determined, to some extent, by the
audience we are aiming at — tempered by the
kind of distribution we can actually hope to
get. A great deal of thought and time is spent
on this question of distribution, because we
wish to avoid the trap of making films and then
finding, as has too often happened, that there
is no ready means of getting them shown. Our
film policy had a very definite eye to the market.

We also found that working backwards, as it
were, from audience and distribution, gave us
a much clearer idea of exactly what kind of
film we wanted.

Our films have to fulfil a number of distinct
and separate tasks: there are the films which
are intended to inform the general public about
mining, its problems and the progress being
made to overcome them. .Secondly, there are
the films intended primarily to recruit men to
the industry, and thirdly, the training and in-
dustrial morale films for within the industry
itself.

These are three distinct functions, but films
and film audiences cannot be divided into
watertight compartments. For example, the
miner, as a member of the community, ob-
viously sees the film in which you are informing
the lay public about the industry, and the way
he features in such a film has an obvious effect
on his morale. Similarly, films that are intended
to be purely informative also have a recruiting
'bye-products', and so on. So that, while one's
principal aims in films remain clear cut and
separate, one has also got to see that the separ-
ate sectors are kept in line.

For internal consumption, in addition to the
training films, the Coal Board have started an
industrial newsreel for which theatrical distri-

bution has been achieved in cinemas in mining
areas. The aim of the reel is to keep the miner
informed of developments in his own industry
and to widen his sense of community from that
of his own particular locality to the whole com-
munity. We have also tried, with some success,
to interest Colliery Consultative Committees —
the present descendants of the wartime Pit
Production Committees— in our films, with the
iesult that they are being shown in Miners'
Welfare Halls, etc.

We have made mistakes. The miner is a
highly discriminating filmgoer, and we have re-
ceived copies of Colliery Committees' Minutes,
'deploring the poor technical standard' of one
or other of our earlier efforts. Such discrimina-
tion is, perhaps, one of the most encouraging
features of the work. It means that the film pro-
ducer working for such an audience need not
fear that his finer nuances are being wasted on
an insensitive audience.

Films are expensive. The Coal Board is not
a Government Department, with access to pub-
lic funds, but a trading public corporation. The
cost of all its films must be charged against
revenue. It is against this rigorous financial
background that the films are proving, and
must increasingly prove, their effective worth
to the industry.

A Musician's Approach to the
Documentary Film

by William Alwyn

a fundamental principle of artistic creation
is that the artist should work within the limits
of his medium. His expression is conditioned by
his tools. The small canvas demands the minia-
turist's approach — the Sistine Chapel, the
grand manner. These limits may not only be
defined by purely artistic requirements but by
the more urgent and practical limitations of
purse, the availability of suitable canvas and a
possible world shortage in camel-hair. It is im-
perative in the musician's approach to the film
that he should have a clear realization of the
scope of his medium — that he should cut his
coat according to his cloth and his clothing
coupons.

In the early days of Documentary the com-
poser had a very clear idea of the conditions of
his work; conditions imposed by a limited bud-
get, the experimental nature and size of the re-
cording theatre, and the imperfections of re-
cording gear and reproduction. The budget for
music was usually in the nature of pocket-
money and this naturally conditioned the size
of orchestra; some instruments did not record
well, and this conditioned the type of orchestra.
But most important of all, the composer, to-
gether with the producer and director, realized
that he was pioneering in the use of the sound
track, that the field for experiment seemed

boundless and he had a firm appreciation of the
basic fact that the sound track should be a uni-
fication of commentary, sound effects and
music. To mention but two of the early docu-
mentaries. Song of Ceylon (music by Walter
Leigh) and Night Mail (music by Benjamin
Britten), is to realize that in both cases com-
poser and director were working with a com-
plete understanding of the restrictions of their
medium; working within its limits, and work-
ing with the enthusiasm of pioneers with fresh
fields to plough. These films are over ten years
old, yet by virtue of the intelligence of the
technical approach they are vital and contem-
porary today, whereas the feature film of the
period is too often a museum piece.

Any art that depends on mechanism for its
expression is bound to progress towards mech-
anical perfection (e.g. the art of flying, from
the hazardous contraptions of the Wright
brothers to the jet-propelled super-sonic plane
of today). Ten years in the art of film music has
led us from castles in the air to Cameron Castle
at Beaconsfield, and by slow stages to Stage I
at Denham. Better recording theatres lead to
better reproduction; better music recording
leads to bigger and better orchestras. One by
one the mechanical limitations have been
(Continued page 47)

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

45

Ross McLean

a Close-Up

by
Alan Field

THE gentleman whose classic features dis-
tinguish this page is Mr Ross McLean, Film
Commissioner of the National Film Board of
Canada and spiritual leader of the largest single
documentary film, graphics and visual aids
agency in the known world. Today the National
Film Board which Mr McLean heads has 600
employees, sends its films and graphics materials
to more than 35 countries, operates its own
national non-theatrical circuits and has pro-
duced in its seven years of existence more than
2,700 films.

About this job of running a two and a half
million dollar enterprise, Ross McLean has the
following to say : "Films of every kind whether
entertainment, educational or documentary
have a terrific impact upon people. It is our
responsibility jointly with film makers every-
where to see that some assuagement of the sav-
agery of modern life is made possible by people
who realize the full potential of film.'

The present healthy state of the Film Board,
its wide range of activity and its personnel bear
lasting witness to the influence and initiative of
John Grierson who was Ross McLean's pre-
decessor as Canadian Film Commissioner.
Comparison between the first and second Film
Commissioners is invidious. A more profitable
speculation could be made upon the qualities
required to head the National Film Board.

Obviously the Film Commissioner must be
capably an administrator. He must know his
nation, his people and their history; he must
understand the social and economic topo-
graphy of his country. He must possess, above
all, a political 'nous' in addition to that discur-
sive reason which the Platonists called logos'.
With understanding and knowledge must go
sympathy and respect for creative undertakings
in the public good. In these capacities Ross
McLean is abundantly gifted and in the balance
sheet it can be fairly said that there was on the
native horizon no other person singularly fitted
for the job.

If Britain is the spawning ground for the
documentary idea, Ross McLean is the link in
the chain which anchored that idea in Canada.
It was Ross McLean who first proposed that
John Grierson be invited to Canada to survey
the Canadian position in the light of the British
documentary development. The meeting be-
tween Grierson and McLean took place in De-
cember 1935 when the GPO was recovering
from the birthpangs of Night Mail. Basil
Wright, Cavalcanti and Evelyn Spice were pre-
sent for that occasion. No tablet as yet marks
the historic site of that meeting but one might
justifiably be erected.

At that time a Government film establish-
ment did exist in Canada — the Motion Picture
Bureau — which began its work in 1924, flour-
ished during the silent days of film and fell
upon evil times in the early 'thirties. The emer-
gence of a full-accoutred British documentary
found the Motion Picture Bureau struggling

with subtitles dealing with moose and goose.
Ross McLean's proposal led Grierson to
Canada and the evolution of the National Film
Act of 1939 with the Scottish film master in-
stalled as the first Commissioner.

Four hundred crises and two thousand films
later, Grierson resigned in October 1945. Ross
McLean had meantime become successively
Assistant Film Commissioner, Deputy Com-
missioner by 1943, Acting Commissioner at
Grierson's resignation and finally, in January
1947, was appointed to head NFB. It is interest-
ing to note that the Order-In-Council author-
izing the appointment was sent with the per-
sonal congratulations and best wishes of the
Prime Minister of Canada.

Background to this drama begins in Ethel-
bert, Manitoba, where Ross McLean was born
42 years ago. Recently an Ottawa journalist
pleading for more adequate rail facilities for the
region described Ethelbert as "the birthplace of
many famous Canadians — including Ross
McLean, the Film Commissioner'. Despite the
alleged lack of transportation, Mr McLean cul
a swathe through schools of the prairie lands
like a 16 ft. reaper-thresher.

Graduating from the University of Manitoba
with BA in modern history, at the tender age of
21 he was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship and
journeyed to Balliol for a sojourn amongst the
Oxonians. Documentary seeds were implanted
when he became the first holder of the Beil
senior research scholarship and wrote a thesis
on the social consequences of emancipation in
Trinidad and British Guiana. Mr Mel can's
thesis found certain flaws in that emancipation

After receiving his BLitt at Oxford there fol-
lowed a session of special work for the Unem-
ployment Relief Commission of Illinois. In
1932 he was national secretary of the Associa-
tion of Canadian Clubs, the organization which
has played an important part in the growth of
an informed national expression. At the time of
meeting Grierson, Mr McLean was stationed in
Britain as secretary to the Rt Hon Vincent Mas-
sey, former High Commissioner for Canada to
the United Kingdom.

With the inception of the National Film
Board, Ross McLean was one of its three origi-
nals— the others being Grierson and Janet
Scellen. Stuart Legg was then liaison at the old
Motion Picture Bureau. From the first
McLean's skill in negotiation, his wide know-
ledge of government and the personalities of
government were invaluable in getting NFB
established and working. In those early days
after 1939 he both directed and produced films.

The healthy, active and widening scope of
NFB's work is the best testimonial of Ross
McLean's stewardship. He has welded its
manifold activities into a more co-operative
whole; he has raised standards of production
in film and graphics; he has shown enterprise
and insight in initiating new programfl I
the strong tree that Grierson planted he h.^
added his own mature and civilizing influence.

Of the future of the National Film Board he
says: 'NFB has a special function as a pilot
plant in terms Of ideas and the adaptation of
ideas and somehow 01 other those ideas must
help to add to the common understanding and
the enlargement of compassion among people '

46

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

the question 'What is a scientific film?' has
begun to rank with the famous 'What is Truth?'
and attempts at definition of either are equally
elusive. Here, a new question is offered for
answer — 'Why scientific film societies?' Why
has interest in scientific and documentary films
increased so rapidly during the past ten years?
In 1938, the first scientific film society — the
London SFS — was formed by enthusiastic
members of the Association of Scientific
Workers. 1948, ten years later, is a suitable
point at which to pause and take stock. Arising
directly from this small beginning came the
Scientific Film Association which has gained a
world-wide prestige and reputation making it
the recognized authority on all aspects of the
use of scientific films. The past decade has been
one of great progress but let no one, however
lofty his aspirations for the future, ever forget
that the scientific film societies were responsible
for starting the movement.

In this same ten years, a number of new so-
cieties have been formed and 43 are now affili-
ated to the Scientific Film Association. From a
total membership of 260 in 1938, the film
society audience has grown to approximately
10,000 in 1948. This figure takes no account of
the occasional shows put on by scientific and
other bodies in connection with their general
activities. It is of interest to see what sort of
composition the scientific film society audience
has and speculate on the reasons for their pre-
sence. Some societies, such as those formed in
Government departments, have a restricted
membership but many are open to anyone. The
London SFS is such a society and in 1945-46
carried out an analysis of the professions of its
members. The professions were classified under
four main headings — 1. Scientific (chemists,
physicists, engineers, etc.); 2. Technical (film-
workers, laboratory assistants, etc.); 3. Educa-
tion (teachers and students); and 4. Non-scien-
tific (clerks, typists, accountants, etc.). This
classification may have been somewhat arbi-
trary but the results of analysis of some 800
members' professions gave the following
results :

Scientific 40 per cent

Technical 15 percent

Education 20 per cent

Non-scientific 25 per cent

It is probable that the scientific and technical
sections do not expect to learn a great deal
that is new in their own subjects, but want to
know what the other fellow is thinking and
doing. The chemist wants to find out how the
engineer is tackling his particular problems, the
engineer is interested in the activities of the
physicist. The scientific film society provides a
valuable centre for keeping scientists in touch
with the many and varied aspects of subjects
with which they are not in daily contact. Films
are being used to a greater extent than ever be-
fore for educational purposes and if only for
this reason, those concerned with teaching join
scientific film societies to see what is available
and form some idea of how the films may be
used. It is more difficult to find reasons for the

Why Scientific Film Societies?

by

James W. Oswald

presence of the quarter of the audience that
has been given the label 'non-scientific'. Is it
that there are 'mute, inglorious' Darwins and
Rutherfords in the world of commerce? Is it
that they cannot find the films they want in the
local cinemas? The most probable reason is sat-
isfaction of curiosity in wanting to know 'what
makes the wheels go round'.

The scientific film society audience must not
be confused with that to be found in the com-
mercial cinema in that trance-like state engen-
dered by the vapourings of Hollywood. Any
society secretary will confirm that his members
are wide awake and very critical of the films
put before them. Probably the most common
criticism is that the films are not 'scientific'
enough. Although shots of cranes silhouetted
against a background of steam may be aesthe-
tically satisfying, they do not add to our know-
ledge of the cranes. It is treatments such as this
that form the basis of such criticism. When one
society showed Atomic Physics recently, there
was such a flood of applications that the pro-
gramme had to be repeated— an event unpre-
cedented in the history of the society. Needless
to say, there were no criticisms of this film
being 'unscientific'.

Many societies have carried out audience re-

action experiments to find out what their mem-
bers think of certain films. The results, although
of interest, have a somewhat academic flavour
in that they apply to the finished product only.
It seems strange that no documentary producer
has yet made use of this ready-made audience
as a body of opinion on a film he has in the
making. It would be a worthwhile experiment
to take a scientific film society audience into
his confidence from the start, explain what he
is setting out to do and the lines on which he
proposes to work. Let them see the bits and
pieces of the film as it is being made and ask
for criticism. This may seem a bold and new
procedure but much valuable information
might be obtained and here might be found a
way to that freshness of treatment lacking in
so many documentaries of today.

COMPETITIONS

readers apparently did not feel inspired to write
to their cinema managers in COMPETITION
No. 2. No entries were received. COMPETI-
TION No. 4 will be a CLERIHEW on anything
concerning the documentary film world. Entries
before May 1st please.

HOC l Ml VI WRY HIM \ I \\ s

47

A Musician's Approach to the
Documentary Film

{Continued from page 44)

sloughed and the musician now finds it possible
to compose as for the concert hall with the
knowledge that what he writes will be repro-
duced with mechanical fidelity. The danger is
that, through this very perfection of music re-
cording, the composer may be led into a state
of self-sufficiency, and music tor film thought
of as a thing-in-itself. divorced from the uni-
fied sound track. (I don't -,i\ this is true. I am
merely pointing to a danger signal.)

Again it becomes imperative that the com-
poser for the documentary film should not lose
sight of the limitations of his medium — and
there are still limitations, not the least of which
is the important problem of 16 mm reproduc-
tion.

If a documentary is made for non-theatrical
release (and 16 mm reproduction), then it is no
use shutting our eyes to the fact that certain
types of music do not reproduce well on sub-
standard film and, therefore, 16 mm imposes
special limitations on the composer. What
these limitations are, each composer must
assess for himself. My own feelings are that
sub-standard reproduction demands emphasis
on melodic line (as opposed to 'colour' and
'effect' music), clarity and simplicity of treat-
ment, and that this clarity is best achieved by
a strict limitation of the size, and a nicer choice
of the components of the orchestra. A few in-
struments will reproduce better than a large
body — though, of course, the type and scope of
the film itself poses its own problem. (The
strict artistic functions of the use of music in

Sixpence on the Rates ?

( ( 'ontinued from page 41)

education and social life of the borough.
This Council, being a representative body
working in conjunction with the Libraries
Committee, was able to carry out activities
for which the Borough Council then had no
powers.

4. Films are used in the various series of talks
which have been held: at exhibitions, etc,
and screen trailers for advertising purposes.

What St Pancras intends to do in the future.

1. The Borough Council have accepted the
powers under the LCC General Powers Act
and are considering the question of themselves
providing 'concerts and entertainments' as
defined under the Act.

2. The Arts and Civic Council will act in an
advisory capacity, but will extend its activ itics
in spheres which require closer contact with
organizations in the borough. These include
Community Clubs, a Music Group, Repertory
Film Club, and the like.

What are general reactions and feeling
towards Act?

A great step forward and one which was
envisaged by the Borough Council when
sponsoring the Arts and Civic Council The
Council can now perform those duties which,
previously, it had no power to do.

any particular film demand primary considera-
tion.) If the film requires bigness o( treatment
then by all means use a larger orchestra, but the
scoring should be broad and clear— in line
rather than in colour.

With the 16 mm film we are still in the ex-
[vi [mental Stage and personally I am all foi ex
periment! The art of film music is a young art
and still cries out for the spirit of adventure;
'Music, heavenly maid' is Mill a teen-ager. To
sum up, let us avoid becoming stereotyped in
our approach to film music: let us not forget
that music is only a part of the sound track
vv hich ideally should be a fusion of the spoken
or sung word, natural sound and sound effects

a vitally important part, but still a part; and
let us realize, not only the limitations imposed
by the film on music, but its still infinite and
unexplored possibilities.

Postscript:

I cannot leave this question of the unifica-
tion of the sound track without making these
points.

1 Music should not be left to the last possible
moment and added as an after-thought.

2. The pursuit of the ideal sound track calls
for much closer co-operation between the
composer and the sound effects department.

3. Little can be achieved without careful plan-
ning. (A complex score such as that com-
posed for Carol Reed's Odd Man Out was
made possible because it was considered and
discussed before the film went into produc-

tion. The same equally applies to such films
as Rotha's World of Plenty or The World is
Rich (music by Clifton Parker), I he sound

track for these films was the result of careful
and patient planning in which all concerned,
not least the composer, worked as a team
from the earliest stages of scripting to the
final st.iges of the dubbing session.)

CORRESPONDENCE

From Australia:

sir: In your 'Notes of the Month', January,
1948, you say: 'Let's have your views and
criticisms. . . .'

I would very much like to see PEN printed
in large type. The articles, news, film reviews,
etc., are all most interesting, but to those of us
in the Roaring 'Forties two or three pages is
about all that can be managed at a sitting.
Larger type, of course, means less printed
matier; but it also means less eye-strain. We
have all seen the film Your Children's Eyes;
but what about some consideration for 'Your
Readers' Eyes'.

Now that that growl is off my chest, here are
some items which may be of interest:

The Film Society movement is fairly strong
in NSW. There are about eight city groups and

(Continued on next page)

INTERNATIONAL REALIST

NEARING COMPLETION

GUN DOGS

COMMENTARY BY

BERNARD MILES

BASIL WRIGHT

IOHN l ^ I OR

I P MMN N \

48

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

CORRESPONDENCE— contd.

several in country towns. A federation of NSW
societies has been formed, with a view to get-
ting more documentary and educational films
into the country. There are dozens of excellent
films on 16 mm stock available to UK audi-
ences which are not in our libraries.

At the moment there seem to be as many
16 mm projectors in Sydney as there are films.
In the Department of Education the ratio is
2| films per projector, and with more schools
putting in machines, the position is getting
worse. A heavy blow to the 16 mm users is the
closing of the Canadian Film Board library of
200 films. This is being done as an economy
measure by the Canadian Government. What
will happen to the films is the burning ques-
tion? Probably they will go the same way as
the US films when that library was closed last
year; they went to the National Film Library
at Canberra and are rarely seen now. Getting
films out of the Canberra library is, to put it
mildly, not easy. The only films available now
in Sydney are the Documentary Film Council,
UK local tourist offices and sponsored films
from oil companies, etc. The position for the
enthusiast is pretty grim.

To give an idea of the type of film society we
have in Sydney, here are a few details of the
Independent Film Group, to which I belong :
membership 300, annual subscription 10s. Two
screenings per month, usual attendance 150-
180. Using two similar Australian-built Har-
mour and Heath projectors; members at least
have no complaints on the technical quality of
the screenings. All films are previewed by a
programme committee — a highly necessary
procedure.

Yours faithfully,

J. CLARKE

Visual Units

sir : In the article 'Open Letter from a School-
teacher' (your January issue) we noted the
following criticisms of Houses in History, one
of the films shown at the Conference of Visual
Units in Manchester.

'Someone in the discussion said that it wasn't
a subject which was really suitable for a film
and I must say I didn't like it very much — I
wouldn't use it because I think my children
would find it hard to follow and a bit dull.'

As the film unit responsible for making

Houses in History we feel we should like to
reply to these observations.

1. No clear educational briefing was forth-
coming from either the Ministry of Edu-
cation or Ministry of Information at the
time of commissioning. January 1st. 1945.

2. The film was designed as part of a visual
unit without its producers having any
working knowledge of, or say in, the re-
mainder of that unit.

3. Alhough the subject expert, appointed by
the Ministry of Education, and the pro-
ducer and director agreed on the purpose
and general scope of the film, they seemed
always to be at variance with the Ministry
of Information (and later the Central
Office of Information).

4. The final commentary of the film was
written by COI after a commentary had
been carefully prepared by the film's
makers, the subject expert and a practis-
ing teacher.

The COI consistently refused to call in
the Ministry of Education until the final
rough-cut stage with a completed com-
mentary. Technically the film suffered
from the changes that had to be made at
that stage to meet the needs of the Min-
istry of Education. Obviously they should
have been in from the start so that the
original form of the film, once agreed,
could be adhered to.

5. The Associate Producer was not ap-
pointed to the film until after it had been
started.

6. Up to the date of this letter, the makers
of the film have been given no opportunity
of seeing (let alone commenting on) the
complete visual unit, of which the film
was only one part.

7. All during production, the COI and the
Ministry of Education stressed the experi-
mental nature of the project. We agree.
An experiment of how not to commission
an educational film or a visual unit.

It is particularly discouraging for units in-
terested in such experimental work to find that
the films we work so hard to produce in such
difficult circumstances are so useless to the
people who are eventually expected to use
them.

Yours, etc.,

HANS M. NEITER

CLASSIFIED ADS

We are now in a position to accept classified
advertisements.

Charges for insertion: one guinea for the first
three lines, 5 - a line above three.

COURSES

UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER, HOLLY
RO YDE RESIDENTIAL COLLEGE, 30 Pala-
tine Road, Withington, Manchester, 20 — A short
residential course on ' The Art and Power of the
Cinema' will be held from May \0th to May 14th
Talks on aesthetic and sociological aspects of the
cinema will be given by film society representatives.
University lecturers, a psychologist and a cinema
manager. Films to be shown: 'The Battleship
Potemkin, 'Film and Reality' and 'The Italian
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INCORPORATING DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

MAY 1948

ONE SHILLING

Preamble . . .

iWlpCLCt Oft FXllfYl is a name that will stick, perhaps because of its ver> awkwardness in these
time> of slick and meaningless titles.

Book 1 in the scries is to be published shortly. It is not proposed here to present a list of well-
known names : however, it can be pointed out that the essay by Dilys Powell, in which this critic
surveys the nationality of films, and the specially contributed and illustrated article. •The Script
Comes to Life", on cartoons by the Halas-Batchelor team, are vital to every aspect of film polemic.

I am not of the opinion that 'IMPACT ON FILM' publications are bringing out 'the film books
to end all film books', but 1 think that their merit will be obvious to the discerning, and not a little
entertaining to those whose interest is of a more leisurely kind. J. Clifford King's visit to a Saturday
Morning Children's Film Club, and the 'Portrait of Margaret Lockwocd' by Marguerite Bruce,
deliver the sting and the honey with persuasive zest.

Peter Probyn has designed our cover. John Tarr has designed our lay-out.
With 32 pages, all Art. at 2 -. TMPACT ON FILM' is worth watching for.

Paul Sheridan

NAPIER HOUSE. 24 HIGH HOLBORN. LONDON. WC1

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UNDER C: CHILDREN: — children at school (dCCA), children

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CHILDREN'S EARS (MO I). YOUR CH'LDREN'S EYES (MO I), YOUR
CHILDREN'S MEALS (CO I), YOUR CHILDREN'S SLEEP (CO I), YOUR
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All these films are available from the Central Film Library, except Children at
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SIGHT
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iNTIILK FILM BULLETIN

appraising educational

ami
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Published by: The BritishFilm Institute

4 Great Knssell Street. London. W.C.I

DOCUMENTARY

•OL. 7 NO. 65 MAY 1948

film news

EDITORIAL BOARD

ROBERTO ROSSELLINI

STEPHEN ACKROYD
DONALD ALEXAM'I'K
MAX ANDERSON
EDGAR ANSTEY
GEOFFREY BELL

KEN CAMERON
PAUL FLETCHER
SIN< I MR ROAD
GRAHAME THARP
BASIL WRIGHT

EDITOR

DAVIDE BOULTING

ASSISTANT EDITOR

J\Nt DAVIES

The co\er still for this month is from a new film Steps oj the
Ballet, which will shortly he released h> Crown Film Unit

CONTENTS

Editorial 49

Notes of the Month 50

German Feature Films

Basil Wright 51

Animated Films

Norman McLaren . . . . . . 52

Germany Year Nought . . . . . . . . . . 53

New Documentary Films . . . . . . 54

COl Report 55

Indian Cinema
K. Alumni Abbas . . . . . . . . . . 56

Normandy Diary . . 57

Chapter I

Competition Result . . 58

Film Classification
James Harris . . . . . . 59

Correspondence .. .. 60

Published every month h\

Film Centre :ti s«»ii«> s«|. i.omlon \vi

VNNUAL SUBSCRIPTION 12 S. SINGLE COPIES 1 S.

ni \ki -i twenty years ago the concept ol putting real people and
events on the screens ol this count began to show its first prac-
tical results. The first documentai j films opened the eyes ol British
cinema audiences to, among other things, the artistic possibilities
ol a medium which until then had been concerned principally with
various versions of what the hut lei saw.

Many of those who witnessed these early interpretations ol
reality felt that at last the British cinema was beginning to find its
proper material in the life and work, the hopes, fears and struggles
of the common man. In the rugged, friendly, unfamiliar laces
which the camera then scanned for the first time, there laj the
strength and humanity from which the British cinema, it seemed
reasonable to hope, might develop a power to move men's hearts
as they have rarely been moved by any of the older arts. Here was
a new medium of expression, popular in the most literal sense,
which could worthily interpret the life which throbbed under the
roof-crusts of our cities and in the quietness of our countryside.

Since those early years the British documenary film has gained
an importance in our national life which has fully justified the
soaring dreams of its founding fathers. On a scale which few could
have imagined twenty years ago the moving picture has been turned
to the service of the people, not only of this country, but of the
whole Commonwealth, and it is certain that this progress has not
reached its peak. The advance has not, however, been equally sv. ift
in all directions. Partly owing to the influence of the war. of all the
potentialities which were latent in the initial documentary idea, the
one which has developed most fully is that of public information.
But the capacity to depict the life of the individual, ordinary man is
the one which has progressed least from its rudimentary, state, for
although many films have been made in which all the participants
have been men and women in the street, they have generally been
treated as symbols of the mass, as puppets whose attitudes and
gestures emphasize or prove a social point. Seldom has there been
an attempt to portray the single, idiosy ncratic indiv idual w ho, w uh
millions of other unique individuals, is the raw material ol the
mass. It ;s a matter of approach; the course followed with every
justification by documentary film-makers until now has been to
take a social problem and illustrate its elfects and solution with the
help of representative individuals. The alternative, equally justifi-
able, is to start with the human being in the round, his face, his
gestures, his thoughts and the inflections of his voice, and set him
in his surroundings, which include not only the pattern oi his car-
pel and the view from his bedroom window hut also the social situ-
ation in w hich he lives.

This trend of British documentary tow aids the treatment ol in-
stitutions rather than people has spread wherever the documentary
influence has spread, and the portrayal ol the individual has been
left to the feature and entertainment film-makers who. by and
large, still seem only able to contemplate the perverted aspects ol
the present and the romantic aspects ol the past. I o find any p
screen study ol mankind it is necessary to turn to the countries ol

Europe where people have been compelled to reconsidei then ap-
proach tO main subjects besides that of the ci iem I'

visit to I ondon ol Si Roberto Rossellini was more than a date in

the cine m t's s, vial calendai It was I lie \isit ol a man who. h\ his
will .ind inspiration, has probably come closer than any other

aetne directoi to portraying our time in terms ol its in me partici-
pants His most recent film, Germania l/i ■ • /. ■ which has un-
{Continued at foot of p /.l)

50

!)()( I MINI \RV FILM NEWS

NOTES OF THE MONTH

The British Film Institute

the Report of the Government Committee of Inquiry into the British
Film Institute has been issued after four months of evidence-taking
(HM Stationery Office. Ad.). It redefines the Institute's objects as
follows:

(a) to encourage the development of the art of the film, to promote
its use as a record of contemporary life and manners and to
foster public appreciation and study of it from these points of
view;

(b) to explore and promote new or extended uses of the film;

(c) to encourage, support and serve other bodies working in the
same field.

Its recommendations, in brief, are that the Institute should con-
centrate on building up the National Film Library and establishing
its own cinema, providing a first-class information service and setting
up a regional organization to develop local film appreciation and
activity. A rough estimate of the finance necessary is given as
£100,000 to cover annual expenditure which is over three times the
present grant, and £30,000 to meet capital expenditure.

Clarification of the Institute's purposes and some expansion of its
work are therefore the main upshot of the inquiry. The proposal
that the Institute should act as a central servicing agency for other
organizations (giving grants, providing meeting places, projection
facilities, secretarial help, etc.) is also valuable. Important, too, is the
recommendation that the Governors should in future be appointed
by the Government as individuals.

The great omission is a really inspiring lead to the Institute. The
main proposals do little to break new ground. The initiative still
remains with the other organizations which have grown up — film
societies, specialist film users and film makers — to see that the
Institute becomes the real centre and focus of all film interests and
activities which it ought always to have been.

Education Foundation for Visual Aids

the governors of the Educational Foundation for Visual Aids
have now appointed the new Director of the Foundation.

Dr Harrison is at present an Assistant Education Officer of Sur-
rey County Council, in whose employ he has been since 1945, when

he was appointed as Assistant Education Officer for Further
Education.

We are told that Dr Harrison has had considerable experience
of the use of visual aids to education both in the Services and in
civilian teaching. From 1931-45 he used visual aids almost con-
tinuously in all types of education. In 1938, while on a Carnegie
Institute research scholarship in science, he visited many American
schools, taking a particular interest in the use they made of visual
aids. He has produced, and assisted in the production of, slides,
film-strips and 16 mm films, and since 1945 he has been respon-
sible for advising the Surrey Education Committee on the purchase
of all types of visual aid equipment.

Documentary in Parliament

.'charley', the new Halas-Batchelor creation, to whom our readers
have already been introduced, has already got himself into Parlia-
ment. On May 13th there was a debate in the House of Commons
about Government publicity services, with special reference to the
Central Office of Information. COI films were mentioned when Mr
Marlowe (MP for Brighton) questioned the 'vast sums' spent by
COI and complained that feu of the films were ever seen by the
people. Mr Marlowe seemed perturbed that £30,000 was being allo-
cated for six cartoons featuring 'Charley', to be made with the
direct object of explaining to the people the workings and advan-
tages of the new Government Acts — Housing, Health Bill, National
Insurance, etc.

The artist who created 'Charley" has described him as 'a middle-
aged bloke, going bald, with a streak of optimism'. Mr Marlowe
wished to know which of the gentlemen on the Treasury Bench was
the model for this caricature!

We would respectfully advise Mr Marlowe and other honourable
members to see one or two of the 'Charley' cartoons before making
such sweeping criticisms — they might find them instructive, and they
will certainly find them amusing. As for the general public not view-
ing them — well, they will be theatrically distributed and available
very shortly from the Central Film Library.

Let us see more and not less of this type of film. The parable is still
the easiest method of explanation — and 'Charley' can tell the story of
our social changes better than any number of White Papers or pro-
nouncements in the Press.

(Editorial contd.)

fortunately so far only been seen privately in this country, shows
what tremendous forces may be released by this fresh approach.

Sr Rossellini's method is to put aside all the pretentious para-
phernalia of conventional film-making. With the most limited
technical means, and using for the most part real people in their
real surroundings, he builds a picture of Berlin which shows, not
how a stricken city is governed, fed, clothed and decontaminated,
but how the people who remain there live and feel. He achieves, so
to speak, a deeper reality towards which it is time our own realist
film-makers turned their thoughts.

There, are, of course, many ways in which film-making can be
approached, and it would be unreasonable to suggest that the style
which has carried British documentary so far towards the goal
originally set for it should be abandoned, but it would be equally
unreasonable to insist on dogmatic uniformity. There has recently
been much criticism of the predicant dullness of many document-
ary films. Surely one of the surest methods of bringing our screens
back to life is to turn our minds to the study of the ordinary man.

Wot! No Money

we sent our bright young man along to the British Council to attend
the meeting which was arranged between Roberto Rossellini and the
Press, when the Italian film director arrived in this country at the
beginning of May. Unfortunately, however. Signor Rossellini was
indisposed, and a member of the British Council staff undertook to
answer questions. Our representative, not daring to return entirely
empty-handed to the editorial staff, and noticing that in the hand-out
issued beforehand by the British Council special reference was made
to Signor Rossellini's interest in documentary films in Britain,
inquired whether this might be taken to indicate a possibility of his
making a similar type of film in Italy. The young lady behind the
desk replied without hesitation: 'Oh. he always uses the document-
ar\ technique. Why. he hardly spends a penny.' The young man was
later found wandering down Regent Street with a dazed expression
on his face.

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

51

Film in Europe

German Feature Films

by

Basil Wright

film makers m Germany are working under con-
ditions of extreme difficulty. There are virtually
no studios, apparatus is short. It is, on the whole,
remarkable what has been achieved, apart from
the French Zone, where it appears that no pro-
duction has so far been undertaken. In the other
three zones would-be producers must obtain a
licence to make films from the occupation
authorities, and must also obtain approval for
each script bcfore,they go into production. The
main laboratories (outside the Russian Zone)
are in the British and US sectors of Berlin, in the
American Zone at Munich, and in the British
Zone at Gottingen. Plans for new laboratories
in the British Zone are under discussion.

Ingenuity

In the British Zone, incredible ingenuity has
been exercised by German producers in convert-
ing all sorts of buildings — such as inns, village
halls, barracks, ruined school-buildings — into
reasonably efficient studios. But there is a natural
tendency to script films for the maximum amount
of location shooting, at least until the new stages
at Gottingen are ready for use.

Ideologically, the eight films I saw during a
short visit to the British Zone seemed to me to
reflect firstly the confusion of the non-Nazi Ger-
man mentality today, and secondly, the influence
of the respective occupying authorities. Without
entering into too dangerous a generalization, it
could be said that the mental and psychological
attitude behind some of the films is best summed
up by those two untranslatable German words —
Weltschmertz and Schadenfreude, which, in their
post-war German setting, combine into a curious
sort of self-pity which non-Germans find it diffi-
cult to appreciate or understand.

The problem of the German producer today is
to find a way of getting something positive out of
the prevailing mood of depression, either directly,
or by turning their attention elsewhere (escap-
ism). The tendency of the cinema-going public is
to prefer the latter method to the former, which
they call 'Trummer' — (rubble) — films.

Russian Zone

The best of the rubble-films is also one of the
earliest — Mdrder Sind Unter Uns (Murderers are
among us) now showing in London. Not only is
it a fine piece of film-making, but it also puts
forward a positive viewpoint in terms of the re-
habilitation of the principal character, who re-
turns to active community service after a period
of disillusionment. This film was made in the
Russian Zone, and is very much better — ideo-
logically— than two others from that zone,
Irgendwo in Berlin (Everywhere in Merlin) and
Ehe im Schatten (Marriage in the Shadows).
Irgenwo in Berlin begins well, but relapses into

profound sentimentality, the last ten minutes
being exclusively devoted to a tear-jerking death-
bed scene of a too-too angelic small boy. (There
is an interesting comparison here with Rossel-
lini's Germany Year Nought, which however is
not eligible for discussion here, since it is not in
fact a German film.) Ehe im Schatten deals with
the plight of a Jewish-Gentile marriage under the
Nazi regime, and is based on the actual story of
the famous actor Gottschalk, who was married
to a Jewess. It is a well-made and very moving
film, but its conclusion, a double-suicide, is
hardly encouraging.

American Zone

Not unexpectedly, films made in the American
Zone show a tendency to follow Hollywood pat-
terns, both in story and in production technique.
Zwischen Gestern und Morgen (Between Yester-
day and Today) is a sort of Grand Hotel subject,
ingeniously constructed in double flashbacks,
beautifully acted and thoroughly gripping
throughout. It deals with the return to Germany
of a refugee from the Nazis after the war, and
what he finds. Unfortunately, the story is so
neat, so contrived, so smooth at the edges, that
the emotional and psychological punches are
weakened, and what could have been truly
dramatic becomes not much more than enjoyable
entertainment. Nevertheless, it is something of
an achievement, particularly in comparison with
another American Zone film — Uber uns Die
Himmel (Heaven above us). This stars Ger-
many's most permanently popular star, who sur-
vived the Nazi period intact, appearing in films
without Fascist implications, Hans Albers. It was
directed by von Barcy. (The same team made
Baron Munchausen to celebrate the twenty-fifth
birthday of UFA in 1943.) But what a shocking
story. It's about a man who becomes King of the
Black Market in order to get funds to restore the
sight of his war-blinded son. Which having been
achieved, he considers the error of his ways and
returns to honesty. The Californian breezes blow
too obviously.

British Zone

Of all the zones the British has so far achieved
the highest output. During 1948 a minimum of
12 new features is expected, as opposed to eight
during 1947. Fortunate, too, has been the
presence of Helmut Kautner, a really tirst-class
film director, several of whose productions were
banned by Goebbels. Some may remember his
colour film, Grosse Freiheit (also known as La
Paloma), which was shown privatelj by the MOI
during the war. Kautner has given much help and
encouragement to a new group of young film
makers under the leadership of Rolf Mayer. This
organization is known as the Junge Film Union,

and is working in a converted dance-hall in the
country near Hamburg.

The tendency of producers in the British Zone
— if any tendency can be clearly discerned — is to
try to combine a positive approach to reconstruc-
tion with escapist or semi-escapist techniques.
The first film of this type, Menschen im Gottes
Hand (People in God's Hands), is a sincere but
often too naive study of post-war problems.
Nevertheless, its intentions, both in idea and
technique, command considerable respect, and it
is also notable in depending not on established
performers but mainly on a young and com-
paratively inexperienced cast which acquits itself
more than promisingly. The film is also a remark-
able example of how enthusiasm and improvisa-
tion can surmount the most appalling lack of
facilities.

Two Others

In complete contrast is a film called Denn
Finden Wir uns Wieder Derein, which deals in-
efficiently and mawkishly with the adventures of
a group of Hitler Jugend who make their way
back to Berlin to defend it against the invaders,
but are disillusioned by the cowardice and de-
fection of their leaders. The intention of the film
is good, but with the exception of a few brief
sequences it is incoherent and rather boring.

Film Ohne Titel (Film without a Title I script
and supervision by Kautner — is, on the other
hand, the liveliest and most enjoyable of all the
German films 1 have seen. It takes the shape of a
script conference between all the members of a
production unit, one of whom is played by
Kautner himself and another by Willi Fritsch.
Starting from a given boy and girl situation, they
discuss the various ways it might have arisen and
might be worked out. Each member of the unit
describes the story from his own point of v icw .
and this gives opportunities for several amusing
parodies of film styles. At the end, the boy and
girl tell the real story, on which the unit comes
to a unanimous decision — its too ordinary,
there's certainly no film in it. Film Ohne Titel
certainly deserves early distribution in this
country.

FOR SALE

A few copies of the following publication- are
offered for sale. Some of them will be of much
interest to our readers. Offers should be sent to
the Editor.

( Ynema Quarterl) Autumn

Spring 1933
Spring 1934

52

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

Canadian News

Animated Films

by
Norman McLaren

DFN has asked me to write a short article on the
conception and execution of some of the ani-
mated films I have been making for the National
Film Board of Canada.

Their production method differs radically from
the usual one for animated films, and this largely
conditions the final result.

On the visual side their making is a one-man
operation from start to finish, I have tried to
preserve in my relationship to the film, the same
closeness and intimacy that exists between a
painter and his canvas. This is rather difficult,
for in the one case only a stick of wood with a
tuft of camel hair intervenes between the maker
and the finished result, and in the other, an
elaborate series of optical, chemical and me-
chanical processes, which become a perfect
breeding ground for lack of intimacy, frustra-
tions, ill feeling and hostility between the artist
and his finished work.

And so my militant philosophy is this: to
make with a brush on canvas is a simple and
direct delight — to make with a movie should be
the same.

Examples

To illustrate the effect of this philosophy on
my technique I will give details of different
solutions.

One group of films made for the Film Board
in the earlier part of the war publicizing the
War Savings Campaign were all made by a hand-
drawn-camera-less method; they were Dollar
Dance, Five for Four, V for Victory and Hen Hop.
As Hen Hop is the purest example, I will speak
about it.

In it the camera, shooting, developing of
original negative were completely short cir-
cuited. In one operation, which is the drawing
directly on to 35 mm. clear machine leader with
an ordinary pen nib and indian ink, a clean
jump was made from the ideas in my head to the
images on what would normally be called the
developed negative. Because these ideas were
never thought out in precise detail until the
moment of drawing, and because, when drawing,
I had a chart of exact footages of the music both
beside me and in my head, the equivalents of

SCRIPTING, DRAWING, ANIMATING, SHOOTING,
DEVELOPING OF NEGATIVE, POSITIVE CUTTING and

negative cutting were all done in one operation.
If a mistake was made, a small amount of water
(I use saliva) on cloth would wash the offending
images off the frame, and drawing could continue
as before. The rectification with one swipe of the
damp cloth affected all the traditional processes
from script through to negative cutting.

Summary

To summarize the technical processes in-
volved :

Music recorded first.

Music track run on a movieola and each note,
phrase and sentence marked with grease pencil.

Track put on a frame counter and the notes
measured cumulatively from zero at start.

Measurements are put against the notes on a
dope sheet, which is usually a simplified musical
score, and, by subtraction, the length of each
note in terms of frames is written in.

The grease pencilled sound track is run through
a two-way winder, along with a roll of clear
machine leader, called a 'dummy'. The notes are
copied and identified with indian ink on the
dummy.

The final drawing is done with the aid of an
apparatus whose purpose is to hold the film in
place, move it on from frame to frame and pro-
vide a means of registration from frame to frame.
It is actually an adapted camera gate with claw
mechanism and an optical system that reflects
the image of the frame just drawn on to the
frame about to be drawn.

The dummy is threaded through this appar-
atus. On top of it and riding along with it is
threaded another track of clear machine leader
for doing the final drawing on. With a bottle of
ink, pen and dope sheet at hand drawing can
begin.

All drawing is done in natural sequence,
starting at the first frame of the film and working
straight through to the last.

When finished, the drawn track goes into the
lab for a couple of prints; one for a checking
print to sync up with the sound track, the other
for a master for release printing.

If colour release is desired, various kinds of
dupes are made from this master and assembled
in parallel to act as the separation negatives for
the particular colour process used.

Interesting Points

The above may sound rather like a failure to
realize my philosophy of the simple, hand-made
movie. However, it should be noted that the real
creative job of it is all concentrated into one uni-
fied and uninterrupted session (in our painter-
canvas parallel the rest of the jobs are equivalent
to stretching and sizing the canvas, setting out
the palette, varnishing and framing).

There are several other points perhaps worth
mentioning:

Beginning at the first frame and working
through to the end in natural sequence is a pro-
cedure which seldom happens in film making,
even in animated shorts. I found it valuable for it
allowed improvisation and had a direct bearing
on both the detailed and total continuity.

The small size of the frame made it difficult to
draw complex images; cinematically this is a
healthy limitation for it forced me to make my
point solely by the action rather than by relying
on static characteristics.

The most effortless and easiest thing to pro-
duce by this hand-drawn method is extreme
mobility; the most difficult, and almost im-
possible is staticity. This is the opposite of most
other animation techniques where the static

image is the easiest footage to obtain, and the
mobile the most difficult. With the standard ani-
mation technique, one breathes life into a static
world: with hand-drawn technique, one slows
down, to observable speed, a world of frantic
mobility. (When beginners draw footage by hand
and the result is projected at normal speed, the
image-flow is so fast that it gives the impression
of looking at thought, if thought were visible.)

The image. must needs be linear; tone value
and light and shade cannot be used as they
fluctuate too much from frame to frame. For
certain types of film this is a severe limitation.

When the National Film Board needed pub-
licity shorts during the war, the above hand-
drawn linear technique served quite well, but
when the need for animated films on our French-
Canadian folk songs came up it was hardly
adequate, particularly for the more poetic and
slow songs. I had, therefore, to think of main-
taining my intimacy with the celluloid in some
other way. I felt the need for using chiaroscuro
and slowness, and solved the problem thus.

Doing a painting

In doing oil paintings myself, and in watching
other painters at their canvases, it often seemed
to me that the evolution or change that many
a painting went through from its virgin state to
(in my own case) its soiled and battered con-
clusion, was more interesting than the conclusion
itself. Why not, therefore, consciously switch
the focus-point of all the effort from the end
condition and spread it over the whole process?
In other words, do a painting, but put the empha-
sis upon the doing rather than the painting — on
the process rather than the end-product.

And so for Poulette Grise, I stuck a bit of
cardboard about 18 in. by 24 in. upon a wall,
placed rigidly in front of it a tripod and camera
loaded with colour film. To avoid reflection and
waiting-to-dry trouble, I used chalks and pastel
rather than paint.

The picture then grew in the normal way that
any still painting grows, being evolved from
moment to moment, and each stage being very
dependent on the stage before it. About every
quarter of an hour the evolution was recorded on
the film mainly by short, contiguous dissolves.
For three weeks the surface of this one bit of
cardboard metamorphosed itself in and out of a
series of henly images, and at the end of it, all
1 had was one much worn bit of cardboard w ith
an unimpressive chalk drawing on it, and 400 ft.
of exposed film in the camera. In a sense the
film was the by-product of doing a painting.

Of course the sound track has to be marked up
first and the dope sheet made out in much the
same way as for the hand-drawn technique, but
once again the creative part of the job happened
in one and only one concentrated binge, unham-
pered by technical headaches and frustrations.
Also of importance was the fact that here again
the movement evolved in its natural sequence.

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

53

This new film directed by Roberto
Rossellini has not yet been released in
London. It deals, as its name suggests,
with life in Berlin the year after the war.

Germany Year Nought

A new Rossellini Film

this is the third Rossellini film since he burst on
the world outside Italy after the war. It is not such
a good film as either Open City or Paisa, but all
the same it has more real movie in it than any-
thing else one is likely to see in a long time.
Rossellini has got right inside the physical and
psychological Berlin of today; that is, he has
completely understood the feeling of living in a
very slow, dark, and hopeless nightmare of men-
tal and bodily misery. Germany Year Nought,
which he has dedicated to the memory of his own
son, tells the story of a small boy who is led by
circumstances, and by the general human condi-
tions around him, to poison his ailing father and
commit suicide himself— a plot at first sight so
grotesquely melodramatic as to be almost comic,
but, when fitted to the uncompromising and
imaginatively presented realism of the Berlin
landscape, both convincing and moving. With the
exception of the old father, who is an actor, all
the characters are ordinary Berliners (the boy

Continued from previous page

and as a result I had a chance to improvise
everything at the moment of shooting.

As this particular technique lent itself more
readily to creating visual change rather than to
action (side to side, and to and fro displacement
of image on the screen) I intentionally avoided
the use of action, partly because it suited the
theme, and partly out of curiosity to see if
change in itself could be a strong enough cine-
matic factor to sustain interest.

The technique also invited me to take chiar-
oscuro out of its usual role as a dead element in
the decor of animated films, and put it to work
as the foremost factor with a life of its own. In
this I hope that perhaps I am on the way to
bridging the gap that has always existed between
painting proper and the animated film.

Sometimes the demands of a theme dictated
a technique which was remote from my stick-
with-camel-hair philosophy, as in the case of the
Chant Populaire, C'est L'Aviron. My only hope,
then, was to get as close to the technical mechan-
ism as possible and thoroughly exploit the inti-
macy— in this case with the zoom stand, shutter
and wind-back possibilities of an animation
camera. But, on the whole, themes incompatible
with the camel-hair approach were avoided.

To sum up, the conception and execution of
most of my work for the National Film Board
has probably depended on four things :

(1) Attempting to keep at a minimum the tech-
nical mechanism standing between my con-
ception and the finished work.

(2) Handling personally the mechanisms that do
remain, in as intimate a way as a painter his
painting, or a violinist his violin.

(3) Making the very limitations of these mechan-
isms, when brought in touch with the theme,
the growing point for visual ideas.

(4) Making sure of a chance for improvising at
the moment of shooting or drawing.

was found working in a circus), and, apart from
one or two interiors, the film was shot on
location.

Technically, Germany Year Nought reveals
once again Rossellini's unusual and often revolu-
tionary style. Dialogue sequences are shot in
constricted spaces, with both the camera and the
characters moving restlessly in varying focal
planes. Moments of great significance are pointed
by the sudden withdrawal of the camera to ex-
treme long shot — there is a moment when the
boy hears an organ playing in a roofless and
ruined church, and the camera suddenly shows
us the scene in a high angle perspective, which
recalls a painting by Chirico. But all these tech-
nical points arise, invariably, from Rossellini's
conception of what the film must say. Take for
example the portable gramophone playing a
recording of Hitler's broadcast on the defence of
Berlin, while the Tommies and the Yanks wander
listlessly around the Reichschancellery, and the
ruins stretch mile after mile, masking one knows
not how many skeletons or how many living
dead. This is not just a clever or striking sound
trick; it is a sequence integral to the plot and
motivation of the film.

What one misses is the different sympathy of
observation which could have come had the

director seen Berlin as an Italian; it is no doubt
one of Rossellini's greatest assets that he is able
to enter so deeply into the feelings and outlook
of those around him, but here he has identified
himself so completely that it might be a film made
by a German. This has happened, I suggest, for
two perfectly valid reasons; firstly, no film direc-
tor worth his salt could fail to reflect in his
shooting the architectural and human atmo-
sphere of Berlin (which is unforgettably hor-
rible); and secondly, Rossellini has, with a pas-
sion that shines clear and lucid from the screen.
concentrated on expressing, through the boy
Edmund, the whole pity and terror of that mar-
tyred innocence which, with the atom bomb, has
become the hall-mark of our modern world. It is
perhaps significant that the finest part of the film
is the finale, where the boy is utterly alone; \\c
follow him, aimlessly wandering, through the
city's gritty and repulsive dusk, observe, almost
with horror, the traces of simple, childish in-
terests and childish play which break across his
misery, and feel, with the anonymous passer-by
who sees him fall to his death, that it is, ob-
scurely but none the less certainly, our fault.
Then the camera pans up as a shabby tram
trundles past, and carries us off with it on the
final fade-out ... b. w.

A scene from Greenpark's film for British Overseas Airways Corporation
The name is Three Dawns to Sydney; a review will follow in June

54

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

NEW DOCUMENTARY FILMS

Cartoon of the Month

here is a project, a series of cartoons intended to
introduce problems of the day to the public in a
popular way, which deserves full approval.. It
needed imagination to sponsor such a series and
it needed an acute sense of proportion to entrust
these films to the expert hands of John Halas and
Joy Batchelor. In both respects, the COI are to
be congratulated. To have succeeded in produc-
ing two films (it is yet Jhe start of the series),
which will not only be an asset to any cinema
programme because of their entertainment value,
but which will at the same time encourage con-
structive and informed discussion, is something
of an achievement — and it will certainly be its
own reward.

The first of these cartoons, New Town; which
gives an excellent idea of the outlines of town-
planning in a most human and delightful man-
ner, has already been reviewed in these pages:
that it is, if anything, the better of the two viewed
purely as a cartoon does not reduce the second
qualitatively to second place, because the latter,
Your Very Good Health, a discussion of the pro-
posed National Health scheme, on the other
hand, gives rather more information about its
subject. Altogether, therefore, there is very little
to choose between them. Both combine good
humour and liveliness, qualities lacking so often
% as to give them almost a scarcity value.

In each film, the central figure is an engaging
character called Charlie, whose shock-headed
independence is sturdy and buoyant without
being obstructive. He is cleverly chosen and
created, because he avoids the insipidity of a Mr
Average Man yet retains certain desirable charac-
teristics which, if they do not incline members of
the audience to identify themselves with him, will
at least endear him to them. We are glad to see
that in the interval between the showing of the
two films Charlie has not been idle, for he is now
able to introduce to his public a wife and child.
The infant, although reminiscent of the typical
cartoon baby, now and then shows enough
flashes of his unique parental origin to offset this
earlier impression.

Your Very Good Health answers some of the
main questions which the ordinary man and
woman ask about the forthcoming scheme. It is
an introduction to the discussion of what is still
regarded in some quarters as a controversial
issue. It is, in fact, such a brilliant introduction
to this subject that it may well have the effect of
lulling its sponsors into thinking that no further
effort in film is needed. Here lurks the danger,
because the more successful this series proves to
be in fostering public interest, the more urgent it
becomes. to follow up these kingfisher flights of
fancy with detailed foreground and background
films. And such films can, with some imagina-
tion, be made about subjects which are, like those
of the first two films, still in the blue-print stage.

Down to the Sea. Made by Greenpark. Pro-
ducer: Paul Fletcher. Director: Humphrey
Swingler. Camera: George Still and Peter Hen-
nessey. Editor: Alex Camp. Assistant Directors:
John Elliot and Peter Plaskitt. Music: Guy
Warrack.

Apparently an inquiry for shipping space in a
Rio office will set every shipyard working from
Birkenhead to Belfast. This film, which is in-
formative and factual, ably demonstrates the
part that ships play in our existence. The first
essential for an economic recovery is a lively ex-
port trade and, as a corollary, ships to carry our
goods. The object of the film is to show the ship-
building industry at work, from the time when
the designer is experimenting with wax models
in a pond, until a new ship sets out on its maiden
voyage to meet that need in Rio.

As a purely objective record of why and how
ships are built the film is successful, but one feels
that more information regarding the lives of
those who build and sail them, even to the ex-
clusion of the handshaking of people who launch
them, would add to the value of this otherwise
interesting film.

Crisis in Italy. March of Time. Vol. 13. No. 8.
This film illustrates the present political and eco-
nomic situation in Italy, with emphasis on the
potential power of the Communist Party. The
Communists are represented as being active and
influential in Trade Unions and Local Govern-
ment. In the agricultural south they have, by
agitating for the break-up of large estates,
secured a large measure of support from Italy's
farming population, to account for one-third of
the party's membership. It is also made clear
that the Americans are in Trieste. Aid is avail-
able from the United States to offset the eco-
nomic plight in which the country finds itself.
Can this aid be administered to ensure a streng-
thening of resistance to Communist political
action?

During the palmy days of isolation, when
Europe was nobody's business, and America had
only herself to take care of, March of Time could
usually be relied upon to perform an accurate
and unbiased job of pictorial journalism. Pic-
torial accuracy may still be found, but isolation
cannot be had in this, the American century.
Time Marches On.

From 'Moving Millions', a new Crown Film

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

55

COI Report

being a list of Central Office of Information releases January-June 1948

Title

Production Unit

Details oj Distribution

Notes

Vnswer Four Questions
Ajiy Time to Spare

Charley's March of Time

Crete — Part 2
Crete— Part 3
Crete — Part 4
Down to the Sea

Falkland".

Furnival and Son

Here's Health

History of Writing

Home Service

How to Make Chutneys and

Sauces

How to Make Pickles

How to Use the Telephone

Miners' Weekend

Minesweeping
Moving Millions

Pop Goes the Weasel

Precise Measurement for
Engineers

Crown Film Unit

Geoffrey Plumbley
Productions

H.i Lis and Batchelor
Production

Editorial Film Productions
Editorial Film Productions
Editorial Film Productions
Greenpark Productions

Editorial Film Productions

Crown Film Unit

Data Production

Films of Fact Ltd.

Production

Cecil Musk Production

Films of Great Britain Ltd
Films of Great Britain Ltd

Public Relationship Films

Crown Film Unit

Crown Film Unit
Crown Film Unit

Crown Film Unit
Data Film Production

Report on Industrial Scotland Crown Film Unit

Surface Dressing with Tar A Verity Films Production

Telephone Cable Plumbing Films of Great Britain Ltd

They Gave Him the Works Greenpark

This is Britain No. 22

fhis is Britain No. 23

This is Britain, No. 24

This is Britain, No. 25

A Merlin Film Production

A Merlin Film Production

A Merlin Film Production

A Merlin Film Production

V Thousand Million a Year Anglo-Scottish

Crown Film Unit

Town Rats

Trial by Weather

/egetable Dishes
/oices of Malaya
'our Children's Sleep

r*our Health

'our Very Good Health

World Wide Pictures

Films of Great Brit.im I id
Crown Film Unit
Realist Film Unit

Editorial Films

Halas and Batchelor
Production

NT. Primarily intended for showing to children of school A recruiting film for the Civil Service. (Produced for the
leaving age Ministry ofLabour)

Limited Theatrical Distribution Recruiting film for the Territorial Army and the Royal

Auxiliary \u force

Monthly release for May. Will also be available from The third of the series of coloured cartoons featuring
CFL in July 'Charley'. This film dcafc with the new National Insurance

Act. (Produced for the Ministry of National Insurance)

Primarily for distribution in schools, but also available Three of a series of four films on Crete, describing the history
from CFL of the island. (Produced for the Ministry of Education)

Theatrical Distribution probable. Final details not avail-
able at time of going to press

NT

theatrical distribution probable. Final details not avail-
able at time of going to press.

Theatrical distribution probable. Final details not avail-
able ai time of going to press

Part of a Visual Unit for distribution to schools

Theatrical distribution probable. Final details not avail-
able at time of going to press

Central Film Library
Central Film Library

For distribution to Government Departments

NT

NT

Theatrical distribution probable. Final details not avail-
able at time of going to press

NT

NT '

Monthly Release for February
NT

Limited Non-Theatrical distribution
Monthly Release for June

NT
NT

Commercially distributed by 20th Century Fox
NT

1 inal details not available at lime of going to press

Commercial distribution by MOM

ercial distribution by Piccadilly Cinema!

Film Productions Also available from Central I ilm
Library.

I he.nrit.il distribution in Scotland

Monthly release for kpril Available from Ccniral I Urn
I mrarv at the end ol M I)

A film dealing with the high qualities of British shipbuilding

The work of survey in the Antarctic. (Produced for the
Colonial Office)

A portrait of Sheffield. (Produced for the Board of Trade)

An explanation of the National Health Bill to the General
Public. (Produced for the Ministry of Health)

To show the background of writing from the earliest time up
to the present day. (Produced for the Ministry ol Education)

A picture of the British Radio and Television Industry
(Produced for the Board of Trade)

An instructional film for housewives. (Produced for the
Ministry of Food)

An instructional film for housewives. (Produced for the
Ministry of Food)

An instructional film for Civil Servants. (Produced for the
Treasury)

A picture of the way in which miners spend their spare time
at weekends

An Instructional film, produced for the Admiralty

A picture of London's transport facilities. (Made for the
London Transport Executive at the request of the Foreign
Office)

A popular explanation of how the money raised by taxation
is spent. (Produced for the Treasury)

This film shows the importance of precise measurement in all
phases of modern industrial engineering and the ultimate
responsibility of the National Physical Laboratory for main-
taining accuracy in standards of measurement. (Produced
for the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research)

Theregearingof Scotland'sindustrial machine to new needs.
(Produced for the Board of Trade)

Instructional film on the preparation of road surfaces. (Pro-
duced by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Re-
search)

Training film for GPO Engineers. (Produced for GPO)

To discuss what can help to make a happier factory life.
(Produced for the Ministry ofLabour)

'This is Britain' is a series of magazine films. This issue con-
tains two items:

(1) Aptitude Tests in the Royal Air Force

(2) Changing a Wavelength

'This is Britain' is a series of magazine films. This issue con-
tains three items:

(1) Buses in Boxes

(2) Wood Engravings

(3) North Sea Cable

'This is Britain' is a series of magazine films. This issue con-
tains three items:

(1) The Whirling Arm

(2) Gunpowder Plot

(3) Lighthouse Shop

'This is Britain' is a series of magazine films. This issue con-
tains three items:

(1) The Fastest Tyres on Earth

(2) School for Signalmen

(3) Plaster Plus

An account of the m ork done by Cusioms and Excise
duced for Customs and Excise Department)

An instruclion.il film on ral destruction for local authorities,
health committees and pest operatives. (Produced tor
Ministry of Food)

The Agricultural Disaster of 1947, and the measures taken
to saw the harVest, (Produced for the Ministry of Agricul-
ture and Fisheries I

One of a series ol films on basic cooking. (Produced for the

Ministry ol food)

An account of life in Malaya iod.iv (Produced for the
Colonial Office)

One ol films on ihc care of children This film

shows patents how to get their children to sleep properly,
< Produced fbi the M I > alto)

An explanation of the »a> in which the National Health

e will work in Scotland

cond of the series of coloured >.i nng

"Charley' l"his film explains the workings ol « he National

Health Service

56

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

Indian Cinema:

KEY TO UNDERSTANDING
by

K. Ahmad Abbas

one of the first things a foreigner notices about
Indian films is that they are too long — though no
Indian film has yet beaten the record of Gone
With The Wind in this respect, and since the war-
time shortage of raw stock, there is a general
tendency to reduce the footage, supported by a
ruling of the Indian Motion Picture Producers
Association fixing 12,000 feet maximum for the
product of its members. On the other hand, both
in Britain and in Hollywood films of quite in-
ordinate length are being produced. It is true,
however, that the tempo of story development in
an Indian film is slower than in its counterpart
from Hollywood. So, to a foreigner, it seems
longer. This criticism applies not only to film
making but to a whole way of life. The Indian
films are slow because the tempo of Indian life is
slow, and as a mirror of this life, they uncon-
sciously and inevitably, tend to acquire this
tempo. Indian life is still slow because, artificially
arrested by historical and political causes, it is
still largely in the feudal stage. The Indian films
will acquire the nervous tension and mounting
tempo of a Hollywood thriller only when the
impact of industrialism has created the same
psychological atmosphere in this country as in
England and America.

Human Relations

The Indian films are produced for people steeped
in traditions of long and patient suffering. Here
time stands still and a couple of thousand feet
more of a film is a drop in the ocean of eternity.
We are a patient people, brought up on religion
and literary epics like Ramayana and Mahabha-
rata, Shahanama and Easana-i-Azad. We are
used to religious song festivals like qawwalis and
kirtans that go on for the whole night, and are
not likely to be bored by a two-hour movie.

For climatic and socio-historic reasons, we are
a sentimental people and take human relations
not so casually as the sophisticated and blase
characters of the average Hollywood picture.
The family tie is still strong in India and the
modern youth has yet to fight for and win his or
her rights to happiness and freedom as an indi-
vidual. Having been acquainted with suffering
on a mass scale for too long — famines, pestilence,
tyrannies, the indignities of foreign rule, the
frustrations of too rigid a social system, and
violent internal strife — we are perhaps a little
morbidly fascinated by tragedy. We have an
unhealthy desire to see not only martyrdom but
even frustration sublimated on the screen. It is
interesting to mention in this connection that,
unlike the experience of Hollywood, the Indian
movie-producer generally finds films with tragic
themes more paying at the box-office than
flippant musicals or comedies.

Besides films of religious appeal or those

dealing with emotional frustration, social justice
and the struggle for freedom and the realization
of democratic ideals provide some of the most
popular themes to the Indian producers. Senti-
mental stories sympathetic to the poor, the dis-
possessed, the Untouchables, and attacking the
rich and the powerful, are always popular.

Being people in an historically transitional stage
—from medievalism to modernism, from feu-
dalism to industrialism, from foreign rule to
freedom — we are, consciously or subconsciously,
preoccupied with all sorts of political, social,
economic and emotional problems. The problem
of caste and untouchability, the problem of
widow remarriage, the problem of parental
interference with young people's lives and love,
the problem of unemployment, famines and the
economic ruination of the peasantry; all these
and many more have been dealt with by the
writers and directors of the Indian screen.
Indeed, there is almost not a single popular
Indian film which has not had a serious social
or emotional subject or theme.

Entertainment

But, shrewd businessmen as they are, the
Indian producers have learnt to mix this serious
content of the picture with 'entertainment'.
They know the people are starved of romance
and glamour in their personal lives. So they have
supplied these ingredients in plenty in their
films, invariably at the cost of realism and in-
tegrity. Box-office analysis reveals that, barring
an occasional cycle of boy-meets-girl films, it is
the triple combination of sentimental appeal,
contemporary social relevance of theme, and
good 'catchy' songs, which provides the formula
of success. Of these, the songs perhaps are the
most important — as otherwise average films like
Khazanchi (1940), a plagiarization of The Way
of All Flesh, and Rattan (1945), a variation on
the frustrated love theme, became hits only on
the strength of their popular songs.

Religion

The Indians are perhaps the most (and also
perhaps the last) religious people in the world.
The early films, therefore, had religious or
mythological themes. Since then some of the best
and the greatest of our movie hits have been
in this category. Films based on the lives of
popular saints have been most successful and it
is interesting to observe a progressive humani-
tarian sub-motif being introduced in these stories
of the Men of God. This has been partly due to
the fact that many a saint in India (as doubtless
elsewhere — the -most eminent example being
Jesus of Nazareth) has been a Man of the People,
too, but also in response to the latent urge of the
people for reinterpretation of religion in terms

of humanity. Thus Tukaram, an inexpensively
produced Marathi film, achieved almost a world
record by running continuously for over sixty
weeks in Bombay City alone, not merely because
of its religious appeal, but because the writer
and director had stressed the human rather than
the spiritual qualities of the saint which endeared
him to his people in his own times, and to
millions, centuries later, through the screen.

As in all countries which have a present fraught
with discontent and misery, we in India too have
been unduly fascinated by romanticized versions
of the 'Glorious Past'. 'Ancient Indian in all
its pristine glory' is a frequently used catch-line
to advertise these so-called 'costume' films which
offer escape from the problems of today into a
mood of proud contemplation of the past.
Not a single king, queen, hero or knight-errant
of history has escaped the attention of the film-
producers, and, even today, other qualities being,
equal, a spectacular historical film can be more
popular than a modern 'social'. But here, too, one
can see the tendency to re-interpret the past in
terms of the needs of today. Many an historical
theme has been used as an allegory on burning
contemporary issues like Freedom and Unity.
And even in the worst days of strict British cen-
sorship, the censors have been powerless to ban
anti-imperialist propaganda when presented in
the garb of an historical film or even a mytho-
logical fantasy. Even ordinary 'stunt thrillers'
(Indians counterparts of the Westerns) in which
a lot of riding and shooting goes on against the
Ruritanian background of political intrigue in
an imaginary feudal State, have sentiments of
patriotism and democracy worked into their
rough and crude drama patterns. An amusing
sidelight is provided by the fact that when the
British Government forced Indian producers to
make war propaganda pictures, anti-imperialist
ideas were cleverly presented through officially-
passed 'anti-Fascist' and morale-building pic-
tures. To give one example: In a social picture
called Kismat (1943), a song number was intro-
duced in a stage sequence, with the refrain:
Dur hato, ave duniva walo, Hindustan hamara hai
(Step back, step back, you foreigners — India
belongs to us, the Indian). In the context of the
war, the Government censors liked it because it
seemed good anti-Fascist propaganda, a warning
to Germany and Japan. But in the cities and
towns and villages, the picturegoers who ap-
plauded it meant it to be a warning to the
Imperialists to 'Quit India'!

The preponderance of songs in an Indian film
has been its most exasperating feature for west-
erners (and westernized Indians) who are used
to expect song^ only in musicals, and no songs
whatever in all other non-musical films. In India
there are no non-musical films. Songs are an
inevitable and integral part of every one of the

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

57

approximately 200 films in about six languages
produced every year. The commercial (and,
therefore, primary) reason is that the cinema in
India has developed into an 'omnibus enter-
tainment' for millions of uprooted peasants and
villagers who have lost their rich tradition of
folk-song and folk-dance and found nothing to
substitute it in the cities and the towns. We have
no operas, ballets or music halls, hardly a stage,
to supply the various different forms of enter-
tainment. To most of us, the cinema is all these
rolled into one; we expect it to give us music,
comedy, tragedy, the vicarious thrills of romance,
a taste of beauty and glamour otherwise lacking
in our lives. And, shrewd businessmen as they
are, the producers have been trying to supply
all these in each of their films, with the result
that artistic integrity as well as subtlety have
constantly to be sacrificed for the sake of
'entertainment'.

Song

Apart from this, however, we should remem-
ber that according to the strictly Indian con-
ceptions of romance, the love urge both in its
fulfilment and frustration, has been traditionally
expressed in song. Again, through religious
musical expressions like kirtans, bhajans, hymns
or qawwalis, the song is woven into the fabric of
Indian life more closely and intimately than in
any other country. Where else, for instance, on
the eve of a country's freedom would the
Constituent Assembly proclaim acquisition of
power with patriotic hymns — sung by a lady
member of the Constituent Assembly?

Technique

A few final words about technique. Produced
for a small market (there are yet no cinemas for
the 80 per cent village population of India) and,
therefore, on a strictly limited budget, the Indian
film cannot have the technical finish and polish
of Hollywood or Rank-financed British produc-
tions. Also for a long time the Indian screen
remained in a crude stage, because of the reluc-
tance of the cultured intelligentsia to associate
themselves with uneducated professional enter-
tainers who once monopolized the studios. But
things have been steadily changing for the better
and today the educational and cultural level of
Sim workers — among artists and technicians as
well as writers— is as high as, if not higher than,
any other country. The result is a considerable
advance both in technique and in the artistic
Dresentation of pictures, though still the artistic
and experimental pictures which dare to sacrifice
entertainment value' for the sake of realism and
ntcgrity, are generally doomed to box-office
"ailure. Even if the average product is still of a
ow standard, a few Indian pictures can easily
itand comparison with the best American,
British, Russian or French pictures. But they
lave to be judged as Indian films, produced
jrimarily for Indian audiences, reflecting the
■nood and the temper and the tastes of Indians,
ind not from the standards of commercialized
aniversal appeal of the Hollywood films, And
yet because of their peculiar Indianness they
provide the sympathetic foreigner with a con-
/enient medium for the study and understanding
)f the country and its people.

Touring with Film

Normandy Diary

France is separated from England by a mere
channel, and yet how little the averagt French-
man knows about the British and their way of
life. The mission of the British Council in
France is to explain British life and thought
to French men and women so that they may
understand our traditions, our institutions and
our characters — also our peculiarities. Films
present an admirable means of bringing to
foreign audiences a picture of our country and
its customs, and this diary, written during a
tour of Normany in mid-winter, tells of the
trials and tribulations of a British official, who
was sent on a films and lecture tour in the Cal-
vados. DFN proposes to print it in serial form
during the next few months — here is the first
instalment.

The Start

Monday

It was pouring with rain and the snow was
beginning to melt. The equipment filled the
whole of the back of the Austin car. There
was a lot of it, as I thought it wise to take a
second projector and accessories in case the
first gave out before the end of the tour.

As soon as we left Paris and came on to the
auto-route at St Cloud, our troubles began. The
rain was melting the snow, but there was a hard
surface of frozen snow below the slush. It was
difficult to see whether we were on the road or
not. The windscreen wiper was not working, and
frequent halts were necessary to wipe the win-
dow. When it grew light and we were on the
main road to Evreux things improved slightly.

At Evreux we had to get petrol. A few kilo-
metres further on the car suddenly stopped.
Usual checking of plugs, pumps, carburettor.
A few more yards and another sudden stop.
Luckily I had renembered being told the coil
was placed upside down in this new car. It was
soaking wet. We dismounted it and cleaned it,
then bound it up with chatterton to preserve it
from the slush. This operation took ages, as our
fingers were frozen and we kept dropping
spanners, nuts and bolts in the snow. The jour-
ney to Deauville was fairly smooth after that
except for a minor skid and for a few seconds
when the car started moving backwards instead
of forwards as we climbed a steep hill. Chains
would have been a great help on that part of
the trip.

Deauville

Nevertheless we arrived in Deauville for
lunch. The local representative of the Associa-
tion France-Grande Brctagne, received us, and
WB sat down to lunch. A ver\ welcome meal it
was.

The cinema where we '•ere to hold our show
was on the sea-front at Iromille. next to the
C asmo. We took about two hours to install the
equipment. The local people seemed a little

worried when they saw my small projector
they thought it would project too small a pic-
ture, and great was their astonishment when I
filled the entire screen using a 16 mm film!

We went for a short run along the sea-front
because this was the first time that Atulre. the
chauffeur, had seen the sea. and he could not
take his eyes off it. He kept saying: < 'est
merveilleux!'

The Lecture

At half-past eight we went to the hall where
I was to lecture on the 'Renaissance of the
English Theatre'. To my horror I saw that there
were about 250 children in the front of the hall
and some 200 adults behind them. This was no
audience for a lecture. At 9 p.m. we started. Mr

F introduced me and the children giggled

and chattered. I launched myself into the sub-
ject and for 20 minutes made a noble effort to
pierce the barrage of children and to reach
the adults at the back of the hall. My voice gave
out because the hall is large and the acoustics
bad. I appealed to the children to be a little
quieter, but it was no use, and I turned the
pages of the lecture faster and faster. I was
glad when it was over and relieved to be able
to start operating the projector.

And the Show

The programme which had been selected was
Coastal Village, V-\. Steel and Desert Victory.
I gave a short resume of the programme and
explained 1 wanted to show a quiet English
village in contrast to a noisy capital subjected
to V-.l attacks. Steel in technicolor was, as
usual, a great success and Desert Victory kept
the children quiet. They could not in any case
make more noise than Monty's guns.

After the show we went back to Mr F 's

house and had a warm drink before retiring to
bed. I hope that I shall find other bedrooms in
Normandy as warm as this one. The maid has
lit a fire.

In spite of the failure of the lecture (which
was appreciated by those fortunate enough to
be near me on the platform) the show was a
success. Even in Trouville there is not much in
the form of entertainment — and war films are
still in demand. Perhaps it will be different in
other towns and villages.

Must go to sleep now as Tilly is a fair dis-
tance away and the roads are bad.
(To be continued)

CLASSIFIED ADS

We are now in a position to accept (
advertisements.
Charges for insertion: one guinea for the first

three lines, J - a line above three.

58

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

DFN COMPETITIONS

RESULT OF COMPETITION No. 3

entries for this competition (a letter to an
aunt explaining how documentary films differ
from others) fell roughly into two groups — on
the one hand were the serious entries and on
the other the facetious. One competitor re-
marked that it was not likely that James Mason
or Rex Harrison would ever be seen in docu-
mentary— there wouldn't be enough cash in it
for them! Another entry defined documentary
as a film which shows 'why the woman next
door ran away with someone else's husband'.
Well, we asked the Review Board about this
and they asked us to find out where they could
get hold of such a film — they thought it would
make a pleasant interlude for one of their ses-
sions.

All in all, the entries were good — Philip
Mackie wins by a long lead with his master-
piece of indecision, and Ruth Partington takes
second prize for an excellent entry in serious
vein.

SOUND

AND THE

DOCUMENTARY

FILM

By KEN CAMERON

With a Foreword by CAVALCANTI

'He is undoubtedly well-qualified to
speak on sound recording matters
relative to documentary production.'
—THE CINE TECHNICIAN

'He has provided the textbook on
sound which every student and future
writer on the cinema will find indis-
pensable.' -SIGHT AND SOUND

With numerous illustrations
15/- net

PITMAN

Parker Street Kingsway London WC2

FIRST PRIZE

Dear Aunt Tabitha,

difficult
Your question is a a ImpXa one to answer.

You remember, of course, what Grierson said

about aroiitive latarppetativo raaliaa

roaliotlo oreation of intarp on this subjeot.

Well, documentaries are films which deal with

or houses, or herrings, or plana
real people, /and not fictional ones. They
may or may not have may or

have not gat fictional stories, and they 4e
may not use
pot aw professional aotors. On the whole,

though, the easiest way to recognise them

is by their ooolologloal oontont loft wing

lootype Goveramoat propaganda dialogue

laolt of dialogue tho wordo "Contral Offloe

very
shortness, though some of thera are quite

long. Anyway, if you see a film non-

probably
theatrically it's bound to bo a documentary,

exoept that of course they do show non-
documentaries non-theatrically too. Perhaps
the clearest way I can put it is by saying
that documentary films are the films that are

made by the people who make documentary films.

am afraid this will not set
I hope this osta yourmind at rest on this

question.

Your loving nephew,

Philip

P. 3. Thank you so muoh for the woolly ear-
warmers. I always wear them at the Scala.

P. P. 3. It's a silly word anyway.

SECOND PRIZE

MY DEAR AUNT,

1 should like to answer your question about
documentary, but must avoid the maze of
definition. Read Grierson and Rotha, makers
and publicists of documentary film, to get an
idea of its purpose and properties.

Then turn to films. Renoir and Vigo, Ford,
Rossellini, move us by their creative interpretation
of reality, you may object. Yes, but compare their
properties — studio sets, professional actors,
above all, a story of individual emotional re-
actions. Whereas documentary uses 'the native
actor and the native scene', studies on the spot to
find the story of work, instead of constructing

sets to suit the story of love. It prefers an |
economic to an emotional approach, but is none '
the less human. Unnamed people in an un- I
familiar life may move us in Song of Ceylon ; the
illustration of an argument by compilation of
images is a triumph in the hands of Rotha.

If art mirrors nature, documentary may be a
microscope or a searchlight, turned on the essen-
tial universal aspect of humanity. This explana- ,
tion becomes eulogy! See documentary films,
subscribe to DFN, and complete this sketchy
answer.

Your presumptuous niece,

RUTH

COMPETITION No. 5

the usual prizes of a guinea and half a guinea
are offered for a set of six maxims for the guid-
ance of the young man (or woman) entering the
film world. Entries should reach the Editor be-
fore June 15th.

CORRESPONDENCE

sir : May I express a measure of disappoint-
ment at the close-up of Ross MacLean? I dis-
agree with nothing that was said, but I feel —
as will others, I am sure — that too much was
left unsaid. For instance, there was absolutely
no attempt to describe what might be called the
glamour of Ross MacLean. Although this was
partly redressed by the admirable illustration,
the function of that extra-long cigarette holder,
whether as stiletto, tickling feather, block-
buster, or even peashooter, was not revealed.
One must always remember that Ross MacLean
is a man of action — and not least, when, with
feet on desk, and with the panorama of the
Canadian landscape screaming its colours
through his office window, he tilts the said
holder jauntily, or with menace, at someone or
other at the end of a long distance telephone
wire.

Personally, when I think of Ross, I like to re-
member the rapid direct action taken by him on
occasions such as that on which his front tyre
was blown out by a porcupine in one of the less
accessible roads of Quebec late on a Sunday
evening. Perhaps such reminiscences are too tri-
vial. Nevertheless, I wish your article had regis-
tered more emphatically the dynamism of a
man who, rejecting what he felt to be the worst
of the English attitude, as he learnt it during his
sojourn at Balliol and later in London, started,
way back in 1935, to campaign in Canada for
that very English thing, a Government Infor-
mation Service. When others, such as John
Grierson. arrived in that vast and seductive
concentration of geography and ethnology,
they found that the cigarette holder, used this
time as a flame-thrower and ploughshare com-
bined, had already eliminated the weeds, and
equally had prepared and sown a fertile soil.
Yours etc..

JOHN SUSSEX

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

59

Film Class ifica t ion

by
James Harris

non-fictional films have been classified often
enough according to the purpose for which they
are known or presumed to have been made. On
this system, if three headings are chosen, they are
apt to be Specialized, Non-Theatrical, Classroom,
and Public Exhibition. Another line of classifica-
tion which can be useful is according to the out-
look with which the film is presented, whether it
is serious or humorous, intelligent or ill-informed,
pedantic or moronic and so forth, the number of
possible grades being almost unlimited. There is
however another method of division which is
simple, fundamental, and of great use in telling a
reader what sort of film a particular film is,
which reviewers seem to neglect almost entirely;
and that is classification according to the waj in
which the film has been made. Classified this way
the films in our field seem to be of only three
species, of which any individual films are either
pure examples or simple hybrids, and this be-
cause there are only three fundamental ways in
which non-fictional films get assembled. Let us
consider these types in order, calling them the
Cameraman's Film, the Narrator's Film and the
Director's Film.

The Cameraman's Film

The simplest way in which films are made is
that a cameraman is sent out to 'get a good cover'
of the subject under consideration, the film he
brings back is cut into whatever shape it seems
most capable of taking by an editor, someone
fits the result with a commentary and the job is
done. Newsreels are made this way, and films of
expeditions and events whose outcome cannot be
safely enough predicted for the writing of scripts
beforehand. The method of making sets a stamp
or style upon the resulting film which is unmistak-
able.

The Narrator's Film

The pure-bred Narrator's Film is made by
writing a commentary or narration, and then
shooting or finding in the film library shots that
will illustrate what is being said. Its arch-type is
perhaps not a film at all but a lantern-lecture,
though the species does contain extremely
successful examples. The River was a Narrator's
Film, and March of Time and its imitators tend to
have quite as strong a dose of Narrator as of
Cameraman.

The Director's Film

The Director's Film is that which is sometimes
referred to in Production circles as a 'Properly
Scripted Job'. It is the film which has been
conceived as a whole, considering sound and
picture simultaneously, and then photographed
and put together in accordance with the original
conception.

It is characterized not merely by thorough
integration of sound and picture, but in addition
by the use of scenes which the newsreel camera-
man is unable to get because they do not exist in
nature; in other words, by an approach to Studio
technique. This being the most advanced form of
Documentary is, naturally enough, the form in
which Documentary verges upon something else.
Feature Film.

Fitness of the Species

Amongst film technicians the tendency is
strong to regard only the Director's Film as a
respectable type of production, while the Camera-
man's and Narrator's Films are thought of as
inferior. As far as the consumer is concerned, the
three types are of equal value if they do their jobs
equally well, and which type of production

should be chosen to expound any particular
subject will depend mainly upon the nature of
that subject, and also of course, upon the money
and talent available. The Cameraman's 1 ilm is
the right style for topical events whose authenti-
city is their main appeal, and whose v sual
interest outweighs any interest that could be
added by elaborate film construction. For some
instructional subjects in which there is little
movement, and in general for subjects which are
not very well suited to the film medium, the
Narrator's Film is likely to be the style which
will have the greatest clarity. As for the Directors'
Film, that is a more expensive type of production,
and becomes necessary whenever the subject is
spread over many times and places (as when
treating of the history of a song) and when the
individual characters of people in the film need to
be made plain to the audience. There is only one
really bad reason for making a Director's Film,
and that is a desire to make a masterpiece. The
desire to make a masterpiece has given rise to not
a few obscure and complicated films on subjects
which might well have been treated with simpli-
citj and clarity by films of another type.

The three-way classification of films according
to the way they are made, can be useful to
Producers as well as to Reviewers. There are
subjects which could be satisfactorily presented
by any of the three methods, but in order to
discuss which should be used in any particular
case, it is essential to have adequate terminology.
The three names given above to the three dis-
cerned species of Documentary may not be the
best that can be thought of, but they are here
sincerely offered to all Reviewers in the interests
of precision of statement, and also to all those
who have occasion to state their views at Pro-
duction Conferences.

CAMERA HIRE SERVICE

PHONE : GER. 1365-6-7-8

All Inquiries:

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FULL RANGE OF EQUIPMENT AND TRIPODS

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S.F.L. LTD., 71 DEAN STREET. LONDON. W.I

60

DOCUMENTARY FILM NfcWS

CORRESPONDENCE

National Film Board of Canada

SIR,

I was happy to read John Grierson's come-
uppance of your Board of Review 'or its un-
ci i sec in in g, snide, apparently jealous 'criticisms'
of seven National Film Board of Canada pro-
ductions. There was, as he suggests, little in the
reviews that one would expect to see in a pro-
fessional journal.

As regards Bronco Busters in particular, I saw
it along with about 50 children, who would
certainly not have bubbled with such delight at
anything 'sialic'.

Incidentally, I have no axe to grind, since I left
M B three months ago, and did not help produce
any of the films in question ; and I may add that f
have written a number of sincerely ecstatic re-
views of British documentary films, than the best
of which there are none liner.

Now, it's only fair to point out that Grierson's
list of outstanding personnel at NFB is badly
out of date. Only the first three on it have
worked there within the past year or more, and
one has for several years been in business as an
able but inimical rival of NFB. I'm amazed that
Gnerson should have omitted mention of out-
standing producers like Fvelyn Spice Cherry
(Vegetable Insects), Gudrun Bjerring Parker
(Listen to the Prairies), Bob Anderson (A Feeling
nl Rejection), and Don Mulholland {Accidents
Don't Happen and File Uil5).

Yours sincerely,
272 Stewart St PAUL a. Gardner

Ottawa
Canada

SIR,

What induced you to include English Diary
by Arndt von Rautenfeld in your February issue?

It contains no 'documentary news' about the
making of KRO Germany 1947; no impression of
the work of the Crown Film Unit group the
author met in Scotland; only two or three re-
marks about film production in England, which
is what the author came over to study, but no
comparative analysis.

Instead, we have a propaganda article to enlist
pity for our ex-enemies. Bomb devastations'
what a pity he could not have seen London in
1940-41 before we tidied it up some six or seven
years ago. Food? Clothes? Does he realize that
we, the victors of a wai stalled by Ins people.
have had to deprive ourselves to feed Germany,
spending millions of dollars we need for re-
construction here ai home? So we want peace, do
we? And when have we wanted war?

Heir von Rautenfeld does a disservice to his
country if he thinks articles like (Ins so reminis-
cent of the 'pily-lhe-poor-Crcrmans' propaganda
after the fust World Wai will do anything bui
make the British despise an ungrateful ami
incorrigible people.

Yours truly,
612 Rodnev House BETTY J. ( R vvv ll R

Dolphin Square, .SHI

We Want More Shorts

SIR,

Having been in the film industry over ten years,
I have worked for many short-film companies.

I have always found a tendency to treat short-
film subjects not as big pictures ; I have found that,
cinema audiences like shorts — if they are good
but they must be good and have an appeal.

Recently I was with a short and documentary
film company. I found that many of the films
were treated very lightly and when we began to
shoot we had a very rough script. As time went
on the director saw some of the rather obvious
faults of the picture, he began to despair; this
sort of thing can be remedied: there should be
more planning.

There is a nasty tendency in the industry to
say — 'He's a short-film director, he could not be
much good.' This is entirely wrong. The short
film is a stepping stone for features; many a good
director today started on shorts and having
achieved success went over to features. The
medium of features is different to a degree, one
has to portray something on the screen for ten
minutes — but it is nevertheless worthy of a good
director. He must put the film over with the
minimum amount of footage and waste.

I et us treat short films as features! Very often
at the cinema I have heard someone in the audi-
ence say — 'The feature was very poor but I lo\ed
the short film on boats.' I think a good short is
quite as important as the main film, for it can
balance the programme perfectly. I should like to
see more films of interest; this would balance a
programme where there is a big feature of 9,000
or 10,000 ft.

Some film 'fans' have told me they like going
to such and such a cinema because they show
Donald Duck; these cartoons run 7-8 rnins,
yet are treated as an important item of the
programme.

Let us pay more attention to the supporting
programme for these smaller subjects arc the
backbone of the show, a good short, well pro-
duced, will make up for a rather poor feature.
1 el us go all out on these pictures and give the
film industry more work to do.

The answer is to produce good short pictures,
then the exhibitor will pay more — let us cut out
the tripe and make way for some decent smaller
productions — it is up to the industry.
Yours faithfully.
The Priory g. max kemp

Knowle Green
Staines, Middx

Films in Agriculture

SIR,

The technician who attended the recent SI \
conference on 'Films in Agriculture' writes
tetchily o( his impressions in your last issue.
He might ponder the fact that the delegates
most o\ who. ii had travelled long distances to
be present — were In their vers number a tu-
bule to the genuine interest in the uses of the
film in agricultural education.

Conferences are normally the occasion for
expressing divergent views. Why should agri-
cultural films be an exception? And if your
contributor found the prevailing atmosphere
critical, he can rest assured that this was in no
way due to bucolic bad temper but simply an
indication to the film-maker that he was fail-
ing to satisfy the requirements of those who
seek to make films do the job they claim to do.
Disgruntled, these critics- may have been, but
they are the consumers, and most of their
comments were constructive.

I suggesl that there are still a great man)
difficult problems surrounding the successful
use of films in adult education work, that they
occur in an extreme form in rural audiences,
and that up to the present, attempts to solve
them have been exclusively of the hit and miss
variety.

For example, we know very little about the
ideal length of an agricultural instructional
film; how long (a) farmers, th) farm-workers.
(c) young farmers' clubs can. generally speak-
ing, continue to assimilate facts which are (rt)
within, (/>) outside, their everyday experience.

Nor has much study been made of the psy-
chology of rural audiences in relation to films.
Were this done it might be found that they
showed a far greater sympathy with the non-
theatrical film programme than audiences in
urban areas, where glamorous associations with
the commercial cinema have to be overcome.
On the other hand, it would probablv disclose
that the language of the film, being less fami-
liar to rural audiences, called for a slower
tempo and simpler construction than in work
directed at the life-long cinema-goer in the
low ns. And many modern agricultural films
are made by technicians reared in the struc-
tural conventions of the entertainment film.

Complaints about commentators' accents
are. I grant, becoming tiresome. But this again
is the expression of a problem which has re-
ceived no experimental analysis with agricul-
tural or other films. As Mr Edgar Anstey noted
at the conference we now suspect that the
voice which read the news yesterday, lacks
conviction when extolling the benefits of arti-
ficial insemination today. But has anybody in-
vestigated the popularity of various commen-
tators? Or attempted to assess the real degree
of resentment felt by Northumbrians for
Devonian voices' Or even compared the re-
sponse to silenl and sound films? (Quite the
best insiruction.il film shown at the conference

Knot-tying in the Hinder, was silent. t

The answer to all these questions is no, and
I suggest thai until some data are available.
criticisms oi the kind which led to your contri-
butor's outburst when he cried 'Nonsense!'
will continue. Meanwhile I believe that exple-
tives—however gentle nanlv from Soho are
not merelv unhelpful, but possiblj damaging.

N ours faithfully,
The I 'niversity mi r\ v\ ri i \ i s

Manchester 13

II A IS IC A V

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the film in education —

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I N E M I

CREDIT for the actual invention o\' the
cinematograph is difficult to apportion.
It is certain that Englishmen played an
important part. As long ago as I860 Sit
John Herschel published a theorj ol
cinematography, and about KSS9 a patent
for a cinema camera and projector was
applied for by W. Friese Greene and
M. Evans. Todaj the cinema is our great
relaxation. But how main o\' us who go
to "the movies", who watch the latest
performance of our particular " star ".
♦ . . • *, realise what the cinematograph industry

* , ♦ •& owes to the workers in main branches of

science and technology, and not least to
thechemisl ' Noothei form ofentertainment owes him so heavj a debt. Celluloid itself, the
basis of the industry, is achemical achievement. This must be transparent to give clear images
after great magnification, resilient and tough to stand great strain. It must be so treated thai
the danger from fire is reduced to a minimum. The hand of the chemist is indeed traceable from
the make-up of the actors to the lamps in the projectors. In the apparatus used foi the sound-
recording rare metals are needed : in the lenses of cameras and projectors, optical gl I
highest qualitj : in the colour-photography, pigments of the truest and most vivid colout I Ik
;sets for the ballrooms and palaces of the cinema's ( loudcuckoodom involve the use ol Luge
[quantities of paints, quick-drying stucco and plasters: the costumes and
draperies must be dyed. The tale is continued into the cinema theatre itself, in
us decoration, its disinfection, its air-conditioning When next you sit in
youi favourite cinema, think for a moment of the patient work in laboratory
and factor) that has enabled you to see the wonders o\ the world Ol the finest

product of the cinematograph studio socleai l> and still at so modest a pi ice.

/urjvr-vryury-jr.^ryvirj^^vv^^v^r^vryu'rjv:--.:

*#•#•;# i.i#. .i.y.y«#.y# #•;»#*/% r

"IMPACT 0\ FILM'

.Sir inside front cover

Important news came to hand alter our
othet advertisement had been set up
The news is enough to instils a further
advertisement

lloberto
Rossellini

whose 'Rome, Open t ity\ 'Paisa' and
'Germany, Yeai Zero' (not yet shown),
placed the Italian film in the front rank
of major productions, has agreed to
write a special article foi our fust
hook. I he name is sufficient and his
contribution will obviousl) be of first
importance. It is with added confidence
that we advise you to watch mil foi the
first numbi

"IMPACT OX FILM'

.-^r.-;:-.-'.."

WHAT THEY THINK OF 'CHARLEY' CARTOONS

The critics

EVENING STANDARD

The new colour cartoons by John Halas and Joy Batchelor, which are designed to explain some present-day

problems and their suggested solutions, succeed in being highly amusing and likeable as well. The need tor town
planning, the case for the new Health Act —these are tough subjects for entertainment. The fact that the\ are
entertaining, while dispensing painless doses of understanding to people who would rather die than read a pamphlet,
is the measure of their brilliance.

MANCHESTER GUARDIAN

A good deal of credit should be given to Mr Halas and Miss Batchelor for the facile manner in which they have
reduced legislation to simple visual terms.

YORKSHIRE POST

They are vastly more entertaining and carry their message better than the dull diagram type of film that was
much used formerly for Government propaganda.

SCOTSM \\

The COI have used the service of Mr John Halas and Miss Joy Batchelor as directors of the cartoons, and :hev
ha\e evolved a new technique for their work. Technicolor is used in preference to the more glaring hues of the normal
cinema cartoon, and the action is smooth and placid compared to that found in the cartoon's American counterparts.

The public

It was the first British cartoon film I have seen and I was quite thrilled. Ft showed up the accompanying Disne\
alarmingly, and 1 noticed that the people sitting around me appreciated it.

Miss F. Brown. Greenock. Scotland.

DATA

Member of the Federation
of Documentary Film units

presents Jour new
topical one-reelers

MINING REVIEW: NUMBER SEVEN

Easington Residential Training Centre: Tanks into Tractors; Speed Up
of Coal Transport: Miner plays Ice Hockey

MIXING REVIEW: NUMBER EIGHT

Export of Coal begins again: Colliery Medical Rcom: Conveyor Belting:
Boxing

MINING REVIEW: NUMBER NINE

Coke Ovens: Dust (Number One: Medical Report) : Rehousing in Derby-
shire: Quiz Prizegiving

PLAN FOR STEEL

The first ten months of the Steel Company of Wales Development
Scheme

DOCUMENTARY rECHNICIANS ALLIA'NCl LTD 21 SOHO SQI Mil \\ . 1 GERRARD 21

fi iiti m o nth I u
rvri *>ir

the magazine for the
intelligent film-goer

script-writing
documentary-films

producers

directors
fiim-fashions

art

•. - from all news,.
lCs. per annum post free from

Precinct Publications

50 Old Brompton Road SW7

i HI SHI NV M 1*K1 ss. IO\nn\ \\n HIKIIOKI)

DOCUMENTARY

INCORPORATING DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

JUNE 1948

ONE SHILLING

Second Announcement . . .

The film (sometimes) is nn art, and its makers (sometimes) are artists. 'IMPACT ON FILM', a

series of books on the creative and technical aspects of film making, realizes this — and more
importantly that the film is created within a vast commercial system of complex pattern.

Ignore the art and you debase the whole medium: ignore the business side and you place yourself
among the aesthetes who know "what*, but never 'how' and -vv h\".

Our first book, appearing shortly, is entitled "This Film Business*, and tackles these questions with
authority and vision.

Roberto Rossellini, Dilys Powell," John Halas and Joy Batchelor, J. Clifford King, Elizabeth
Franks, Marguerite Bruce and Clarissa Churchill examine some of the many facets of cinematic
creation and technique.

'IMPACT ON FILM' will be 2/2 by post and 6 6 for three books
The Editor will be glad to provide further information

Paul Sheridan

NAPIER HOUSE, 24 HIGH HOLBORN. LONDON, WCl

VISUAL AIDS IN SCIENTIFIC &
AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION

I.C.I, has prepared the following lists
of its productions. Copies will be sent to
educational authorities who apply on their
official notepaper.

I.C.I. MEDICAL FILMS

LCI. AGRICULTURAL & VETERINARY FILMS

LCI. FILMS FOR SCHOOLS

LCI. AGRICULTURAL FILM STRIPS

Write to the LCI. FILM LIBRARY. Imperial Chemical
Industries Limited, Nobel House, London, S.W.I

■Jf Films available in 16 mm. sound on free loan to approved borrowers.

film monthly
review

the magazine for the
intelligent film-goer

containing articles on

script- writing
documentary-films

producers

directors
film-fashions

treating the film
and film-making as

art

price 9d. from all newsagents or
10s. per annum post free from

Precinct Publications

50 Old Brompton Road SW7

DOCUMENTARY film 19VUS

VOL. 7 NO. 66 JUNE 1948

EDITORIAL BOARD

STEPHEN ACKROYD
DONALD ALEXANDER
MAX ANDERSON
EDGAR ANSTEY
GEOFFREY BELL

KEN CAMERON
PAUL FLETCHER
SINCLAIR ROAD
GRAHAME THARP
BASIL WRIGHT

EDITOR

DAVIDE BOULTING

ASSISTANT EDITOR

JANE DAVIES

CONTEXTS

Editorial

Notes of the Month

Censorship — How? . . . .

Canada Goes to China
Grant McLean

61

62

63

64,65

66
67
68

69,70

New Documentary Films. .

Hamlet, Prince of Denmark

Stuart Legg

Donald Alexander

Gregg Toland Film-maker
Lester Koenig

Normandy Diary II .. .. .. 71

List of Makers o\~ Film Strips . . . . . . 72

Published every month by
Film Centre 'M Solio Sq. I Ion \\ I

ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION 12 S. SINGLE COPIES If.

DRAWING THE LINE

for many years, stage producers in this country have played an in-
teresting little game known as ( atching the Chamberlain I his
consisted of submitting your play to the Lord Chamberlain and
then amending it according to his stipulations while not losing any
of your original themes. A musical coined \ producer won an I
when he rewrote the line 'She sits among the cabbages and peas as
'She sits among the cabbages and leeks' and got away with it '

The screen producer has the same type of game with the British
Board of Film Censors — this time it is known as Drawing the I ine.
The idea is that the Board draws the Line at something in your film
and then it is up to you to alter the material you have shot to fit the
Line. Alternatively, you can try to assess the Line before submit-
ting the film. Whether you win or not is anybody's guess and may
well depend on what kind of breakfast the Board had that morning.

The public isn't consulted — it takes what is left after the tug-of-
war. In fact, except for things like No Orchids for Miss Blandish, it
doesn't usually know that there has been a fight.

If you want your film to be seen in America you must conform
to the Motion Picture Production Code — you must Be Careful
(with capitals) about twelve main headings. They are:

Crime, Sex. Vulgarity, Obscenity. Profanity. Costume. Dances,
Religion, Locations, National Feelings. Titles, and Repellant
subjects.

If you manage to make a film avoiding all the pitfalls under these
headings and yet being worth seeing you will have made a real
film; if you manage to do it more than once out of every fifty films
you make you can count yourself head of the class.

But there's one comfort if your film is intended for Export Only
— you know where to Draw the Line. Mind you, we're not going
to say that the Line over there is in the right place — we wouldn't
admit that for a moment — it just isn't. But if you employ an old
man with a beard to sit in the corner of the set with a copj ol the
Motion Picture Code in one hand and a blue pencil in the other,
you can be sure that your film will get b\ with the Legion of De-
cency. You can also be sure you have made a more than averagelj
bad and dreary film, but never mind about that.

Here in Britain, the Code is non-existent; like our t onstitution it
is unwritten. That is all to the good and should make the Bo
Censors an enlightened body able and willing to judge every film
on its own merits; the Board is. theoretically, able to realize that
something quite out of place in a musical corned) maj well be an
integral part of a documentary — we're not yet quite sure that it
does in fact avail itself of this power. We certainly have n.< prool

The Board of Censors is elusive as the Pimpernel never was; it is
anonymous. We hereby issue to its members .^t open invitation.
We'd like to hear from them, we'd like to know then ideas about
the job with which they are entrusted We hope thev will accept
and we promise to let them retain their anonymity. I et them intro-
duce themselves to the public in our columns

The Board of Censors exist foi the benefit ot the public, it is
there to safeguard the public morality. Isn't it about time that the
public was allowed to take part in this game o\ Drawing the I ine.

62

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

NOTES OF THE MONTH

under the terms of the new Films Act separate quotas are to be fixed
for British pictures to be shown as first features and for British sec-
ond features and short films to be shown in the supporting pro-
gramme. All makers of documentary and specialized films awaited
with considerable anxiety the fixing of the figure for the supporting
programme. The abandonment of second feature production at
Highbury and Nettlefolds studios has re-emphasized the fact that
the bulk of the British contribution to the supporting programme
must come from those companies at present engaged on the pro-
duction of documentary and specialized films.

These companies have recently carried out a survey of their pro-
duction capacity which indicates that under proper marketing condi-
tions they could contribute without difficulty 50 per cent of the
footage required by British cinemas in terms of second features
and shorts. The news that Mr Wilson had named instead a figure of
25 per cent was naturally received with great disappointment. There
is no secret about his reasons. It is clear that he feels that the figure
should be based largely on current output rather than upon the
output which might result from an encouragingly high quota figure.
He — like the production companies themselves — is worried by the
poor marketing conditions which at present inhibit the supply
of British second features and shorts.

The processes of Mr Wilson's logic are, however, challenged
by many members of the industry, who argue that better marketing
conditions can only follow the fixing of a high quota percentage
and will never precede it. Certain it is that some bold action is called
for from the Board of Trade if the present vicious circle of supply
and demand is to be broken. It is probably true that the present
output of the documentary and specialized companies cannot even
contribute a 25 per cent quota in terms of theatrical second features
and shorts (as distinct from non-theatrical products). But will their
output ever equal their potential productive power unless a high
quota figure is one day fixed?

In the meantime, it behoves all workers in documentary to see to
it that the present opportunity which even the 25 per cent quota
provides is not wasted. Very roughly, it means that in every cinema

programme in the country there could be on the average fifteen
minutes of film emanating from the Cinderella companies of the
industry. In the aggregate, it represents a considerable footage and
it should stimulate a considerably higher output of documentary
films of four to six reels than has yet been achieved.

Czechoslovakia

we have just received a copy of the first number of a new publication
Czechoslovak Film, a magazine published in English for the purpose
of giving information about the activities of the State Film Industry
to the English-speaking world. The paper gives news of films released
and in production and we are very glad to see that more puppet
films are promised this year — an especially interesting one should be
that to be made in colour with the use of glass puppets. The glass
figures are supposed to move more naturally than the ones made of
wire and rubber which have been used up to now. There is also
mention of the film Krakatit based on the novel of the same name by
Karel Capek — we hope that this will reach England in the not too
distant future. Altogether Czechoslovak Film is an interesting and
useful publication and we could wish that many other countries
would follow the example of the Czechoslovak film industry in
sending us news of their activities.

American Film Magazines

a clause in Schedule A of the new Films Act gives the American
film industry authority to use monies accruing in this country for
'payment arising from the acquisition and publication of periodicals
relating to motion pictures'. Up to now none of the cinema publica-
tions in this country have been either whole or part financed by
America. We feel that this clause is potentially dangerous and we
wonder how it will affect the field of British film magazines. Many
new ones have sprung up during and after the war years — some of
the serious type and others of the purely 'fan" variety. Does this
mean that the market will be glutted with "glossy" papers designed
to whet the appetite of the British public for more American films'.'
The situation needs watching.

Rita Hayworth Gets By with the Censor

(see article opposite)

DOCIMKMARY FILM NEWS

6.1

i hi. British Board of Censors has in the past
months been in the news. As long as all goes
well, nobody but the producers and the ex-
hibitors are really aware of its existence. Then
along comes a No Orchids for Miss Blandish
and both national and trade Press burst out
into exaltations or condemnations of its work-
ings. And maybe the most surprising outcome
of these occasional outbursts is the realization
that the average cinema-goer — on whose be-
half all the work of the Board is done — knows
less than nothing about its history, composi-
tion or procedure. All he knows is that, before
every film he sees in a cinema, he looks at a
Censor's Certificate which grades the film
about to be shown as A, U or H.

Why?

Film-making in this country was in its in-
fancy early in this century. The public had not
really got into the habit of going to the pictures,
but people had already begun to realize that
the film could become a dangerous weapon —
that public morality must be safeguarded. The
Good Old Days of Victorian prudery were
not so very far away and it came about that
those who make films with a hand-cranked
camera and a lot of hope were mostly those go-
ahead young men who had so far grown away
from the manners of their nineteenth century
papas as to be all too ready to flout convention.

The general public then had no idea (neither
had the film-makers of those days) of the far-
reaching effects of moving pictures in the
future. They did not realize that what they re-
garded as a novel form of entertainment would
come to be the most powerful teaching medium
in the world — a medium which could reach all
races, all ages, all creeds and could influence
thousands of people for good or for ill. They
did realize that here was something new and,
therefore, suspect and over which there ought
to be some way of exercising a control.

And so, in 1913, at the request of the cinema
trade in general, the British Board of Film Cen-
sors was set up. and both exhibitors and pro-
ducers felt happier because they could now go
to the public and say, as it were, 'Here is a film
for you to see. It has been passed by the Censor
and it has a certificate showing that it will do
no moral damage to you'. The Board was in
effect their baby — maybe thirty-five years later
the child is a trifle tiresome and often gets ob-
streperous, but the fact remains that producers
and distributors held hands over the font at
the christening in 1913.

How?

The Board, as now constituted, consists of
President, Secretary, four examiners and two
readers. The names of President (S. W. Harris)
and Secretary (J. Brooke Wilkinson) are known
to all, but the remaining six members preserve
their anonymity with the most incredible care.
A whole month of inquiry on the part of DFN
editorial staff has failed to discover their
names or (and this is much more important)
their qualifications for the serious job with
which they are entrusted. We are told that they
are 'retired public servants and all highly edu-
cated' and that there is one woman. The Board
is a voluntary organization; it is non-profit-
making, its running expenses coming from a
charge on footage of film viewed and paid by
the producer of the film. There is a sliding scale
for different types of film and here the docu-

CARLISLE HOUSE. SOHO. w.i.

Circa 1670Wren>
Secretary: J. Brooke Wilkinson.

^Jhis is to Certify

that

has been Fassed for Public
Exhibition to Adult Audiences

Examiner

President

O^0 how?

mentary and instructional short come off better
than the feature film. Producers are also invited
to submit scripts before shooting starts and
these are read and commented upon by the
readers.

Every film is viewed by two of the four ex-
aminers and, in the event of their not agreeing
on any particular point, the decision of the
president is final. An interesting point to be
noted here is that there is no law on the statute
book which compels the producer to submit
either his script or his film to the Board for its
recommendations and amendments. On the
other hand, every individual cinema has to
have a licence from its local authority, and one
of the causes in any such licence is that no
film shall be shown in that cinema unless it has
received the certificate of the Board of Censors.
Therefore, unless the producer obtains his
certificate, he will be unable to show his film to
the general public. Sometimes the local autho-
rities will go still farther and refuse to allow
the exhibition of a film even after it has been
passed by the Board.

The Board grades films into three wide <.aie-
gories 'b" films may be seen by everyone:
children under the age of 16 may not attend an
'A' film unless taken to it by their parents or
guardians: and nobody under the ago of I << ma)
view any film which has ail 'H' rating The

Board itself admits that these categories are by
no means ideal but claims that they are the
only divisions which will safeguard the youth
of the country while at the same time not im-
posing a too heavy restriction on the liberty of
the citizen.

Such, in brief, is the evolution and construc-
tion of the British Board of Film Censors. It
sounds excellent it sounds as though it should
work. And so it does, most of the time. But
there are some peculiar lapses — a shot of an
operation essential to the theme of some docu-
mentary may be deleted for no particular r<.v
son while a feature will get awa) with some
good old rip-snorting sadism. On tins month's
cover we show a picture from a document. ir>
which did not get by — the Board ordered
lete shot o{ black bo> showing se\'' The still
on the opposite page was passed! We won-
der how these two conclusions were reached,
and what actuated the anonymous viewers in

then decisions. We would suggest that there
may be more danger in the attitude of Rita
Hayworth than in the actual audit) of a small
black boy.

What is the answei ' Some i BODtTOl

is obviously necessar) and certainl) desirable

We do not want to be bound b> the rigid and
tabulated Hays < ode type ol censorship
what then can be suggested as an alternative '

64

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

Canada Goes to China

by
Grant McLean

GRANT McLEAN is nephew to Ross
McLean, Films Commissioner of Canada.
He has been with the Canadian National
Film Board for about six years is head
of their Camera Department and ranks
as Director Cameraman.

the rain fell in a fine spray. Murky, low-hanging
clouds almost obscured the S.S. Rainbow as she
edged her way up the Woosung River, past miles
of junks and sampans. The flat, treeless terrain
stretching for miles on both sides of the river
loomed unreal and uninviting. Anchoring in mid-
stream the cargo nets of the Rainbow were slung
over the side. They contained baggage marked
'Fragile', 'Handle with Care', 'Canadian Gov-
ernment Property'. A lonely figure alternately
roared and pleaded with the deck-hands as he
nervously followed the progress of the gear as it
was stowed in a bouncing LCM, a dirty-grey
assault craft now intent on water-taxi service in
the harbour of Shanghai, China.

I was that lonely figure and my mind was busy
unscrambling the reasons for my presence on
this alien shore, surrounded by thirty pieces of
luggage and equipment ; and before I had time to
organize my thoughts I was immersed in a sea of
meaningless babble and surrounded by hundreds
of milling Chinese dock labourers in the dusky
segment of a cold March evening.

Nine Months' Venture

This one-man expedition to China was the
result of combining the desire of UNRRA to
obtain documentary film evidence of their work
in China, and the willingness of the NFB of
Canada to co-operate in this regard, having also
a view to the value of new documentary material
on China. An agreement was reached by John
Grierson, the Canadian Government Film Com-
missioner, and Bill Wells, UNRRA's Films
Division Chief. This agreement formed the basis
of my China venture. I left New York on board
the S.S. Rainbow on February 13th, 1946, and
arrived in Shanghai on March 25th. It all seemed
so simple and straightforward.

With a deep breath I plunged into the crowded
streets circling my ten porters like a sheep dog.
1 left China much the same way nine months
later. But a lot had happened in those nine
months.

From the first 1 worked in close touch with
Gerald McAllister, head of the UNRRA Public
Information Section in Shanghai. McAllister won
my immediate admiration by rescuing me from
a native brothel where I was billeted, and offered
to share his room with me at the Metropole
Hotel. We formed an excellent working relation-
ship, so that at no time did any friction arise in
working out what stories to cover in the interests
of UNRRA.

Distribution of Supplies

UNRRA had reached an agreement with the
Chinese Government whereby one of the Gov-
ernment agencies, called CNRRA (Chinese Re-
lief and Rehabilitation Administration), took
over UNRRA supplies at the docksidc and

handled their distribution in the interior of
China. The now so well known inefficient and
often corrupt distribution of supplies was one of
UNRRA's major problems. It was the responsi-
bility of UNRRA to see that its supplies were
distributed honestly and without regard to po-
litical or religious creed. The fact that less than
two per cent of the supplies reached Communist
China is evidence of UNRRA's inability to
adhere to their charter in this regard. The original
basis of the Chinese operation, the UNRRA-
CNRRA agreement, was palpably unworkable,
and all the efforts of Kizer, Ray, La Guardia and
Rooks failed to change the distribution pattern.
However, some UNRRA supplies were reaching
the interior, UNRRA's technicians had leaped
into their huge tasks with energy and will;
things were being accomplished and I set out to
record that work and its effects on the country
as a whole. It was necessary to shoot more than
this actual delivery of supplies in order to get the
meaning and significance of the story that
UNRRA wanted. The decision on what stories
to shoot and what should be the overall approach
to my year's work in China was one of the more
difficult problems which had to be faced immedi-
ately upon arrival. The situation in China was
complicated by so many factors, and in many of
its facets was so near anarchy, that UNRRA's
instructions to me were hardly enough to go by.

Story Choice

I was compelled by circumstances to cover what
stories I considered best, having in mind the
general directions outlined by UNRRA. With
the very real difficulties of transportation and
communication, an error in judgment in this
regard could have easily cost a month or more of
my limited stay in the country. For example, if
the Yellow River project had proved a failure —
and it hung in the balance for many weeks — a
great deal of my work in that area would have
been in vain. In making decisions of this sort,
reports from UNRRA field workers were of
value; talking with men who had just returned
from the interior proved even better, though a
Ouija board probably would have worked well
in conjunction with these other methods. At least
I understand that this last method is impartial,
and nothing else in China was!

Problems

Though finances had limited the size of the
unit to one man, a two, or better, a three-man
unit would have proved more effective. Too much
time had to be spent making arrangements, and
there was also the problem of having to spend so
much time doing the little things necessary to
staying alive.

Other production problems in China could be
listed: as political, civil war, transportation,
communication, heat, health, humidity, dust

and languages. One of the reasons for separating
the political problems from those directly asso-
ciated with the civil conflict is best illustrated
by relating one of my experiences with a Govern-
ment ministry. I was informed in an interview
with a Government official that all footage had
to be developed and censored before leaving the
country. I dreaded the thought of having my
rushes processed in China. What few machines
they had were ancient and ill-kept, and the
chemicals were years old, having been captured
from the Japanese. I set out to convince the
authorities that my status as a Canadian Govern-
ment official and as a UN representative should
place this footage outside of the normal rules and
regulations. They suggested a compromise; they
would have one of their men go with me and
cover everything in 16 mm. This they would
process and censor, with the understanding that
we would censor the 35 mm. material in the same
way. This would have been completely imprac-
tical and I thought it wise to ask for the same
treatment that would be accorded a Chinese
Government cameraman working in Canada.
Several hours passed, a great deal of tea was
consumed, but the point was won.

Travelling Around

Foreigners in China were required to have exit
visas before leaving Shanghai for any other part
of China. This added to the innumerable delays
faced prior to each trip into the interior. The
civil war made it difficult to pass easily between
the Nationalist and Communist-held territories.
The ebb and flow of the civil war made it uncer-
tain from day to day who would be in control of
the region I would be travelling in. I made two
expeditions far into the Communist regions to
cover specific stories on UNRRA's work. My
flag-bedecked jeep was never turned back at a
barricade, though cajolery and threats, so often
necessary, were enough to get me into and.
fortunately, out of a number of uncomfortable
situations. The poor marksmanship and rusiv
rifles of the peasant-conscriptees combined to
give comfort whenever boldness seemed the only
way to get through. However, whenever a coup
of this sort was necessary, I took great care to
return via a different route. Some other UNRRA
programme personnel units were not so luck> .
No other cameraman had the good fortune to
get to Yenan, then the Communist capital. For
the first time, Mao Tse Tung was photographed
in motion pictures.

Transport

The transportation problem w as one to w Inch
there was no satisfactory answer. I used trains
(the war constantly interrupted the normally
poor service), planes (most unsafe, for the main-
tenance facilities were limited), boats (even-

DOCFMIN1ARY I II M \ I W s

65

thing from American LST's to sampans), don-
keys and foot power. Once it was necessary to
travel with my gear from the flooded section of
the Yellow River to Chengchow by wheelbarrow.
A jeep, given to me by a Chinese general at the
Yellow River project, was one of my most valu-
able possessions. Carrying 525 gallons of gasoline
about, I could travel about six hundred miles
before refueling. The time allotted to travel, as
related to shooting time, was of quite a different
order than even, say, in Canada, where distances
are at least as great, but where modern trans-
portation facilities exist.

1 leading the problems of communication came
the difficulty of getting raw stock, shipping
rushes to Canada, sending off reports and getting
reports on rushes from Ottawa, and the diffi-
culties of keeping in todch with the office in
Shanghai while away in the interior. So far as
camera reportswereconcerned.it really amounted
to shooting blind, for it took about five weeks
for rushes to ■get from Shanghai to Ottawa. As
some of these shots had been taken five weeks
earlier, it was nearly three months before any
word could come through on them. There was
no regular way in which rushes could be shipped,
On each return to Shanghai, 1 would have to
spend days finding someone going back to
America who would take the exposed stock in
his care. A wire ahead to the nearest Canadian
consul or commercial attache to have him meet
the boat or plane proved the best way to
expedite the film to Ottawa. Every batch of
rushes had its own story, but true to the
American fable of life, they all ended happily
and no footage went astray.

Health Difficulties

Health was certainly a problem. About fifteen
injections, taken before going to China, promised
to save me from all sorts of hideous diseases.
Refresher shots had to be taken continually in
order to get exit visas from Shanghai before each
trip into the interior. Though I travelled through
plague, malaria and cholera zones a great deal,
only a few days were lost in hospital with a slight
attack of malaria. Every conceivable form of
dysentery plagued me, but I kept a large supply
of sulpha-guannadine on hand and thus managed
to keep ahead of the game.

The heat was troublesome, but more of a per-
sonal bother than a technical problem. I suffered
a good bit from prickly heat; it was not an un-
common sight for the Chinese farmers, staring
at my manouevres, to watch me leap into the air
when a wave of prickly heat hit me — it was like
being engulfed in a blanket of needles.

Dust and Language

T grew to hale the Yellow River dust. Ft was
extremeh line and hard. The cameras, a Newman
Sinclair (4 lens turret) and a turret Eyemo, had to
be dismantled evcrv night on the Yellow River
project story, the parts and cases cleaned and
reassembled. The Eyemo was easy to maintain
as T had a complete set of spare parts for it. The
Newman was more of a problem, though it did
hold up remarkably well. On several occasions
f had to machine parts lor it to keep it in opera-
tion. Not trained in this field, f was fortunate
that the parts which failed were easily made. (Jut
of the 25,000 feet shot, about 1,000 feet was
lost because of camera troubles.

The language problem was ever with me

y

Grant McLean

I learned about a hundred words on the thirty-
nine day voyage to China, and these certainly
were useful. A good interpreter, however, was
still essential to my work. My first interpreter
was good on languages and dialects, but when-
ever a particularly arduous trip appeared in the
offing, he took to bed with malaria. For this
reason, I had to make one trip to Kaifeng in
Honan province by myself. The problems m
China were more complicated than they were,
for example, among the Eskimos, where the
needs of the interloper are simple and more easily
expressed in sign language. On my third return
to Shanghai. I'NRRA assigned one of their
translation-pool interpreters to me. He was
fluent in English and French as well as m Man-
darin, Shanghai and Cantonese dialects lie
staved with me for the rest of my time in China
and proved invaluable. While the language prob-
lem never made it impossible to get i shot, n did
slow everything up. It was vital when dealing
with the curious ( hinese peasant to learn the
various dialects of Chinese which gave meaning

to the phrase winch combines the prayer ami
curse of a document.u v cameraman 'Don't

look at the camera!"

The footage sent back from China was edited
into eight newsreel stories which were shown
throughout the theatrical circuits of America.
A one-reel film, called China's Seal, was pro-
duced by the National Film Board ft was widely
distributed non-theatrically in conjunction with
a drive for China relief funds.

The need for such films becomes more vital
every day, so that the mass of people in each
country may feel the problems facing the
citizens of other countries and be able to
relate their own problems with the rest o\ the
world. The basis ol our democratic freedom and
progress is based on a high level o\ mass aware-
ness. Documentary films can and must be the
greatest factoi in giving the impetus necessary
lor this development I believe that the United
Nations should have 01 sponsor such responsible
documentary units m the interests of peace
National organizations, such as the National
Film Board ol Canada and the t rown film units

in f rigland, COUld work Close!) with such a pro-
gramme. It is through this held, I believe, that
the I N must move lo achieve its objectives.

66

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

NEW DOCUMENTARY
FILMS

How, What and Why? Made by Basic for
G-B. Director: Kay Mander. Editor: Kitty
Marshall. Animation: Cynthia Whitby. 20 mins.
each.

this series is a completely new departure
for the G-B Children's Film Department and
should prove a very useful addition to the pro-
grammes of the Saturday morning film clubs.
The child perpetually asks the wilting adult,
often just as ignorant, the how, what and why
of everyday things. Presented simply and imag-
inatively popular science expositions can help
to satisfy some of this eager curiosity. Child-
ren's encyclopaedias have already provided a
partial answer; but one has to remember that
only a small proportion of the child population
has access to them. A film magazine shown at
the Saturday morning clubs can have a very
much wider coverage.

The first three issues of How, What and Why?
have got off to a good start as far as the choice
of items is concerned. Each issue contains three
items of the following kind :

What makes a fire go out?

Why does the outside horse on a roundabout

go faster than the inside one?
Why does a doctor feel your pulse?
How do railway signals work?
How do animals walk?

The chief limitation is in the way in which
the material is presented. In one or two cases
the explanation does not actually answer the
question. Why does a doctor feel your pulse?
is, in fact, an account of how blood circulates
through the body. The intermittent action of
a stirrup pump squirting water through a thin

Why does a Doctor feel your Pulse?

rubber tube shows very well what is meant by
pulsation. But no indication is given at the end
of the significance of differences in the pulse
rate with which the doctor is concerned. This
kind of confusion could be avoided by more
careful scripting. Again, in the item which
shows why lock-gates are needed on canals, the
explanation is perfectly lucid, but would have
been helped a lot if the camera had been moved
;> little further away from the lock itself, en-
abling one to see the actual difference in the
water levels, which is the key point to establish.
Finally, if this series is going to hold the atten-
tion of child audiences under the exacting con-
ditions of the Saturday morning clubs, more
imagination is needed generally in the visual
presentation. One cannot rely on the spoken

What can the Elephant do with its Trunk?

commentary getting over more than a small
part of the explanation.

The magazine is clearly up against a host of
problems, but the service it can provide is an
important one, and we look forward to seeing
the progress made on succeeding issues.

Moving Millions — Crown Film Unit

Moving Millions deals with London Transport.
It surveys the widespread activities of the mach-
ine that trundles millions of Londoners every day
on their various occasions. In a style reminiscent
of one of those popular versions of White Papers
which, some civil servants imagine, grip the
interest of the public like the fooling of Mr
Danny Kaye, it gives all the facts and presents a
perfect picture of an efficient, cheerful, punctual
public service for the existence of which we
should all be truly grateful. In this rather over-
crowded vehicle, millions may be moved, but
they will not include the members of the audience.

sir: In the May issue your correspondent Mr
Mervyn Reeves complains, quite rightly, that
nobody really knows the effect of films in agricul-
tural education.

We, who are so deeply engaged in this type of
work, are only too much aware of this lack of
knowledge.

We have now arranged for the Social Survey,
the Government's own research organization, to
do a field survey in the autumn and winter into
the effect of a sample agricultural instructional
film on agricultural audiences.

We hope to get answers to some at least of the
questions Mr Reeves askes.

Yours faithfully,

RONALD TRITTON

Director, Films Division

-

DOCT MFM ARY FILM NEWS

67

The filming of Shakespeare is one of the most
controversial issues in the world of cinema. It is
one of those matters which set critics at each
other's throats; nor is the field left to the pro-
fessional critic — scholars, teachers, theatrical
producers all come along to take a hand in the
battle. We have watched the usual spate of
printed matter which filled the papers after the
exhibition of the long awaited film of 'Hamlet'
jnd we have decided to go right outside the
ordinary critics. The two reviews printed below
ire unusual — the first was written by Ted Cork
fl6 years) of Film Centre who had never read
'.he play and did not know the story before
seeing the film: the second is by a documentary
technician.

TO one so inexperienced as myself in the works
}f Shakespeare, this film holds many surprises.

By far the most outstanding feature of this
Sim is the amazing clearness of the Elizabethan
English. Throughout the film, the blank verse
if Shakespeare is extraordinarily easy to under-
hand. The opening scene immediately creates a
sense of evil and sinister plotting. The dramatic
*ay in which Hamlet's father appears, seem-
ingly suspended in mid-air adds to the eerie
effect. The bleak halls and stairways of the
:astle provide an admirable setting for the re-
vengeful Hamlet. The heavy dramatic inci-
dents, however, are enlightened by extremely
:lever wit such as we never, or at least very
rarely, hear from modern writers. The whole
:ast is brilliant throughout, Laurence Olivier's
Hamlet is indeed a pleasure to see. His diction
is polished and clear, and his acting is excel-
lent. This, certainly, needs no further com-
ment. The queen seemed a little young to be the
mother of Hamlet, but despite this, her acting,
especially in the scene where Hamlet kills
Polonius, was extremely good.

Jean Simmons' Ophelia fairly establishes her
i great young star. Although at first she seems
DUt of her depth in Shakespeare she quickly
recovers and the dramatic climax when the
death of her father transforms her into a com-
plete lunatic and she drowns herself is both
saddening and brilliant. Felix Aylmer as
Polonius gives us one of the greatest perform-
mces of his career. As the faithful counsellor
3f the king he is both tragic and amusing until
le meets his death. From the beginning, the
olotting of Hamlet to bring about the down-
""all of his uncle, the king, provides us with in-
;ident upon incident until in the last scene both
Hamlet and the king are killed by each other's
slots.

This film will be a great enlightenment to all
:hose who have always regarded Shakespeare
is too classical to enjoy, and must rank as one
jf the greatest of motion pictures ever to be
jroduced and it is truly heartening to know
hat it is the result and the work of British
:echnicians and actors

TED CORK

:or one who is not an authority upon Shake-
ipeare to review Hamlet as a version of the play
—particularly after once seeing- would seem
in intolerable impertinence. But for a techni-
:ian to air his views upon Hamlet as the work
)f a bunch of film technicians telling in their
various media a simple story of a man's revenge

Hamlet

Prince of Denmark

is perhaps just permissible, Almost everyone
who sees the film will like it up to a point, and
everyone will inevitably, and perhaps privately,

make his own reservations Technically, how-
ever, it is almost impossible to criticize. The
camerawork is superb. The rather hard lighting
and depth of focus appear somewhat strange
in a British film, but they do give a bleakness
and grandeur to the settings. The restless
camera could so easily he irritating were it not
for some of the most accurate operating 1 have
ever seen. To my mind this is the technical tri-
umph of the picture. It takes great skill to man-
oeuvre a camera through the tortuous paths of
Furse's Elsinore. but never for a moment is
there a trace of hesitance or indecision. The
recording is beyond reproach — perhaps the fin-
est dialogue recording we have had from Den-
ham: and if the voice of the Ghost may have
rightly incurred the ridicule of some critics, let
them suggest some better way of illustrating the
ethereal. Roger Furse's sets and William Wal-
ton's music are all that for months we hoped

and knew they would be

Why then is one's praise tempered bv a tinge
of doubt? Personally I feel it is because Olivier
is not a Hamlet for whom one can have sym-
pathy or understanding. He is cold and dart-
one say it? — affected as only Olivier can be.
Someone has said that the film is full of quota
lions. I hat is exactly what it is. probably be-
cause Olivier has not had someone in charge of
the action who can temper his own personality
I his is no story of a man who cannot make up
Ins iiniid. Olivier knows his own mind only too
well, and his mind is to conv nice 11s all by brute
force more than anything else that his Hamlet
is indeed the Lord thy Hamlet, and that thou
shalt have no other Hamlet before him.

But this is no way to end. Here is a prestige
film of brilliant merit in so many ways. It is a
triumph of technical achievement and a verv
noble attempt. Millions of people all over the
world will see the film of Hamlet, and who are
we to blame them if they see it only once!

A TECHNICIAN

Polonius

68

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

at first sight, Stuart Legg is a sombre puritanical
character, with a keen nose for detail, and, para-
doxially, an aptitude for wearing primrose neck-
ties. We remember with embarrassment our
muffled rage when he took over the producership
of Strand in 1937 (Rotha was at that time leaving
for a year's session at the Museum of Modern
Art in New York) and he promptly announced
his intention of descending on our snug location
in South Wales 'to help with our dialogue shoot-
ing'. (It was our first dialogue film, and he was
only taking wise precautions, but what we expect
from the old governor we do not always take
from a new broom.) Within one hour of his arri-
val, he had made himself more helpful than any
producer we have ever known, which helpfulness
continued for the next three days, without Stuart
ever apparently emerging from the background
or visibly opening his mouth. When he got back
he told his wife Margaret that he was greatly im-
pressed with our capabilities as a director, and
she dutifully passed on the information. There-
after we would have died for him gladly — cer-
tainly we were prepared to work ourselves to
death. Now, we too, produce — but that high level
of skill or that low level of cunning we dare not
hope to attain.

As a servant of documentary Stuart is pre-
historic. He is first found in the Cambridge re-
miniscences of equivalent old-timers like Basil
Wright and Humphrey Jennings, busily working
away on Power (production: Cambridge Film
Society), and developing a majestic social con-
science. (Incidentally, he once accused us of
being dominated by a social conscience; that's
like Stuart's puritanical nature, to attribute to
others the virtues he is too austere to claim for
himself.) It is true he so far deviated from the
stem line of duty as to meet his wife while he was
still in statu pupillari: but in fairness it must be
recorded that Margaret Amos was a don's
daughter.

After leaving Cambridge, Legg worked with
Gaumont British Instructional from 1931-2;
then he joined the Empire Marketing Board
Film Unit and stayed on, after the GPO took
over, until 1937. Next he was translated to Film
Centre, and very soon afterwards to Strand,
where he stayed till the summer of 1939. From
then on he fits into the pattern of the develop-

Stuart Legg

A Close-Up

by

Donald Alexander

ment of the National Film Board of Canada,
first of all in Ottawa, and latterly in New York.
His chief for so long, John Grierson, gives Legg
maximum credit for the 'World in Action' series,
which in international short films distribution
ranks second only to the older 'March of Time'.
Now there are rumours that he is coming back,
and that is the second most heartening piece of
news we have heard in a long time.

From the beginning Stuart Legg never made
the pretty films, which hit the headlines and got
the swagger box office bookings. Certainly he
directed BBC Voice of Britain, and (with Anstey)
Under the City, but his has mostly been the hard
graft of contriving something out of nothing, of
personally editing ramshackle material into pre-
sentable shape; of pulling whole series of films
out of limbo, of pioneering difficult projects. The
cutting-room and his office-desk have been the
control points at which he has always been found
with his coat off and his sleeves up, pushing out
more product to the minute than any other film
maker since D. W. Griffith. We remember Wings
Over the Empire — probably the most thoughtful
and moving of all the Strand Imperial Airways
films, patched together out of all the bits and
pieces discarded by the directors who had shot
(or had shot for them) their private material for
their private epics. We remember how through
Legg the evolutionary plan which Julian Huxley
was struggling to communicate to us stupid film-
makers suddenly began to illuminate the whole
series of zoological films made at Strand, and
how it reached fulfilment in Hawes' Monkey into
Man and in Legg's own Fingers and Thumbs. We
remember, too, how he sat down and wrote a
treatment for an Economic Survey of Scotland,
which country he had never visited, and how little
that line was altered in the final Wealth of a
Nation after we (who were indigenous anyway)
had been for months on the spot reporting with a
camera.

Working and living hard, harder than circum-
stances really require, seems always to have been
Stuart and Margaret Legg's motto. But typically,
some of the most memorable things about them
are their contributions to the off-duty apocrypha
of documentary. On a Friday night or a Satur-
day morning, out would come the old Rolls-
Royce (yes, it was a Rolls-Royce: touring model,
vintage 1924, picked up for £60), and we would
trundle off from the workaway Legg domicile on
Shooter's Hill to a clapboarded farm in Lamber-
hurst, Kent, from which Stuart fondly imagined
he would some time be able to commute (poor
Stuart, there was no commuting for him until he
took out a season from New York to Ottawa).
And very determinedly we would ride horses at
Tentcrdcn, or pace the back seat quarter deck of
the Rolls down to the Elephant's Head at Hook
Green, and stay watching cricket and playing
darts and drinking vast quantities of beer for a

long summer's evening. Once we took Legg on a
ceremonial drive round Scotland, with Grierson
and Wright acting as official cicerones to this
country he had written up but never seen. We re-
member every roaring detail from the preliminary
dinner at Rogano's Sea Food Restaurant to the
formal visit to the Grierson ancestors in a church-
yard beside Bannockburn, and Stuart's gloomy
acceptance of the evolutionary plausibility of a
hairy Highland Cow, contrasted with Grierson's
rapturous and improbable claim never before to
have encountered the species. That time we were
stationed in Glasgow — at the Central Hotel —
because Grierson insisted (probably rightly) that
it was the only place to which important contacts
could decently be invited. Stuart stuck it for one
night; the next day we moved to a quiet pub in
Bath Street where our joint social consciences
were not offended by 'plain breakfast' (coffee and
roll) at 2s. 6d., and where the beer was better.
Our contacts still came to the Central; like them,
we just called in.

SOUND

AND THE

DOCUMENTARY

FILM

By KEN CAMERON

With a Foreword by CAVALCANTI

'He is undoubtedly well-qualified to
speak on sound recording matters
relative to documentary production.'
—THE CINE TECHNICIAN

*He has provided the textbook on
sound which every student and future
writer on the cinema will find indis-
pensable." —SIGHT AND SOUND

With numerous illustrations
15/- net

PITMAN

Parker Street Kingsway London WC2

DOCUMEM \\<\ FILM NEWS

Gregg To land. Film- Maker

by

LESTER KOENIG

Illustrated by
HARRY HORNER

LESTER KOENIG is a member
of the Editorial Committee of
the 'Screen Writer' he was able
to gain first-hand knowledge of
Gregg Toland's camera tech-
nique during the production of
'The Best Years of Our Lives'

"If you study the faces about you, you will find they are
not all the same color."

: several years ago, a leading European film

1 nan came to Hollywood, saw Citizen Kane,

'•ind told its cameraman, Gregg Toland, that

le was 'the greatest cameraman in the world".

"No,' said Gregg. That isn't so.'

'Really,' replied the European, 'who is
1 letter?'

Gregg named two cameramen, then added.
I'm only third best.'

Gregg may not be the best, or even third

jest cameraman in the world. But it is true that

; le is universally acclaimed, and a great many

people abroad consider him one of the great

irtists of the film.

Unlike other creative and talented people

i vho come to Hollywood after coming to

naturity and reputation in the theatre, litera-

I ure. radio or related media, the growth of the

| :ameraman because of the nature of their

vork. has been indigenous to Hollywood. For

hat reason, understanding a man like Gregg

Toland, is to understand one of the strongest

ispects of the complex Hollywood character.

3regg is what I call a film-maker, and a pro-

essional.

The start of the Toland career was not very
pectacular. It began in 1919, when he was an
)ffice boy at the Fox Studios on Western
Kvenue. One day he looked up and saw a
ameraman on a parallel, cranking away.

T never forgot that sight,' Gregg said, some-
vhat embarrassed by his youthful romantic-
sm. 'It seemed so glamorous and I made up
ny mind that's what I wanted to be.'

'Didn't you have any previous interest in
)hotography? Boy turns hobby into paying
imposition, and all that sort of thing?'

'No,' he said, i didn't have the faintest in-
erest in photography. It just seemed exciting
o sling a tripod over your shoulder, and it
eemed mysterious to go into a dark room and
oad film.' He laughed. And besides, an office
>oy in those days made twelve dollars a week,
nd an assistant cameraman made eighteen.'

'Do you still feel being a cameraman is "ex-
iting" and "mysterious"?' I asked.

'Yes, I do,' he said. He said it in a way that
howed he knew it wasn't the sophisticated
hing to admit. Gregg is not a naive man, and
ie knows how ridiculous enthusiasm for your
/ork can make you appear to your friends,
'et, the fact that Gregg can still feel this e\-
jitement and mystery gives him a decided ad-

vantage over some of his more jaded colleagues.

Gregg worked as an assistant cameraman for
a good many years through the 'twenties,
through the golden days of Hollywood's pros-
perity and madness, days when Tom Mix.
William Farnum and Theda Bara were stars
on the Fox lot. His first jobs were on two-reel
Al St John comedies.

'By the way,' Gregg said. 'I'll tell you frankly
I was a very good assistant. I made sixty dollars
a week when the others were only making
twenty-five or thirty. But 1 was worth it. I was
proud of the camera. I used to stay on nights
and polish it.'

Finally, in 1929, the hard work paid its divi-
dend. Gregg left the assistant ranks and teamed
with George Barnes to photograph his fust
picture. The Trespasser, starring Gloria Swan-
son, and directed by Edmund Goulding.

'We had twelve cameras shooting simultan-
eously to cover various set-ups, and we had
two sound tracks going. In those days we
didn't know how to cut sound, so we'd shoot
the sound in one solid unit, and then cut the
film from our twelve cameras to fit the track.
Since all our cameras ran continuously, one
some days we had 30,000 feet of rushes.'

The early, experimenting days of sound
were the formative period for Gregg's tech-
nique. After The Trespassers, he did more pic-
tures with George Barnes: The Devil Dancer
starring Gilda Grey, and The Rescue starring
Ronald Colman.

His first picture on his own was Eddie Can-
tor's The Kid from Spain, which Samuel Gold-
"Wyn produced in 1931. It was a musical and it
was made before the days of the playback. In-
stead of the current practice of pre-recording a
musical number and then photographing it to
synchronize with the sound, the orchestra wis
recorded as it played on the set. Gregg had to
keep two cameras going together. When one
would move in for a close shot, the second
would be moving back for a long shot.

The men who made pictures in those days
had to be the inventors of their own technique.
Today, Gregg feels we may have lost some-
thing, a stimulus to our creative thinking, be-
cause so much of the inventing has been done
before. In the past, many brilliant things
reached the screen because a technical problem
had to be overcome by men of imagination who
had no one to stand over them and say, \ ou

can't do it that way. because this is the way we
always do it.'

In a very real sense, as a partial list of his
over forty films indicate, Gregg grew to matur-
ity with the medium: Tugboat Annie (1933).
Roman Scandals (1933), Nana (1934), We I
Again (1934), Les Miserables (1935), Splendxi
(1935), Dark Angel (1935), These Three (1936).
Beloved Enemy (1936), Dead End (1937). Kid-
napped (1938). Intermezzo (1939), W inhering
Heights (1939), Long Voyage Home (19
Grapes of Wrath (1940), Ball of Fire (1941 1.
Citizen Kane (1941). The Little Foxes (1941)

During the war Gregg served in the US Navy
where he made films, in the Pacific, and later
in South America. In 1945, he returned to the
Goldwyn Studios, where he has been working
almost consistently for over twenty years, to
do The Best Years of Our Lives

Gregg's value as a cameraman transcends the
concrete aspects of his work in the films he has
photographed. He is a highly articulate man,
who has done a great deal of creative thinking
about the function of a cameraman in the
complicated series of personal and technical
relationships which are necessary to the mak-
ing of a film.

In trying to work out some standard of judg-
ing photographic quality, he found the conven-
tional criteria inadequate. For example, the
terms contrast, texture, balance and composi-
tion are used in judging the quality of photo-
graphy. A scene is well photographed, sup-
posedly, if the cameraman has been guided by
accepted principles regarding these elements.
It is customary to balance off the faces of
various actors in a scene so that there are no
jarring contrasts. However, it you study the
faces about, you, you will find they are not all
the same colour. To be true to reality, the
cameraman would have to recognize that, and
accept it.

'Yet,' Gregg explained, in The IU u
>ur Lives when Fred Deny (Dana Andrews)
comes home to his father (Roman Bohnenland
stepmother (Gladys deorge). I was criticized
because I didn't eliminate the contrasts in the
tone ol the faces. It was done deliberately. I
wanted to allow the audience to see the white,
unhealthy appearing Stepmother, the drmk-
flushed father, and the healthy young bom-
(Continued overh 0

70

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

GREGG TOLAND (contd.)

hardier. It semed to me that helped tell the
story.'

It is the story which matters most to Gregg.
He has gone beyond the literal rules of camera
grammar to use the written word as his point
of departure. He feels motion picture photo-
graphy can be judged good or bad only in its
relation to helping tell the story.

Obviously, if the screenplay describes a
plain girl, the cameraman isn't helping the
story any if he makes a gorgeous glamour
close-up. In Hollywood, studio policy usually
results in the cameraman .trying to make the
plain heroine as glamorous as possible. It is
just this kind of disregard for story values
which concerns Gregg most in his thinking
about standards of motion picture photography
in Hollywood today.

Recently, a test of a young actor was made
by one of Hollywood's leading directors with
a reputation for brilliant camera effects. The
actor was seated behind a table, seen in three-
quarter profile. A man was seated in the fore-
ground, asking him the usual 'personality'
questions. The man was smoking a cigarette,
and the cigarette smoke was artfully worked
into the composition. It was a beautifully
'composed' shot, with only one drawback :
because the actor was placed in the background
of the shot, and because the smoke partially
concealed him. the function of the test had
been subverted, and a prominent director who
was viewing the test with an eye to hiring the
actor, commented, 'Very fine cigarette smoke.
Now, if you bring me a shot where I can see
the actor, I'll be able to tell whether or not we
can use him.'

This is a crude criticism, and a fairly obvious
example. Of course, one would say, you should
be able to see the actor in a test. But how can
you apply this functional, or utilitarian doc-
trine to scenes in a film? Do you mean all
photography should be 'newsreel' in quality to
be realistic?

Under ideal conditions the cameraman should work very
closely with his director.

Gregg's own account of his approach to a
few of his films may throw some light on the
matter. Since each of the stories posed differ-
ent problems, no set formula could be used.
Gregg felt he had to study the script, discuss
the story with the director, and evolve a separ-
ate style for each picture.

'Wuthering Heights: he explained, 'was a
soft picture, diffused with soft candle-lighting
effects. I tried to make the love scenes beauti-
ful in a romantic way. It was a love story, a
story of escape and fantasy. So I tried to keep
it that way photographically, and let the audi-
ence dream through a whirl of beautiful close-
ups.

'On the other hand. Grapes of Wrath had
to be a sharp picture. It was a story of un-
happy people, people of the earth, who had
real problems and who suffered. So we made
it very sharp. There wasn't any make-up used.
The picture had some extreme effects in low
key, but they were, I think, real. As I remem-
ber, the camera moved only once — a long
travel shot through the sordid streets of a
Hooverville. It was what the occupants of the
car, afteY the long drive to a promised haven,
were examining. Photography such as we had
in Wuthering Heights could ruin a picture like
Grapes of Wrath completely.

'Long Voyage Home was a mood picture.
Storywise ("storywise". significantly enough,
is one of Gregg's favourite words), it was a
series of compositions of the mood of the man
aboard the ship. It was a story of what men
felt rather than what they did. The camera
never moved in that picture.

'Citizen Kane was a great experiment. It was
a story of Kane's personality, what he had done
to other people, what his life meant. It was a
psychological story, yet the external realities
were very important. It required a still differ-
ent kind of photography, an expansion of
camera technique beyond the usual limitations.
Many points of view had to be shown. We had
to experiment because the scope of the story
demanded it. Kane's photo-
graphy would scarcely have
suited Wuthering Heights or
even Grapes of Wrath. We ex-
perimented in forced focus
depth, in travel shots, in start-
ling effects, and in full ceil-
inged sets.

''The Best Years of Our Lives
was another experiment. But
in a different way. It was Wy-
ler's first picture after the war
and was my first black and
white since the war. We talked
at length about the story and
decided it demanded simple,
unaffected realism. Willy had
been thinking a lot, too, dur-
ing the war. He had seen a lot
of candid photography and
lots of scenes without a cam-
era dolly or boom. He used to
go overboard on movement,
but he came back with, I
think, a better perspective on
what was and wasn't import-
ant. Anyway, Willy left me
pretty much alone. While he
rehearsed, I would try to find
a method of shooting it. Usual-
ly he liked it. When he didn't.
he was the boss and we did it

his way. However, at this point we under-
stand each other pretty well and Willy know"
that I will sacrifice photography and time i'
it means a better scene. I, in turn, know tha-
he will listen to any suggestion. I thinl
Best Years was well photographed because
the photography helped to tell the story.
It wasn't breathtaking. Tt would have beer
wrong to strive for effects. We were after simple
■reproduction of the scenes played without an>
chi-chi. The only time I held my breath was in the
powder-room scene when I thought we might be-
getting arty and trying to prove how damn clever
we were instead of playing a scene. But Willy was
right. It worked for us. If I had to label the photo-
graphic style of the picture, I'd call it "honest".'

gregg's working habits may be of interest since
they run counter to so many established views
about Hollywood's creators. While it is true
that technical personnel on a production, and
cameramen in particular, put in long and hard
hours, it seemed to me, that as I observed Gregg
during the production of The Best Years of
Our Lives, that he and William Wyler, the
director, worked harder than anyone else in
Hollywood.

Under ideal working conditions, the camera-
man should be included in the preparation of
a picture. He should work very closely with his
director. 'Unfortunately.' as Gregg pointed out.
'they don't in this business. The director may
work for months on a story, but the camera-
man is tossed a script a few days before shoot-
ing.' In Best Years, Gregg worked on the pic-
ture from its inception, getting each version of
the screenplay, and the revised pages as they
came from the writer, Robert E. Sherwood.
This enabled Gregg to plan the production re-
quirements, to scout locations and shoot photo-
graphic tests. But. in addition, it enabled him to
familiarize himself with the story itself, so that
he had a thorough 'storywise" understanding
of each scene, of each character. With this
background, and with constant discussions with
Wyler, Gregg was able to use his technique in
the best interests of the story as a whole.

During the writing of the script. I remember
going out with Wyler and Gregg to look over
the location for the exterior of Fred Derry's
father's house. On our return to the studio.
Gregg suggested that I take Sherwood out to
see it, partly to see if it was what Sherwood had
visualized, and partly to see if it would give
him any ideas. A few days later, when Bob
Sherwood and I went out and looked the place
over. Bob said he was very glad he came be-
cause seeing the dilapidated exterior of the
Derry home made him realize the audience
would not have to be told very much specific-
ally about Fred's background. One shot of the
wretched exterior would give a very real feel-
ing of what his life had been like before he
came an officer in the Air Forces. Therefore,
added exposition in dialogue would be super-
fluous.

Gregg is in an advantageous position for
working with writers and directors, because as
well as a cameraman, he is a key figure in the
operation of the Samuel Goldwyn production
set-up. He is under exclusive contract to Gold-
wyn. and works \er> closely with the produc-
tion executives in all their planning. The aver-
age cameraman works by the picture, and con-
sequently is not in a position to add efficiency
to production. Other companies might well
profit by Goldwyn's example of more closely

DOCl MF.NTARY FILM NKWS

71

integrating their able and experienced camera-
men with production planning.

In any discussion of the Toland style, the
question of forced focus is hound to rise. At
the time of Citizen Kane, it was quite extreme
id, to see objects 18 inches and 200 feet from the
camera simultaneously in focus. Now. of
course, we take such shorts for granted. Carry-
ing focus is obtained by use of fast film, stop
ping the lens down to a very small aperture.
and it lighting key much hotter than that used
conventionally. 'Forced focus.' Gregg ex-
plained, 'is not a trick, and should not be con-
sidered as such. It is an aid to directors, since
it gives them more freedom in staging scenes
As Willy pointed out in his article in last
February's Screen Writer, "I can have action
and reaction in the same shot, without having
. tc cut back and forth from individual shots ot
the characters. This makes for smooth con-
tinuity, an almost effortless How of the scene,
I for much more interesting composition in each
shot, and lets the spectator look from one to
the other character at his own will, do his own
cutting".'

'Beyond that.' Gregg said, it helps the audi-
ence see more, and consequently sec more
story.'

'What about your photography in the Navy?
Do you think it had any effect on your style?'

'This is an odd thing to admit.' Gregg said,
'but I found many times when I didn't have all
the Hollywood equipment at my elbow, that
the results were superior. Why? They looked
. real. No haloes of back-lighting, and no soft
flattering modelling. For example, in Honolulu
I used to go into homes or business houses to
do a short sequence. Through the windows I'd
have an /.22 exposure. Inside, an f.3.5 expo-
sure. I would go ahead, photograph for interior.
and get an extremely over-exposed exterior.
But it looked real. I suppose some place in be-
tween the extreme of such candid photography

and the extreme commercial front-office stsle
there must be a compromise point where we
can make pictures with realism I think there is
i noticeable trend in that direction.'

(to be concluded)

K«-print<<l l>\ kind permission of
the 'Screen Writer'

No nn a n dy Dm ry
second instalment

/ uesday

To Tilly via Caen. It was not too had a road,
provided we slowed down every time a car
came the other way as the edge of the road is
covered with frozen snow. Whenever a lorry
comes in the opposite direction we slow down
and stop. They are absolute brutes, these big
lorry drivers.

Caen seems just as much in ruins as it did
last year. We stopped for petrol-and a coffee
with run. a typical Normandy drink, which is
most acceptable in this filthy weather.

When I asked the way to Tilly-sur-Seulles I
was told Tilly did not exist any more! When I
explained to a peasant that we were supposed
to show films there, he suggested we should try
St Pierre, the neighbouring village.

Tilly is indeed destroyed. The cross-road
marks the place where Tilly once stood.

M. C— — received us and took us to lunch
at the only hotel. Conversation with the differ-
ent people we meet is always interesting and
can be divided into two or three subjects^food.
reconstruction (or the lack thereof), rising

prices, anil conditions in the UK. 1 felt I should
base taken last year's lecture on Post-wai Prob-
lems with me. as everyone asked me about our
problems and the solutions we proposed It is
surprising- how little the average Frenchman
knows about England. No one would believe
me when I said England was a very poor coun-
try and had spent all her foreign assets during
the war.

\iter lunch M. C— took us to the hut
where we were to project our films. We pinned
up a sheet, tested the equipment, blew the
fuses (this invariably happens) and chose the
films. The car got stuck in the mud and we had
to throw gravel under the wheels \ Bren
carrier would have been ideal for this tour or
even a light tank.

Tilly was the centre of most bitter fighting.
It is said to have been taken and retaken 2}

times, but as M. C explained, local people

had no idea of the campaign as a whole. For
this reason I showed West of the Line a narra-
tive of the Normandy campaign. Coastal til-
lage and V-\ were again shown at the begin-
ning of the programme. Plastics was given last
as it is in technicolor. Although the comment-
ary is in English, it is quite easy to follow and
was appreciated because few people know how
plastics are made and the many uses to which
they are put.

There were about 450 people in the hut. The
heat was terrific and I had hardly any room to
move because the projector was in the centre
of the hall. A spot of bother with a print, too.
It was old and worn. Shall have to mend it to-
morrow.

Dr W — has put me up tonight. Central
heating in the house! As I came up the stairs
tonight to go to bed, I saw a cat on the stairs
and stroked it. Imagine my horror when I
found it was a stuffed animal. There is a pecu-
liar smell in the house, must be stuffed cats
(to be continued)

NEW BOOKS ON FILM

Composing for the Films. Hans Eisler. (Oxford
University Press, New York, 1947.)
Three-quarters of this book has a purely regional
significance. It is a bitter attack by a sadly disil-
lusioned man on some of the methods of music-
making in Hollywood- an attack which is too
often doctrinaire and politically one-sided. A
victim of the recent 'witch hunt'. Hans I lslcr,
through the interest and intervention of musi-
cians and artists throughout the world, has now
been given permission to leave America and
breathe the more congenial air of Europe. In
Hollywood he was a fish out of water— a fish
whose atonal scales glittered defiantly in the clam
chowder of Hollywood mass production. A book
so bitter is bound to be biased. Eisler makes little
reference to the undoubtedly good musical scores
| that have appeared from time to time from the
American studios and, save tor one or two isolated
references to Russian film scores, he ignores en-
tirely the great contribution to the advance of film
music that has been made in this country and
countries outside the American orbit or rather,
outside his own orbit. This is understandable,
a man with such strong views and, moreover;

whose musical god is Schonberg will have little
patience with the less severe standards of the
non-atonal school of thought. Nevertheless,
Eisler's indictment of Hollywood musical meth-
ods and tastes makes interesting reading and,
although it is difficult to believe that what he says
is said without prejudice, it makes one rejoice
in the freedom of action and thought that is the
right of the composer in this country the free-
dom to compose for films without the surrender
of artistic integrity .

The final chapters of the book have a more
general application and given an intelligent sum-
mary of the technical problems and possibilities
facing the composer when dealing with the
highly intricate medium of film music. Though
many ot I islcr's suggestions have long been the
common practice ot the best European film com-
posers, it was important that these should be
placed on record, particularly as the best-known
book on (he subject (that by Kurt London) has
long been out-moded. It is all the more to be
regretted that the issue is so frequently contused
by the clouds of red dust arising from the re-
sounding thwackings Eisler deals his hobby-

horse. To the impartial reader it is not wholly to
be wondered at that the hobby-horse irritably
assumed the accoutrements of a charger.

w . V
Bette Davis. Peter Noble. (Skelton Robinson,
$s. 6d.)

.The first half of this book relates the career of
one of Hollywood's best actresses and bonniest
fighters. Mr Noble's account is interesting, if
never very profound, and he manages to avoid
the mixture of adulation and personal chit-chat
which makes up the usual film star biography
The writing, though is unduly repetitive and oc-
casional!) even slipshod Miss Davis's own views
of the necessary balance between type-casting
and character-acting are worthy of note, while it
is a surprise, now that critics are upbraiding Brit-
ish producers for over-working their players, to
find that, in hei firsl five yean in Hollywood, Miss

Davis made no fewer than thirty-two films.

The remainder of the book comprises a list
of all the star's films, with cast-fists, main credits.
and plot-summaries of the more notable ones,
and a collection ot thirty-live stills, well cho
but not so well reproduced

72

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

FOR REFERENCE

Complete List of Film Strip Manufacturers

Army Kinema Corporation,

Dover Street, London, W.

Distributors of film strips made for Army

Educational Dept.

British Industrial Films Ltd,

177 The Vale, Acton, W.
Publishers of Unicorn Head film strips. Strips
made for industrial sponsors. Teachers own
material made up. Distributors for National
Film Board of Canada.

British Instructional Films Ltd,

Mill Green Road, Mitcham, Surrey.
Publishers of educational film strips.

Cartoon Film Strip Company,

137 Hamilton Terrace, NW8.

Publishers of film strips for young children, for

use at home and in junior schools.

Common Ground Ltd,

Sydney Place, SW7.

Publishers of educational film strips. Strips

for industrial concerns.

Council of Industrial Design,

Tilbury House, Petty France.
Strips on Design for sale and hire.

Daily Mail Visual Aid Service,

Northcliffe House, EC4.

Publishers of educational film strips.

Dawn Trust Ltd,

The Studio, Aylesbury, Bucks.
Publishers of religious film strips.

Dufay Chromex Ltd,

P. & O. House, 14-16 Cockspur Street, SW1.
Teachers own material made up.

Educational Publicity Ltd,

17 Denbigh Street, Victoria, SW.

Publishers of educational film strips. Strips for

for industrial concerns.

French Railways Ltd,

179 Piccadilly, London, Wl.

Series available for loan free of charge.

GB Instructional Ltd,

Imperial Studios. Elstree Way, Boreham
Wood, Herts.

Publishers of educational film strips. Strips for
industrial concerns.

Kayes Ltd,

Carlton Hill Studios, 72a Carlton Hill. St
John's Wood, NW8.

Strips for industrial concerns. Teachers own
material made up.

K Films,

1 Frederick Close, Stanhope Place, Marble
Arch, W2.

Publishers of educational film strips. Strips for
industrial concerns.

National Interest Picture Productions Ltd,

21 Soho Square, Wl.

Publishers of educational film strips. Strips for

industrial concerns.

Newton & Co Ltd,

72 Wigmore Street, Wl.
Publishers of educational film strips.

Pathe-BIF Ltd,

See BRITISH INSTRUCTIONAL FILMS LTD.

Photo-Union Ltd,

Studio House, 12 Soho Square, Wl.
Film strips for industrial concerns.

Marian Rey,

36 Villiers Avenue, Surbiton. Surrey.
Publishers of educational film strips.

Unicorn Head,

See BRITISH INDUSTRIAL FILMS LTD.

Visual Information Service,

168a Battersea Bridge Road, SW11.
Publishers of educational film strips. Teachers
own material made up.

Visual Education Ltd,

9 Upper Berkeley Street, Portman Square, Wl.
Publishers of educational film strips.

Yvonde & Broomfield Ltd,
28 Berkeley Square, Wl.
Strips for industrial concerns.

A COMPLETE LABORATORY SERVICE

PRECISION FILM PROCESSING • TITLES • INSERTS ■ ANIMATED DIAGRAMS
OPTICALS • SPECIAL EFFECTS ■ NEGATIVE CUTTING ■ EDITIM;

STUDIO FILM LABORATORIES ltd

80-82 WARDOUR STREET &
71 DEAN STREET W. 1

TELEPHONE:

G E R

1 3 6

6 - 7 -

REVIEW YOUR FILMS AT OUR R. C. A. PREVIEW' THEATRE

Publ

ic Relationship Films

Ltd

Ri

chard Massingham

in charge of production

29 Whitehall SWI

WHI 4000

At a viewing of road safety films for

SURREY EDUCATION OFFICERS

'CYCLING

PROFICIENCY'

was considered the most

useful for

schools use

'Cycling Proficiency' was produced for

the Royal Society for the Prevention of

Accidents by

BLACKHEATH FILM UNIT LTD

9 NORTH STREET, LEATHERHEAD,

SURREY

Topical

In the old days workmen and tech-
nicians employed on large-scale jobs
never had a chance of seeing the pro-
ject as a whole, or of understanding
how their particular contrihution titted
in.

Once a month, DATA completes an
issue of 'Mining Review', a cine-
magazine about miners for showing in
upwards of three hundred cinemas,
principally in mining areas. This kind
of screen journalism gives more than
the headlines. It gets under the skin
of topical events affecting miners, and
puts them into perspective. DATA has
also completed a first year's progress
report on the £60 millions develop-
ment scheme of the Steel Company of
Wales. 'Plan for Steel' is being dis-
tributed in cinemas throughout South
Wales, and will also be seen by
workers on the job.

We believe such up-to-the-minute films
to be of great importance in a country.
undergoing radical change, as Britain
is at the present time.

Member of the Federation of Documentary Film Units

21 SOHO SQUARE LONDON Wl
GERRARD 2826

DOCUMENTARY 48

m *** I

INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF MUSIC AND DRAMA

i

2nd INTERNATIONAL
FESTIVAL OF
DOCUMENTARY FILMS

EDINBURGH, AUGUST 22 to SEPTEMBER 12, 1948

World-wide interest was aroused by the first
International Festival of Documentary Films,
which included the premieres of many import-
ant feature productions. During one week's
performances over seventy-five films from
eighteen countries were shown to an inter-
national audience totalling many thousands.

This year the performances will be spread over
three weeks and will be so arranged that any
one spending even a single week at the Festival
will be able to see most of the films presented.

As before, the organizers have received enthu-
siastic support from the Governments and
film organizations of many countries and, at
this second Festival, numerous entries have
been promised from sources not represented
on the previous occasion.

Once again the Festival will present a unique
opportunity of seeing the latest and most out-
standing documentaries from all over the
world. There will be seven major perform-
ances, at each of which a new feature docu-
mentary will be shown, together with short
films in every style. Most of these films will
have their first screening in this country, and
some will have their world premiere at the
Festival.

Many notable film personalities are expected
to attend and some production companies are
making arrangements to release members of
their staffs during the period of the Festival.

For further Information apply to

EDINBURGH FILM G U l(L D

FILM HOUSE, 6-8 HILL STREET

EDINBURGH, 2

TELEPHONE AND TELEGRAMS: EDINBURGH 34203

PERFORMANCES

*

FILM GUILD THEATRE C E NT R A L H A L L , TO L LC ROSS

F I L M H O U S E, 6 - 8 H I L L S T R E E T. Pc^0^?^' ^nGUST 25 ^ ^

TEMBER I and 8, at 7.30 p.m.

Three special programmes of films designed

from AUGUST 23 until SEPTEMBER II
SPECIALISED PROGRAMMES OF SELECTED FILMS

for educational and instructive purposes.

CALEY PICTURE HOUSE

LOTHIAN ROAD, off PRINCES STREET, on
SUNDAY, AUGUST 22, 29 and SEPTEMBER
5, 1 2.

Programme details are not yet available but
will be announced as soon as possible.

Illl SIIINWI I'RFSS. lOMKA \SD HtRIFORI)

DOCUMENTARY

INCORPORATING DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

JULY 1948

ONE SHILLING

Third time in Britain
First time in Documentary

is now producing a four-reel picture planned
for DEEP FOCUS technique throughout

We won't say any more till we know for certain how good we are
at it, but we are never afraid to experiment

DOCUMENTARY TECHNICIANS ALLIANCE LTD. 21 SOHO SQUARE Wl. GERRARD 2826

REALIST FILM LNIT

In charge of production

Brian Smith

In charge of classroom film production
Dorothy Grayson, Alex Strasser

9 GREAT CHAPEL STREET, W.l

GERrard 1958

fi Im in o n1 hi #/
review

the magazine for the
intelligent film-goer

containing articles on

script-writing
documentary-films

producers

directors
film-fashions

treot/ng the film
and film-making as

art

price 9d. from all newsagents or
10s. per annum post free from

Precinct Publications

50 Old Brompton Road SW7

SIGHT
and
SOUND

A cultural Quarterly

MONTHLi FILM BULLETIN

appraising educational

and
entertainment values

Published by: The British Film Institute
1(>1 Shaftesbury Avenue. London, WC2

DOCUMENTARY Him II I'll s

VOL. 7 NO. 67 JULY 1948

EDITORIAL BOARD

STEPHEN ACKROYD
DONALD ALEXANDER
MAX ANDERSON
EDGAR ANSTEY
GEOFFREY BELL

KEN CAMERON
PAUL FLETCHER
SINCLAIR ROAD
GRAHAME THARP
BASIL WRIGHT

EDITOR

DAVIDE BOULTING

ASSISTANT EDITOR

JANE DAV1ES

CONTEXTS

This month's cover still shows Ram Gopal in Lord Sira Danced — a new Shell production

Editorial

Notes of the Month

Quotes about the Quota

Tour in Belgium
John Maddison

Off with their Heads!
Jack Bedclington

University Film Centre?
Stanley Oreanu . .

\ New Medical Film

3regg Toland — Film Maker Part 2
Lester Koenig

lohn Taylor

'nstitut des Hautes Etudes Cinematographiques
Ruth Partington

Correspondence

73

74
75

76

77

• 78
79

80, 81
82

83
84

Published every month by
Film Centre* :t I Soho St|. I .onrion %%" I

tNNUAL SUBSCRIPTION 12 S. SINGLE COPIES 1 S.

TURNING IT OVER

'Some make big ones, some make small.
More from each means more for all.'

So runs one of the new Government posters issued to exhort the
factory worker to greater efforts.

But is the factory worker the only person who should make this
contribution?

No, we've got a new Films Quota in England. From next October
45 per cent of the Main Features and 25 per cent of the supporting
programme must be Made in England.

And this means more work for the British film worker — not just
more employment but more work, better work and more co-
operation.

The Exhibitors are groaning; they don't like it and they say that
more exhibitors than ever will default on this quota.

Why not make more films and better films and show the exhibitors
that they have nothing to groan about? It can be done.

The Americans are groaning; they say that this is the last straw.

Have they ever considered whether they would be content with a
45 per cent and 25 per cent quota for American films to be shown
in America? We doubt it!

Mr Rank says it can be done — and for once we agree with him.

But it means better films, films made with more economy and with
less time-wasting.

And in Documentary it means more interesting films, films with
a sense of humour, films which do not try to preach but just to do
what is the necessary function of every good film — to wit, to entertain.

The people stood for a lot of propaganda during the war — it u.i^
necessary then and Documentary made a real contribution to it.

But now it has a chance to prove that it has grown up — that it can
make films the public will enioy seeing — films which stand on their
own merits and do not prop themselves up on the excuse of has ing
a message to deliver.

The customer goes to the cinema first and foremost to be enter-
tained. He does not pay out good money to have pompon^ propa-
ganda rammed down his throat.

'Some make big ones' (Mr Rank and the other Main Feature
boys).

'Some make small' (Yes! that's you, Documentar> producer).

'More from each means more for all."

Yes — more work, better work from each section o( the industry
will mean more employment, more films and a self-supporting
British Film Industry.

74

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

NOTES OF THE MONTH

New Flaherty Film for Edinburgh

The Louisiana Story, a new film by Robert Flaherty, one of the
world's most outstanding directors, will open the Second Inter-
national Festival of Documentary Films in Edinburgh on Sunday,
August 22.

'Nothing could please me so much as this great honour of show-
ing the film at the Festival,' wrote Mr Flaherty in reply to the in-
vitation to show his film which, on behalf of the Festival Com-
mittee, was conveyed by the Lord Provost of Edinburgh.

The Louisiana Story is Mr Flaherty's first feature film since he
made Elephant Boy ten years ago in India. It is described as a
dramatic fantasy about a Cajun boy in the Bayou marshlands of
Louisiana. Over two years in production, it has just been completed
and the Edinburgh showing will be its world premiere.

'The Louisiana Story,' Mr Flaherty has stated, 'is about a thir-
teen-year-old Acadian boy — Acadian is French-Canadian from
Nova Scotia — who believes in mermaids and fairies. His father is
a hunter living in the marshes. The film is a fantasy and in some
way comparable to Elephant Boy. As with all our pictures, we first
settled down in the locality to assimilate the everyday life of the
people. We rented a house in the Cajun town of Abbeyville,
Louisiana, and lived there, getting to know the inhabitants and ob-
taining their friendship and confidence, just as we did on the Aran
Islands for Man of Aran and in Samoa where we lived in a native
village for two years while making Moana. We let the story of the
picture grow out of the people and the locality.

'It took us three months to find the boy to play the leading role,
a search similar to the one that unearthed Sabu for Elephant Boy.
This is one of the most important phases of making a movie of this
kind. Since we do not use professional actors, it is necessary to find
people who will fit the parts that are called for in the picture and
who can "live" their roles. If you are careful and get people to per-
form what they have done all their lives, they can do it better than
actors. Certain peoples, like the Irish, Negroes, Polynesians, Eski-
mos and Russians, I have found to be naturally wonderful actors.'

Mr Flaherty's historic Nanook of the North, a picture of Eskimo
life made in 1921, was recently re-issued and was as successful as
when first shown more than twenty-five years ago. During the war
Mr Flaherty made The Land, a film on soil erosion for the United
States Department of Agriculture.

The Labour Party Film

for the past few weeks John Curthoys (director) and a team of
script writers and actors have been busy producing a new Labour
Party film. It is a three-reeler and is part of a new policy of the
National Film Association, an organization jointly conceived by
the Co-operative Movement, the Trades Union Congress, and the
Labour Party to develop the use of 'visual aids' in the workers'
movement.

Instead of the old-fashioned documentary, with its all-knowing
commentator, this is a one-act screen play. It is a distinct advan-
tage in these days of austerity to have a dash of entertainment in
any message you may want to convey to a message-saturated
public. This film puts as much emphasis on entertainment as

message. The title of the film will be Their Great Adventure. The
whole thing has been conceived, written and shot within two or
three months.

John Curthoys is the director. The key part of the local MP is
played by Cecil Trouncer, the Magistrates by Richard Ainley and
Margery Bryce, the Chairman of the Court by Gordon Begg. For
the rest, many other people have put an enormous amount of
effort into the first Labour Party film — not least Mr George Wynn.
the manager of the Co-operative Film Unit.

The whole Labour Movement is taking immense interest in the
film's progress and its release is eagerly awaited. It is hoped that a
London premiere will be arranged in the autumn, when full de-
tails of distribution, rental, etc., will be announced.

OLIVER TWIST

whenever a film is made of a popular classic, there is an unfortu-
nate tendency to make comparisons as to the suitability and
accuracy of the film in following the development of the author's
story and the importance of arriving at his conclusions. Latitude is
granted to film-makers inasmuch as it is recognized that it would
be impossible to interpret in terms of moving pictures every image
evoked by the words of the writer. Deviation from the rigid struc-
ture of the original often produces feelings of nostalgia, or even
of downright indignation that the work should have been treated
with such apparent disregard. This is the natural reaction of a
public with a healthy respect for their eminent writers, but it indi-
cates a lack of appreciation of the film as an independent method
of expression.

In attempting a true assessment of the merits of Oliver Twist it
is necessary to dissociate the film from the novel. In this way it
is possible to consider the film according to the standards of the
medium in which it is made.

As most of us will remember the story of Oliver Twist involves
a constantly changing scene. This unfortunate little boy who starts
life in the lugubrious atmosphere of a workhouse, is transported
from there to the home of an undertaker and later to a thieves' den
in London; his temporary rescue by the kindly Mr Brownlow pro-
vides his one experience of comfort and security. This indicates the
size of the canvas. It is impossible to stay any length of time in one
place. For example, the workhouse, with its sordid atmosphere,
its unhappy inmates, and complacent officials, must only occup\
our attention for an all too brief space before we are hurried on t.'
the home of Mr Sowerberry, the undertaker. Consequently instead
of a rounded and finished product, the impression is that of a
series of isolated episodes. Each of these episodes is vividly and
beautifully portrayed, but because of the sharpness with which ,
they are defined they do not blend to form an integrated whole.

The photography is imaginative, and it is a pleasure to see such
an intelligent and exciting use of the camera. In the opening scenes,
by means of dramatic cutting and photography, the extreme physi-
cal malaise of a woman about to give birth to a child is conveyed in
a way better calculated to enlist our sympathy than a two-hour
sound track of labour ward groans.

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

75

QUOTES ABOUT THE QUOTA

J. Arthur Rank: 'Already 60 per cent of the pictures shown
on our circuits — Odeon and Gaumont— are British. We shall
budget at least to maintain that figure. The new British quota
is a very fair one, but this time we must see to it that all
exhibitors do play British films and do not avoid their
obligations.'

Ralph Bond (Vice-President of AC AT) : 'It will certainly mean
a big stimulus to production but, unless Mr Wilson keeps his
repeated promises of financial help to independent producers,
all the plums will go to the big combines and their American
associates. The low quota for supporting programmes is a
blow to documentary producers.'

Senior Executive of an American Company

'We cannot help but regard it as a direct effort to squeeze us
out.'

H. D. Hughes (MP and Chairman oj Committer 1 1 I be

supporting programme is not financially, at present, an im-
portant part of the industry but, aesthetically and in terms of
entertainment, it is an important part taking something just
under one-half of the showing time. I fear the result of this low
quota of 25 per cent will be that something only less than ball
of our screen time will be open to American second- feature and
short productions which may be of a very low quality indeed.
In fact, it seems to me that there is a danger in the difference
between these two quotas that the American production,
diverted from first-feature showing by the comparatively high
first feature quota, will, in order to occupy surplus capital and
to keep its name on the market, be forcibly diverted into the
second feature and supporting programme, and will, in that
way, artificially be induced to compete with a section of the in-
dustry which, on many occasions, the right hon gentleman
and his predecessor at the Board of Trade have expressed their
wish to encourage and promote.'

R. M'Laughlin (Edinburgh Branch of Cinema Exhibitors
Association) : 'Independents in this section view with alarm the
proposal of the Board of Trade ... as the supply of films is
hopelessly inadequate to meet the quota.'

■

Alec Guiness as Fagin in 'Oli.er Twin'

Sir Henry French (Director-General of British Film Producers
Association): 'This quota must be complied with, and all
exhibitors must play their part. It is absolute nonsense to talk
about the need for 450 feature films a year to feed all the film
demands of our cinemas.'

*

Eric Johnston (President of Motion Picture Association of
America): 'This 45 per cent quota is excessive, unnecessar)
and impossible of fulfilment, and violates the spirit of the Film
Agreement recently negotiated between the British Govern-
ment and the United States film industry.'

'Daily Fxpress' (June 15): 'The quota is unsatisfactory because
it lays down that Britain, impoverished as she is, shall depend
for more than half her films on imports from a wealth) creditoi
country. . . . Films made by American interests m this
country will count as "British" for quota purposes. "* et all
their earnings outside Britain will go straight into the pockets of
the Americans. They will contribute not one cent to
Britain's exchange position.'

'New Statesman and Nation' (June 19) 'Mi Wilson has kept
British cinemas open b) the Film Agreement. He has now
quite properly demanded from exhibitors, in return for that
boon, that the) should support the home industry and. in-
directly, that they should assist m financing it. ["here is no
doubt that, given a chance. British film production can reach
its new target.'

76

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

Tour in Belgium

by
JOHN MADDISON

John Maddison has just completed a
series of lecture-shows of British
scientific and documentary films In
Belgium. The series was arranged by
the Belgian Institut National de Cine-
matographic Scientifique with the
help of the CO/, the British Council
and the Foreign Office

one film critic called the set of films I took to
Belgium a 'valise d'images', and as Cleinge,
Abel, Georges the lorry driver and I progressed
with our transit-cases across Flanders and Wal-
lonia in the May sunshine, we felt rather like
pedlars. The audiences were film society mem-
bers, university students and staffs, and second-
ary schoolboys and girls, in nearly a dozen
towns and cities. The programme1 was a solid
one — two hours and a quarter of demonstra-
tion, exposition, persuasion and polemic. Yet if
we missed any item from the advertised list,
the customer always let us know of his disap-
pointment.

Le porridge!

Seeing our films through the eyes of another
people and trying to explain to them in their
language why the films have been made, inevit-
ably one experiences a freshened impulse to
self-criticism. If documentary isn't to be a right
little, tight little national enclave, opportunities
must be given to our technicians (and not only
the bagmen of documentary like myself) to see
and feel their own work anew in the company
of foreign audiences. This tour underlined for
me at any rate two of the elements of docu-
mentary and teaching film production. First of
all, there's commentary. Only two of the films
shown (Instruments and Cyprus) were dubbed
versions. 1 provided a makeshift French com-
mentary for most of the others (except The
World is Rich) as near as possible to the English
scripts. I was made aware continually of the
great importance of commentary in establishng
a rapport between film and audience. There
was, for example, always laughter and a surge
of friendliness from the audience when, in Life
Cycle of Pin Mould. I explained that the mould
at one point was growing on 'le porridge' — and
so identified it as inescapably British!

Visual Exposition

If commentary writers can hear themselves
speaking what they write to a living audience,
we may hope to escape the condescensions, the
pomposities, the feeble cracks and the lumber-
ing tautologies sometimes issuing from the
sound tracks. The other factor is visual exposi-
tion— the need for absolute clarity and logic in
the choice and arrangement of images. This is
especially important now that British docu-
mentaries are regularly going to all parts of the
world, even if some of them are dubbed into a

score of languages. How the Telephone Works
(1 saw it a dozen times) is an object lesson; it
was made in 1937.

Artistic Qualities

Experience showed that the films had been
well chosen. I knew the audiences seeing them
were used to French scientific films and shorts,
and I warned them not to expect 'fantaisie' and
visual fireworks. Lucidity and good sense were
equally important, I maintained. But the critic
of Le Drapeau Rouge, the Communist daily,
stressed the artistic qualities of films like Your
Children's Eyes, and in a long article in Le Soir,
Andre Thirifays found all kinds of unexpected
aesthetic virtues and excitements in the films.
Those who remember Thirifays' comments on
documentaries shown at the Brussels Festival in
1947 will know that he can be a severe judge.
The World is Rich made the biggest impact on
the audiences — I won't soon forget the com-
ment of one of them, a Baron and a bon vivant.
'Ca m'indigne,' he said with feeling.

Henri Storck

One of the pleasures of the trip was to renew
acquaintance with Henri Storck, witty, sincere
and to my mind, still the best of the Belgian
film directors. I saw again his Easter Island
and for the first time Idyll on the Sand (1931).
a film whose style reminds one that Storck
once collaborated with Jean Vigo. Here in Bri-
tain, the new generation in the film societies
would find them, I believe, enchanting. Apart
from the child delinquency film he is making
for the United Nations, Storck is now complet-
ing a film on Rubens. Paul Haesaerts, the art
critic and scenarist of the film, showed me the
script. It promises to be an extraordinarily in-
teresting experiment in what is Paul Haesaerts'
special line — the movie camera as a new mode
for criticizing and interpreting painting. I also
talked with Charles Dekeukelaire, whose re-
cent book Cinema et Pensee, reveals his search
for greater profundity in the medium. Dekeuke-
laire's pre-war Congo is also a film which might
well be revived for our film societies. He is at
present discussing with the famous psycholo-
gist. Professor Michotte of Louvain, a film he is
to make on Michotte's researches. My constant
companions during the tour were two promis-
ing young technicians who have worked with
Storck and Dekeukelaire. Charles Abel, the
cameraman, and Jean Cleinge, a director.
Cleinge has just finished his first film, Heritiers
du Passt. This was an impossible assignment —

a two-reel survey of the whole history of Bel-
gian culture, made for the Army. In spite of
this, Cleinge's film has movement and a sense
of style, and his name is one to remember.

These young men are two of the active spirits
behind the Institut National de Cinemato-
graphic Scientifique, formed only last year.
The third and most important is its Secretary-
General, Luc Haesaerts, barrister, and, with
his brother Paul, the leading interpreter of
modern Flemish art. The Institut's work is only-
beginning and to form an idea of Luc Haesaerts'
character, one must turn to the Seminaire des
Arts, a group activity largely initiated by him.
On a semi-voluntary basis, it is the focus for a
whole range of enterprises, including a little
theatre, a children's theatre, a weekly journal,
a musical society, a library of books, and a
national film library (poor in resources yet but
with a collection of some 400 German films).
The Seminaire's headquarters is in the Palais
des Beaux Arts, which itself must be an insti-
tution unique in Europe, and perhaps the
world. The day we presented our programme of
British films in one of the theatres of the Palais,
Brailowsky was giving a recital in another part
of the building, the Marionettes des Champs
Elysees were playing Cocteau's Maries de la
Tour Eiffel with the Queen of the Belgians in
the audience, a French feature film was show-
ing in the Palais public cinema, and one of
the finest exhibitions of French, Flemish, Ger-
man and Italian paintings ever assembled, the
Pinakotheka of Munich Collection, was going
on in the galleries. In the April number of
Documentary Film News, Sinclair Road wrote
on Art and the People. Any forward thinking
civic leaders who may have read his article
might next investigate the Palais des Beaux
Arts. After all, Brussels is much the same size
for population as, say. Manchester.

The impression I brought away from the
Institut National de Cinematographic Scienti-
fique (heightened no doubt by its goodwill and
friendliness) was of youthful hopes and pur-
posiveness. But who could fail to warm to a
country, one of whose film societies calls itself
Les Amis de hi Lanterne Magiquel

' The films were, in whole or pan. as follows:
Extracts from Film and Reality (work b> L'rban, Bruce
Woolfe, Canti and Russell Reynolds). How the Telephone
Works, Life Cycle of Pin Mould, Cracking, Children Learning
by Experience, Your Children's Eyes, The Story of Penicillin,
The U'orld is Rich (for adults). Cyprus is an Island (for
schools), Instruments of the Orchestra, and three superb
unedited sequences in colour, from a series of twelve hlms
on agricultural pests which J. V. Durden of Photomicro-
graphy Ltd. is making for Shell.

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

77

Off With Their Heads!

by
JACK BEDDINGTON

Jack Beddington was, during
the war, Director of the Films
Division of the Ministry of
Information. Before that,
Publicity Director of Shell
Mex Ltd. Was one of those
who made the Government
realize the value of the film
in wartime propaganda

the trouble with the documentary film world
today is that the old gang is still in charge. It
was, therefore, a great delight to me to hear
considerable criticism of them by younger
people at a private debate the other day.

It was equally a pain to me — though not a
surprise— to find that with a notable exception
none of the old gang were present to hear those
criticisms, though they must have known that
they were coming.

it

The old gang twelve or fifteen years ago were
pioneers wtih new ideas, great enthusiasms.
courage and honesty. They are now middle-
aged, much fatter or thinner than they were,
and no longer potential geniuses. I cannot see
that they have made any advance in the last
five years. Humour they do not understand;
criticism they resent. This is no state of mind
with which to startle, tickle or impress the
world.

I recently saw two films about housing,
shown one after the other. About eleven years
separated their dates of production. Apart from
slightly better photography in the newer one,
there was nothing to choose between them.
There is, however, an enormous difference in
the outlook of audiences today and those of
eleven years ago. Documentary film-makers
must get this into their heads.

Before the war. there was a sympathy and a
receptivity for the kind of work that they were
doing. People were not conditioned by the
frustration and brutality to which we are all
now accustomed. This must be taken into
account. We have had a terrible time for ten
years and if film-makers want us to listen to
them, they must either have something refresh-
ing to say or a refreshing way of saying what-
ever is their theme. It seems to me that they
are frightened by two of the simplest and most
acceptable things in the world — humour and
beauty.

I need scarcely labour my point of humour
because none of them will deny that they want
to put it in their films. I must none the less
point out that they cannot do so — as it were —
on purpose. Humour in the \ense in which I
am using it must be spontaneous and can only
come from those who have the gift of laughing
at themselves. It does not necessarily consist of
jokes, funny business' or epigrams; it does
mean the presentation of human beings in the
round with their good and their bad points,
without sneers and — above all — not as types.

This brings me to what I believe is the car-
dinal weakness of the old gang. They are con-
sistently pressing a political point of view. U is.

I believe, of no importance what that point of
view is provided that it does not prevent the
film being exciting or interesting or stimulating
in its own right; but the moment a piece of
propaganda in a film is considered of more im-
portance than the film itself, the film is bound
to fail and to preach to none except the con-
verted. If only the old gang would realize this
and even that their political points of view are
both well-known and old-fashioned, they might
be induced to give up intrigue and wire-pulling
and come back to film-making.

In their early days they freely announced
that they were only using films for propaganda
purposes, but in those days they were young
and enthusiastic and deceived themselves in a
more agreeable fashion than they do now. In
fact, they loved making films and it was for
this reason that beauty and humour crept in
despite their professed attitude of abhorring
the aesthetic. This is one of their silliest and
most self-conscious tricks. I am glad indeed

that it does not seem to be shared by the new-
comers. They don't seem to me nearly so
frightened of either laughing or crying and it is
for this reason that I have great hopes for the
future.

I am carefully avoiding the old contr<>
of the appeal to the intellect as opposed to the
appeal to the emotions. I don't really believe
that any film-maker in any type of film-making
consciously accepts such a difference. Some
want to express their own theories of good and
evil; some want only to entertain or to make
money. All use the methods that come easiest
to them. What comes through on to the cellu-
loid is the essential quality of the makers. Some
films come out dull or distorted, or difficult, to
understand. Some don't.

I can only hope then that the newcomers
will retain their enthusiasms and their energy
and vigorously chase out the old gang as soon
as possible.

A still fron a new COI film on the Civil Service the title is -Answer Four Questions'

78

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

University Film Centre ?

by
STANLEY OREANU

IT is usual to think of the older universities
clinging with the grasp of rigor mortis to
ancient times and ways. One believes that be-
hind the up-to-the-minute striving of bright
young people, the core of the University lies in
cloister courts in shy, melancholy men going
up treadworn stairs to their rooms and in the
same men planted out in rows at the Senate
voting 'non placet' to every new measure.
Though it would be unfair to give this vision
the total lie, Oxford and Cambridge can some-
times assimilate new ideas with remarkable
speed. The cinema in education is scarcely now
a new idea, but in the use of films for higher
education and research, Cambridge has re-
cently given the lead to other universities and
colleges in this country. That is not to say the
question mark can be cut from my title or even
that films are being made and used on a large
scale, but there certainly is a wind on the heath.

Film is used

A number of departments use films for
teaching and research at the present time. The
Zoological laboratory has made studies of the
movement of fish, invertebrates and ciliates,
the Physiology department has produced a
film on the technique of perfusing a rabbit's
heart that has cut down the number of fiascos
in the practical class, while the micro-biological
films made at the Strangeways laboratory are
already well-known outside Cambridge. Since
biology is so much concerned with the study of
movement and growth, biologists have been
quick to seize on the film as a valuable aid. It
is, however, the Engineering laboratory which
has made the most extensive use of films as
part of the regular academic course. First and
second year students in this laboratory have a
weekly cinema hour in which they are shown
not only films covering many aspects of en-
gineering but also sociological films, such as
The City, likely to be of interest to them. The
students are asked to grade the films according
to quality of presentation and pedagogue
value. The great majority of the films shown
come from outside sources, but a few have re-
cently been made in the laboratory.

It is not possible to give a detailed account
here, but in many other branches of science,
and also in economics and history films are
either being used now or there is interest in
their immediate possibilities.

More apparatus needed

If films are to be made and shown on an in-
creasing scale, more projectors must be made
available. It is a fact not always recognized
that if you give a man a projector and he has
any liking at all for gadgets, he will pretty soon
look for something to run through it. A few
months ago the University spent quite a large
sum on the purchase of film equipment, so that

now every department houses or has easy ac-
cess to a projector.

But though we now have the means to show
any number of films there are extremely few
known to be of the required academic stan-
dard. Of many that perhaps exist, we have
only the titles and of some not even that. It
was the common need for information, for
technical advice and for co-operation between
different departments that led a number of lec-
turers, research workers and students to form
the Educational Film Council at Cambridge in
February of last year. After a good deal of fact-
finding and propaganda, the Council has been
recognized by the University to the extent that
a yearly amount is paid as a joint subscription
from all departments and the General Board of
the Faculties appoints a representative to the
executive committee. The Council soon real-
ized that although it could do valuable work
at Cambridge, even in the interests of Cam-
bridge a more widespread organization was
needed to gather information efficiently and to
deal with such matters as training in film tech-
nique, the import of foreign films and co-
operation in film-making between universities
to cut and share out costs. At the invitation of
the Council, a conference was convened by the
British Film Institute and the Scientific Film
Association last November. This resulted in the
establishment of a Universities Film Council
for the British Isles.

Not enough films

If all the films at present hidden away in pri-
vate libraries, laboratory cupboards and pro-
fessorial safes were made available we should
be a little better off than we are now, but there
would still be an enormous shortage of films
suitable for university teaching and research.
And studio-made films today cost the earth.
One way of lowering costs is to use 'library
material'. For example, historical films of con-
siderable value could probably be made largely
from newsreels. This use of material made in
the first place for another purpose could also
be planned ahead, so that in making say popu-
lar scientific or instructional films, extra shots
might be taken and a film constructed suitable
for academic purposes.

Many valuable films could be made cheaply
and simply in the University and, as we have
said, to some extent this is being done already.
But there are shortages of equipment and
trained personnel. Cambridge, or indeed any
university, is unwilling to spend money on
what they regard as non-essentials. Ergo
cameras and so on will only be purchased
when a loud enough noise is made by depart-
ments whose actual projects are held up for
want of equipment. The training of research
workers in film-making is now under consid-
eration and the national Universities Film

Council intends next year to arrange a sum-
mer school in cinematograph technique.

The Cambridge Council at first decided to
advise on matters of film-making only when
advice was asked for and not to take a more
active and direct part. This was done in order
not to offend departments hyper-sensitive to
outside interference. It soon became appar-
ent, however, that without active encourage-
ment and suggestion very few films would be
made at or for the University within the next
few years. After attempts to obtain money
from outside sources for academic film-making
in general had understandably failed, the
Council turned its attention to specific projects.
A letter was sent to departments and faculty
boards asking for details of films they intended
to make or would like to see made. A number
of positive replies have already been received.
Soon the Council will be in a position to seek
financial and other support for concrete pro-
positions and to facilitate joint efforts in film-
making with other universities. A few months
ago a professor at the University of Utrecht
wrote to the Council suggesting that some edu-
cational films should be made in Britain and
Holland in such a way that they could be used
in both countries. And if co-operation with
Holland, then also with other countries in
Europe and beyond.

The final aim

The 'ultimate aim' of the Council is the
'establishment by the University of a Film
Centre with adequate facilities for the produc-
tion, projection and storage of educational
films'. To this end a memorandum was sub-
mitted to the General Board of the Faculties
outlining the first suggested steps. This mem-
orandum has had useful indirect effects, but no
direct action has been taken on the lines laid
out.

There is not going to be a Film Centre at
Cambridge yet awhile, and there will not be
one until more lecturers and research workers
have taken an active part in making films and
have a clearer idea of where and how they are
going. But more and more films are going to
be made, for people are coming to see both that
language is not always the ideal medium for
communicating academic ideas and that the
cinema will not make an end to books. Indeed
the Cambridge University Press has experi-
mented with short film sequences as illustration
for text-books and may go farther. In time the
University must also sponsor research on
films, for while it is relatively easy, given ade-
quate technique, to make a film on biological
cell division that all will see alike, different
people may gain very different ideas from one
that aims to portray the social background to
Balkan history and who knows how many les-
sons are to be learnt from Battleship Pot em-
kin!

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

79

A NEW MEDICAL
FILM

reviewed by
A DOCTOR

last year there was the biggest epidemic of acute
anterior poliomyelitis we have ever had in this
country. At the height of that epidemic the
Ministry of Health issued a 20-minute film
Poliomyelitis 1947, to help general practitioners
with early diagnosis of the illness. Thanks to the
co-operation of the Central Office of Informa-
tion projection service, that film was seen by
17,000 doctors and as many nurses in three weeks.
The new film Polio Diagnosis and Management
is a more ambitious film intended to be completed
in time for any possible epidemic in this or
future years. With digressions, it tells the story of
a young man who gets acute anterior polio-
myelitis and is treated and finally returns to
work. The film starts with tables showing the
amount of the illness in various places of recent
years and goes on to mention how in a family
some have merely fever and headache while
others have the obvious illness with paralysis.
Then we see a young man visit his doctor's sur-
gery; the doctor gives him aspirin and sees him
next day; suspects poliomyelitis and calls the
Medical Officer of Health; he examines him and
removes him to hospital, explaining the outlook
to the family of the patient. The various types of
muscle paralysis in this illness are demonstrated
and the progress of the patient followed through
to his building-up exercises and finally his return
to work, still under supervision.

The film is designed for general practitioners
and gives a good survey of the progress of a case
with a suitable emphasis on the necessity of con-
tinuing treatment until and after the patient is
back at work. It lasts 60 minutes and is very well
photographed, directed and cut.

When one comes to ask what it is for, then

The still from the Polio film shows the Doctor testing the patient

problems crop up. If it is designed as a docu-
mentary to arouse the interest of general prac-
titioners, it is surely reasonable to answer that
any good general practitioner learnt enough dur-
ing the excitement of last year's epidemic to give
him a good working knowledge of the disease for
the next few years.

If it is designed as an instructional film for
young GPs, then it is wide open to criticism.
As a patient I expect if I go to a GP complaining
of a pain in the neck, he will examine my neck to
see what is the matter with it: actually I expect
that at any first visit my doctor will ask me to
take off my shirt and lie down to be properly

From the new Crown monthly release 'School in Cologne'

examined. In this film, the patient at the surgery
is sent home without any proper examination;
the next day the GP gives a cursory examination
without testing the knee jerks with a hammer,
and calls in the MOH who makes a rather in-
consequent examination. Then we have repetitive
sequences on thedamages to various muscles.

The film is an example of the short-sighted
economy of the film makers at the Central Office
of Information. One does not expect the Ministry
of Health to know how to make good teaching
films. One does expect the COI to. Until they
realize that to make a good teaching film you
need a good teacher as well as a good film direc-
tor and a good technical expert, the chances of
getting good teaching films from COI will remain
low.

There is at present no need for a documentarv
on acute anterior poliomyelitis for doctors.
There is quite a good case for one for the public.
Last year's film had bad titles but said two or
three things about early diagnosis clearly and
left time for discussion. The early parts of this
year's film are like any US film. The shots of a
lecturer and of his chart arc not film, the} are
film strip material.

But what is needed from COI is a number of
shorter, more modest films on the common
illnesses, rheumatism, tuberculosis, whooping
cough, and so on. The film is an expensive medium
and in our impoverished condition we cannot
afford yet to deal intensively with a rare maladv
such as acute anterior poliomyelitis.

Diagnosis and Management will be a use-
ful and popular addition to the films for general
practitioners.

The Film *

Polio Diagnosis and Management. 1948. Made
by Crown 1 ilm I nit. DirecttM Gccffieg Innev
Photography: Jonah Jones.

80

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

Gregg Toland,
Film-maker

Part 2

Reprinted by kind permission of
the 'Screen Writer'

gregg is a man with opinions who is not afraid
to air them, and as a result he is not known for
his ability to make himself popular with other
cameramen. Recently Gregg showed me a tele-
gram he sent to a very well-known colleague of
his. In it, he deflated that gentleman consider-
ably for taking credit in a magazine article for
a 'new' development in lighting technique.
Gregg pointed out how ridiculous his col-
league's claim was, and added that he himself
had used the same 'new' technique several years
before.

T hope has a sense of humour,' Gregg

said.

T think he'll need more than a sense of
humour. He isn't going to like you very much
when he sees this.'

'Well, that's all right,' Gregg said, grinning.
'I do this sort of thing all the time. They resent
it, but they're probably used to it by now.'

In response to my questions, Gregg gave me
a few of his views which have not served to
endear him to members of the ASC. 'In my
opinion,' he stated, 'there are about twenty
really top cameramen in the world. I would
say that about twelve of them are in Holly-
wood. The others run from "adequate" to "use
only if necessary".'

'What's the trouble with them?' I asked.

'Well, most of them take the road of least
resistance. They do whatever is easiest. But
worse than that, I think too few cameramen
realize dramatic and story values. They don't
keep abreast of current plays and books. Their
interest seems to centre mainly on how late a
call I can manage in the morning to how early
can we finish today.'

'We hear many criticisms about Hollywood's
lack of maturity in terms of story material,' I
pointed out, 'but it is taken for granted that the
technical job Hollywood does is the finest in
the world. How does this fit in with what you
just said?'

T disagree that all our technical jobs are
done as well as they can be done. For instance.
I feel that too many cameramen are apt to
work out a certain key which they can handle,
and then photograph everything, tragedy or
comedy, in the same way. They don't work to
adapt their style to their story. Furthermore,
cameramen often have ideas which might entail
extra work on their part, and which they don't
suggest to the director for that reason. I'll give
you a theoretical example which will give you
some idea of what I mean :

'Supposing the script indicates a group of
partisans making plans for a raid. In the far
corner is the leader's girl. She listens, worried.

'One approach to this might be a group shot

"A girl is often so old by the time she proves her ability
that out comes the burlaps in front of the lens."

and several tighter shots, always with the
leader as the focal point. The director might
plan to make cuts of the girl listening. Now, the
cameraman might suddenly think, "It would be
better to start with a group, slowly move past
intent faces, with the leader always in the
background. The camera nears the leader and
then slowly pans into a big close-up of the
girl. We see how upset she is, and we dissolve
on her doubt." Our cameraman thinks that
might be swell, but does he bring it up? Well,
let's see: it would mean a large problem in
lighting faces with lights that would miss a
camera shadow. It would involve focus of fore-
ground faces and background faces; also a
problem of sliding diffusion as the camera pans
to the girl; also he probably couldn't get the
light exactly where he wanted it for the girl due
tc camera movement. So, does he mention it?
No, indeed. Why stick out his neck? Even
though his idea would have furthered the
dramatic tension of the scene and planted the
girl's worry more pointedly, our cameraman
will go along with the no more than" adequate
idea of the director. That's what I mean by
taking the path of least resistance.'

'Okay,' I said, 'suppose all you've said is
true. It is particularly the fault of the individual
cameraman, or is there a deeper fault?'

'Yes, 1 think there is,' Gregg said. 'A great
many of the stories we make aren't very stimu-
lating. Sometimes you wonder why they're
made at all. That's not a great inducement to
do your best work. 1 know when it's been my
misfortune to have to photograph one of those
run-of-the-mill pictures, I've been pretty un-
happy. There's absolutely no opportunity for
ideas. I've said to my wife, "I feel just like a
whore, doing it for money. If I had any guts, I'd
quit this picture and we would go down to Rio,
or some place." But you never do. You just
keep on hoping that the next opportunity will
be better. I suppose that's the human weakness
of comfort and security.'

'You sound exactly like any number of

writers who've had to write that stuff you didnt
like,' I told him.

'Well, they haven't got any monopoly on
frustrations, you know.'

'I'm sure it'll make them much happier to
hear that. By the way, what about writers in
relation to cameramen. Do you think closer
liaison is practical?'

'Definitely,' said Gregg. 'The cameraman
should be asked to sit down with a lot of other
people on the picture before production, and
that would include the writer. I am positive that
great production economies can be effected by
cameramen and writers discussing the script.'
'Here's a question a lot of writers would like
to have answered : What happens to the camera
directions they put into their screenplays in
capital letters? You know, CAMERA MOVES
SLOWLY TO. HIGH ANGLE SHOT. CAM-
ERA TRUCKS. MEDIUM CLOSE. RE-
VERSE TWO SHOT BUD PAST BEULAH.
and so on?'

'The answer to that is pretty simple. Direc-
tors and cameramen over the years have de-
veloped a method of reading scripts so they
do not see these directions at all.'

'Is that your last word on the subject?"
'No. the director can't work out staging and
mechanics in his office, so why should the
writer worry about trucking shots, panning
shots, boom shots and all the rest? Usually he's
talking about a subject of which he has a very
limited knowledge. (Although I'll grant most
writers have had no opportunity to learn.)
Writers like Sherwood write in master scenes
and don't go into detailed camera instructions.
That's the way it should be. My advice to
writers, especially the \ounger ones who are
feeling their way in the medium, would be to
concentrate their worrying on the content of
the scene and the dialogue."

among other factors which keep cameramen
from doing more creative work, Gregg includes
the unimaginative quality of a great deal of

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

81

directing. There are quite a few old-fashioned,
tired directors who are still coasting on past
reputations. And there are also quite a few
directors who find it difficult to work up much
enthusiasm for run-of-the-mill assignments,
and are content with doing a routine job of
turning pieces of paper into pieces of celluloid.

'When you're working with a director with
no enthusiasm for what he's doing, it's hard for
the cameraman to get enthused,' Gregg said.
'If the director makes a two shot, and then a
couple of close-ups, and plays every scene the
same way, no cameraman in the world can
exert much creative energy. And then there's
the director who wants to make his set-ups
"exciting" and tries to use a 30 mm lens all the
time. This can drive a cameraman crazy, be-
cause you can't use a wide-angle lens without
a knowledge of how and when to use it.

'Or you get the director who wants to move
his camera all the time. My own view is that
there is a sensible point of view in between
static set-ups and constant movement. I've
gone to both extremes in Long Voyage Home
and Citizen Kane. Now I think a better point
of view has been reached with Willy in Best
Years. We didn't have any preconceived rules;
we moved when it seemed that helped tell the
story best. Camera movement shouldn't be
noticed, because it takes your attention from
the actors, and what is happening to them.
Yet, some directors, because a scene has a great
deal of dialogue, have the extremely false
notion that camera movement will make the
scene appear to move. This doesn't help the
cameraman any, either.'

Going on from these specific criticisms,
Gregg feels that the industry in general should
be criticized. He feels good pictures aren't be-
ing made, and he feels that you can't blame
audiences. He has quite a healthy respect for
the quality of the American audience, and
doesn't believe that pictures have to be geared
to the level of the twelve-year-old mind to be
successful.

In general, his main criticism is, he believes
pictures have lost reality and imagination.
They are conventional in writing, direction and
photography. One of his deep resentments is
the star system.

'It means we are making pictures with a "per-
sonality" rather than story. That's why many
cameramen are forced to sacrifice everything
in order to keep some old bag playing young
women. And when I say old bag, that's what
I mean. A girl is often so old by the time she
proves her ability that out comes the burlaps
ir. front of the lens.

'The average producer will answer that he
has to protect his investment. But why not pro-
tect it with a good story, script and director,
and then cast it with the best actors for the
parts, not box-office names. I know the answer
to that one, too : "Pictures are a business for
profit." So they are, but it would be fine once-
in-a-time though, to see an honest motion pic-
ture.

'Aren't you tired of seeing some glamour star
playing a shopgirl in New York, living in an
apartment that would cost ten times her
monthly salary, wearing dresses that she
couldn't possibly afford, and with a hairdo that
you can only get by coming to a movie studio
and having a staff of specialists create for two
hours before you come on the set?'

I admitted I was tired of it, and he sighed. 1
could go on and on, but why?'

'Well,' I said, 'partly because it's good to get
it out of your system, and mostly because I
want to know how you feel so I can write a
proper interview.'

In that case.' he said, I'll go on. A lot of
people won't like this, but I think it's true. At
least, it's the way I've seen it from the inside
over a period of years. I think fewer creative
pictures are being made these days as compared
to 20 years ago because most of the people
directly responsible are more smug and better
paid. The unions protect many positions, where
in the old days it was touch and go. In those
days any youngster could start in the picture
business, if he had the stuff. Salaries were much
smaller, but I think there was a greater pride of
achievement. Generally speaking, most people
today have the attitude that everything has
been tried and present methods are the best.
Now, I'm not saying the back-lot people all
have economic security, or even all the so-
called creative or talent groups are living off
the fat of the land. I'd say, though, that what

an expensive audience of extra people. This is
an example of what I Baid earlier. People out
here no longer ponder; they no longer have
the same challenges to meet There is money
enough, so they build enough set for safety —
just in case they need it. And so it goes — every-
one protects himself, and everything sails along
just fine.

Kane may not be a great picture, but I
honestly believe it excited more comment and
made more people snap out of their complac-
ency than any other picture in years.

By the way, I want to be sure to make this
point. I have worked under contract to Samuel
Goldwyn for many years and some people
might have the mistaken notion that I am say-
ing these things in criticism of him. That is de-
finitely not the case. I sincerely believe that
Goldwyn will allow me more freedom, more
experiments and more ideas than anyone at the
moment. I do not say this to protect my con-
tented feeling, as Goldwyn may have my con-
tract back any morning he chooses, and with

If you're working with a director with no enthusiasm, its
liard for the cameraman to get enthused.

I've said is too true of the people who make the
decisions, and who are in the last analysis re-
sponsible for what goes on in this town.

'Naturally, I don't speak of the few persons
who have a burning desire to accomplish
things, but who are usually held down by a
production office or a producer with a "Why
take a chance?".

'That's why making Citizen Kane was so
wonderful. Orson Welles (who directed it) and
I had a wonderful time. It was the first time I
had encountered anyone with the authority to
do anything and not be confronted by the front
office, I suggested and tried things I'd been
dreaming of for a long time.

'We made mistakes in it, but we also did a
few startling things which people still discuss
J might add that one reason for man) oi the
effects was a lack of money. We just couldn't
afford to have an audience in the opera house
when the camera was shooting from behind
Dorothy Comingore, the singer. So we thought.
J put up a series of baby shots in a black opera
set and trained them at the camera. I believe
that the ultimate effect was more desirable than

out a settlement, and he knows it. I say it be-
cause I believe he tries harder than any other
person in this industry. This doesn't mean that
he is always right, but he tries. I wish more
people did.'

In Hollywood today, where the tendency is
toward a standardized product, and toward
conformity on all levels, citizens like Gregg
Toland have a value far beyond their skills or
techniques. As individualists, they have the
ability to subordinate themselves and their
work to the co-operative creative process Yet
they retain their personalities and identities.
Because he has a personality. Gregg has per-
sonal opinions, and they are reflected in the
pictures he makes. Too many people in Holly-
wood have given up the fight to retain their
identities, and when asked for opinions, ansvvei
'I can do it whichever way you want', rathei
than '1 think it would be better this way' In B
community where so man) people are loth to
speak their minds, men like Gregg are good to
have around.

He may not always he right hut at least he
tries.

82

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

John Taylor

A Close-up

by

early in ad 1930 there entered the dingy cutting
rooms of the EMB Film Unit (then three souls
strong) a plump and repulsive small boy who
had clearly graduated, multa cum laude, from Dr
Will Hay's noted academy. This boy was soon
voted impertinent as well as repulsive; he
jammed the spike of a Debrie tripod on to J. D.
Davidson's foot and knocked Grierson's hat (a
very fine Borsalino) into the Thames near
Gravesend. At that time the multitude and variety
of bad ends prognosticated, and even desired, for
this young gentleman were remarkable. Few of
those who came perforce and reluctantly into
contact with him realized (a) that he was working
out of his system a grouch against human-kind
caused by his forced entry into films as an alterna-
tive to running away to sea, and (b) that the
adolescent tortures he so skilfully inflicted on his
superiors were the first signs of that strength of
character which, with the passing of the years,
made him the most reliable, courageous and per-
sistent member of the documentary movement in
Great Britain.

It would be difficult to find so far a cry as
that from our first impressions of this foul urchin
to the solid figure we know today as John Taylor
(his middle name, you may care to know, is
Elston), producer-in-charge of the Crown Film
Unit, creator of Realist, married man with two
uproarious children (his wife is Barbara Mullen),
and proprietor of an impressive estate which is
somewhat cluttered up not only by extensive
asparagus beds but also by the micro-manipu-
lator and other accessories of Photomicrography
Ltd — another Taylor creation.

To be quite truthful, only a short period
elapsed between John's press-ganging into docu-
mentary and his emergence as a valuable addi-
tion to a movement whose speed of development
in those early days called for great intensity of
work and an enthusiasm for films which some
contemporary technicians might well emulate.
John became a good camera-assistant, a good
cutter, and a good getter-on-with-any-job. He
was assistant' to Flaherty during the period of
Industrial Britain, and if you get him and
Golightly into a good mood they will tell you
what happened in Birmingham one autumn even-
ing in 1931. He so impressed Flaherty that he
was pinched from the EMB and worked on
Man of Aran from beginning to end. For the re-
cord, let it be remembered that John Taylor, who
was still quite a kid, ran the location laboratory
which Flaherty set up in Aran, and that the bulk
of the negative passed through his hands.

He came back from his Irish sojourn both
wiser and wilder. Almost immediately he had to
buy a dinner jacket and a tropical outfit and go
on location in Ceylon where, thanks to careful
arranging, he never had to carry anything heavier

B. W.

x

than the superbly equipped Leica which Flaherty
had given him after the Aran film. Again for the
record, let it be remembered that the enormously
comprehensive set of stills of most aspects of
Ceylon — many of which dealt with subjects not
in the film — were entirely his work ; and that as a
location organizer he proved magnificent.

Round about this time John began to feel
that his education had been too rudely inter-
rupted by the claims of documentary, and with
everyone's blessing and approval he took a year
off and studied the Arts, etcetera, at the Univer-
sity of Edinburgh. John has always had an in-
stinctive and indeed uncannily accurate appre-
ciation of true values, with the result that the
academic opportunities of Edinburgh were
quickly and usefully absorbed, and he acquired
one of the few attributes he had hitherto lacked
— the ability of organized thinking. To this he
shortly added a pungent, individual and effective
prose style which he should employ (at least in
the interests of documentary journalism) much
more frequently than he does.

At this period, too, he emerged as a film direc-
tor. Eastwards he flew, shooting with Strand for

Imperial Airways at Bahrein, and then, in solitary
state but with Arthur Elton's blessing, directing
and photographing that extraordinary study of
an oriental country on to which a dictator was
billposting Western technologies — Dawn of Iran.
Then, with Elton and Anstey, he worked (and
how he worked) on Housing Problems. On this
film he was partnered on location by the ever-
lamented Ruby Grierson. This partnership con-
tinued on many films afterwards, culminating in
that lovely and simple film of the early war days
— They Also Serve, which, in effect, they made
together.

Reverting, however, to chronology, John then
joined Realist as a director and made The Smoke
Menace and The Londoners. The latter was one
of the first feature-length dramatized document-
aries, and people might as well realize right now
that John's reconstructions of Victorian London
— done in a small studio and not with all that
amount of money— still match up to a lot of
much more elaborate stuff which has come out of
the camera in subsequent and more luxurious
days.

It was about this time that the then producer
and managing director of Realist, convinced that
the journey to Carey Street was imminent, pre-
sented the tottering firm to John Taylor, and
fled to the flesh pots of Film Centre. Since that
day Realist has never looked back. During the
war years it became the focal point of forthright
production — so much so that some of its best
films were consigned to the deepest oubliettes of
the MOI immediately the show-copy was ready.
In the war years John, with Frank Sainsbury and
Max Anderson as constant aides and boon com-
panions, was responsible for an output of films
whose variety, high standards, and integrity
could not be equalled by any other unit. This
happened because John Taylor made himself be-
come a really superb producer. Commanding
then, as he does now, the absolute loyalty, con-
fidence and respect of those who work with him.
he built up at Realist a team of film-makers (and
a very large one at that) which was — and still is
under Brian Smith — pretty nearly unbeatable.

Today he is at Crown — the first producer of
that Unit to show not the slightest sign of a
nervous breakdown. His appointment to this post
was significant. John Taylor has never sought,
nor pretended to, the frills and furbelows of civil
service diplomacies. He frequently appears to be
almost inarticulate — a Machiavellian tactic
which has caused many a flj Whuehallite to bite
the dust. For John knows verv well what he
is up to: he is after producing the best films on
the most-needed subjects, and behind what ap-

(Continued foot of column 3, opposite page)

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

83

Notes on the
Inst it ut

dea

Halites Etudes Cineniatographiques

by Ruth Partington

IDHECs own official publications state clearly
its aim and activities, describe its methods, and
syllabus. They show how a hundred or so stu-
dents, French and foreign, are selected and given
a two or three years' training to prepare them to
realize ambitions to be director, producer, sound
engineer, cameraman, decorator, costume design-
er, cutter or script girl. The public relations side
of fDHEC's work may be judged from its pro-
gramme of outside lectures and projections;
members of the general public may also obtain
permission to use the library, and may buy
IDHECs publications, the Cahiers and the
Bulletin. So perhaps more personal impressions,
gained as if for a documentary treatment over
a period of months, would be more useful in
'bringing alive' this training school for film
workers, an exciting experiment.

Its students only number about a hundred all
told and are concentrated into a converted house
with library, studio, lecture rooms and practical
workshops of small dimensions. Perhaps this
accounts for the personal and lively atmosphere
of the place by comparison with the Sorbonne
for instance where thousands of students arrive
and disperse every day. Or perhaps IDHEC
students are all film fanatics devoted to the same
drug? Certainly the student community on the
fringe of the film world is small : one meets the
same people at cine-clubs all over Paris, at the
Cinematheque and in specialized libraries and
at amateur cinema-circles.

But IDHEC itself is the focal point of this
world and provides a bridge with the activity
of film making. This possibility of contact with
film critics and creators is at least as important
as the more academic side of the programme.
The actual usefulness of the full week's time-
table of lectures on literature, history, geography,
aesthetics, in relation to the cinema, as well as
film history and practice, may be doubted more
than its excellent intention. But the value of
direct and frequent contact with films and film
authorities is at once evident. The staff itself is
outstanding; Leon Moussinac, new director of
the school, is one of the most profound of French
film critics, well known for his books on the
Soviet cinema and the film in general as well as
for his poetry and fictional writing. He is assisted
by Jean Lods, one of France's few established
documentary film makers. Among authorities
lecturing regularly on their subjects are Georges
Sadoul and Jean Mitry on film history. But the
circles spread wider Part of the regular week's
programme, shared by first and second year
students are the Tuesday projection of a new
film by its director, and Monday evening lecture
— projections by a visitor, alternating with a
session in the special documentary series that
has been given this winter. The visiting speakers.

critics or directors are ready to give explanations
and answer questions from this small specialized
audience. The meetings are often extraordinarily
interesting and valuable. Giuseppe da Santis
showing Caccia Tragica, Rene Clement showing
extracts from his early documentation La Grande
Pastorale and Ceitx du Rail, as well as from
La Bataille du Rail and Les Maudits, the critic
Andre Bazin discussing the subject of realism
and reality, Jean Lods explaining his methods in
the documentary studies of artists at work,
Maillol and Aubltsson, Jacques Dupont's films of
pygmy Africa brought back from an ethnological
expedition, are only a few isolated examples.
As IDHEC grows older and more ex-students
are making films, this contact between film work-
ers and TDHEC is bound to increase. Conversely,
IDHECs impact on the film world will grow, in
many countries presumably. 1 have met students
from Sweden, Bulgaria, Palestine, Egypt, Poland,
Canada, the United States, and other countries
as well as France.

The 'foreign students' have often had some
previous practical experience, and so tend to be

older than their French counterparts, and more
ready to criticize the lack of sufficient practical
ti. lining provided by the present material re-
sources of IDHEC. In fact the programme of the
school seems bound to develop a critical sense,
but its effect on creative ability is less obvious.
Any straightforward description of IDHEC
inevitably begs many questions — the aesthetic
question of the effect of prolonged theoretical
training on artistic ability, as raised byDovjenkho
on the subject of the Soviet film academy, and
the economic question as emphasized by the
present crisis in French film production. But it
can at least be said that a film worker coming
from IDHEC has developed his general culture,
acquired a formidable film culture and critical
sense, learnt the technical use of his tools at
IDHEC and during a probationary period in
commercial studios and seen how other men have
used them. The next stage, his use of them where
he finds opportunity, to make poetry or publicity
or what he will, is the test of the individual and
of his training and will be seen more clearly as
more students graduate into active production.

*

available again
E.W.andM.M.

ROBSON'S

THE FILM

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first three lines, 5 - a line above three.

JOHN TAYLOR (cont.)

pears so often as a quiet and amiable facade
there is a toughness and a persistence which lew
operators in the field can overcome His pro-
ducership of Crown can be reckoned as the best
thing which has happened to that Unit since it
used to live at Blackheatb and called itself < iPI >
And now, children, you will want to know
about Taylor the Man I rom one angle that is
easy. He is quite good at darts, an excellent
swimmer, likes, bill is useless at, fishing, is de-
voted to music hall, is one of the greatest living
experts on the art of W. d I iclds. drink I

ncss with pleasure, and, if von have the got

tunc to achieve SUC h an honour, is the best friend
you are ever likely to acquire in all >our puff. But
from an other angle he is less eas) to describe Hii
close friends realize that he keeps a special and

secret John I fayloi locked deep inside himself
1 lough bain, and as honest as \dam before
the fall, 1 1 is from this secret recess thai there
emerges that absolute integritv which makes him
of such unique value to dOtUmfenA

84

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

CORRESPONDENCE

Agricultural Films

SIR,

'Technician's' tetchy article on the SFA
Films in Agriculture Conference has had at
least one valuable result. It has stimulated Mr
Mervyn Reeves into writing some valid and
useful criticism, in your May 1948 issue.

As he says, we have few if any objective data
about rural audiences, their rate of and capa-
city for film assimilation, their comparative re-
sponse to sound and silent films, their views on
commentators, and so on. Facts on all these
and other similar points would be of great
value to film-makers (who genuinely prefer to
do a useful rather than a useless job) and to the
people in the Ministries, COI, NAAS, and
other organizations who have to suggest, com-
mission, supervise and use the films.

Two questions now arise, and I ask them not
with the object of scoring any debating points,
but because I want to know the answers.

(a) Whose job is it to get these facts?

(b) How is he going to get them?

It is no good saying 'How nice it would be to
have some facts!' and then sitting back. If it
would be as nice as all that, then they have to
be got. Getting them is going to occupy some
man-hours. Man-hours cost money. Therefore,
somebody, or some body, has got to make itself
responsible — has got to assume the financial
and moral burden of getting the facts, inter-
preting them and making them available?
Who, or what, is the correct, competent and
willing body to do this?

Granted that the work is to be done, the
question of method has to be tackled. The facts
must be facts, not subjective and contradictory
personal impressions. The technique of this
kind of fact-finding is not very highly deve-
loped at present, and analogous work in the
entertainment and child-education film fields
has yielded some results which are susceptible
to more than one interpretation. I venture to
suggest that no acceptable standards against
which audience-reaction results can be mea-
sured for significance and validity have yet

been devised. The very methods of experi-
mentation are yet in their infancy.

Investigation will have to be carried out on
a fairly large scale if results are to be reliable,
because there are a large number of variables
involved, not all of which are exactly measur-
able— statistical levelling is, therefore, neces-
sary. Further, I have the impression that the re-
actions of audiences to, at any rate, the instruc-
tional kinds of film change rather rapidly with
the number of films seen. If this is true it sug-
gests that the fact-finding ought properly to be
regarded as a continuing rather than a once-
for-all job.

I am not saying all this with the object of dis-
couraging fact-finders. My point is that useful
fact-finding is not going to be dead easy, and
I rather suspect that even when the facts have
been found they will be somewhat difficult to
interpret.

The job ought to be started, and the sooner
the better, but I think we must not expect a
golden shower of understandable results in
the first week or two.

Yours faithfully,
355a Finchley Road JOHN shearman

Hampstead, NW3

How, What and Why

sir: Having seen the film How, What and Why
reviewed in your June number, I feel that I
must take issue with your reviewer on the item
concerned with the pulse.

'No indication,' he says, 'is given at the end
of the significance of the difference of pulse
rate with which the doctor is concerned.' What,
indeed, would he have in a three minute item
designed for children?

But perhaps he does not know that the sig-
nificance of pulse variations (in which rhythm
and volume are concerned just as much as rate)
is a complex subject which could fill quite a
large text-book? In a film of this type it would
be impossible to make any statement which
would not be misleading or inaccurate without
qualification. Quite rightly the film-makers re-

fused to attempt it and confined themselves (at
the end!) to the statement that the pulse varied
in health and disease, and that these variations
gave the doctor an indication of the state of
health of the body. That, surely, is answer
enough for a twelve-year-old. So far from in-
dicating careless scripting, this particular item
seems to me to illustrate the precise reverse.
Yours etc.,

MEDICAL PRACTITIONER

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The Summer

SIGHT AND SOUND

JOHN GRIERSON replies to Winifred Holmes' query 'What's wrong with British Documentary?'

The late LOUIS LUMIERE discloses many hitherto unpublished facts about his early work in an

exclusive interview with Georges Sadoul

FORSYTH HARDY deals with the work of Arne Sucksdorff

BRIAN STANFORD writes on medical film production in Britain

MATTHEW NORGATE discusses film making in the Argentine

Other contributors include Catherine de la Roche, Vernon Jarratt, Oswell Blakeston, Arthur Vessel©

Published August First

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Greenpark make flms to be seen . . . Seen by the
twenty millions who go weekly to their local cinemas.

Since the war's end sixteen oj our films have been
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TALE IN A TEACUP ■ A STRING OF BEADS ■ THEY GAVE HIM THE WORKS

THF SHhNVAL PRESS. lONPON \M1 HERTFORD

DOCUMENTARY

INCORPORATING DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

AUGUST 1948

ONE SHILLING

Third time in Britain
First time in Documentary

DATA

is now producing a four-reel picture planned
for DEEP FOCUS technique throughout

We won't say any more till we know for certain how good we are
at it, but we are never afraid to experiment

DOCUMENTARY TECHNICIANS ALLIANCE LTD. 21 SOHO SQUARE Wl. GERRARD 2826

British Cartoons

chosen for the Film Festival!

VISUAL AIDS IN SCIENTIFIC &
AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION

I.C.I, has prepared the following lists
of its productions. Copies will be sent to
educational authorities who apply on their
official notepaper.

I.C.I. MEDICAL FILMS

LCI. AGRICULTURAL & VETERINARY FILMS

LCI. FILMS FOR SCHOOLS

LCI. AGRICULTURAL FILM STRIPS

Write to the LCI. FILM LIBRARY, Imperial Chemical
Industries Limited, Nobel House, London, S.W.I

•Jr Films available in 16 nun. sound on free loan to approved borrowers.

1946 Cannes

'Handling Ships' (Adm)

1 946 Prague

'Old Wives' Tales' (MOI)

1947 Brussels

'Modern Guide to Health"

(COI)

1947 Edinburgh

'Modern Guide to Health"

(COI)

1948 Paris (the first all-cartoon

Festival)

'What's Cooking?' (SHB)

'Fable of the Fabrics*

(JWT)

'Your Very Good Health"
(COI)

"Charlev's March of Time"

(COI)

1948 Venice

'New Tov.-n" (COI)

1948 Edinburgh

New Town" (COI)

'Your Very Good Health"
(COI)

All produced h\:-

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K.i

documentary film news

VOL. 7 NO. 68 AUGUST 1948

EDITORIAL BOARD

STEPHEN ACKROVI)
DONALD ALEXANDER
MAX ANDERSON
EDGAR ANSTEY
GEOFFREY BELL

KEN CAMERON
PAUL FLETCHER
SINCLAIR ROAD
GRAHAME THARP
BASIL WRIGHT

EDITOR

DAVIDE BOULTING

ASS I STANT EDITOR

J\NE DAVIES

CONTENTS

Edinburgh — The First Week
Stephen Ackroyd 85,86

Edinburgh 1948
John Grierson 87

World Union of Documentary

D. Alexander and B.Wright 88,89

Edinburgh Illustrated 90,91

Pas de Deux

Peter Baylis and Jack Howells 92

Why Should Truth go Dowdy? 93

The Red Shoes 94

South African Film Societies
Lily Rabkin 95

Correspondence ... 96

Published every month by
Film Onlrp 84 Soho §tf. London Wl

ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION 12 S. SINOLB COP IF S 1 J.

REPORT FROM EDINBURGH

The First Week

by Stephen Ackroyd

as i stood in Princes Street last Saturday, the evening before the
second International Festival of Music and Drama was due to be-
gin, and looked up at the casUe, which dominates the city of Edin-
burgh— the castle whose grim outlines would soon be dissolved bv
the magic of floodlight — I confess that I had a moment of doubt.
C ould Edinburgh in 1948 repeat the success of 1947? The answer
came soon enough. Packed houses, enthusiastic audiences, and
that fantastic, carefree, carnival atmosphere, which alone of our
cities Edinburgh could have conjured up, these are all here again
— and this time to stay; for it is now unthinkable that this great
International Festival should not have a permanent place in the
cultural events of our island.

That the Documentary Film is a part of this festival should be
a matter of great pride to all who are concerned in its future, and
all documentary workers owe a deep debt of gratitude to the City
of Edinburgh and to the Edinburgh Film Guild to whom is due
the credit for the whole conception of the documentarv festival,
and who have done such a magnificent job in organizing it.

For the significance of the Edinburgh Documentary Festival
does not lie only in the fact that here we are able to study, to ex-
change experiences, and to learn from the work of fellow docu-
mentary film-makers from many countries; it is also in th(
that here, beside the arts of Music and Drama, Documentary
stands as a medium on its own. Here, seen by an international
audience, is the work of men and women from all over the world
who strive, like ourselves, to express in film the factual realities of
our time. It is in this realization of the truly international character
of the Documentary idea that the real significance of the I
burgh Film Festival lies, and which makes this event one ol the
most exciting and stimulating of experiences.

A detailed survey of the films shown at the Festival will be pub-
lished in our next issue — today at the end of the first week it is only
possible to touch on a few of the high-lights so far.

Opened by Sir Michael Balcon, who had some pertinent remarks
to make about the new Film Finance ( orporation, the Festival
began last Sunda\ with a world premiere in the i alej Cinema o\
Robert Flaherty's fine new film. I he Louisiana Story. I wish that
those distributors and exhibitors who have such a low opinion ol
the t. isles ol the British public could have been there to watch this
hugo iiudu'n. ■ id Hi,- up i an the most part of the ordinary men and
Women of Edinburgh, held spellbound bv the beaut] .\nd the pi>ctrv

86

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

of Haherty's handling of this story of a small French-Canadian
boy, simple and superstitious, brought up among the wilds of the
Louisiana swamp-land, who is suddenly thrown into contact with
the mechanized monsters of our oil-seeking civilization. This is a
film to see and to flavour again. Preceding this were three short
films, A Divided World — a new film from Sweden by Sucksdorff,
about which no more need be said than that it is a worthy successor
to The Shadows Over Snow, which created such a sensation last
year; The Vain Bear — a delightful colour cartoon from Russia;
and Dramma dl Christo — a film about the paintings of Giotto,
which demonstrated again the mastery and skill of present-day
Italian documentary film-makers.

On Monday began the twice-daily performances in the Guild
Theatre; to select is invidious, but, leaving aside Britain, which is
well represented, from among foreign films mention may be made
of Men of the Mists, the first Bulgarian film to be seen in this coun-
try; of a remarkable experiment in the use of film for critical assess-
ment, The World of Paul Delvaux by Henri Storck from Belgium:
Les Santons, a ballet film from France contrasting with our own
Steps of the Ballet; of Ditte Child of Man, Henning-Jensen's mov-
ing story of the tragedy of illegitimacy; The Loon's Necklace from
Canada — an Indian legend, brilliantly reconstructed with native
masks; Goemons from France — a fine if depressing study of life
on a barren island where seaweed is gathered; of La Rose et le
Reseda, a setting of an Aragon poem from France; Zoo di Petra,
another Italian film dealing this time with sculpture; The Dragon of
Cracow, a delightful puppet film from Poland; Sacrifice, a grim but
fine study of primitive blood rites from Sweden; Chinese Shadow
Play — a delightful study of one of the oldest forms of entertain-
ment in the world. To these could be added the first examples of
documentary films to be seen here from Austria, Spain, Eire and
many others, together with the first Yugoslav feature Slavitza. To-
morrow sees the first showing of a new film about Edinburgh itself,
The Waverley Steps, in an all Scottish programme at the Caley
Cinema, and in the evening the premiere in this country of Roberto

Rossellini's new film, Germany Year Zero. Next week the pro-
gramme resumes at Guild House until Wednesday, and will be re-
peated from September 2 to 11. Besides which there are additional
films on Sundays, special educational film shows and a separate
showing of children's films. Apart from the films there are bi-
weekly lectures by well-known speakers on various aspects of the
documentary film, and an exhibition of stills showing the develop-
ment of the documentary technique.

Last year the Documentary Festival was a small, though import-
ant, "side-show' to the main Festival. This year it is an integral part,
in its own right, of this unique and moving event.

I cannot leave the subject of Edinburgh without a word on the
broader picture. Whether or not one's main interest is films, no one
can afford to miss a visit to this great and beautiful city during these
three weks. At a time when the world is again closing around us,
hag-ridden with fear, we can refresh our spirits and find a new
hope for the future in this international feast of beauty which is
spread in bewildering profusion before us.

In no other city and at no other time in this island can one find,
from so many countries, cheek by jowl, opera, ballet, drama, films,
art exhibitions and music, music of the people and of the world's
greatest artists, and above all perhaps such a cosmopolitan mixture
of men and women laughing, experiencing, and enjoying these
things — and this in a setting which matches worthily the event.
These things, the music, the films, the drama can. it is true, be seen
or heard singly in other places, but here, together, they add up to
something which transcends them all.

As I write, trumpeters in scarlet and gold are coming out of the
Assembly Hall to stand on the Mount and blow their call out over
the city to the people in Edinburgh — and beyond them to the people
of the world — to gather to hear Tyrone Guthrie's magnificent pro-
duction of Sir David Lindsay's 16th century morality play, Ane
Satyre of the Thrie Estaits. Lindsay would have been proud of
Edinburgh today.
Edinburgh, August 26

THE ARNOT ROBERTSON FUND

on Tuesday, July 27, the Court of Appeal allowed an appeal by
Metro-Goldwyn- Mayer Pictures Ltd. from an award of £1,500
damages made to Miss E. Arnot Robertson when she sued the
company for libel and slander following a letter sent by MGM to
the BBC Director of Talks suggesting that she was out of touch with
the tastes and entertainment requirements of the picture-going
public and that 'her criticisms are, on the whole, unnecessarily
harmful to the film industry'. (The hearing of this original case
began in the King's Bench Division before Mr Justice Hilbery and
a Special Jury on July 16, 1947.)

Immediately the result of the Appeal became known, the Film
Section of the Critics' Circle announced through its Hon. Secretary,
Milton Deanc, that it would launch forthwith a Tuud 10 assist Mh>s
Arnot Robertson with the costs of her action, estimated at £5,000.
A Fighting Fund would also be established to enable Miss Robertson

to take her case to the Lords. In his statement to the Press Mr Deane
said: 'We feel that a case of this sort where the original judgment,
with a jury, is overturned on strictly legal points, the whole future
of free and responsible criticism is in jeopardy. This new judgment
might well give encouragement to all those purely commercial
interests in the Cinema which would like to see Press criticism
muzzled and intimidated. In the end it is the public, whom the
critics serve, who will suffer.'

As soon as the establishment of the Fund was announced, contri-
butions in large and small amounts started coming in from all over
the country, and one well-wisher undertook to double any sub-
scription recei\cd up to £1.000.

comrlDutions should be made payable to Mr Milton Deane.
and sent to him at 1 Garrick Mansions. Charing Cross Road
WC2.

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

D.N.L. VOL. VI. INDICES

(1) ARTICLES AM) BOOK REVIEWS

Reviews of books are indicated by an asterisk. Notes of the
Month are printed in italics.

Aits and Action, 66

Adult Education at Stoke House. I 27
•America at the Mo>ies, 85

Vmcncui Location (D. Segaller), 130

Anatomy of Hollywood, The, 141)

\rni> Experiments in Film Presentation (J. D. Forman), 6
•Art ol the Camera. The, 28

Audience Research, 7, 144

Audience Reactions in Schools, 103

Balance Sheet, 1 13
• Bernard Shaw Among the Innocents, 28

Bouquets Dept. 155

British Cinema at the Gallup, The, 99

British Film Institute, 82
•British Film Music. 1 <2

British Medical Films (Brian Stanford), 70

Cambridge and Film, 98
Canadian Colour Scheme, 5
Canadian Initiative (Isobcl Jordan), 86
Can we see our Feet? 33
Carl Meter, 82

Catalogue of COT. and M.O.I. Films. 121
Catalogue of M.O.I. Films made in 1945, 46
Catch 'em Young, 52

Central Council for School Broadcasting, The, 36
C.O.I. Bulletin. 106
Chain and the Links. The, 4
Charlie Chaplin v. The Rest, 106
Cineastes. The (Oswell Blakeston), 40
Comings and Goings, 2, 82
Conference in Manchester. 1 50
•Contemporary Cinema, 95
Correspondence, 15,43,45,92.93, 106. 111,112,117, 148,

160, 39
Crooks. 137

Czechoslovak Film Festival (E. Anstey). 102
Czechoslovak Film Industry, The (Jira Weiss), 38

Danish Films, 163

Dartington Hall Film Unit, 5

Death of Major Documentaries. The, 161

Denmark and Film (A. Elton), 138

Documentary in Denmark, 25
•Documentary Film, The, 28
•Documentary Film. The (D. Alexander), 28

Documentary Film Reviews, 54

Documentary Goes to Town, 50

Documentary News Letter, 49

D.A /.. Changes, 66

Documentary Radio (L. Gilliam), 72

Documentary Theatre (M. Slater), 73

Edinburgh in Review . 1 ^2
Edinburgh Film Guild, 162
Extract from Gricrson. 151

F.A.O. and Films, 52

Feature Film Music and the Documentary (Muir Mathie-

son), 109
•Films. 95
•Film Director. The, 28

Film Historian (J. Benoit-Lcvy), 12

Films Act. The. lis

Films Act— Round Two, The, 82

Films acquired by the C.F.L. in 1945, 47

Films and Micro-Biology (J. V. Durden). 69
•Films as a Visual Art. The. 28

Films for Children, 3

Films for the Army. 129

Films for Tomorrow I V Baird), 34

Films in Australia I Harry Watt), 22

Films in Malaya and Egypt. 71

Films in School, 17

Films in Schools, 35

Films of 1945. 8

Films on the Machinery of Democracy (A. Spoor). 108

Films on Local Government (J. SutclifTe), 131

Film Societies, 14

Film Societies, 52

Film Titling (Barnett Freedman), 26
•Film User. 16 mm., 95

First Days of Documentary (Sir S. Tallcnts). 76

First International Festival of Documentary Films, 135

Flights of Fancy (R. Whitehall), 128

Flitting of Crown, The, 127

•Going to the Cinema, 108
I Good Twopence Worth. 150

Government Film Making in Australia (F. Cranstone), 142

Graphics in Canada (Graham Innes), 91
•Gricrson on Documentary, 64

Gricrson Takes Stock, 56

Haves Scientific Film Society, 127
MistoM on Film (P Baylis), 103
Hollywood .labberwocky (I. Diamond), 139

Import Tax. The, I I

Improving Britain's Film Business (I. Montague), 116

Information Please, 81

Information Please, 98
•Informational Year Book. I 32

Insidc Information on VI Distribution. 90

International Prospect. The (J. Maddison), 120

International s Film A ton, 150

In the Munis of Men (S. Road), 19
•Invitation to the Film. 12

Irresponsibles, 35

Jealous, A. E., Close up of, 158

Labour Pains, 97

Leicester (I .. HelliweU), 145

Malayan Road Show, 58
Manchester (M. Reeves), 126
Millers Ann, The. 137
M.O.I. Please Note, 2
More Two-Way Traffic. 18
Municipal Cinema in Norway, 64

National Theatre Club, 98

Vex Board, 98

New Books on Film, 132

New Documentary Films, 74, 88, 104, 118. 143. 159

New Light on an Old Film (C. Van Emde Boas). 87

New Non-Theatrical Films, 24, 39

Northern Counties Children's Cinema Council. 127

Not Good Enough, 94

Now is the Time, 65

Odd Man Out (B. Wright and E. Anstey). 84
On Children's Film Appraisal (E. Jacques), 125
One up to Belgium, 1 14
Ooh — mind my corns, 82

Penguin Film Review, 132

Perspective, 51

Popular Science Reels in the U.S.S.R. (Vsevelod Slu

45
Production History of C.O.I. Film, 157

Questions to the K.R.S., 149

Radio and Theatre, 72

RAF. Film Unit. 23

Receiving End, The (L. HelliweU). 96

Relations with Czechoslovakia, 66

Role of Documentary, The, 66

Sad Loss, A. 82

Scientific Film News (M. Michaelis), 110
Screen Writing, 28

Scriptwriting Competition, CO. I.. 145
Shakespeare and the Screen (B. Wright). 100
Silent Slaves. 98

Slow But Not So Sure (G. S. Bagley), 20
Society Science and Movie, 55
•Sociology of the Film, 85
Sponsorship, 83

Stafford Cripps, Sir, Speech of, 156
Statistical Analysis of Films Produced bv M.O.I, in 1945.

37
Supply and Distribution of Educational Films, 21
Survey ol Film in France. Belgium. Luxembourg. 136
Survey of Surveys, The, 98

Technique of Anaesthesia, 31

Telcpedagogics, 27

This Modern Age, 89

Twenty Years of British Film. 95

Two Feature Documentaries (B. Wright), 41

Two Films for Theatres, 30

Two-Way Traffic Wanted, 2

Tyranny of the Dollar, 66

Un-Ameri, an, I 50

UNESCO Reports (S. Road). 134

UNESCO'S World Plans. 67

Visual 1 ml i K K Neilson Baxter). 44
Wartime Wedding (J. Shearm.r
Welcome To Scotland. 1 14
We're Had I: Too, 150

•What Happens At The Minus. 85

What is to be Done. I

Whs \.> I ahour I ilms (!) Willi
•World is \l» Cinema. The. I '2
•World ol Plenty, l >

World Union of Documentary. 132

Worms Eye View CM I larke), 107
Writing and Realisation (M I evin) I l'<

1 2) FILM MILES

Film titles appearing in the catalogue of M.O.I fibl

in 1945./)/'. 46-47. in the catalogue <>J \f a I md C.OJ

films, pp. 121-124, and under the heading 'Edinburgh In

Review', pp. 152-154, and Film I

omitted.

\. huii. ,i.i 24*. 94
Ack-Ack, 53

\i i mci in the North Sea, 1 16
All Oulet on the Western Front, 52

Vmmonia, 1 11'"
Animals and Brigands, 102
Anna Christie. 52
Approach to Science, 54*. 127
As You Like It. 101
Australian Diary, 142
Avalanche, 145

Ballad of the Battered Bicycle, The. 104*

Bank Holiday. 128

Barber of Seville. The. 128

Baltic of the Somme. The. 28

Battle for Beauty, 9*

Behind the Spanish Line, 33

Bells of St Mary's, 35

Berlin. 28, 40

Hi si ^ cars of our Live». The. 117, 128

Best Feet Forward, 129

Big Pack. The, 23

Birthdav, 8'

Blue Lagoon, The. 113, 128

Boomerang, 1 1 3

Born in the Sun, 142

B.O.N. . 256, 4

Bridge, The. 73, 74«, 93

Brie! Encounter, 10*. 43, 84, 130

Britain can make It. 24*

Brighton Rock. 128

Brush Stripping of Cards, 1 1 8*

Burma Victory, 9*

Cabinet of Dr Caligari, The, 82, 162

Caesar and Cleopatra, 10*

Captive Heart, The. 99

Captain Boycott, 109

Canterbury Tale. 5 I

Canadian Landscape. 86

Care and Maintenance of the Tractor, The, 7 3

Champagne Charlie, I 5-

( basing the Blues. 104*

Channel Islands, 24*

Chemists at Work. 8*

Chetnik. 116

Chinese in Britain, 9*

Children on Trial, 33, 39*

Children of the City. 127

Child of the People, 138

Children's Charter, 130

Church of St George, 102

Circus, The, 106

Citadel, The, 128

(its Bound. 4

City Speaks, A, 88*. 108, 126

Coastal Command, 53

Coalface, 73

Coal, 129

Coal Crisis (T.M.A.), 89*. 130

Colonel Blimp. 28

Compression Ignition Engines, 129

Comrade, 1 16

Construire un Feu, 42

Convection. Conduction and Radiation. 14">"

Corn is in Danger. The, 139

Cotton conic back. 88*

Covered Wagon. The. 28. 138

Cow. The. 139

( rosslire. 128

( iiinhcrlaml st.,r\ .114

( utt.r 11.71. 139

( ypnia is an Island. 30*

Dav of Wrath. 138
Dead of Night, I"*

Death ami the I )n latot , -

Dead among the I iving, 102
Denmark I rrows I p, l" ;*

Desert \ ictOIT, ' I I s". 74. 115
Desulcrio. I 28

l>, >. lopmi in Irons r.M.A.), 118*
Diarj loi I imothj . '
Distillation, I 10

I >..:i W Inflow ami (he \ .

Double Hire.,,

Dr 1 lulu h 's Mai-.. Bullet, '<

Drift*!

Drawings thai w .ilk and T»lk. 127

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

Earlv Diagnosis of Acute Anterior Poliomyelitis, 159*

Earth, 84

Earth and High Heaven, 128

Edge of the World, The, 128

Education of the Deaf, The, 39*

Education, 129

Elephant Boy, 109

Elementary Principles of M.T. Vehicles, 129

Electric Iron, The, 159*

Endotracheal Anaesthesia. 31*

Enfants dll I'aradis, Les, 94

Enough to Eat, 28, 33

Eskimo Arts and Crafts, 5

Extase, 38

Fabrics of the Future (T.M.A.), 89'

Face of Time, 5

Factors of Soil Fertility, 54*

Fair Rent, 92*

Fame is the Spur. 128

Fantasia, 126

Fanny by Gaslight, 132

Farmer's Boy. 8*

Farrebiquc. 1 14

Father and Son, 9*

Fenlands, 8*. 24

Fires were Started, 53

First of the Few, 109

First Days, The, 62

Flight of a Dragon, 5

Flowers, W4

Flying Doctor, 22

I oolish Wives, *2

Food Manufacture, 105*

Forty Thousand Horsemen, 22

Forgotten Village, The, 50, 147

Forever Amber, 142

Foreman went to France, The, 53

Forty-Ninth Parallel, 53, 109

Four Hundred Million, 33

Frieda, 128

Fruits, 94

General, The. 52, 138

Generation of Electricity, The, 159*

Gentleman's Agreement, 128

Gold Rush, The, 106, 138

Good Time Girl, 128

Good Mothers, 139

Good Neighbours, 74*

Grass, 28

Grapes of Wrath, The, 84. 139. 149

Grande Illusion, La, 85, 87*

Green Mountain Black Mountain, 73

Greed, 84

Great Lakes, 86

Great Expectations, 130

Hamlet. 101

Handling Ships, 8*

Handling and Care of Patients, 31*

Harvest shall Come, The, 33, 50

Hausa Village, 94

Health for Denmark. 139, 163*

Henry V., 73. 101, 109, 130, 132. 141

Hitler's Children, 1 16

Holiday Camp, 128

Homes for the People, 9*

Homes for All (T.M.A.), 78*

Homme Qui Chcrche La Verite, 145

Housing Problems, 28. 33, 92, 138

How an Aeroplane Flies. 143*, 144

How a Motor Car Engine Works. 8*

Hydraulics, 34, 130

I know where I'm going, 10*

Indonesia Calling, 114

Industrial Britain, 28

Informer, The, 84

Inside Nazi Germany, 33

Inside Fascist Spain, 33

Instruments of the Orchestra, 88*, 94, 106

Intravenous Anaesthesia (Parts 1 and 2), 31*

Invitation to the Dance, 4

In which we Serve, 53, 84

Island of White Birds, The, 39*

It Began On The Clyde, 24*

It might be you, 24*

Jazz Comedy, 145
Johnnie O'Clock, 130
Journey Together, 9*, 23, 53
Journey of a Nation, 142
Jour se Live, Le, 128, 145
Jungle Patrol, 22
Joyless Street, The, 84

Kalpana, 95
Kamcradschaft, 84
Kino Pravda, 28
Koe, 26

Kokoda Trial, 142
Kornet Er 1 Fare, 26

Land of Promise, 9*, 41*. 65, 73, 88

Land Drainage, 25, 54*

Last Shot, The, 24*

Last Laugh, The, 82

Latin Ouarter, 10*

Leaves, 94

Lessons from the Air, 24

Let's Sec, 8*

Library of Congress, 25*

Life on the Western Marsh**, 5, R6

Life Begins Again, 108

Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, 132

Light Rhvthms, 40

I jghts Out, 128

Liming, 54*

Locket, The, 140

Londoners, The. 28, 92

Love on the Dole, 84

Madonna of the Seven Moons, The, 28

Make Fruitful the Land, 8*

Mamprosi Village, 94

Man of Arran, 82, 138

Man Within, The. Ill

Man-one Family. 24*. 34, 86, 94

Margie, 130

Marie Louise, 145

Matter of Life and Death, A, 130

Men of the Lightship, 53

Men without Wings, 102

Men of Two Worlds, 109, 132

Vlen and Mobs. 142

Men Wanted, 142

Midsummer Night's Dream, A, 101

Mildred Pierce, 140

Millions Like Us, 80

Minor Electrical Repairs, 159*

Miracles Still Happen, 126

Mission to Moscow, 116

Modre hioelpe, 26

Modern Guide to Health, 105*

Modern Times, 106

Monsieur Verdoux, 106

Murder In Reverse, 10*

My Friend Flicka, 3

Myra Hess, 24*

Namatjira. 142

Nanook of the North, 28

Native Earth, 142

Neuro-Psychiatry, 41

New Mine, The, 58*

New Year's Eve, 82

New Faces Come Back, 105*

New Lot. The. 6. 55

Next of Kin. 6, 53

Nicholas Nicklebv, 130

Night Mail, 28, 50, 53, 73, 94, 138

Ninotchka, 1 16

Nitrous Oxide-Oxygen-Ethcr Anaesthesia, 31*

Nonquassi, 82

North Sea, 50, 53, 109

North-East Corner, 75*

Now Voyager, 140

Nuriootpa, 142

October Man, 132, 148

Odd Man Out, 84*, 1 1 1

Of Mice and Men, 149

Old Wives Tale, 59*. 75

One of our Aircraft is Missing, 53

One Family. 76

Operational Height, 23

Operative Shock, 31*

Open Drop Ether, 31*

Open City, 113, 128

Orphans of the Storm. 52

Origin of the Family. The, 132

Our Country, 73, 139

Our School, 108

Our Teeth, 129

Out of the Ruins, 104*

Overlanders, The, 15*, 80, 109, 142

Ox Bow Incident, The. 140

Paisa, 114, 128

Painted Boats. 9*

Palestine Problem, 9*

Palestine (T.M.A.), 89*

Pan and the Girl, 139

Papworth Village Settlement, 8*

Paper, 139

Penicillin, 24

Penicillin in Medical Practice. 105*

Peoples of Ouebec, 4

Peoples Holiday, 139

Personnel Selection— Officers, 27, 41*, 55

Personnel Selection — Recruits, 9*. 41*, 55

Pick-Up Girl, 50

Playing in the Road, 103. 104*

Plan and the People, The, 8*. 24

Plow that broke the Plains. The, 28

Pollinations, 94

Pool of Contentment, 74*

Possessed, 140

Potcmkin, 77, 138, 149

Potato Blight, 2

Power in the Land. A. 104*

Pride of the Marines, The, 47

Princess Kaguya, 145

Proud City. The. 8*. 24

Public Opinion. 24*

Puddle Muddle Riddle. 103, 104*

Quai des Brumes, 128

Railwaymen. The, 78*, 92
Rake's Progress. The. 10*
Rats of Tobruk, 22
Read all about it. 129
Red Meadows. The. 138
Rein que les Heures, 162
Resuscitation, 31*
Rescue, 109
Return to Work. 88*
Return of the Vikings, 9*

Romeo and Juliet, 101,
Roots, 94
Round Pegs, 24

Salmon Run. 5, 86

Salt, 119*

San Demetrio London, 53

Scabies. 1946. 105*

School in the Mailbox, 142

Science joins an Industry, 39*

Science and Technics, 45

Scott of the Antarctic, 109

Scotland Yard (T.M.A.), 78*

Scrap Book for 1922, 103

Scuiscia, 1 14

Seventh Veil, 10

Seventh Age, The, 139, 163*

Shipyard, 53

Shown by Request, 90

Signs and Stages of Anaesthesia. 31*

Single Point Fuel Injection Pump. The, 74*

Single Track. The, 6

Sisal. 94

Sixteen to Twenty-Six, 105*

Ski in the Valley of Saints, 5

Soil Nutrients, 54*

Soldier Comes Home, A, 8*

Sole Sorge Ancora, II, 1 14

Song of the People, 8*

Song to Remember. 35. 1 16

Song of Russia. 1 16

Song of Cevlon. 28, 53, 73, 83, 84, 138, 151

Spanish A.B.C., 33

Spinal Anaesthesia. 31*

Stairway to Heaven, 127

Steam. 8*

Steel. 8*

Stems. 94

Storm over Asia. 126

Stolen Frontier, 102

Story of Money. The, 24

Strange Incident. 116

Street in Suburbia. 142

Street. The. 84

Stricken Peninsula. 132, 148

String of Beads. 1 14

Strike. The. 102

Sudan Dispute (T.M.A.), 118*

Sugar Beet. 25*

Sukker. 26, 139

Summing Up (No. 3). 118

Sunrise. 82

Sunny Tribe. The. 39*

Surgery in Chest Diseases. 2

Survivors, 146

Take Thou. 119*

Taken for granted, 119*

Taming of the Shrew, The, 101

Target for Tonight, 50, 83. 115. 161

Tawny Pippet, 127

Technique of Instruction in the Army. 129

Teen-age Girls, 9*

Theirs is the Glory, 49, 50

These are the Men. 73

Thev Came to a City. 128

This Happv Breed. 130

Thoroughbreds for the World (T.M.A.). 89*

Thunder Rock, 128

Till the end of our time. 128

Today and Tomorrow. 9*. 54*, 161

Today we Live. 33

Tomorrow by Air CT.M.A ). 89*

Total War in Britain, 24*

Town Meeting of the World, 30*

Town and Country Planning. 129

Training in Mechanized Mining. 25*

Transfer of Power, 28. 130

Transmission of Electricity. The:- 159*

Tree of Wealth. 94

Treasure Island, 127

Tudsen, 27

Turn it Out, 75*

Turn the Soil, 142

Twenty-four Square Miles. 108. 143

I neensored. 132
United Harvest, 54*
Unity is Strength, 68

Vegetable Insects. 59*

Very Dangerous, 105

V.I. .4

Violin and the Dream. The. 102

Vivere in Pace. 1 14

Vow. The, 128

Warriors of Faith. 102

Warning, The, 102

Watch over Japan. 142

Waterworks. 108, 118*

Way Ahead. The. 6. 53, 55, 63, SO. 109, 113

Wa> \>c 1 i>c. The. 4'). 72, SS. IOS. 12S. 161

Waj to the Stars. The, 99

West Riding, 8*

Western Approaches;, 50, 53, "2, 115

When the Pie was Opened. 1 ;S

Wind, The. 52

Workers and War Front. 24*

World of Plenty, 2. 1 1, 41. 50, 65. 73, s;. 88 115, 1M

V on can! kill a City, 4

Young Love, 38

Your ( hildren ami You. 59, 75

Your Children's Eyes, B6, 130. 143

Your Freedom is at Stake, 1 39

Your Grain is in Danger, 139

DOCUMENTAU\ III \l NEWS

(3) NAMES OF PEOPLE

Names of people appearing in the catalogue
of M.O.I, films made in 1945, . | 46
the catalogue of M.O.I, and ( O.l films,
pp. 121-124, and under the headln
burgh In Review', pp 152-154, /;,...
omitted Signed articles. I iters and re\ i. H i
are indii ated by an asteri ,

Abady, T., 78

Abercromhie. Sir P., 8, 50

Ackroyd. S., 118

Addinsell, R., 9

Alexander, D., 8, 28, 39, 74, 88, 92, 118

Allardyce. 114

Allegret, M., 42

Aluyn, VV., 9, 14, 24, 54, 59, 84, 88, 109,

132, 148
Amery, R. S., 76
Anderson, M., 118
Anderson, H., I 1>i
Anderson, B., 119, 139
Andersson, K., 16 5
Annakin, K . 8, 24, 75, 128
Anstey. fc . S, 54. 84*, 102V II I
Anscombe, R., 105
ArapofT, C, 88, IIS
Aristotle. 100
\slmrv. E., 160
Asquith, A.. 14. 64, 128, I !2
Attlee. I .. SO, 81
Auden, VV. H., 73
Autant-Lara, C, 42

Bagley, G. S.. 20*

Baird, T., 54*. 114
Baird, W. C, 23
Raines, J., 10

Baily, L., 103
Baker, A., 104
Baker, L. S., 112*
Balcon, Sir M.,9, 75, 95
Bamford, Sir E., 2
Barry. I, 12. 28
Barr, R., 72
Barbirolli, J., 88
Barnes, A., 98
Barry. J.. 100
Barrvmore. J., 101
Batchclor. J., 105
Bathos, H., 157
Baxter, R . 119
Baylis, P., 103*
Beadle, S., 41, 54. 143
Beales, M., 92
Beddington. J., 1
Beethoven. 24
Bell. G.,2, 9, 27,41. 54
Belfrage. C, 75
Benoit-Levy J., 12*, 120
Benes, E., 38
Benton, VV., 141
Benoell, G., 2, 125, 143
Bennett, C, 10
Bernstein, S., 99
Bernhardt. S , In:
Bersman, I.. 35
Bergner, E.. 101
Bergman, I., 35
Bishop, T, 104
Bivogrjen, 138
Blakeston, O., 40*
Blum, L.. 136
Boas, V., 138
Boisen, I., 139
Boland, B., 28, 73
Bonar Law, 103
Bond, R., 54, 104
Borradaile, O., 75
Boshell, G., 72
Bosch. H . 119
Bottomley, II.. 103
Boulting. J.. 9. 128
Boultine. D . 125
Boulting, R., 128
Box, S.. 10. I II
Bradford, P., 118
Bnstow, C, 88
Bridson, G., 72
Britten, B., 80, 88, 94
Britten, D. 104
Brichta, 102
Brown. F. J., 96*
Brown. N., 159
Brugoiere, F., 40
Bryant, G., 24
Buckstonc, VV., 70
Buchanan, A., 108
Bunuel, L., 42
Burnett, J. A.. 110
Buxton, D., 14

< ainin, (,., 9

Calder Marshall, A., 24 74
Calder. R. 24
Canti. Dr, 69
Cardiff. J., 8, 14
Carne, M., 126
Cartwright, D., 139
r, J . 8, 105, 119
Carruthcrs, R . 54. 105
Catford, T., 78
Cathles, R., 25
Cavalcanti, A., 14, 40. 109, 163

Chamberlain, N., 61, 148
Chambers, J., 74
I baplin, C, 106. 1 17
Cherry, I .. 59

Id, H. A. T., 127
l ,35

I, ['., 26, 138
'. 85
l lair, R . 40
Clarke, M . 107*

i V\ , 141

Jon, A.. 73

i lifton Taylor, A., 127

i ll . 88
i ole, S . :4
Collins, G., 118
Colpet, M., 128
Comandon. Or. 18, 69, 120
Cooper, B., 8
Cooper. G., 140
1 ibes, B.. 73

well, R.. 126
Cottrell, L.. 73
Cottrill. J. R.. 145
Craigie, l . 14. 50, 72, 108, 128

. Sir J., 76
Craigen, K.. 119
Crawford, J., 140
Cranstone, E., 142*

ion. C, 9
Cripps. Sir S . 24. 56*. 156*

en, H.. 106
Crosby. B., 35, 140
Cummins, S.. 24
Curtis, M., 75
Curthoys, J.. 98
Cutis. G.. 105

Dams. A. A., 127
Davis. S..40
Davis. B.. 85, 140
Dawson, A., 143
Day, L.. 140
Dekeukelaire. C, 43
De Mille, C. B., 100
Derby, Lord, 89
Deslawe, 40
Dewey, T.. 141
Diamond, I. A. R

139

Dickinson, T., 109, 132
Dich, J.. 159
Dillon, F., 72
Disney, W., 3
Dolmar, B., 95
Don Juan, 106
Donskoi, 126
Dostoievski, F., 84
Dovshenko, 84
Dreyer, C, 25, 138. 163
Druillenac, H., 73
Dulac, G., 42
Durden, J. V., 69*
Durante, J.. 130
Dyall, V., 74

Edisi n. 12

Edwell, H. N., 105

Eldridge, J., 75, 126

Fllit, J., 39

Elliott, VV., 76

Elton, A., 18, 52, 54. 66, 138*, 163

Elton. R.. 74

Englander. A., 117, 143

Engels. 132

Ernolyeva, 2, 45

Fairbanks. D., 101
Farr, VV . 1 4
Ferno, J., 24
Fielinger, 102
Fiehn, E.. 163
Flaherty, R., 82, 109
I letcher, P., 118
1 letcher, Y.. 31
Fleming. A.. 45
Fonbrune, P. de, 18, 69, 120
Forman, J. D., 6*
Forster. E. M '

Forsyth Hardy, !(., 64, 76, 95, 132, 163
Ford, J., 84, 126
Foster. 142
Fowle, C, 39
Francis, M., 119
I r.nisen, Dr, 139
Freund, C, 40
Frend, C, 9, 28
Freedman, B., 26*
Frizell, J., 114
I ulii.n, N., 88
r, W., 1 16
I i.irnct, 138

C..85. 140
Gallup, (. , ')'). mo
m, I , 127
«.'. 1.9, 24, 88
Gardner, R . 105
Garland, J., 85
Cirlicld. J.. 117

:■ 9
Gilliat, S.. 10. 128
Gilliam, I... 65. 72*

I . 72
Goddartl. I'
is, /,]

Goldberg, R.,97
GoldwMi. S
Gonzalez, E., 4

Granger, S., 10
i .: ryson, D.,2, 21. I4<
Granville Barker. H , 100
-.104
im White, H„ 126
Grahai i Howi I , 127
c Irauman, 5., 130
Greville, E., 40
(.rev. E., 42

I I .. 84
ne, G., I2S

I I W., 12, 144
Oricrson. J . 2. 49, 51, 56*, 61, 64, 65, 76.
91. 95. 97. 107, 10S. 114, 120, I 12
138. 142. 151*. 163
Gun, G., 88
Gurr, T.. 22
Gysin, F.,41, 88

Ha i, H., 38 ,

Hair, G., 112*

H. ,11 11., 159

Hall, K... 22

Haldane, J. B. S.,24

M lla i, J.. 5'). 105

Hankinson, M., 88, 105

Handle) Read, C, 127

Harrison, R.. 10

Harvey, P., 74

Hardv, T. 138

Harding. VV. G.. 141

Harper. A., 161

Hashes. H. D., 130

Hasselbach, 11., 25, 139, 163

Hawes. S., 142

Hays, W., 141

Heath, N., 127

Heck, ( 9

Heijle, I. P., 138

Hejny, V., 102. 120

Helliwell, L..96*, 145*

Hennessy, P., 8

Henning-Jensen, B.. 26. 138

Henning-Jensen, A., 139, 163

Henningscn, P., 138

Henje, S., 85

Hepburn, K., 117

Heppenstall, R., 73

Hersey, J., 73

Heyer, J., 142

Hill, L., 30

Hitler, 61

Hitchcock, A., 128, 133

Hoare, F. A., 159

Hobbs. J.. KM

Hogarth. 128

Holmes, N., 159

Holmes, J., 88

Holmes. W., 159

Holloway, S., 104
Hornby, C, 54
Howard. L., 101
Howlett Kellaher, E., 159
Hughes, H. D., 150
Hunter, R.. 31
Hunter, VV . 5
Huntley, J., 132, 148
Huxley, J., 19, 24

Iachine, 120
Innes, M., 20
Ipsen. B., 138
Ireland, J.. 75
Ivens, J., 43, 142

Jackson, R., 132

Jackson, L., 10

Jackson, A. Y., 86

Jacobsen, J., 25

Jaqucs, E., 125*

Jeakins. V.. (J, 59, 119, 159

Jcft'cry. G. B.. 17

Jensen. V., 163

Jennings. H.. 9, 72, 139

Johnstone. \1 , III

Johnston, I .. 66, 99, 116, 140

Johnson, C, 10

Jones, C. R., 163

Jones, J.. 24

Jordan. I.. 86*

Joyce, I

Kafka. F., 1 I 1

a, 45
Keen. S.. 1-4

Keene, R., 8, 24, 30, 54, 74, 75. 161*
Keller. II . 106

I ith, SirC.,22
Kipling, R . 76

^ ii

Knight, l.l'
i ii i i

Koch-Olsen, I
K [tev, K . 45

I io:

Kopeky, 18, HO

Kord.,, A . 109, U3
: 10

1 is/. A . 4 1

i 120

I Hum. A. J., 128
1 .. ( iu.it, h, i, :
I irr. H.. 1 17

I .irkins. V\ .

I
I

I auritzen, i

117

I e.in, I) . 10

I ccleo

I I 0, '9

Leigh. .

Lejeune. C A . 76. 132, 151

Lenglen. S , lot

Lerche, A.. 138

Levin, M . 146*

I indsay. J., 73

en. I ■:., 95
1 iu Ling, 128

. 85
Lockwood, M., 99
Lope/, A. II , 4

t/. P., 72
I oukachevitch, 120
Loy, M., 140
Lumiere, 1... 12
Lupino, S., 103
Lusty, I.. 74
Lye, L.. 43, 104, 138
I .127

MacLauchlan, P\, 163
ith, R., 39*. 159
• ice, L., 72
in, M., 73
-ras, C, 143
ie, P., 157*
Machaty, 38
Maddison, J., 120*
Magill

Maistre, A., 73
Malleson, M.,41, 73

ell, R.,95
Mander, Kay, 9, 119. 143
Marlborough, C, 24, 75
Marx, II.. 64
Marwen, H., 125
Marshall. 141
Marcouse, R., 150

y, J.. 105
Mason, B.. 54
Massingham, R., 74

a, J., 85, 99, 111
Mathieson, Muir, 24, 88, 109*. I 12
Maurier, D. Du, 138
Mayer, C, 82, 100
Mayer. J. P., 85
McGivem, C, 72
Mclnnes, G., 91
Mi I can, R.. 91
McNeil Weir, A., 114
McNaughton, R., 78
McC rum, J. P.. 143
Meaden, F., 36
Neisel.E., 40
Melson, S., 25, 139, 163

iu, A.. 116
Meredith, G., 27
Meyer, E., 109
Michaelis, M., 110, 120
Mills, J.. 41
Miles, R. S. 45*
Miranda, C. 133
ell, L., 58
;, 52

rue, [., 24. 1 16*
Monnet, 136
Moor, W. E., 125
Moore, C. S 1 1
Morrison. H., 56, 97. 102
' >n, R., 1, 163

I'll .. i V. 77
Mouilpied, II de, 106
Moyna, P., 23
len, M., 8

I 59
ridge. 70

Neergaard, I .. 139
Neilson Baxter, R. K .
Ne/v.il. 102

R . 76
Nielsen, v ,
Nolbandov, S., 78

Obey, ■•

116

"i i . i:

i 101

i

e, Dr, 30
■
O'Shaughnessy, 152

15. 44*. 110, 143

I'.igc. I

Painleve J . 120, 1 16

75, l "O. MS
Palmer. 1 . 10
p

Pal, G.. 130

Parker. ( . v 10
P

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

Parson, D., 119, 120, 143
Parer, D., 142
Pascal, G., 25
Pearson, G., 28
Perkins, F. H., 110
Phillips. C, 25, 54, 119
Phillipson, H., 125
Pickford, M., 101
Plait, J., 14
Plowden, Sir E., 97
Plutarch, 85, 100
Polybius, 85
Potts, P., 8
Potter, S., 72
Powell, D., 132
Powell, M., 10
Prcssberger, E., 10
Price, P., 8
Proust, M., 51
Psilander, 138
Purcell, H., 94

Radclyffe, E. J. D., 127

RalTerty, C, 75

Raines, C, 10

Rank, J. A., 50, 78, 115, 137, 141, 150, 160

Ray, M., 42

Reed, C, 9, 34, 111, 126

Reesen, E., 163

Reenberg, A., 163

Reeves, M., 126*

Reid, W., 58

Reiniger, L., 40

Rcinhardt, M., 101

Renoir, J., 40, 87

Reynolds, F., 52

Rhodes, J:, 119

Richter, H., 120

Riskin, R., 33

Road, S., 19*, 66, 118, 134*

Robson, E. W. and M. M., 28, 132

Robson, B., 72

Robinson, H., 97

Robinson, E. G., 117

Roche, C. de la, 132

Rochemont, L. de, 113

Rodker, F., 14, 54, 41, 74, 143

Rodwell, S., 74, 118

Rogers, J., 8

Rogers. G., 116

Roos, K., 26, 139

Rooney, M., 101

Rossellini, R., 113, 128

Rosenberg, K., 25

Rosenberg, 45

Rosten, L. T., 140

Rotha, P., 9, 13, 14, 24, 41, 73, 88, 108,

118, 126, 132, 163
Rovensky, 38
Rowlandson, 128
Rulon, P. J., 140
Ruttman, W., 40

Sainsbury, F., 8, 158*

Saint-Denis, M., 73

Sale, C, 119

Samuel, A. M., 7, 77

Sargent, Sir M., 88

Sartre, J. P., 85

Scarr, A. E., 92*

Schlicter, K., 35

Schuster, 70

Schauder, L., 9, 82

Schicrbeck, P., 163

Scott, P., 54

Segaller, D., 130*

Seiber, M., 59

Shankar, U., 95

Shakespeare, W., 100

Shaw, G. B.. 100, 132

Shaw, A.. 54, 59, 64*, 78, 82, 88

Shaw, A. J., 74. 143

Shearman, J., 53*, 74

Shearer, N., 101

Shertsov, V., 45

SherrifT, R., 84

Shuvel, C, 22

Sidney, B., 10, 24, 139

Silverman, 125

Simmons, J., 128

Sinclair, N.,95

Skeaping, J., 77

Skot-Hensen, 26, 52, 138

Slater, M. T.. 65, 73*

Slocombe, 9

Smart, R., 22

Smith, B., 15, 25, 54, 59, 82

Smith, P., 14, 69

Speight, W. R., 86

Spolianski, 8

Spoor, A., 108*, 131

Stanford, B., 70*, 110, 159

Stapley, O., 72

Stewart, D.,43*, 159

Still, G., 30, 54

Storck, H., 43

Strasser, A., 143

Stravinsky, 126

Stuart, J., 42

Sulka, W., Ill*

Suschitzky, W., 39, 74, 88, 92

Sutcliffe, J. C., 131

Svendsen, T., 139, 163

Swingler, 4, 74

Swinburne, A., 132

Tallents, Sir S., 51, 66, 76*. 110

Taylor, J., 2, 31, 59, 82, 105

Taylor, R., 116

Taylor, S., 119

Temple, S., 130

Tharp, G., 118

Thevenard, 120

Thomson, M., 31

Thomas, D., 73

Thomas, D. R. O , 110
Thorn, R. J., 150
Thorp, M., 85
'Ihumwood, P. R., 8, 159
Todd, A., 10
Tomalin, M., 24, 118
Tomlinson, G., 102
Tritton, R. E., 15*, 18, 75
Truman, H., 116
Twist, W. C., 23

Vancura, V.. 38
Van hmde Boas, C, 87*
Van Der Hoist, 120
Vaughan, Williams, R., Ill
Vavilov, 45
Ventiniglia, Baron, 42
Vere Stacpoole, H. de, 128
Vigo, 100
Vry, de, 95

Wallace, G., 30

Wallace, H., 117

Wales, J., 118, 127

Walsh. 116

Walker, V., 93

Walker, P. G., 82

Waithman, R„ 88

Watt. H.,22*, 75, 109, 142

Wayne, J., 72

Weiss. J., 38*

Wells, H.. 14

Welles, O., 126

West, M., 64

Wheeler, G. L.,95

Whitby, C., 143

Whitehead, E., 127

Whitehall, R. E., 128*

Wills, C., 24

Willis, D., 68*. 92

Willis, T., 73, 105

Williams, W. E., 73

Williams, F., 81

Williams, J. R., 117*

Wildman, S., 74

Wilder, T., 73

Wilde, O., 132

Wilkinson, E., 35

Wilson, I., 58

Wilson, N., 162

Wollenberg, H. H., 132

Wooderson, S., 95

Woolfe, B., 28

Woolton, Lord, 138

Wright, B., 2, 9, 24, 30,61, 39, 41*, 72, 84*

101*, 111, 120, 132, 163
Wright, P., 105
Wyer, R., 10

Young, F., 28
Young, H., 88
Yule, 95

(4) ADVERTISERS

Academy Cinema, 65
Albyn Press, 131

Basic Films Ltd., 13, 40, 41, 78

Big Six Film Unit, 113

Blackheath Film Unit, 29. 61, 149

British Film Institute, 6, 26, 63, 65, 96, 97,

112, 133, 162. 164
British Industrial Films Ltd., 80, 81, 148

Common Ground Ltd., 61

Documentary Technicians Alliance Ltd..
12,43, 62, 78,97, 113, 148, 164

East African Sound Studios Ltd., 59, 75,
80,81

Films of Fact Ltd., 10, 11, 163
Films of Great Britain Ltd., 91
Fore Publications Ltd., 65

General Film Distributors Ltd., 64
Greenpark Productiorfs Ltd., 16, 32, 43,
66, 96, 132, 148

Halas Batchelor, 30, 45, 58, 80. 96. 112. 132
Horizon Film Unit, 29, 48, 60, 79, 94, 1 12,
130, 133, 164

I.C.I., 13, 27,44, 60, 79,90, 112, 113, 133,

159
International Realist Ltd., 96

Kays Laboratories Ltd., 15, 28, 42, 97

Marsland Publications Ltd., 149

Nucleus Film Unit Ltd., 129

Photographic Electrical Co. Ltd.. 148
Photomicrography, 62, 76, 108, 128, 148.

158
Public Relationship Films Ltd., Ill, 146

Realist Film Unit Ltd., 11, 28, 42, "
93, 109, 132, 147, 160

Seven League Film Unit Ltd., 8, 161
Studio Film Laboratories Ltd., 110

Transcontinental Shots Ltd., 164,

World Wide Pictures Ltd., 10, 31, 80, 81
107, 149

DOCUMENTARY 11 1 III IIVUS

The Factual Film Monthly

♦

Subscription 12- per year

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DOCl MEN \ \H\ I II M M \NS

87

Edinburgh 1948

by

John Grierson

the Edinburgh show this month is going to be a big show and an
important one, and we will go into that later. To keep the decencies
and the proportions, I should begin by saying that the Edinburgh
show was always a big show anyway.

This year as last it is a Testis al with pictures from everywhere and
of all kinds, stretching all across and inside the denotation and con-
notation of the documentary thing. Twenty-seven countries are
show ing. they say, and the best is present. Bob Flaherty is there with
his new one, Louisiana Story, and yet another brilliant evocation of
the damn fool sense of innocence this wonderful old character pur-
sues: his eye keener than ever, sensibility ever softer and so on, and
Frances still around. Rossellini is there with his Berlin Zero and a
turning camera on cat-feet which should interest the longshot-
midshot-elose-up boys in their technical vitals. Canada, bless the
Chinook wind which thaws its winters, presents itself in the rough
and tough European time with perhaps the best of all reportage
items on European itself. It had no reason, except in its native and
national generosity, to make it at all. France is there with the bril-
liant edition by Nicole Vedres of the Edwardian years of Falliere:
not so much nostalgic as witty and civilized. Norway is there with its
big Nordic tale of Norwegian wartime bravery in the Battle oj Heavy
Water.

Documentary looks quite a thing in the Edinburgh programme, as
though it really was an idea that had started something, in reportage
and interpretation, inside countries and across boundaries, for the
illumination of much.

But — and I have been holding the but on a now longish string —
Edinburgh isn't an accident in all this. It might have been Geneva
and wasn't, or New York and wasn't, or Paris and wasn't. It might
have been Warsaw and wasn't; and that is an item all by itself of
which more will be heard.

The point is that Edinburgh has served the documentary idea
from its inception with more continuity, more common sense, more
constructive effort in film societies, film clubs, cinema quarterlies
and whatnot, and more of the stuff that it takes when it comes to
the critical punches than any other city. If there is a centre today
which deserves more than any other to be regarded as the city where
our wares can ail-properly be shown and our accounts kept, it is
surely this place in tne north, with its rock behind it and its fuddy-
duddy old sense that there might be sin itself in pursuing the shadow
instead of the substance.

For all this we are indebted to a few unique characters who really
believed it all from the first, and simply, and by sheer strength of
their own sense of service, became the conscience of an idea which
could all too easily have slipped without them.

Just to mark out the group and put it on this all too inadequate
record, let us note down the central names of Norman Wilson,
Forsyth Hardy and Charlie Oakley' Now that it is all a big, big show
and everyone takes it for granted, let us note also that even in this
latest stage of international coming together and being constructive
and real about international coming together, documentary is still
their local theirs.

It has been hard work for them over the years. They were not film

men and had no reason, except in their faith in others, to give their
time, energy and organizing capacity to the service of those of us
who drew the dough and took the bows. I hope, in this year's
Festival, they have the feeling that they have matured a personal
work of great and unselfish order, worth a dozen and one senti-
mental and uncreative excursions into international necking.

For British documentary itself the occasion is especially im-
portant. It is easy to knock British documentary around at this
moment and say that it looked a poor stick and a sad squirt at
Brussels last year and that Roberto on the other hand is wonderful,
which he certainly is. But it should be equally easy to remember, it
the will is there and if the smartypants and the people we will always
henceforth remember as our 'warm admirers' can think in propor-
tion, that British documentary is still much the biggest operation in
the whole international set-up.

In its very size it has its special problems which should at this
stage be respected and worked on : of organization, of finding pat-
tern within an extending field, of keeping its eye on an ever more
difficult but more real aesthetic ball, of renewing and refreshing its
political sense in the light of new circumstances, of maintaining its
original fervour in the discovery of new talents and in the provision
of experimental opportunity for them.

All this will appear in Edinburgh, or should, as the stuff of the
world goes across the Scottish screens. It will be simple for the side-
liners togoooh! aah! with Flaherty. It will be much more difficult to
note that single swallows don't make a summer and that, whatever
the present weather may be like, ours collectively iscertainly a summer.

Therefore the meeting of the documentary people themselves, with
the thrashing out of their problems, their needs and their short-
comings, is going to be one of the more important occasions at
Edinburgh and in the history of the documentary development.
Wright on national documentary, Elton on international docu-
mentary, Pearson on colonial documentary, Alexander on second
feature documentary, Rotha on documentary's influence on feature
production, Manvell on the aesthetic of documentary, have together
the opportunity of bringing the whole thing into new focus and fit
for the size of the privilege which national needs and international
implications have brought it.

They have a task of leadership to attempt more momentous than
at any time before. They have the ureal new problems of peace
time to face up to and definition to make of what documentary
has to give in illumination of the technological, scientific, colonial,
international and, in general, economic changes which are upon

Lis.

For presenting the documentary effort everywhere, for reminding
us that documentary is not only an established medium o\~ public
service but a medium continually revealing new forces and requiring

new efforts, all of us in its profession must be grateful for the screen

and the platform winch 1 dinburgh now so handsomely provides us.

One suspects that it comes easil) to the capital of a countrv which
for si\ centuries has given so much encouragement to so manv

adventurers that it quite reasonably sutlers the illusion o\ being the

capital of the world.

SK

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

r-YiA

1948 Congress

of
World Union of Documentary

Reported on

by
Donald Alexander and Basil V/right

i here was no iron curtain; only cloud cover-
ing all Europe, and blotting out every frontier
we crossed.

At Prague Air Terminal (so fast had been
the crossing, so reasonable and smooth the
formalities at the airport) there was not the
expected English-speaking Miss Velibelova of
Kratky Films to meet us. The chairman of
British Documentary had provided us with a
sketch map, a warning that the lifts in Prague
only worked if you had one of a number of pos-
sible coins of varying sizes, and a heartfelt re-
port on the steepness of the seven-floor ascent
to Kratky Films. We decided to face all the
risks, and set out.

In any event, what with one thing and an-
other, we spent the whole of that afternoon and
evening in Prague on our own, exploring. We
must record a few simple facts. We were not
shadowed. There were many bookshops (more
in a small space than in any city we know ex-
cept Edinburgh) well-stocked with books of all
kinds in many languages. There were several
bookstalls selling English newspapers, and the
reading-room in the hotel had them all. Beer
was fivepence-halfpenny a pint (that's how we
got the right coin to work the Kratky film lift).

But most of all we saw that people looked
cheerful, much more cheerful than crowds in
Oxford Street. We knew that our superficial
inspection of Prague could not be of much
academic value — but we knew, too, that when
people look like that, they are certainly not
living under a reign of terror.

At 8.30 in the morning we were taken by Miss
Velibelova to the President Wilson Railway
Station by a circuitous route, picking up essen-
tial documents and curious boxes as we moved
from office to office. Outside the Wilson station,
where we learned that we had to walk a hun-
dred yards for our (reduced-fare) tickets, we
encountered with joy our old friend Perski, who
i- in charge of Polish newsreels and whose
sketches of the delegates to the Congress adorn
these pages. We then made our way to the plat-
form where we found a not-so-smart-as-in-the-
movies Orient Express, with no seats outside
first-class. Establishing ourselves in a second-
class corridor, we awaited events and we didn't
have to wait long. Down the platform came
Joris Ivens, accompanied by the Australian,
[Catherine Duncan, who we learned was work-
ing as his assistant. Mot on their heels came the
American Marian Mitchell, also working with
Ivens. and at that precise moment, seeking
vainly for his luggage, together with the type-
writer of the correspondent of I'Humanite, a

red-haired lady who claimed that this was the
.only time — including the battle of Teruel — in
which she had let it out of her clutches. Two
seconds later arrived, amidst acclamation, an-
other member of the Polish delegation, Bossak,
with an important briefcase, which we learned
only later, during breakfast at Marianske
Lazne. contained butter, Nescafe, marmalade,
goat cheese, bacon, and the remaining comes-
tibles without which no self-respecting Pole
would, it appears, venture beyond his own
border. Pausing officially only at Pilsen, where
beer was served from trolleys, the Orient Ex-
press deposited the delegates at Marianske
Lazne.

Inaugural Meeting

Within less than an hour of our arrival the
inaugural meeting of the Congress took place in
a room at the appropriately named Hotel Yalta.
The provisional secretary, Jean Painleve, was
there from France, together with Henri Lang-
lois. Georges Toeplitz, the leading Polish dele-
gate, had come on from Prague the night before
with Elmar Klos, the director of Kratky Film,
which co-ordinates all short film production in
Czechoslovakia. There were two delegates from
Hungary, Mr Kertesz and Miss Zsigmondy.
Theodor Balk from Yugoslavia, who was at the
1947 Brussels meeting, Bech from Switzerland.
Vernaillen from Belgium (standing in for Henri
Storck who could not come), and two other
Czech representatives, Kadar and Sulc. Slightly
later arrived two Brazilians, Amado and Scliar.
We all sat down and the official reception be-
gan. We were addressed by the Czechoslovak
Minister of Information, the Director of his
Films Division, and by Dr Brousil. already well
known and well liked by all those concerned
with earlier Film Festivals in Prague and Lon-
don. From these speeches, which were all of
them both practical and inspiring, one very
important phrase emerged. 'Documentary is
the conscience of the cinema'.

With this in mind the delegates gave their
own consciences no chance and prepared to set
to work. First, however, there was one very im-
portant function. As our host, Elmar Klos,
offered us ceremonial bread and salt. One dele-
gate refused on the grounds that he was not
hungry, later the interpreting swern became
smoother, ami such dictionary deadlocks were
rare. The defaulting delegate made good his
mistake at the tail end of the round.

Congress, within an hour of meeting, then
got down to business. Delegates presented their
credentials, and i1 was at once clear that Great

Britain was so far the only country which had
formed an organization specially to represent
it in the World Union. This fact, together with
a brief report on the work of British Docu-
mentary, given by the British delegation, later
that same afternoon, created a very strong im-
pression amongst the other delegates. A presi-
dent for the Congress and three vice-presidents
then had to be elected. The British delegation
proposed Elmar Klos as president: and Toe-
plitz. Ivens and Wright were elected vice-presi-
dents. The acceptance of the delegates' creden-
tials was, as became clear a few minutes later,
deeply allied with the approval of the Brussels
Declaration of 1947. and. therefore, with the
terms of reference of the Draft Constitution,
drawn up at Cannes, to the discussion of which
the Congress proceeded without any further
delay.

The Brussels declaration and the definition
of documentary at the beginning of the statutes
were both accepted practically without discus-
sion. Following this remarkable unanimity on
first principles, the Congress was faced with the
slightly muddling problem of sorting out its
agenda. It was agreed that the size of the Con-
gress did not make it necessary to appoint a
vast number of commissions, and, for the time
being, only one commission was appointed,
whose job it was to present a practical report
on the Draft Constitution before the next meet-
ing of the Congress at 10 a.m. the following
morning. It was also proposed, and courage-
ously agreed by the British Delegation, that the
language of the Conference should be French.
The British delegation accepted this situation
with remarkable goodwill in view of the fact
that they then became obligated to translate
the transactions currently from French into
English for the benefit of the Hungarian dele-
gation: this tour de force would never have
been achieved had it not been for the assistance
of Miss Velibelova of the Czechoslovak dele-
gation, who, like her colleague, was apparenth
able to speak and interpret every known Euro-
pean language. What was more remarkable was
that the French of the British delegation did
not. repeat not. have to be translated for the
benefit of the members of the French delega-
tion.

Second Day

The bulk of the second day was devoted to
reports h\ the delegates of various countries
regarding the position and activities of the
documentary movement. In this way detailed

DOCUMENTARY Ml \1 \ I \VS

89

Klos

information was laid on the table bj all the
delegates present. Finally, the Constitution of
the World Union was fulls discussed and ac-
cepted in principle. A committee to put it into
more legal language was set up. consisting of
Toeplitz (Poland). Vernaillen (Belgium), and
Langlois (France).

Monday was a heavy day. The British dele-
gation had been sampling the night life of
\larianske (a town which consists almost ex-
clusively of restaurants and night clubs) and
Wright was moved unwillingly into the chair.
National Sections were discussed and the im-
portance of the provision in the Constitution
that representatives in the World Union should
be by properly organized National Sections.
was stressed. A discussion on the right of the
film-maker not to have his films tampered with
was interrupted by the arrival of a delegation
of Russians, including Romm, Piriev and the
actor. Cherkasov. Romm promised to give a
report on behalf of the Soviet Union the fol-
lowing day. A committee to draw up the con-
stitution of the National and International
Courts of Honour was elected, consisting of
Ivens (Holland), Bossak (Poland) and Alex-
ander (Britain). The Polish delegation suggested
that the work of the Congress could be speeded
up if there were also committees on Production
and Distribution, to prepare matter for discus-
sion in full meeting. Two committees were
elected: Production. Kertesz (Hungary), Bech
(Switzerland) and Scliar (Brazil); Production.
Klos (Czechoslovakia), Painleve (France) and
Toeplitz (Poland). The full meeting dissolved
at midday, much to the relief of the chairman.
and the committees worked in the afternoon,
interrupted only by a newsreel session, during
which the delegates were filmed entering (he
( asino, which, lest there be any misunderstand-
ing, was the principal theatre of the Film I esti-
va! proper.

On the fourth day Congress with very little
difficulty decided on the basic categories of
Documentary, as follows:

Documentai\ films fall into one of foul
categories, according to their purpose:

1. Social.

2. Scientific.

3. Cultural and I ducational.

4. Fxperimental.

According to their audience they fall into
three categories:

1. General Public.

2. Specialist.

3. Scholastic.

Romm of the Soviet Union then gave a long.
detailed and interesting report on the structure
of the documentary system in his country, and

THE BRUSSELS DECLARATION

i Adopted at a meeting of documentary film
makers held in Brussels, June l')47.)

True to their tradition of service to the
peoples of the world, in the fields of economic,

social and educational progress, documentary
film workers continue to take an active view-
point towards the many problems confronting
the world today .

The indispensable role of documentary in
the fields of information and education and
in the communication of ideas, makes ii
necessary for the documentary workers, not
only to state the problems exactly , but also to
guide the public towards the solution of these
problems.

In this task, it is the responsibility of every
documentary worker to master the technique
and artistic potentialities of the documentary
film, so that art and technique are fused with
the social purpose of documentary .

The documentary film has established itself
as a form of film art. .It has a profound in-
fluence on feature films in all countries. This
influence will certainly continue. In particu-
lar, documentary film workers should engage
in all activities designed to secure the full and
unfettered expression of social, economic and
cultural life through the medium of film.

The principal tasks confronting document-
ary workers are as follows:

the fight against the enemies of peace and
democracy; national, racial and economic
oppression and religious intolerance; poverty
and disease, illiteracy, ignorance and other
social evils;

and the fight for peace and reconstruction;
independence of subject peoples; free intel-
lectual and cultural expression; dissemina-
tion of knowledge, not at present available
to all.

Documentary film workers will collaborate
with all international organizations working
for the principles enumerated above.

-*s -C

Balk

Amado

By •Documentary'' is meant the business of
recording on celluloid any aspects of reality,
interpreted either by factual shooting or by
sincere and justifiable reconstruction, so as
to appeal either to reason or emotion, for the
purposes of Stimulating the desire for and the
widening of human knowledge and under-
standing, and of truthfully posing problems
and their solutions in the sphere ot economics,
culture and human relations.

Toeplitz

also expressed full support of the Brussels De-
claration. After this Congress dealt with the re-
ports of the committees on Production and
Distribution. As regards Production, an im-
portant resolution was passed:

'Newsrecls are nol necessarily documen-
taries, but as actuality films fall into th<
gory of informational films. The World
Union has decided that it is the duly of
documentary film workers to encourage
newsreels to be better planned and more
progressive: further, the World Union de-
nounces the danger inherent in the extension
to documentary films of the superficiality
common to most newsreels.'
In addition, decisions were arrived at regard-
ing joint production by documentary groups in
various nations, with special references to the
exchange of technicians and the exchange oi
material and information. The Distribution
Committee made eleven important recom-
mendations on non-theatrical distribution.

Late in the day. but with unabated energy,
the Congress conducted a final discussion on
the Constitution and followed this a prolonged.
technical and vigorous discussion on the terms
of reference of the Court of Honour. That same
evening the French texts were agreed and the
English texts were prepared.

On the fifth day Mrs Mustacza spoke for
Rumania and George Stoney. very effectively.
for the USA. The rest of the day was spent in
elections and tidying up. All the officers
appointed:
Executive:

President, Basil Wright (Great Britain); vice-
presidents, Joris Ivens (Holland). Elmar Klo
(Czechoslovakia); secretary. Georges Toeplitz
(or nominee) (Poland), treasurer. Ruis Santos
(or nominee) (Brazil).
Court of Honour:

Presiding, Jean Painleve (France). Henri
Storck (Belgium). Ik-la Bali LS2 (Hungary).

It was unanimously agreed that the next ( on
gress should be held al 1 dinburgh. Subscrip-
tions were agreed upon, with due reference to

the problems o\' international exchange. I he

I rench and I nglisb icxts o\ the i onstitution

and the rules of the (ouii o( Honour were
signed by all the delegates, and altei a PrCSS
conference, al which the new secretary dis-
tinguished himself by making the same speech
it. three different languages consecutively. ( on

gress formally came to an end

It should be added that in addition to Us gen-
eral labours the ( ongress attended projections
of document tries from nearly all the countries
represented, every evening from 10 10 p.m. un-
til ail hOl

90

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

**^SU2l

Feeling of Hostility

(National Film Board of Canada)

The Battle of the Heavy Water

(Norway)

Edin

ILLUS

Ditte Child of Man

(Denmark)

DOCUMENTOR \ FILM M \\ s

91

burgh

TRA TED

The Home Town Paper

(National Film Board of Canada)

Those Blisted Kids

(Denmark)

Sleeping Villages

(Argentine)

92

1) CM I Ml MARY HI \1 M.WS

Two Ballet Films ~fc

Pas de Deux

by

PETER BAYLIS and JACK HOWELLS

when it comes to dancing we knew a thing or —
as there are two of us — two. We knew thin pas de
bourree wasn't a postal district; and we knew
that pas du tout didn't mean 'Everybody on
stage for the last number!' But apart from that,
we had pretty open minds about dancing. In fact,
they were so open that somebody must have
noticed it. That was why we found ourselves
watching two films on the subject. The first was
called Steps of the Dance (Crown Film Unit).

It wouldn't have been right for some of you to
be there. It was made, we fancy, for people like
us. It set out to explain what a ballet was in easy
steps. It was a good film, too (you don't find many
reviewers committing themselves like that). It
was conscientiously made, it was sincere and
enjoyable. But it didn't tell us a lot more about
ballet than we'd guessed.

Mr Robert Helpmann (who appears) told us
that the terms used in ballet were French and he
explained by visual illustration what they meant.
He pointed out that arms, knees and posture of
the head were important factors and we saw
young men and women rehearsing. We learnt that
dancing is hard work, that conceiving a ballet is
hard work, that composer and choreographer,
scenic artist, dancers and stage-hands all co-
operated to produce the final thing that was a
ballet. Oh, and that a ballet told a story.

The film was to end with a short, complete

ballet and the story was told to us first in a bril-
liantly thought-out little sequence, the com-
mentator outlining the plot while the camera
moved over the waiting props and the dancers
silently preparing. Somehow the result was de-
licately moving: the artists off-stage, the frank
pieces of cardboard, and the bare bones of the
story fhey were to breathe to life added up to
something near poignancy.

Then came the climax — the performance of
the ballet. It was presented flat and theatrically.
That is to say, it all took place in long shot with a
static camera; lighting was strictly unemotional.
The reason was obvious and well-meant. The
camera was recording; it was an instructional
film and in an instructional film we know that
where clarity conflicts with film technique the
latter must be sacrificed. And the whole point
was that we should see the finished thing as it
would appear on the stage. But, of course, we
didn't. We only saw a film of that and it was
another kettle of fish.

Let us face it, for the makers of the film didn't.
This set out to be an exposition of the steps of
the dance. But very early on, it became impatient,
understandably. Everybody was itching to get on
with the dance. And why not? Having seen the
mechanics, the dance was to show us how these
could be made to affect us emotionally. That in
itself was meant to be a piece of instruction.

Andree Howard and^Arthur Benjamin discuss the Ballet with two of the Dancers

Therefore it would have been better to have used
the recording medium unashamedly for that pur-
pose, to create in us. in the cinema, what the
dance would have created on the stage. As it was.
we missed the whirling close-up, the filmic
presentation. It would have been a lie? Of course
it would. All art consists in telling little lies in
order to convey a greater truth. That's where
that little thing called integrity comes in — you
have to have it when you're dealing daily in lies.

To sum up: the whole presentation was well
thought-out; the camera work in the earlier
sequences was excellent; the film was neat, well-
contrived and never dull. But if you are one of
those people who are not well-disposed to ballet,
it is doubtful if the film would increase your en-
thusiasm. Perhaps that doesn't matter: perhaps it
isn't aimed at you. Exactly whom it is aimed at is
not very clear, after all.

If you are one of those who find classical
dancing too styli/ed and formal, then the second
film should do something for you. This one was
called Lord Siva Danced, made in India with
additional scenes shot in England. This was quite
an experience. We don't pretend we got one
quarter of it. Indian dancing like Indian music
for Western folk is an acquired taste: it takes a
little understanding. But here again was sincerity. .
enthusiasm, both on the part of film makers and
dancers. The amazing thing about Indian dancing.
it seems to us, is not only that it has something
queer and exciting to say, but that it says it with
such economy. Here are no groups of dancers
flitting about the stage: it is all done in practically
one place. And what we saw was strictly a pas
d'lin (or d'une — you see both in this film). We do
not claim that every movement registered, but the
subtlety, the restraint and control left us gaping.
(Wake up, Howells!)

There was one dance that left us shaken men.
The dancer was an elderly man: he was inter-
preting a bee entering a flower and flving away.
But he did it all with his face and his hands and
was photographed w ith effect lighting (all credit
to the film makers). No flving lady as the Dving
Bee, no prostrate maidens forming the cup of the
petals, no young men draped round as the flowers
of the forest. This artist had something intense to
say, he said it with amazing economy and the
camera helped him to s i> it. Ram Gopal appears
too, in a Dance to the Rising Sun : and one flicker
of his shoulders was equal to four arabesques
and a pas de deux.

There you are then — two films on dancing.
Steps of the Dance technically polished in pro-
duction and content. Lord Siva Danced, produc-
tion not as good, yet in content, more than
polished. It had virility, something welling up
from deep roots, speaking for and to the ordinary
people. It even reached us.

The Films -fa

Steps of the Ballet. M ide b) Crown Film I nit.
Producer: Alexander Shaw. Director, \luir
Mathieson. Chon Andree Howard, to

the music o\' Arthur Benjamin and the decor
and costumes of Hugh Stevenson. Photography:
A. E. Jeakins Editor: Jocelyn Jackson. Art
Director Scon MacGre 01 M sic played by
the Plulhar onic Orchc tra of London. Re-
corded bj Ken Cameron, t xplained b> Robert
i elpmann

Lord Siva Danced. Made bj Shell 1 ilm I nit.
Director: Sarah Erulker. Photography: Keki
Mistri and Sidney Beadle.

DOC UMENTAR1 I II M M \\ s

93

Why Should Truth Go Dowdy?

We would remind readers
that views expressed in
any unsigned article are
not necessarily those of
the Board— Ed.

i saw a documentary film the other night. Or it
may have been a feature or a feature-docu-
mentary. . . . But don't let's start that yet. Any-
way, it was in a proper cinema with usherettes
and a Gents so it was probably a feature. It
was called Hamlet, by William Shakespeare
(working from a Report, of course). And it had
quite a lot of social content for a feature, so it
will be in order for am documentary person
to go and see it. Film Centre's been so that
should be quite all right. In fact, anybody can
go — even the public. Don't let that disturb you.
There is nothing in it to offend the intellect.

Indeed, there is one potential documentarian
in the cast. His name is Polonius. I think. But
the name doesn't matter. You'll be sure to spot
him. Don't start cheering him, nobody else
does; whatever you may think, you can take it
from me, he is not the hero. When Hamlet
asked him what the players were capable of,
he sounded exactly like a Senior Documen-
tarian (vintage 32) explaining to a suspicious
sponsor what his boys could do : Tragedy,
comedy, history, pastoral, pastoral-comical,
historical-pastoral, tragical-historical, tragical-
comical-historical-pastoral. Seneca cannot be
too heavy nor Plautus too light.'

It's the sub-divisions that, like Charlie
Chester,* ring that bell. 'Documentary . . .
Feature . . . documentary-feature . . . feature-
documentary . . . a-feature-hlm-with-a-docu-
mentary-background . . . a-fictional-film-using-
real-people- with -some-actors-dealing- with -a -
properly -registered -and-approved-social-prob-
blem - achieving-a-creative - interpretation - of -
reality-calculated-to-make-peace-exciting (with-
some-dialogue).'

You want to watch that kind of thing. Some
people can't follow you. If you persist, you'll
find yourselves one of these days having to ex-
plain to a slightly sceptical teachers' conference
the exact difference between a documentary-
strip-tease and a feature-film-strip. What's
more, I believe some of you could do it, too.

But it's no good. boys. The time has come to
talk of many things and it would be as well to
give them a name each. And you can sort your-
selves out in the process. The cause of all the
worried frowns is that word documentary.
Throw away the old umbrella, it's got holes in
it. And anyway, it's not raining half as hard as
you think. It's just the noise on the roof.

Go and do a report on yourselves and then.
preferably, a treatment. Find out exactly what
you are. I'll start you off. You're a tot ial prob-
lem. . . . There' Happy? Well, take it up from
there; with your training, it should be ea
And when you've finished your Report do vou
know whai you'll find? I'll tell you: that you're
good fellows, with the right roots; hut you
knew that. But you'll also find oul mi your re-
I port is based on an honest investigation)

•A well-known low-brow comedian of the day.

whether you are a teachei oi .1 pamphleteei
or maybe (just maybe) a creative artist. But
whatever you are be proud of it. Teachers, lec-
turers, playwrights, are all good things to be. If
you find, for example, that alter all, you're
really a technical journalist — well, all right.
You've got a job to do but don't kid yourself
you're a dramatist; you may be a damned good
teacher — but that doesn't make you an artist,
lust decide.

Now teachers and dramatists (good ones)
have much in common. They both have an
active interest in people and a desire to help.
In the great big world outside Soho Square
such people get on quite well with one another.
There's no confusion. So what's the trouble
with you? It's simple. It's that little word film.
You've been messing about with bits of it for
so long that you've forgotten what it is (if you
ever knew).

Film is rolls of celluloid manufactured usu-
ally by Kodak and on it you can put anything
from pornography to prayer. There's nothing
fundamentally new about the mental process
involved. There's been a stuff called paper
flapping round the universe for a long time
now and it's been used for a multitude of pur-
poses. In this respect, as a matter of fact, it's
better than film.

So let's take a book and call it The Virgin's
Delight with a nice, crude cover sealed in cello-
phane to stop you reading it without buying it
idon't snigger— I'll bet you've been caught that
way, too). Where will you find it? Where it
belongs — on the kerb, next to the gutter. But
Shakespeare, Johnson, Pope. Keats and all the
rest of them are in the public library. They may
not be read but they're there — respectable.
bound in leather, designed to last. And they've
been there a long time. They're the acknow-
ledged tops. You can work downwards if you
like, but at least you've got something to show
you how far you're slipping. In the slow old
days when monks made books by hand, only
the good was worth the trouble. There v
money in it. Then came the rotary printing
press and fortuitously a semi-literate public
'waiting' as llarmsworth put it with their pen-
nies in their hands'. And the trouble started.

Now take films. The trouble with films is (a)
they're so damned costly, (b) there's so much
pompous fiddle-faddle before vou can say
what's on your mind (which makes it an ideal
medium for those who haven't much to say
anyway) and (c) they were invented so late in
the day. For make no mistake, had they been
invented when they should, you'd have found
Brother Anselm in his cut! patiently

piecing together his record foi the vaults of
posterity, his hahn reeking te and the

light from the editola gleaming chastely on his
tonsure. \s it is. (here are no lattci-dav saints

in \\ irdoui Street ["hey're in Soho S

Now take it easv I bat's the biggest compli-

ment I'm likely to pay you. Until you came
along, the pimps and panders had it all their
own way; nicely tied up with jobs for the boys.
They were outside society and soaking it hard.
Occasionally, they made some good pictures,
responsible pictures. If you get a monkey at a
typewriter (no cracks, please) one day you'll get
the Lord's Prayer . . . you know the principle. It
isn't even that the boys object to culture; they'd
go in for it tomorrow in a big way if they were
convinced it paid. Vou believe in it whether it
pays or not. And there's the rub (I told you I'd
been to Hamlet). Yet you. with good on your
side, have made some bad pictures, real top-
of-the-class stinkers. But we'll forgive you.
After all, you were the first that ever burst
into that sea of hooey. So remember; whether
they're features or er . . . 'documentaries' (well,
you know what I mean), whether they come in
ten reels or two. whether they're made in War-
dour Street or Soho Square, whether they've
got stories or whether they haven't — the only
real difference between you and the boys is
motive. (It used to be anyway, but I'm worried
about some of you.) Get that motive clear and
then decide in which field it's going to motivate
you. But don't mix the breeds.

You were the first then, I say, to dare to state
that film could be used for other things. And
because you were reactionaries, you had to
state it raw. You had to wear a halo in self-
defence. You were the original monks of the
film business. Now for God's sake get out of
that habit -and throw away the sandals while
you're about it. Get rid of the sack-cloth and
ashes.

'Going to get my old tuxedo pressed,
Going to sew some buttons on my vest.
For tonight I'm going to look my best. . . .'
You know the old song? Here's another
verse adapted for the occasion:

'Going to get the barber slick my hair.
Got to get myself to Leicester Square,
For tonight I've got my premiere. . . .'
It makes you think, doesn't it?

For look. Showmanship, slickness, spit-and-
polish are not evil things. It's just that they've
usually been the prerogative (in cinema par-
ticularly) of the people who have dubious
things to say. lake it from them. Why should
truth, sincerity and human dignity go dowdy?
As long as you let it. that bust you see up there
on the hoarding will be a slightly different
contour from the one in the public library.
You're bookish boys, but in the halls of litera-
ture the battle is won. indeed, was never really
waged, The Virgin's Delight is in the gutter as
I've told \oy\. But its celluloid equivalent is up
(here m lights land celluloid's your business),
Don't write letters to each other about it. Get
I bul you'll have to change yout
I or. speaking of lights, remember Chester-

►4)

94

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

STAR FEATURE

The Red Shoes

this FILM had a quality of magic about it, which is
common to most stories about the stage, perhaps
because the theatre is concerned with the crea-
tion of another world, which can be either a faith-
ful imitation of our own world, or a fantastic fig-
ment of an author's imagination, but which in
any case is larger than life, more tragic, more
humorous, more squalid or more beautiful. In
this world it is possible to pick out the significant
details and ignore the mass of insignificant ones
which obscure them in everyday life, and the ac-
tors, while they walk the stage, are demi-gods,
superhuman or sub-human, Prospero or Caliban,
made of no common clay. There is a peculiar fas-
cination in any story which shows you the back-
stage scene, the squabbles, rivalry, chaos, com-
radeship, hard work and creative genius which go
to make up a finished production. This film has
the further advantage of a subject, ballet, which
is in itself beautiful to look at, and The Red Shoes
is visually superb. Again and again in their ability
to pick out the detail which sums up an emotion,
such as a pair of red dancing slippers going at
fantastic speed down a circular iron staircase, or
the painted tragic face of Massine looking down
at those same slippers after their owner has been
killed, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
show their supreme ability to think in terms of
the camera. The film also shows traces of a cer-
tain grandioseness which has a tendency to mar
the otherwise finely imaginative work of these
directors. The scene in the society drawing room,
where Anton Walbrook finds his future ballerina
assoluta, is singularly unconvincing, and one
scene where Moira Shearer ascends what seems
miles and miles of improbable steps in evening
dress of a pretentiousness which seems out of
place even in Monte Carlo, is cinematically bad
and quite unnecessary to the action. The plot is
likewise weak, being concerned with the conflict
in a dancer's mind between the claims of her art
and her desire for domestic bliss, which results in
what seemed a somewhat unnecessary leap in
front of a train. Anton Walbrook gives a beauti-
ful performance, as the impressario who de-
mands a single-minded devotion from his dan-
cers, but the psychological climax of the film is
unsatisfying and unconvincing, partly because
the two minds behind the conflict, Lermontov's
and the ballerina's, are insufficiently developed
in the film and partly because Moira Shearer,
who dances exquisitely but is no great actress,
fails to compel in the audience that willing sus-
pension of disbelief which alone could have re-
deemed the weak scripting of this part of the film.
This may sound somewhat damning, but in
actual fact it matters very little. The private lives
of the characters which compose the ostensible
plot of the film are not really important. The film
is really about ballet, those who dance in it,
those who make the music for it, those who de-
sign the sets and costumes, the man who controls
and co-ordinates these activities, about the ballet.
Whether it shows us the finished performance,
the chaos which precedes it, the mad rush of the
galleryites at Covent Garden pouring upstairs,
or the ungainly, agile, Frenchly expressive high
kick of one Paris porter demonstrating to another

what this thing ballet is, Ballet is the subject, the
plot and the hero, and as long as this was the
case, there was never a dull moment. This is not
to say, either, that this film is primarily intended
for balletomanes, although it might possibly pre-
pare the ground for balletomania in hitherto un-
infected minds. It tells you incidentally a great
deal about ballet, but in such a way that you do
not realize that you are being instructed. Here
there are several interesting comparisons to be
drawn between this film intended for entertain-
ment, and a recent Central Office of Information
film, reviewed elsewhere in this issue, called
Steps of the Ballet, which is meant to inform.
Much of the basic material of ballet was ex-
plained, and finally a complete ballet was shown.
It was photographed fiat, that is to say, the
camera took up the position of the audience and
stayed there throughout. This is no way'to bring
ballet to the screen, for it is by its nature a live
and fluid thing, just as film should be live and
fluid. It is a great mistake to think, however, that
because the subject is live it will keep that life
automatically when it is transferred to celluloid.
In The Red Shoes there is what must be the best
part of twenty minutes of pure ballet, without a
word of dialogue and without leaving the stage,
and the interest never flagged. There was hardly
any flat photography; some of the time you saw
the actual ballet being danced, and here the
camera was everywhere on the stage, forestalling
the dancers' movements, leaping into the red
shoes as Moira Shearer put them on, and closing
up to them again as they are drawn off her feet at
the end. Much of the time the camera was inter-
preting the dance in terms of the conflict in the
dancer's mind between her love and her dancing,
and sometimes it juxtaposed an image to heighten
the movement of the dancers and the music, as
when the sea surged in the auditorium as Moira
Shearer spun across the stage in a wide spacious
arc, and the music swelled to meet her. The
dancing was magnificent, Moira Shearer, Robert
Helpmann, who was responsible for the choreo-
graphy of the Red Shoes ballet, and above all
Leonide Massine, all playing their parts superb-
ly. Massine, apart from his part in the dancing,
stole the picture as far as I was concerned. Every
time he appeared on the screen, everyone else
appeared half alive beside his intense vitality.
Every movement of his fingers or his feet talked
more expressively than a couple of pages of dia-
logue, and he was largely responsible for the feel-
ing of authenticity in this picture of the life be-
hind the scenes. The picture may be heightened,
as any dramatic representation, whether play or
film, must be, but it is a \ i\ id and com incing one.

The subject of The Red Shoes is ballet, and to
put over this subject it has a plot. As in the case
of many documentary films, where the> allow
their audiences the sop of a fictional plot, this
is weak. Nevertheless, although there are many
minor flaws in the film, it makes its audience not
only swallow a great deal of ballet but thoroughly
enjoy doing it. and it succeeds in doing this be-
cause it approaches its subject through living
things, through the people whose lives are in-

volved. The tendencyjfor documentary films is to
approach their subjects through dead things,
through figures and statistics and factory chim-
ne\s. The very names applied to this type of film-
making are indicative; documentary, factual.
Documents and facts are dry things unless they
are brought to life by showing the human beings
whose lives are bound up in them. Two things are
needed in documentary films, more humanity and
more visual excitement. It is a very much easier
thing to make a film about ballet and the people
who dance it human and visually exciting, than
to bring the same qualities into a film about fac-
tory workers, but it has been successfully done in
documentary. Steps of the Ballet is a film in-
tended for novices, made in the hope of interest-
ing people in ballet by explaining the basic
technique; well and good. I would not mind
betting, however, that more people will come
away from The Red Shoes with the idea that per-
haps it would be worth finding out more about
ballet than w ill be enthused by the more informa-
tive Steps of the Ballet.

WHY SHOULD TRUTH GO
DOWDY?

(Continued from page 93)

ton's illiterate peasant looking at the sky
signs on Broadway? He would surely, said
Chesterton, believe that those wonderful lights,
speaking 'through the agency of the two most
vivid and most mystical of the gifts of God,
colour and fire' were conveying some such
glorious message as 'Give me liberty or Give
me Death'; he would be distressed to find that
all that golden fire merely stood for 'Mr Bilge's
Paradise Toothpaste". But because I know that
Bilge is only Bilge, shall I stoop to the pro-
fanity of saying that fire is only fire?' For 'fire'
read 'showmanship', 'sparkle', and the profan-
ity's yours. So get off your knees.

'The truth drones on." said someone recently,
'with the muffled voice of one trulv speaking
from a well.' If you have some truth to tell -
climb out. Tell it neat like a teacher, it vou
will; but if you want to write it large then do
h in the theatres. Don't think it's easj because
in the hurly-burly of show business \ou have to
be damned sure of yourself and your message
You've got to be dead certain inside if you
decide to muck about. Which are you? If
you're the pamphleteer and the teacher then
go ahead where you belong and good luck to
voir, the world has need of thee. But don't
clutter up the stage. You don't belong there
Stand back and let the showmen among you
come forward.

Oh. and if you do decide at last that you're a
showman after all. don't ponder too long as to
whether you're about to sell \our soul. It nu\
well be a highly academic self-question. ^ Ml
see. you have to find a buyer.

'The time is out of joint: 0 cursed spite

That ever I was born to set it right . . . .'
\w.iv with cussed spite, you Highlander Ham-
lets, you and set it right with a wisecrack!

!)()( I Ml \l\in I II \1 M \\s

'»5

The Film Society Movement
in Son tli Africa

by

Lily Rabkin

(Reprinted from 'The Outspan', February 6, 1948)

the first South African Film Society was
started in Cape Town some years ago, but it
had to give up owing to numerous difficulties.
The present flourishing movements — there are
film societies in Cape Town, Stellenbosch. Port
Elizabeth, Johannesburg. Durban and Maritz-
burg. and at the University of the Witwaters-
rand — also began in Cape Town. In June, 1945,
about ten people, all interested in the film, met
at a private house, and decided to form some
organization for the showing of films, old and
new, which were worthy of attention and which
could not be seen on the commercial circuit.

The initial aims were very modest. We did
not expect that the group would attract more
than 40 people and we decided to start our
meetings with documentary films easily obtain-
able locally. Each of the original sponsors con-
tributed something towards initial expenses
and a circular explaining the idea was sent out
to people who might be interested in the pro-
ject. We hired a board-room in Adderley
Street, which holds about 90 people, and held
our first meeting on August 29. 1945. To our
pleased surprise — and embarrassment, for
some had to be turned away — about 150
people turned up and the idea was triumph-
antly justified.

The first programme consisted of a British
Council colour film. Teeth of Steel: a 1917
Charlie Chaplin short; that classic British
documentary, Night Mail (directors, Harry
Watt and Basil Wright); and the first of Frank
Capra's powerful war documentaries, Why We
Fight.

Thus the Cape Town Film Society was born.
Its objects, as laid down in the constitution, are
(1) to further interest in the film as a social,
artistic and historical medium, (2) to further
film appreciation. The CTFS is, of course, a
non-commercial and non-profit-making body,
and it is worthy of note that it has no colour
bar. The society meets monthly and meetings
are open only to members, who pay their sub-
scriptions for a minimum period of three
months. The subscription is only 2s. 6d. a
month, which places the society within the
reach of most people.

One of the first problems of a film society
in South Africa is a suitable hall. We met for
a long time at the Metropolitan Hall, which
seats about 300 people. When the hall was re-
served by the Methodist Church for its own
activities, we moved to the smaller Oddfellows
Hall. We have, therefore, had to keep our
membership more or less stationary at about
200 people.

The membership is composed about equally
of men and women and consists of representa-
tives of all professions and occupations. Most
of the members are between 25 and 45 years.
We have regular monthly meetings, have
shown a wide variety of films, old and new.

and have, we hope, brought home the import-
ance of the film both as a sociological and artis-
tic instrument. Geoffrey Smith, our chairman,
was present at Brussels in June last year when.
during the Film Festival there, the World
Union of Documentary was formed, pledging
its support to the fight for peace and recon-
struction, for the independence of subject
peoples, for free intellectual and cultural ex-
pression and the free dissemination of know-
ledge.

Either directly or indirectly inspired by the
(ape Town example, six other film societies
have been started. Once they were in operation.
Cape Town has been able to help and advise
in many ways, particularly by lending its films.

The first of these was Stellenbosch. The
membership of the Stellenbosch Film Society
now stands at about 80, of whom about 60 are
drawn from the University staff and their fami-
lies, graduates and students. Of the remainder.
nine are schoolteachers. Stellenbosch. an ex-
tremely enthusiastic and enterprising group,
holds meetings once a month for eight months
of the year.

Port Elizabeth, in turn, held its first, very
crowded, film society meeting in the Technical
College Hall on January 24, 1946. The spon-
sor was a local industrialist. Neil Abrahams.
The membership of the Port Elizabeth Film
Society is about 130, mostly professional and
business people over thirty.

The Johannesburg Film Society began op-
erations in October, 1946. The chairman,
Fanny Klenerman, a Johannesburg bookseller,
hired the Escom Theatre and invited those in-
terested to see The Cabinet of Dr Caligari, the
famous German experimental film (imported
into South Africa by the Cape Town Film So-
ciety). Then a meeting was called and the
Johannesburg Film Society was formed. It is
naturally the biggest group, with about 450
members. Meetings are held in the Escom
Theatre, with two 'sittings' for each pro-
gramme.

Durban started its Film Society in February.
1947. Dr Herbert Coblans, the chairman, had
been on the first committee of the Cape Town
Film Society, and gathered together a prelimi-
nary committee. At the first meeting, Film and
Reality, an absorbingly exciting history of the
film, with excerpts from film landmarks of
many kinds, was shown. As in the other
centres, the hall was too small for the enthu-
siasts. Now, with the use of the larger i M< \
hall, the membership is between 350 and 400.

In Marit/burg the meetings are held in the
hall of the Technical College, which allows
the use of the hall and projectoi at greatly re-
duced terms, because the Principal, very
rightly, feels that such a Body is a valuable
form of adult education. Of the membership
of about 140 a third are students (who pa) a

reduced subscription) and 20 are members of

the University stall

The youngest group is the Witwatersrand
Film Society, which has already held a couple
of meetings.

I list in the list oi film society problems in
South Africa is the quest for films. Cape Town
Started oil with documentaries, which are easily
available in South Africa. Of these the most
spectacular, perhaps, was Nanook of the
(Robert Flaherty, 1922). a copy of which was
found in a commercial film library in Johan-
nesburg. This film was shown by the film so-
cieties long before the re-issue was shown on
a South African commercial circuit. When it
came on to the commercial screen, members
of the Cape Town Film Society, to my know-
and probably elsewhere, went to see it
again, urged their friends 'not to miss it", and
sent their children to the matinees. It is thus
plain that the film society movement is a useful
supplement to the commercial cinema.

Other films are not so easy to come by.
luckily the British Film Institute has a
National Film Library, which lets film societies
have on permanent loan prints of films ovei
which it has certain copyright rights. In this
way the Cape Town Film Society has been able
nport, at very reasonable cost, a number
of films which are very important cinematic
landmarks, and to share them with the other
film societies. These include, among others, the
Russian Mother (Pudovkin, 1926), the German
et of Dr Caligari (Robert W'iene. 1919),
the French Italian Straw Hat (Rene Clair's
joyous satire on the French bourgeoisie, made
in 1927), the Russian The General Line (Eisen-
stein and Alexandrov. 1929), and the docu-
mentary history of the film, Film and Reality
(Cavalcanti. 1942 1.

It is verj interesting to note to which films
members respond most heartily sometimes
the response is very unexpected. Cape Town
members have enjoyed most, I think. Nanook
of the North. The Italian Straw Hat, and the
two parts of Film and Reality. Stellenbosch's
high-light was also Nanook. Port Elizabeth
liked Diary for Timothy best, and Durban
went for The Ox-bow Incident, The Italian
Straw Hat and Sabotage it ape I own wasn't
over-excited about v but we had a

poor print I. Marit/burg enjoyed Film and
Realil .Han Straw Hat and Nanook.

A further aim of the film societies is to co-
operate if possible with other cultural and
tional organizations. ( ape [own has had
a few highly successful experiments in this
direction. In March. 1 t*4f>. we had a meeting.
in co-operation with the Association ol
title Workers, on 'The Film and Public Health'
Relevant films were shown and Dl I- R.I like

K onttnued on page 96. column 3)

96

DO (I MEM ARY FILM NEWS

CORRESPONDENCE

Commentaries

sir: Emboldened by the sensible remarks of
John Maddison in your recent issue, I venture to
write as one who has made scores of com-
mentaries and does not greatly care if, under
prevailing conditions, he never makes another.

When I say 'made', I mean, read out, from
sheets of paper which he has not seen before, at a
swiftly moving series of screen pictures which he
may have seen run through once.

And when I say 'read out', I mean, often
bellowed into a microphone hung above head
level a couple of yards off.

What sort of result can be expected but a cross
between Fitz-who's-it's infantile travelogues and
the American cadences of the imitators of
E. V. H. Emmett?

As for the matter typed on the sheets . . .
cameras work inside the heads of cinema
audiences, behind their eyes. Can't sound tracks
work there too, behind their ears, as responsible
broadcasters make the microphone work? If
your documentary directors want the impersonal,
take-it-or-leave-it declamation of the BBC news
bulletins, then let us all go on as we're doing; but
don't expect audiences to be interested.

Interest comes by attraction; and a mere
stream of declaimed sound reduces an audience,
like people watching continually moving water,
to idiocy not interest. That many commentaries
resemble mill-races is due to the fact that they
are written by people who don't use their voices.

Maybe the less commentary, the better. But
let the commentator at least speak to his audience,
with all the skill and craft he has. He will make
the best job of it, if he is in the making of the
film as early as possible, and at least at the cut-
ting-room stage; and is personally responsible
for what he says.

Yours faithfully,

JOSEPH MACLEOD

UNRRA

sir: In connection with Grant McLean's interest-
ing article on filming for UNRRA in China and
his proposal that the UN might well sponsor
such units throughout the world, I should like to
call your attention to five other units sponsored

by UNRRA: Captain David Miller, US Signal
Corps, who travelled all through Europe to pro-
duce Seech of Destiny (1946 US Academy Docu-
mentary Award winner) : Nicholas B. Read,
National Film Board of Canada, who went to
Greece to produce Out of the Ruins; Arthur
Calder-Marshall, who went to Egypt to produce
The Star and the Sand, the film about the
UNRRA Yugoslav refugee camp ; Peter Hopkin-
son, who went to Byelorussia and the Ukraine
to shoot the film later released by the March of
Time as The Russians Nobody Knows, and Victor
Vicas, who went to Italy to produce Italy Rebuilds
for the International Film Foundation.

The United Nations itself now has films in
production in nine different countries : United
States, Mexico, France, the United Kingdom, the
Netherlands, Poland, Belgium, Czechoslovakia
and Sweden. If 58 economy-minded United
Nations are willing to grant the funds, we hope
to continue and develop this new and important
field of international documentary film produc-
tion for international understanding.
Sincerely yours,

WILLIAM H. WELLS

Chief, Film and Television Section
Division of Films and Visual Information

Cumberland Story

sir : I wished to show the uncut version of
Cumberland Story which as you know ran for
about 45 minutes. I now learn it has been cut to
10 minutes. Now if this is true then it is time
there was an outcry. What does Humphrey Jen-
nings, its director, think of this emasculation? 1
have heard the miners objected to the accident
sequence (which I believe is cut) but there are
other cuts. This film, in my opinion, was a first-
class job — even Winnington of the News
Chronicle described it as the Documentary of
the Year'. If the reason for this ruthless cutting
ii considered necessary because of its propa-
ganda effect, surely a Film Society does not
come within the category of squeamish audi-
ences. The accident sequences are not cut in
Kameradschaft or The Stars Look Down. Film
Societies approach films with a different atti-
tude of mind and I should be interested to know

FILM SOCIETIES (continued from p. 95)
gave an address. At another meeting, to which
architectural students were invited, films on
architecture and town-planning were shown,
and Mr O. Pryce-Lewis, of the University of
Cape Town, spoke on the subject. In May of
last year, in conjunction with the Institute of
Citizenship, we had a programme on 'Juvenile
Delinquency', with the outstanding British
documentary, Children on Trial (Jack Lee),
and an address by Mr W. D. Marais, Principal
of the Tokai reformatories.

Stellenbosch invites committees of Univer-
sity societies or groups, such as Native Admin-
istration. Sociology and Psychology, to films in
which they would be interested, and sponsored
with the Geography Department of the Uni-
versity the showing of films of a whaling expe-
dition to the Antarctic. Stellenbosch maintains
a happy relationship with the local cinema.

Durban has co-operated with the local
Medical Association by inviting its members
to see a film on 'Neuro-Psychiatry'.

It must not be thought, however, that the
film societies meet in a mood of gloomy up-
lift. Members learn much, it is true, about the
film and other matters — and they enjoy them-
selves greatly in the process. In Cape Town.
'Film Society Friday' is an institution among its
members, which they do not care to miss.

The road is not an easy one. Halls and suit-
able projectors are not always easy to obtain.
South Africa is very far from the centre of
things and importing films is impossible, be-
cause of copyright restrictions and the very-
heavy customs duty, except when films with an
educational certificate can be imported through
the facilities so helpfully offered by the British
Film Institute, which can. however, only pro-
vide those over which it has certain rights. But
the South African Film Societies hope to con-
tinue what is a useful service in the cause of
education and enjoyment. It is a movement
which should have the active support of all
educational and cultural bodies, and of the
cinema industry, which cannot but benefit
from an eager, well-informed audience.

the views of directors whose films have been
carved up. and also Film Societies.
Yours faithfully,

H. E. NORRIS

Hon Secretary

CAMERA HIRE SERVICE

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DOCUMENTARY

news

INCORPORATING DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

SE PT-OCT 1 948

ONE SHILLING

FIFTY NATIONS

are represented among the members of
the British Film Institute who share a
belief in the future of the film. For
full information, please write to:

164 SHAFTESBURY AVENUE

LONDON, W.C.2

The British Film Institute

— an independent organization financed through H.M. Privy Council

documentary film news

VOL. 7 NO. 69 SLPT-OCT 1948

EDITORIAL BOARD

STEPHEN ACK.ROYD
DONALD ALEXANDER
MAX ANDERSON
EDGAR ANSTEY
GEOFFREY BELL

KEN CAMERON
PAUL FLETCHER
SINCLAIR ROAD
GRAHAME THARP
BASIL WRIGHT

EDITOR

GEORGE SEAGER

ASSISTANT EDITOR

JANE DAVIES

CONTENTS

This month's cover still is from Robert Flaherty's
Louisiana Story

International Scientific Film Congress
John Maddison

An Exhibition About Documentary Films?
Peter Bradford

The Stuff of Documentary
Leslie She paid

Manhunt

Eric Goldschmidt

98

99

100

101

Edinburgh in Retrospect
Basil Wright

D for Denmark

Films Shown at Edinburgh

102

104

105-108

Published every month by
Film Outre .1 I Solio Sq. I Ion \\ I

ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION 12. V. SING IF COPIFS 1

QUOTA

mi i \si lew rugged miles to the promised land are traditionally
the hardest on the feet and documentary lilm-makers u\> not always
appreciate how close they may be to the end ol a lung journey.
For adequate theatrical distribution is nearer than at any time
since John Grierson brought his herrings home nearly twenty
years ago.

The cynic will here break in with hard and pessimistic words.
He will argue with some justice that it remains as Herculean a
labour as ever it was to persuade the exhibitor of the virtues of the
film of fact; that the national home of the Philistines is still in
Wardour Street; that there are plenty of good supporting films
still unbooked. The incontrovertible fact remains that the exhibitor,
however unregenerate, is now required by law to find 25 per cent
of his supporting programme in the British market. The law that
says so has been in force since October 1. Moreover, the reliefs
from its full impact that are to be granted to a very high proportion
of exhibitors because of their special competitive circumstances,
will apply only in the case of the first feature film, and will provide
no escape from the obligation to fulfil the full quota in second
features and shorts.

There is, of course, a snag. Those who will not be comforted are
light when they point out that the conditions for the marketing of
short films and second features could scarcely be worse than they
are at present. A quota may have been fixed but there remains no
guarantee of revenue commensurate with the cost of first-class
supporting films. Distributors and exhibitors are only too ready to
admit that their financial arrangements do not at present provide
for the paying of adequate rentals for anything but the feature
film. The burden of their argument is that the feature producers
demand the last penny that can be wrung from the public, lea\ ing
nothing for the makers of supporting films.

The problem is not new. It has always been clear that hand in
hand with the fixing of an adequate quota there must come some
reform in the processes for marketing supporting films. The need
for new methods has been recognized in many influential quarters
and, in particular, within the Board of Trade \h Harold Wilson
has promised to set up a Committee to investigate and report upon
film-marketing and it can confidently be expected that the case of
the supporting-programme makers will receive sympathetic at-
tention. But how soon?

It is of the most vital importance that the Board of Trade should
realize the urgency of this inquiry into marketing and disti ihution.
and should be aware that in the interim its quota legislation could
become undermined. Some solution to the immediate problem may
perhaps be found in an increase in the suppK from Governmental,
commercial or other national organizati his oi sponsored films
suitable for theatrical showing. (Presumably we are now past the
point where it will be argued that sponsorship automatically ex-
cludes entertainment.) The new Quota \cl does indeed provide an
opportunity for sponsors who wish to see the cultural and enter-
tainment level of the supporting programme raised, since the
chances of theatrical distribution foi their films are considerably
greater than they have ever been before Ihe fact remains that
the numbei ol sponsors who will take a sufficiently enlightened
view of then responsibilities to the community is always likely to
be limited. There is no escaping a final conclusion that it is the
President oi the Board oi hade who. having brought us thus far.

must e induct the makeis ol supporting films those last few painful
miles to then propel place in the public service.

98

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

International Scientific Film Congress
London 1948

by
JOHN MADDISON

the Scientific Film Association of Great
Britain was born in 1943, out of the enthu-
siasms of the scientific film society movement
and the pioneer efforts of a group within the
scientists' trade union, the AScW. The whole
edifice of its achievement since then, in or-
ganizing and disseminating information about
films and in stimulating a nation-wide interest
in the screen as a weapon of science, has been
built on the voluntary labours of its members.
In 1947, side by side with its French colleagues
of the Institut de Cinematographic Scientifique,
it carried this achievement further by jointly
calling together a Congress in Paris which
established the International Scientific Film
Association. Delegates from every corner of
the earth were unanimous in wishing to honour
Britain by holding the Association's 1948 Con-
gress in London. In accepting this invitation,
the SFA delegates were conscious that to or-
ganize such an event would impose a heavy
load upon a body whose only finances were
its members' subscriptions. The British Gov-
ernment recognized the value a series of
international meetings of this kind would have
both for science and cinematography in this
country. Through the British Film Institute, it
made available to the Scientific Film Associa-
tion, a grant of money substantial enough to
guarantee the decent and efficient management
of the occasion.

Nine crowded days of activity at the begin-
ning of October with discussions, film shows,
exhibitions and international rencontres, were
the outcome of some months of anxious pre-
paration. In these lines, I can only offer DFN
readers a stop-press canter through what has
been up to now the most important series ever
held of international manifestations for
cinema in the service of science.

The Congress began with an event of his-
toric significance in another medium — tele-
vision. After the opening reception, at which
Mr Patrick Gordon Walker had underlined
the Government's close interest in the scientific
film, the delegates were taken to Alexandra
Palace, to see a televised preview of some of
the films to be shown later in the week. To my
mind, the scene before the television cameras
symbolized the routes along which we are hop-
ing to advance. John Grierson, to whom we
owe so vast an enlargement of the social dimen-
sion of cinema, introduced Jean Painleve, the
poet of science on the screen, and Otto Storch,
who in his laboratory in Vienna has demon-
strated that film is an indispensable instrument
of fundamental research.. But the outstanding
event of the evening came at the end. A hun-
dred thousand or so viewers were able to see
Painleve linking the television camera directly
to the microscope and so. for the first time ever,
allowing them to gaze with him, through the

screens of their sets, on the spectacle of change
and movement as it was actually taking place
beneath the microscope lens. Painleve has
made one of his most characteristic films about
Daphnia, the water flea; here we were explor-
ing its tiny anatomy, not through film, but
with all the freshness and immediacy of tele-
vision. Exciting perspectives are opened up by
all this — a whole nation may one day together
look down into a world beyond the range of
normal human vision.

In the four days of sometimes dry discus-
sion which followed, constructive endeavour
was the keynote; in Ritchie Calder's happy
phrase, the Iron Curtain gave place to the
Silver Screen. A main issue was the more effec-
tive international distribution of films; it was
realized that a first step towards this must be a
better organized system for the exchange of in-
formation about films. To this end, the mem-
bers of a sub-commission, and notably Pain-
leve, Loose of Holland and Stanford of Britain,
worked hard to complete the labours of pre-
ceding months and even years in establishing
a standard card for recording essential data
about individual films. The draft of such a card
was approved by the Assembly and will be
circulated to all countries. From such begin-
nings, it is hoped that a reliable international
catalogue of scientific films will eventually be
evolved. In the meantime, a sub-commission
of ISFA will continue to work on cataloguing
and appraisal and a further sub-commission
will consider, on a brief largely prepared by
one of the Australian delegates, other prob-
lems of the exchange of films between nations.
Besides encouraging the wider distribution of
films, the International Association is also
pledged to stimulating the production of new
scientific films. Science and Cinematography
should transcend frontiers, but it was clear
from the discussion that internationally there is
still much duplication of effort in the produc-
tion of films, and mutual ignorance of produc-
tion plans. Apart from the exchange of infor-
mation about such matters, it was felt that
efforts should be made to set on foot inter-
national projects — each of which might be co-
ordinated by a single country. For example.
Poland was interested in a project on bird
migration, Canada might be asked to under-
take the co-ordination of a similar one of
animal parasites on plants and Britain might
envisage working on oceanography and meteor-
ology. The Assembly set up a commission with
representatives from Britain. France. Den-
mark. Poland. Canada and Mexico, to consider
how these ideas might he implemented; Arthur
Elton, the British member, was entrusted with
the task of drawing up a preliminary document
to give these general ideas on production a
practical shape.

A three-day festival of scientific films at the
Royal Empire Society gave delegates and some
two thousand members of the public the op-
portunity of seeing some fifty films from
close on a score of countries. From Britain,
there were among others the solid expositional
virtues of Precise Measurements for Engineers
(Data — COI for DSIR). a superb high-speed
record of Fuel Atomization (SIM PL for
Shell Film Unit) and GB's splendid Atomic
Physics. From France, with a host of other
good things, came a series of remarkable bio-
logical research films, wittily commented on by
the maker, Dragesco. Poland contributed a
beautifully photographed and altogether en-
chanting film on the incubation of young birds.
One of Canada's films was the acutely ob-
served psychological piece Feeling of Hostility.
The New Zealand Government Film Unit took
us on a research expedition to a remote vol-
canic island, and Australia's study of the diet
of a primitive Pacific community brought an
exotic flavour to one show. At another show,
spontaneous applause interrupted the screen-
ing of World of Crystals, one of two colour
films from the Soviet Union. And these are
only a handful of purely personal impressions
out of an embarrassment of riches from the
countries named and a dozen others.

Of particular value were the occasions dur-
ing the congress when specialists met to dis-
cuss common problems. At three medical ses-
sions, films were shown, special techniques of
research by the cine-camera demonstrated, and
ideas exchanged on the best ways of convey-
ing information about medical films. At the
educational meetings, speakers from England
and Wales, Scotland, Denmark. Egypt. Bel-
gium. Germany and Australia, were mainly
concerned with the organization of school film
services, and many interesting contrasts of
method and approach were brought out. An-
other specialized session took as its theme the
use of films in university teaching and a plan
for inter-university co-operation on the inter-
national scale was set on foot. The film in in-
dustry was the subject of a final specialized
meeting. Speakers from the major industries of
Britain, from the Belgian FBI and its Ministry
of 1 abour. from the National Film Board of
Canada, and from the French industrial film
organization, Service-Cinema-Interentreprises.
gave some account of their problems and
showed films. The working parties, set up at
these specialized gatherings, organized by the
appropriate Standing Committees of SFA,
were given the blessing of the International
Assembly.

On the margins, so to speak, of the Congress,
there were a number of stimulating events.
The Central Office of Information organized
(Continued on page 104)

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

99

An Exhibition About Documentary Films?

by
PETER BRADFORD

documentary films have been made in Britain
for almost twenty years, yet it is probable that
less than one per cent of cinema-goers even
now know what a documentarj film is. The
makes of documentary films may like to
think that documentary is the conscience of
the cinema' but as yet it certainly is not the
conscience of the super cinema. The docu-
mentary kingdom remains the grim hall with
its wooden benches and croak y Id mm pro-
jector"; it preaches mainl) to the converted
and the would-be converted. Until they can
obtain wider showing in the ordinary cinema,
these films must speak mainly to teachers or
probation officers or tomato growers — in fact
are bound to be for the most part 'specialized
films'. While these specialized films will prob-
ably always be a major part of documentary
production, there are also a number of films
of general interest made, which deserve to be
seen by the public as a whole, and there could
be many more if the public knew enough about
them to realize their potential value. As long
as there is no demand for this kind of film,
producers will only rarely and under special cir-
cumstances be able to make them. This prob-
lem is years old, and no one has made much
pi ogress towards a solution, but one way to
create a greater interest in and knowledge of
documentary films is to organize an exhibition
about them, designed to explain in the simplest
possible terms to anyone who may be coaxed
inside the exhibition hall, what documentary
films are doing, what they have done, what
they hope to do, and how they are made.

In May of this year representatives of the
British Film Institute, the British Council,
COI, the British Film Academy, the Film So-
cieties and British Documentary met to dis-
cuss a suggestion to produce an exhibition
about documentary films. At the request of the
meeting a sub-committee was formed of British
Documentary and Film Society members to
draw up a scheme of practical proposals. In-
cidentally, this sub-committee discovered that
although Britain had pioneered the making of
documentary films, there had never been an
exhibition of this kind organized on the sub-
ject.

The sub-committee proposed that after ex-
plaining the wide field covered by document-
ary, the exhibition should give a brief history
of the development of the documentary film.
its purpose, and the technical methods it em-
ployed, and finally, after explaining the prob-
lems of distribution, show how the public
themselves can get more documentary films
shown.

The story of the exhibition would be told in
a series of flat wall boards comprising brief
text, stills and diagrams, to be grouped in four
main sections.

A. What is a documentary film?
J B. The history of documentary film-malting.

C. How a documentary film is made today.

D. Who sees documentary films 7

In between sections H and C would be tech-
nic.il apparatus in the middle of the room
shown by a demonstrator. But the wall I
would be complete in themselves, and suitable
lor exhibition in other parts of the country. To
design an exhibition for London alone would
be to miss the point of having such an exhibi-
tion. It should be made available to schools,
colleges, institutes, public libraries, museums
and art galleries all over Britain.

It was also proposed that a film should be
made, lasting ten to twenty minutes, which
should be part of the exhibition if funds al-
lowed. It would explain various points of tech-
nique. Among these points would be: appro-
priate and inappropriate camera angles, types
of lighting, methods of directing, and methods
of cutting both picture and sound. Here are
details of part of the exhibition taken from
the original report.

SECTION A. WHAT IS A DOCUMENTARY FILM?

Board 1. Are all these films documentaries?
A collection of stills of some films made by
feature companies and some by document-
ary companies, designed to get the viewer
asking himself about the meaning of docu-
mentary. Stills (with a brief caption below
each) from :

Millions Like Us, Song of Ceylon, Target for
Tonight. Atomic Physics. Paisa. World of
Plenty. Scarface, Your Children's Eyes.

Board 2. Yes. they are ALL documentaries —
Because they have a truthful approach.
This Board would consist only of text and
would emphasize the documentary method
in the choice and the approach to the subject.

Boards 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. A set of stills contrasting
documentary and feature subjects and ap-
proach, e.g.

Reconstruction in a big studio against loca-
tion. Use of people — for example, housewife
in a feature film and housewife in a docu-
mentary.

SECTION C. HOW A DOCUMENTARY FILM IS MADE
TODAY

Board 18. How a subject is chosen.

The film-maker finds a sponsor or the spon-
sor finds a film-maker.
How it is investigated. Examples of part of
an actual treatment and shooting script.

Board 19. The Budget.

Showing a percentage breakdown of costs
with possible contrast with feature costs.

Board 20. How the subject is made.

Introducing the producer and technicians
by stills in order to establish them as poisons
and what they do.

Board 21. Stills of shooting on location and in
a small studio.

Board 22. Cutting (sound and picture): laying
i^i tracks, dubbing. Possibly demonstration
panel showing principles of cutting using.
say. Night Mail as an example, show nig stills

and Auden's verses, side by side with cutting

positions marked.

Board 23. The work of the laboratories. Pos-
sibly a demonstration glass panel showing a
mix, fade, dissolve, etc.

Board 24 Output.

Showing the number of documentary films
produced in 1947. "X' per cent suitable for
general distribution, and "V" per cent de-
signed specially for instructional or educa-
tional use. Of the total number suitable for
general distribution only Z' per cent actu-
ally shown.

SECTION D. WHO SEES DOCUMENTARY FILMS?

Board 25. Difficulties in way of getting theatri-
cal distribution in few brief captions, pos-
sibly with chart of distribution machinery.
Board 26. What gets into:
The ordinary cinema.
The specialist cinema.
Board 27. The development of non-theatrical
distribution and in particular the work of
the Film Society Movement.
Boards 28, 29. Specialized non-theatrical dis-
tribution. Use of films by schools, doctors,
farmers, etc.
Board 30. The whole of this section to be in
cartoon form -with a little cartoon figure
giving these different suggestions.
If you want to see more of these films —
You can join a film society.
You can start a film society.
You can encourage your local authority
to make use of its powers to show films
under the new Local Government Act.
You can write to your local cinema man-
ager.
If you have any other ideas let us have them.
The exhibition would end with a blank pad
of paper and a suggestion box beside it.

An exhibition of the sort proposed by the
sub-committee outlined in this article would
cost about a thousand pounds to design and
assemble, and about another thousand to show
in London, where an exhibition hall in a cen-
tral position costs over a hundred pounds a
week to hire. Last \la\ a number of organiza-
tions were approached for money to make the
exhibition possible, but as yet there have been
no promises oi help, except tor the Ml I. who
suggested it might be suitable for the 1951
Exhibition.

In the meantime a much more immediate
request for an exhibition about documentary
came to British Documentary from the I din-
burgh 1 esl nitiee. British Documen-
tarj and the British film Acadcim agreed to
Share COStS, and on £20 a small exhibition was
produced for Edinburgh, based on the ideas ol
the full-scale exhibition I he Edinburgh exhi-
bition contained the ideas o( boards 4. 5, (>. 7,

21 28 19 mhI part o( 2(> dealing with ti

narj Cinema, and was shown in film House for

three weeks Subsequently, it was shown pri-
vately in I ondon for a couple ol days. \s a re-
sult a Dumber of I ilm 9ociet) secretaries have
(Continued on page 108)

100

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

The Stuff of Documentary

THE MAKING OF A MAGAZINE STORY

by
LESLIE SHEPARD

every four weeks we make a cine-magazine.
A one-reel news film with four items in each
issue. Each item a miniature film.

Investigation

On the train you rummage through your
satchel — pyjamas, toothbrush, soap and towel
— and find the dope sheet. It may be a news-
paper cutting, a typed quarto sheet, or just a
scrap of paper with address and phone number
of contacts and a scrawled mnemonic : 'Water
is story but inter-cut production and watch
men' ... or something. This is your precogni-
tion of the sort of thing you expect to find.

On the train you let your imagination spread
over the dope sheet. Keep fluid, supple, to find
and shape your story.

You will have three hours to sort out the
ingredients. Get the facts — find the story. It
will run for a minute and a half with something
like twenty-three shots. You can draw on com-
mentary, music, effects, and occasionally
synch. Have you ever tried to write a triolet?
It's a very precise verse form with infinite varia-
tion possible in its rigid pattern. . . .

As well as your story (which you will script
on the night train back or in the office within
two hours next day) you will find out the
routine details for lining-up — electricity sup-
ply, what lamps, time-tables, hotels, and so on.
The item will be shot the day after tomorrow,
unit returning by late train or following morn-
ing. The script will have passed through pro-
ducer and sponsor, be fought and agreed in
one afternoon. What is the story? There isn't
one — yet! This is screen journalism.

That Export story. You spent the morning
with the admin, boys at the docks, soaking up
facts and figures; being told what to and what
not to shoot; collecting data that would never
register on celluloid. Then a junior employee
guided you to a place you didn't want, but you
kept him talking. Then you saw what you'd
come down for — the desolate rail wagons,
the broken rails running into pools of water —
the shots, mind you, not the story.

But you kept a man talking and he wrote
the story for you in the words of men who had
lived with and by coal export; had seen pros-
perity, depression and the turn of the tide. The
day when a ship brought foreign coal to a
Welsh port and there were tears in the eyes of
the men who unloaded her. And now, with coal
being exported again, the images of that story
were all around you — the men and the back-
ground. Trimming a cargo by the quay that
held the ruined weigh-sheds where the sea-
gulls and the man on the job ruffled the broken
balance and rippled the reflection of the truck
wheel, axle-deep in water. . . . That queer little
feeling when you find the right pieces; they
fall together and have a truth of their own.

Of course it never passed through that way.
That was only part of the job. You took the

shots — yes! — stole them while pretending to
get something else, but the sponsors wanted a
broad canvas for the story, not epitome. This
or that policy line wasn't quite right. They
wanted you to squeeze in something the Press
hand-out and the Picture Post story had said.
. . . What of it? We re-vamped the story, fight-
ing all the way. Two units worked over differ-
ent locations and the new story fell together
with the pieces of the old. The item was made
on time.

You wonder if you'll make it this time.
Something is going on somewhere, if you can
see it, feel it, and record it. On how many other
stories have you arrived in a strange place
faced by an unexciting fact? You don't rush
at it. Get people and let them talk. Watch.
Waste time, but keep them talking, while your
mind waits for the old magic — the pattern that
turns the facts into a story.

Shooting

On the train you chatted to the other two
or three people who were there to help you
shoot it. A cameraman and perhaps two assist-
ants. Perhaps you played a bit upstage, know-
ing that different technicians have different
temperaments.

The cameraman was your working partner
for the next day's shooting. George was slow,
indecisive; you had to talk deadpan facetious
on the job to keep him going, be calm and
never show the indecision you felt yourself.
Michael was quick, competent and irritable.
You had to fight him for the set-ups. If you

hesitated he'd be taking them himself. Always
be one move ahead asking for the scenes and
have some brave talk to justify what you were
doing. Let him take over a scene you didn't
really want, to keep the rhythm of work and
get the essential ones without fuss. When you
were older, perhaps, you would dominate
people, the big. confident director. Action! In
the meantime, these were early days. You really
knew when the cameraman pulled you through
on that pan with six characters (big stuff!) and
you knew you made the item with those two
cut-ins that he didn't want to take. A unit on
a magazine story is small and compact enough
to work out these things.

There wouldn't always be a script. There's a
kind of story that is nearer to newsreel proper.
You have to make a 'coverage'. This means
you script the item in the camera. No second
takes and no waiting for sun. You have an
hour for the key establishing shots while you're
waiting for the action, then for the scenes that
the cameraman makes or breaks, because he
must take over half your directing now.

But you watch all the time for the sort of
thing that illuminates the action. Sometimes it
happens in front of your eyes and you will
have to reconstruct it. Sometimes a whisper
to the cameraman and a little distraction will
get the shot while the reality is still in it.

All the while you figure out how this or that
is going to cut. You've had three key mid-
shots — pegs for the editor, but on one of these
you're committed on direction of action for the i
cut-ins (when you get a chance to get them)

(Continued on page 103)

DOC I Ml \ I \U\ III M M.WS

mi

Manhunt

by
ERIC GOLDSCHMIDT

WHEN YOU'RE stuck lor a turn at your party,
or when shuffling into a barber's chair, when
stumped for a conversational opening or graz-
ing on lush Devonshire meadows, when you
wish to knock the idle hours between 5 and 5.30
with a particularly effective cudgel, try my new
parlour game. It consists of marrying the
word 'documentary' to as many disinterested
parties as you can find. Documentary theatre,
documentary materialism, documentary elec-
tion platforms are easy ones. Documentary
Court circulars, company reports and encycli-
cals shouldn't be precluded as time goes by.

In Melbourne, Australia, my landlord, 46-
year-old Fred Pick, manufacturing kitchen-
ware, gave me the book of The Producer as a
Christmas present. This, since it contained a
chapter entitle J The Film at War' and Pick
had been at war with films for years. Too ex-
pensive, he said. I began reading the book of
The Producer with much alacrity. I pictured
Him as being a member of history's great
family of producers, like Thales the Miletian
(who produced the universe out of nothing-
with-water), St Thomas the Aquinas and Duns
the Scot (who produced the universe out of
class distinctions and after-thoughts), and
Marx (who annihilated the universe with prac-
tically the same armoury).

This Producer, then, established a universe
with celluloid and ideas. The more I considered
this formula in Melbourne, Australia, the more
' became convinced that one must investigate
these cosmic complications. One must go to
America, obviously, in order to get the proper
cosmic outlook. And this I set out to do.

Here we bring in some quick-fire transforma-
tions. Let's have the contract towards the US
Immigration authorities whereby I undertake
not to assassinate the President of the US or his
lawful wife. And then the chinless mate of the
'Marine Phoenix' who refuses me a job, fol-
lowed by an ocean scene where I'm aboard
ship, casually mixing with the passengers anil
being supplied with cheese biscuits and sticks
of celery. Since the ship passes through the
tropics, we'll have a sweating night-watchman
who paces up and down, cursing all stowaways,
while I sleep guilelessly in a private bath-tub,
where the climate isn't hard on me but the
unbending pressed steel shape of the tub isn't
so good.

For a laugh we'll introduce Father, of the
Australian version of 'Life with lather'. He's
written a play which no Australian publisher
will tackle and he's happy aboard organizing
competitions for teen-agers. He was a zestful
old soak with hair dyed bright orange. 'Why do
you run around like this off-stage?' I asked
and Father replied: 'Boy, I've been in show
business for 37 years. If you'd been in show
business that long, you'd dye your hair line
green.' And a nippy-looking passenger turns

round at this point, sighing Ah, yes' How
green was my father.'

To describe the sea journey a little more
dramatically, we'll have three one-minute epi-
sodes (o) when I developed a skin rash and a
negro steward called Virtue (the less said about
this, the better) went into the surgery for some
Vitamin C tablets, (b) when on the last night
aboard, everyone dressed and I had to rake up
a pontoon school smartly so that my shirt
sleeves wouldn't attract any attention (previous
sartorial snares had occurred during boat drills)
and ^c) when it was all over, when Father had
given me the all-clear and 1 had pushed down
the crew's gangway with an outdated pass and
sat in a pub in San Francisco called 'Mark
Hopkins', when fourteen courses of food ar-
rived unendingly and I begged for biscuits and
a few sticks of celery; which hadn't happened
since the day of Aimee Semple McPherson.

From there we'll hitch-hike 500 miles south
to Los Angeles. We see the blessed blend of
Spanish architecture, American oil interests
and scenic resilience. We'll drive past garages,
drug stores, realtor-, junk jewellery shops; gar-
ages, realtors, junk jewellery shops, drug stores.
For ten miles — nothing but: this is Holly-
wood.

A few inquiries established that the Producer
had been here all right, though he's left for
Mexico and the odds arc he'll arrive in New
York. The Producer doesn't seem to thrive on
Californian voodoo, and when I stated that
screen tests. Readers Digests and the Hunting-
ton Library were of no interest to me, that only
a conversation with the Producer would end my
journeys, people outstripped their daily super-
latives declaring me to be the 'most out of this
worldest. fluid driven jerk they'd ever laid eyes
on'. The Cultural Relations Division of the
State Department is in agreement with this, anil
shipped me to New York.

This gives me an opportunitj of sliding right
through the chromium-plated paradise, past a
drought in Salt Lake City, past the genuine corn
belt, past the indictment to civilization called
Chicago. In New York an ex-Gl sold me a
beautiful Papuan amulet reciting the string of
bad luck he'd had while carting it around. This
was in West 56th Street, where I'd just been
told the Producer was leaving for Britain with-
in a day or two.

To cut a long story short. I arrived in London
full of cussedness ami un-American intentions
At the time of the Graphic Arts Conference I
was ,\n usher in a Wet End cine n.i. seeing
Sprint; in Park Lane until I did.

The conference was the hot though. It had
been arranged in honour of the Producer whom
I thought of tackling during the lunch break
Instead I ran into anothei \u rrali in bum who
blew his top about restrictive practices in the

\( I and how Hilton assists the Australian

economy by breeding hogs m Queensland

After the Chairman had passed a vote of
thanks, it was 6.30 and there was no point in
going back to the cinema. Besides. I felt a
hunter's pride in having seen the Producer with
my naked eye. I got to know that he stayed in
the Fxmouth Hotel So | stocked up some sand-
wiches, settling in at the Exmouth lounge in
oider to clinch the matter.

I spent some two hours ignoring a battery of
nosey bell boys, lift attendants, house detectives
and mustard-ridden stooges with braided
lapels. Once a particularly wide dame stared
at me as if my newspaper concealed malicious
intent, instead of sandwiches. But I've played
poker with characters worse than this, ami I
acted as if she had a run in clubs and no more,
which was indeed the case.

By eleven I'd telephoned the switch ai
His room number. The lounge was emptying
out and I arrived on the fourth floor as if I was
quite somebody else who'd never squatted in
the foyer at all.

There were some chairs at the end of the
corridor and I started on the sandwiches,
quietly and in keeping with the hotel's well-
bred chastity. A trio of drunks could be heard,
business people evidently who had madea night
of it and couldn't stop haggling. I thought I'd
humour them when they stood in front of me.
calling me 'George' and asking if I had a sand-
wich to spare. 'Certainly.' I said and gave them
one. when they contrived a tutti of no mean
size. They were house detectives again. Thev
would invoke the Vagrancy Act, and dial 999.
Within twenty seconds of this speech I could
see that all the publicity which had been put out
on behalf of the Exmouth Hotel was complete
moonshine. I scrammed, chasing past the phal-
anx of bell boys, night waiters, hall porters and
doormen, confusedly mashing a string of saus-
ages in the revolving door.

The only thing I could do, was to see Him
early in the morning and I went to Lyons in or-
der to pass the time with a cup of coffee even
hour. The rest of that night . . . the sharpies and
shysters and chauffeurs . . . shindigs with Welsh
football fans and shandies at Covent Garden
. . . it's hard to sort it out chronologically and
it doesn't matter, anyhow.

At eight-thirty in the morning He spoke to
me. Could I interview Him. I asked, on behalf
of 'Newsweek'; my editor. I added, was bothered
about the fundamental education of — of — Sam
Goldwyn. He admonished me not to talk rub-
bish, moreover He'd dined with the editor of
'Newsweek' only ten da>s ago. [then clicked the
telephone a couple of times and switched over
to the dry-cleaned accent of George Sanders
"News Review.' I fluted. He must have misun-
derstood me. He referred me to His secretary
for details

\s I came back from the barber's I noticed
Him in the dining room, and this was a moment
of timeless delight. Between cereals and kippei
I told Him the whole story and He ap
for being in such a hurry. His train would leave
foi Hiussels veiv shortly, but on His return, in
three weeks. I must ring Him up

I hat happened three months ago He's e\

tely busy now and I'm told by His secretary

that Empire questions cram His time-table. To
make quite sure of talking to Hun. I'm goin
Melboui lie. Australia, w here I le is due to arrive
within the next month or two I shall stand on
the wharf with streamers and throw them to

wards ins boat tad He. I'm sure, will throw

back celluloid and ideas .it last.

102

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

Edinburgh in Retrospect

by

BASIL WRIGHT

ii MIGHT] be worth inquiring first what purpose
is intended to be served by holding an inter-
national festival of documentary. It is pre-
sumably something more than — to paraphrase
the late Miss Stein — "a festival is a festival is
a festival'. The Edinburgh affair lasted three
weeks, on every day of which there was a mini-
mum of two shows: and all but a few shows
were packed out, people being turned away
even at the 2,000-seater Caley cinema.

What did they expect and want, and what
did they get, these 20,000 odd folk who came
trooping to Film House, to the Caley, the Rut-
land (children's films), and the Central Hall
(educational films)? Incidentally the competi-
tion was pretty fierce, what with such plums as
The Three Estates, the Glyndebourne Opera,
Barrault in Hamlet, the Ballet, the Hudders-
field Choir, Menuhin, Cortot, Boyd Neel, the
Halle. Concertgebouw, the Augusteo, and the
boozing.

In any case it didn't seem a particularly spe-
cialized audience. There were, of course, dis-
tinguished documentary practitioners from
overseas, and a regular trickle of celebrities
from other walks of life. There were even a
few — a very few — documentary people from
the British Isles. But the great majority seemed
to be ordinary folk interested in documentary,
a fact which perhaps we shouldn't be as sur-
prised at as we sometimes are. Norman Wilson,
Forsyth Hardy and their Edinburgh Film
C > li i Id colleagues certainly took a risk, on
money and on prestige, in running the Festival,
and I think they, too. were surprised at its
success; but they shouldn't be, because the in-
terest shown in documentary is due, amongst
other things, to the vigorous and voluntary
propaganda carried out over some twenty
years by progressive bodies like the Guild.

Apart from people who came because they
couldn't get in anywhere else, or out of idle
curiosity, the great majority of the audiences
sought, I imagine, a survey of the use of film
for social purpose in countries all over the
world, a comparison with what is being done
here, and, not least, the stimulus on creative
and aesthetic levels which can and should arise
from this particular sort of film-making. To
provide these things and especially to provide
sources of stimulation and emulation to both
makers and users, was the purpose of the
I estival.

It is fair to say that the purpose was well ful-
filled. The films came from many countries,

and showed great variety of technique. On
some levels they were as interesting for their
similarities as for their contrasts; for instance,
the Yugoslavian film on Child Welfare differed
hardly at all from the films on the same sub-
ject from other countries — this more particu-
larly as regards the techniques of child care
shown. Here you had a reminder of the inter-
nationale of special interests which the docu-
mentary movement sets out to serve.

More importantly, the festival revealed an
enormous variety as well. Apart from the
steady flow of competent, reasonably interest-
ing films on the bread and butter level there
were, thank goodness, a really encouraging
number of creative and exciting jobs, and not
a few technical experiments. I would say that
the proportion of films which left vivid and
lasting impressions of a high order was re-
markably high. Here, at any rate, is one ob-
server's list.

There were eleven films of the highest order.
Of these I put William Levitt's The Quiet One
right at the top. This 16 mm production, ob-
viously made on something less than a shoe-
string, deals with problems of juvenile delin-
quency in the New York area, and centres on
the case of one particular negro boy. It shows
causes, effects, and the problems not only of
cure but also of those social conditions which
provide every opportunity for recurrence. I'm
not competent to judge the psychological
techniques concerned, though they are clearly
not altogether the same as those in this coun-
try, any more than the emotional attitude to
the question has much similarity with that re-
vealed in such films as Children of the City or
Children on Trial; but it is quite certain that
The Quiet One is on all counts one of the most
brilliant efforts at presenting a case history ever
to be put on the screen. It has a splendid script,
brilliant and disturbing use of sound, and inti-
mate shooting of life in the raw of a sort sel-
dom if ever achieved. It is to be hoped that
DFN will find space for a full review of this
film.

Next on the list I would put Henri Storck's
seven-reel film on Rubens. Not only is this a
tour de force of film-making (with some in-
teresting technical innovations) but also it
opens up completely new vistas in the use of
film for the study and analysis of the visual
arts.

Then, of course, Flaherty's Louisiana Story,
a piece of sustained poetry which should surely

give enormous satisfaction to everyone other
than those who still want Flaherty to be some-
thing other than what he is.

Add Rossellini's Germany Year Zero — a
wavering cry of despair, uneven in technique
but finally redeemed by the searing intensity
of the last three reels; Eldridge's two imagina-
tive and often brilliant films Three Dawns to
Sydney and Waveriey Steps: Vedres' astonish-
ing compilation Paris 1900, which re-creates
the atmosphere and mystique of a period in a
way which reveals new possibilities in adding
a more intimate reality to history teaching;
Yannik Bellon's extraordinary study Goemons,
reminiscent at times of Vigo; Crawley's
strangely moving Indian legend in colour, The
Loon's Necklace, told entirely by means of
British Columbian Indian masks; Nettezza
Urbana, an Italian documentary which brings
to the prosaic subject of street-cleaning quali-
ties of visuals and sound which remind one of
some of the earlier GPO experiments like Coal-
face; and Sucksdorff's Divided World, an
amazing tour de force about the kill-or-be-
killed life of a northern forest at night.

If space allowed I could add another list of
runners-up — another dozen at least; I could
refer to the impact of the Canadian films.
which came in such variety of subject matter
and style (as well as numbers) that they had
special shows; and 1 could mention three
films which tied for the booby prize — and one
alas! was British.

It seems likely that next year the Festival
will be repeated. In that case the committee
ought to consider one or two points. Firstly.
Film House only seats 60, and despite repeat
programmes this is quite inadequate to deal
with the potential audiences. If a larger hall
could be found, the small Film House theatre
could be used for more specialized shows: this
is something the Festival has hitherto lacked.
Secondly, some thought should be given to try-
ing to build more of the programmes round
specific purposes, and not confine this, as at
present, to the special shows of educational
and children's films. Thirdly, if lectures are to
bo given, as the) were this year, time and
place must be geared to attract an audience.

I hese are minor criticisms however. The
I estiva] provides a unique chance to observe
the achievements of documentary on a global
level. Is it too much to hope that next year
something will be done to encourage British
Documentary workers to attend.'

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

10<

The Stuff of Documentary

(Continued from page 100)

and you need a reconstructed covering long
shot after the real action is finished. You watch
for position and obvious continuity.

On any story you might need to work out
how a sequence of six scenes on a long cut
story can say the same thing in only three of
the scenes if the story has to be cut short. You
learn your savers, but you try to economize
on footage, because no magazine editor has
time to think about a two thousand foot rough
assembly for a two hundred foot cut length
story.

Once in a while, there's the story "on margin.
Deadline for everything — one day. You went
down to a factory with a cameraman: investi-
gated, scripted and lined up for lamps in a
couple of hours. Script okayed by telephone.
When the lamps came in two hours later you
shot the story. In the tea-break you telephoned
a commentary to the crew standing by the
microphone — final comment. u\ session for the
issue. No time for opticals; you did the fade-
in in the camera. Two days later with the issue
mixing on time you were on another story. . . .
You pleased the editor that time because every
set-up was used and nothing was missing. It
was not an epic it was just an eighty-foot
magazine item.

Editing

Dick, who puts the pieces together in the
cutting-room at lightning speed, is an old
newsreel man. He has your continuity sheets
and a script, but could work without either.
If it's on film he knows what you're after. If it's

not there he'll tell you — and if you want to
learn you'll listen.

There is a logic to this sort of film that you
learn by painful experience when the producer
and editor see your rushes. You can't use
those long beloved pans, all of twenty feet a
time. That complex sequence on a simple ac-
tion between three people must go in two six-
foot cuts or be left on the floor. The finished
itei.. is something like two hundred feet — re-
member?— and if you shoot in thirty-foot key
scenes there will be sore heads.

This sort of film is like a Time news-story.
In a script of twenty-three odd shots, with
commentary, music and effects, everything
counts. If it's not essential why put it in? No
room to spread yourself on high-falutin' build-
up. No room for commentary cliches. It finds
you out.

You can't get by with a brush-off job. You
have to feel it and mean it. That line about
"Hard work? — yes! — But these men are doing
a great job' or '. . . these women are doing a
man's job'. The machinery sequence that reads:
'From rough castings the cones are machined
to specification. Great care is needed in check-
ing these cones because they house the all-
i.nportant lens.' Out!

The magazine item has a form and balance
all its own. In journalism the key phrase, the
right adjective. In film, the right image married
to the essential word.

Of course, when you've created a master-
piece it's hard to have a sponsor fiddle with
the commentary on the final check-up before
recording. If you weren't on a magazine film
it might keep you awake at nights composing
a DFN article about what's wrong. It can be

has delivered during
the month of September

Member of the Federation
of Documentary Ftlm Units

MINING REVIEW: 2ND SERIES: NUMBER 2

Miners on the Land: Davy Lamp on a Training Course: Children's
Gala: Sinking a new Pit

SCOTTISH UNIVERSITIES

A film for the Scottish Home Department, directed by Francis Gysin,
photographed by W. Suschitzky

BRITISH STEEL

A second progress report on the Steel Company of Wales' Develop-
ment Scheme for showing in South America

PROBATION OFFICER

A thirty-minute story to recruit new Probation Officers, directed by
J.B. Holmes, photographed by James Ritchie, written by Budge Cooper

DOCUlfl vi fcBYTECHNK LANS ALLIANCE LTD -21 SOHO SQUARE Wl GERHARD 2826

hard when the telephones of three Govern-
ment departments converge on one sheet of
foolscap while the commentary session ticks
awa) and the recordist gets impatient. But the
arts and crafts oJ film direction don't begin and
end on location. And a sense of proportion is
the first part of your film conscience.

\;ter eight months of this, where are you
going?

I built a coal mine in South Wales. I sunk a
shaft at Nottingham. Between twenty locations
I counted a few sequences; I lost ten feet at
Derby. By way of Victoria and St Pancras I
captured sight and sound of many men work-
ing; King's Cross and Paddington carried a
pattern of words. By night train to Scotland I
crossed a border of thought.

What's the next assignment?

On the train, you hope this one will be a
straightforward polic) story that will run so

sweetly that nobody will niggle. Because you
know in the last corner of your mind that if a
story is good enough — if it is observed,
imagined and recorded with that spark of art
which the cameraman, editor and director who
share the creative experience are too embar
rassed to mention — then it speaks for itself.
It's the raw stuff of documentary — the image
of life and truth in a pin-sized magazine story.
But this evening, just after birth, it will look
very raw and naked on its clean sheet of fools-
cap, and very tempting to play with. It has god-
parents— producer and sponsors — who will
have their own ideas about education. . . .
Can you move them.'

But certain problems are not your affair, al
though you should know about them. Two or-
ganizers and a producer hatch this magazine
at weekly conferences with the sponsors. There
is a plan of work and a policy line on every
item. You may not believe that the weight of
the gap between fact and film lies elsewhere
than in this smoky railway carriage— but have
we ever let you down yet?

Investigation- one das. including travelling;
scripting — same evening or next day; laid on
for shooting tomorrow or the day after. Four
items a month.

Other films can boast an eight to twelve
week investigation; a. theme with social impli-
cations and high policy. Not for the magazine
the paper thought and political negotiation,
the firm stand and protracted compromise.
Good, bad or promising the item is shot, and
next week — perhaps tomorrow — you will be
making another journey. This way a young
technician learns in film — writes in celluloid.
Paper is something shed in the dead files two
days later.

In the train . . . wondering whether the old
magic will work. That little tinge of apprehen-
sion that you pray to keep, compounded of
excitement, curiosity and imagination. This is
screen journalism. On the job again, you are
playing with the raw material of documentary

the making of a magazine item.

Document dry Film Xiirs

H 'ret that it has been necessary to

produce Sept-Oct at -.ilarly,

i numbei the re-

mainder of the \ear. Monthly [uibh
will begin again in Januc

104

DOC I MhNTARY FILM NEWS

YJ*f*^

PICTORIAL COMPOSITION

LAY-OUT

COLOUR

ARE JUST AS IMPORTANT

AS TELLING A STORY

WITH CLARITY

IN CARTOONS

DRAWN BY

MM k faWloi{

10 A SOHO SQUARE GER 7681-2

D for Denmark

Documentary in Denmark 1940-48 is the title
of an impressive catalogue just published by
the Danish Central Film Library in English.
One hundred films about Danish life are listed
against the changing background of the last
eight yeacs of war, occupation, liberation and
peace. Attractively presented with plenty of
stills as well as informative detail, the cata-
logue is well worth looking at.

In an introduction Arthur Elton has paid tri-
bute to the achievements of the movement
which made these films possible. The effective
growth of the Danish documentary group
dates from 1940 and the German invasion.
Over the subsequent years it did a great deal
to keep alive the country's traditions and way
of living. At the end of the war, the movement
emerged, confident and skilled. It had pro-
duced many films it could be proud of, and it
had made its own particular contribution to
documentary film-making. It had brought in
wit and humour and a warm sense of life. The
pity is that relatively so few of these films have
been made available in Britain, apart from
festival performances. This is one of the direc-
tions in which this catalogue should be of posi-
tive value.

A further publication. Motion Pictures in
Denmark by Ebbe Neergaard, the director of
the Danish Central Film Library, has also just
appeared in English. It gives a clear and read-
able picture of the Danish cinema business
with particular reference to the production and
exhibition of documentary films.

All commercial exhibition of films is regu-
lated by a Cinema Act of 1938. Among its
various provisions, there is one which might
well produce alarm and confusion in the ranks
of British exhibitors if it were applied in this
country.

'The licensee (the manager) shall attend to
the management of the picture theatre in

person and have the artistic responsibility
for the same. In the choice of films the licen-
see shall take care that such films as are
exhibited are from a cultural and artistic
point of view the most valuable. He shall
not be prevented by any agreement from
deciding freely and independently on the
repertoire of the theatre and the rest of its
management.'

As a result of this Act there are no foreign-
owned cinemas in Denmark and no circuits.
In addition it lays down that a part of e\er>
cinema performance can be reserved for the
showing of cultural and educational value.
These films are distributed to cinemas free by
the Central Film Library. In this way some
fifteen to twenty documentary films get cinema
distribution each year. Production finance is
provided from a Film Fund which is supported
by a levy on the net profits of the cinemas.

Neergaard's pamphlet contains a lot of in-
formation of this kind which is well worth
study and comparison. In fact, the pamphlet
and the catalogue, together with the Septem-
ber issue of the Dansk Filmforbund Bulletin
which is an international number published
in English, give an up-to-date and encourag-
ing picture of the state of documentary in
Denmark.

Documentary in Denmark 1940-48, published
by Statens Filmcentral. Copenhagen. 1948
Price 5s.

Motion Pictures in Denmark, by Ebbe Neer-
gaard, published by Statens Filmcentral.
Copenhagen, 1948.

Dansk Filmforbund Bulletin, special inter-
national issue, Vol. 2. No. 10. September 1948

The introduction to Documentary in Den-
mark was printed in the October 1947 issue of
DNL. Copies of this catalogue and of Danik
Filmforbund Bulletin are on sale at Filn
Centre, prices 5s. and Is. respectively.

ISFA Congress

(Continued from page 98)

a discussion meeting between producers of
scientific films, at which John Grierson and
Denis Forman introduced to their foreign col-
leagues the older and the rising generations of
scientific film-makers in Britain. The Royal
Microscopical Society invited delegates to a
reception at which they and some hundreds
of British microscopists saw a programme of
films by Percy Smith. Dr R. G. Canti. and
contemporary specialists, introduced by Dr
Arthur Hughes. As a pendant to the Congress,
the Sciences Committee of SFA organized on
October 12 a whole day conference on the film
in scientific research, presided over by Sir
Robert Watson-Watt. The Congress ended with
a reception to delegates, given 1\\ the British
Council.

This, breathlesslj and inadequately, is the

stop-press re time- of the work of the secom
Internationa] Scientific Film Congress. Twenn
five countries and UNESCO accepted the invi-
tation to be present. Next year, the Inter-
national Association will meet in Brussels, to
take stock of what was set in train at the IsMs
London Coneress

Mr John Maddison was elected a Vice-
President of the ISFA for the coming
year. The other Vice-President isClifford
Burmeston of the National Library of
Australia. The President is Jean Korn-
gold of Poland, the Hon Secretary,
Jean Painleve of France, and the Hon
Treasurer, Luc Haesaerts of Belgium.

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

105

Films Shown at Edinburgh

Owing to the large number of films shown at Edinburgh this year
we are unable to publish full critical reviews. The following is a
survey of the films shown, classified according to the country of
origin together with a brief summary of the theme.

ARGENTINE

Sleeping Villages (23 minutes). A survey of the
life and customs of the Colla Indians, an ob-
scure nomadic tribe, which lives in the deso-
late highlands on the borders of Argentine,
Chile and Bolivia.

AUSTRALIA

Britain Down Under (20 minutes). A picture
of Tasmania, illustrating its close resemblance

. in customs, climate and geography to those of
the British Isles.
Honey Blossom Trail (11 minutes). The story

• of how an Australian bee-keeper maintains his
supply of honey by moving his hives from one
area to another as the blossoms become ex-
hausted.

Spotlight on Australian Ballet (50 minutes).
I his film tells the story of the development of
native ballet companies and ballet in Austra-
lia. It also includes a number of excerpts from
classical ballets.

AUSTRIA

The Organ, Queen of Instruments (23 minutes).
An historical survey of the principles and de-
velopment of the organ, leading up to the re-
building of the great organ upon which Anton
Bruckner composed much of his music, and a
performance of his Te Deum.

BELGIUM

Agneau Mystique (9 minutes). A detailed ex-
amination of the famous Van Eyck triptych of
the Paschal Lamb at Ghent.
Chansons de Toile (12 minutes). Flax-growing
and the preparation of linen in Belgium, to-
gether with examples of some of the uses to
which the finest linens are put, such as the
weaving of tapestry, etc.

Rubens (70 minuter. A study of the painter
Rubens, his life and his art. A brilliant use of
the camera aided by the superimposition of
lines reveals the painter's ideas and discloses
aspects of form and composition, which make
this an outstanding example of the contribu-
tion that the film can make to the appreciation
of art.

The World of Paul Delvaux (10 minutes). An
analysis of the work of the surrealist painter
Paul Delvaux, in which clever cutting and
camera movement combine to give a vivid pic-

ture not only of the technique but also of the
mind of the artist.

BRITAIN

A Plan to Work On (28 minutes). This film
illustrates the solution of some of the prob-
lems of town planning, based upon the evolu-
tion of a town planning scheme for Dunferm-
line.

A valanche Patrol (25 minutes). A film, made in
Switzerland, which shows the precautions
which are taken to safeguard against damage
from .avalanches.

Charting the Seas (20 minutes). A survey of the
Hydographic Service of the Navy, which
shows details of the way in which sea depths,
tides, wrecks, coast lines, etc., are charted.
Eyes to See With (19 minutes). The importance
of using one's eyes. This film takes for its
theme the idea that many people miss much of
the beauty of the world because they do not
use their eyes sufficiently, and illustrates some
of the things which can be experienced if they
develop their powers of observation.
Hill Sheep Farm (22 minutes). The life and
problems of the Scottish hill sheep farmer
through the cycle of the year.
Lord Siva Dances (23 minutes). Made partly
in India, this film shows examples of classical
Indian dances and their modern variations in
different parts of the country.
Mining Review No. 10 (10 minutes). One of a
series of monthly magazines, produced for the
National Coal Board. It includes items on
fluorescent lighting, dust suppression, women
canteen workers and scenes from a May-day
gala in Edinburgh.

New Town (10 minutes). A cartoon illustrating
the importance and the improvements in health
and amenities which will result from the new
satellite towns which are now being planned.

Measurements for Engineers (32 min-
utes). The work of the Metrology Department
of the National Physical Laboratory in making
and checking the gauges and other standards
which arc essential for accuracy in all engin-
eering work.

School in Cologne (17 minutes). Made with the
assistance of German technicians, this film
shows the physical and human difficulties
which the authorities face in trying to rebuild
an educational system in war-ravaged Ger-
many.

Scottish Universities (21 minutes). The history,
traditions, difficulties and future possibilities
o( the four Scottish universities, St Andrew's,
Aberdeen, Glasgow and Edinburgh.
Steps of the Ballet (30 minutes). An explana-
tion of the basic steps of ballet dancing, fol-
lowed by a demonstration of the growth and
development of a completed ballet.
The Edge of the World (65 minutes). This
feature film is a revised edition of the earlier
one of the same name. It tells the story of the
life of members of a community on the re-
mote island of Foula in the Hebrides. Cut off
from the mainland in winter, they live in the
primitive conditions of their forefathers the
year round. But eventually difficulties are too
great and they leave to seek their fortune on
the mainland.

The Story of Printing (42 minutes). Part of a
visual unit, this film, which is divided into sec-
tions, tells with model simplicity and clarity
the story of the origins and development of
printing from the earliest time to the present
day.

They Travel By Air (22 minutes). Designed as
a staff training film, this shows in an amusing
fashion the difficulties that BOAC personnel
must expect and the importance of the service
they render to their passengers.
Three Dawns to Sydney (61 minutes). Flying
from Britain to Australia, the aeroplane is a
link between many different people in many
different countries. The film tells the story of
an incident in the life of people in Sicily,
Palestine, India. Singapore and Australia re-
spectively, as the plane passes over them.
Waverley Steps (31 minutes). This is a film
about Edinburgh, which attempts to evoke its
atmosphere by interweaving a number of
small unconnected incidents in the life of
people who live there.

Your Children's Sleep (22 minutes). Designed
for parents, this film shows how children need
sleep for their physical and mental develop-
ment. It illustrates some of the causes of bad
or disturbed sleep, which with understanding
and good management can be overcome.
Your Very Good Health (11 minutes). A car-
toon which illustrates the advantages of the
new National Health Insurance scheme.

BULGARIA

Men of the Mists (19 minutes). A story of the
lives of the men who man the meteorological
stations in the high mountains of Bulgaria and
who therebs provide a weather forecasting
service of great importance.

CANADA

I / ' of Hostility (25 minutes). I his is the

second in B series designed to illustrate the
psychological background o( social maladjust-
ment. It tells the storj of a girl who, because

106

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

of her home background, grew up in a state of
emotional insecurity and with a longing for
love which she could not satisfy. The result in
her case was high achievement, but at the ex-
pense of personal satisfaction in her relations
with other people.

Boogie Doodle; Hoppity Pop; Marching the
Colours (3 minutes each). In these three ab-
stract colour cartoons, made by Norman Mc-
Laren, patterns, shapes and colours dance and
weave to the music of gay little tunes.
Home Town Paper (22 minutes). A story of
life in a Canadian small town community cen-
tred round the local weekly newspaper, which
reports their lives and doings.
Horizons du Quebec (30 minutes). A lively ac-
count of the factors, historical, racial, rural
and industrial, which have contributed to make
Quebec what it is today.

Hungry Minds (10 minutes). In feeding the
bodies of the hungry children of the world the
needs of their minds are often forgotten. The
film stresses the need for an adequate supply
of books and facilities for learning in many
countries.

Inside the Atom (11 minutes). A brief account
of the source and some of the possible uses of
atomic energy.

It's Fun To Sing (11 minutes). The pleasures of
amateur choir singing, based on the activities
of the Bell singers, a small amateur choir
which is famous in Canada.
Making Bread in the \3th Century (4 minutes).
A short cartoon with a rhymed commentary
whose theme is that of the title.

Stanley Takes a Trip (9 minutes). A colour car-
toon for children, which explains the import-
ance of a balanced diet and the different con-
stituents which it should include.
The Connors Case (35 minutes). A reconstruc-
tion of an authentic case from the files of the
Royal Canadian Mounted Police, showing how
every device of modern science is used in the
Hacking down and eventual capture of a mur-
derer.

The Loon's Necklace (10 minutes). Played by
characters wearing original native masks, this
delightful film reconstructs a Columbian In-
dian legend about the way in which the Loon
got the white ring round his neck.
Maps We Live By (10 minutes). Made for the
United Nations, this film stresses the inter-
national importance of maps, traces briefly the
history of map-making up to the modern sys-
tem of aerial contour photography, and illus-
trates some of their uses.

Who Will Teach Your Child (31 minutes). The
importance of teaching to children and, there-
fore, to the community. The film uses drama-
tized incidents to illustrate the scope of the
good teacher's job and the factors which can
keep them away from teaching resulting in the
use of untrained and unsuitable teachers.
Teaching should be a profession, of import-
ance second to none.

CZECHOSLOVAKIA

M,ade in Czechoslovakia (11 minutes). Partly
in colour, this film shows examples of the

VISUAL AIDS IN SCIENTIFIC &
AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION

I.C.I, has prepared the following lists
of its productions. Copies will be sent to
educational authorities who apply on their
official notepaper.

I.C.I. MEDICAL FILMS

LCI. AGRICULTURAL & VETERINARY FILMS

LCI. FILMS FOR SCHOOLS

LCI. AGRICULTURAL FILM STRIPS

Write to the I.C.I. FILM LIBRARY, Imperial Chemical
Industries Limited, Nobel House, London, S.W.I

•fa Films available in 16 mm. sound on free loan to approved borrowers.

K.i

beautiful work produced by the skill of Czech
glass-workers.

DENMARK

Breaking the Ice (9 minutes). The story of the
Danish ice-breakers which keep the channel
separating Copenhagen from the mainland
free from ice so that the shipping which must
supply the city can get through during the
winter.

Children of Poland (12 minutes). The care of
starving Polish children by the Danish Red
Cross after the war.

Danish Village Church (12 minutes.) The de-
velopment of village churches in Denmark
from the old small and plain Romanesque
churches to the more elaborate examples of
Gothic architecture, which are built on and
around them.

Dine Child of Man (101 minutes). Every min-
ute a child is born; what will be its fate? Pos-
ing this question, this, a feature film of much
power and beauty, directed by Henning Jensen,
tells the story of a girl, born illegitimate, poor
and unwanted, who suffers misfortune after
misfortune until finally she herself returns
home pregnant. Her unassuming goodness and
love survive all her miseries, and one is left
with the feeling that in her uncomplaining
acceptance, the evil done to her is somehow
turned to something positive and good.
Kutter H.l\ (10 minutes). The building and
launching of a Danish trawler.
Paper (13 minutes). A brief but lively account
of the history of paper-making and its innum-
erable uses today.

Shaped by Danish Hands (15 minutes). An ac-
count of Danish skill and craftsmanship in the
design and making of pottery and furniture.
They Reached a Ferry { 1 1 minutes). The dan-
gers of speeding on a motor cycle. Carl
Dreyer's script, with its masterly control of
tempo and suspense, make this a brilliant and
terrifying lesson in Road Safety.
Those Blasted Kids (94 minutes). This feature
film, also directed by Henning Jensen, tells the
story of the adventures of a group of children
from a block of working-class flats in Copen-
hagen when tracking down the thief who had
falsely "framed" the caretaker who befriended
them. The acting of the children is spontaneous
and delightful.

EIRE

Next Please (11 minutes). A road safety film,
showing examples of the stupid actions of
pedestrians and motorists and the conse-
quences.

FRANCE

Aubusson (15 minutes). The revival of the an-
cient craft of tapestry weaving at Aubusson.
The film shows the work of the artist in design-
ing the tapestry as well as the work of the
weavers in translating the design into reality.
Goemons (24 minutes). A brilliant if depres-
sing study of life on a small island off the
coast of France, where under conditions of
virtual slavery, a small group of men harvest
seaweed.

/ a Rose ct La Reseda (8 minutes'). This is an
attempt to provide a visual interpretation of a
poem by Louis Aragon commemorating the
shooting of two members of the French Re-
sistance movement by the Germans. The poem

DOCUMENTARY HI M \l \\ s

107

itself is beautifully spoken by Jean Louis Bar-
rault.

Les Santons (28 minutes). A legend current in
Provence of happenings on Christmas Eve has
been made into a ballet, and is shown here
danced by the ballet company of the Paris
Opera.

Paris 1900 (76 minutes). 1 his is a remarkable
compilation of life in Paris between 1900 and
1914 made from contemporary material. Poli-
ticians, statesmen, royalty, artists, comedians,
great figures of the stage, fashions and a num-
ber of odd items are all interwoven to provide
a fascinating picture of the period. The film
owes much to its music by Guy Bernard, which
is as pointed and witty as the film itself.

GERMANY

Hunger (13 minutes). Designed for German
i audiences, this film clearly and simply drives
. home the fact that hunger is not a German
I monopoly. As a result of the war, world food
production is inadequate for the needs of its
: people. It points to the responsibility of the
Germans for this situation and indicates the
remedies which they themselves must take.
It's Up To You (16 minutes). This film con-
trasts two Germanies — the ancient, beautiful,
peace-loving, industrious Germany with the
brutal, bellicose, regimented Germany which
has so recently led them to disaster. Which
path they will follow is their choice for the
future.

ITALY

Bianchi Pascoli (15 minutes). A beautifully
photographed film which shows the Allied war
graves in Italy and how the Italians are tend-
ing them.
Citm Senza Tempo (11 minutes). Life in the

| town of Pompeii is described as the camera

: surveys the ruins.
Corteo dei Re Magi (11 minutes). A study of
the painting by Gossoli of the coming of the
three kings of Bethlehem.
Dramma Di Christo (11 minutes). A study of
the life of Christ built up with masterly skill
from the frescoes of Giotto in the Schrovegni
Chapel. Padua.

Germany Year Zero (80 minutes). This. Ros-
sellini's latest feature, is a bleak study of Ber-
lin in defeat. The story centres round a small
boy. Edmund, whose father is ill. whose elder
brother is hiding from the police and. there-
fore, cannot work, and whose sister is driven
to frequent night clubs in the hope of getting
food and cigarettes from Allied soldiers. Ed-
mund keeps the family going by bartering on
the Black Market, and stealing what he can.
He is persuaded to poison his father, but later,
overcome by doubts and remorse, he himself
commits suicide.

Nettezza Vrbana (12 minutes). A delightful
human study of the street-cleaners in Italy.
Romantici a Venezia (11 minutes). Venice as
it would have appeared to some of the great
romantic, who visited it. The sound track re-
peats the words of Byron, de Musset, D'Annun
zio and Chopin, as the camera shows us the
city.

Zoo di Petra (6 minutes). A study of the domes-
tic sculpture of the Romans from the Vatican
museum which by brilliant editing succeeds in
giving a sense of life and movement to the
Static carvings of animals.

INDIA

Mother (12 minutes). Child (18 minutes). These
are the first two films of a series made foi the
United Nations dealing with the Indian Vil-
lage Welfare services. They show an interest-
ing picture of life in primitive villages and the
difficulties which face the trained social
workers who try to persuade them to more hy-
gienic methods of living. The first deals with
maternity care, the second with child welfare.
Designed for native audiences, the tempo is
slow and the treatment simple.

NORWAY

The Battle of Heavy Water (91 minutes). Made
in co-operation with the French this is an ex-
citing reconstruction of the struggle to get pos-
session of the stocks of heavy water, essential
for atomic research, and to sabotage the heavy
water factory in Norway. The parts of the
saboteurs are played by the men who were
actually responsible for the work, and every
incident is shown as it happened in reality.

POLAND

Apple Blossom (18 minutes). A pastoral film
showing life in the country at the coming of
spring.

The Dragon of Cracow (22 minutes). A de-
lightful puppet film which tells a fairytale
about a poor shoemaker, who killed the cruel
dragon which was ravaging the country, and
married the King's daughter.
The Flood (15 minutes). An exciting film which
shows the damage done by floods during the
spring of 1947 in Poland, and the slow heart-

breaking work of reconstruction aftei they had

abated

SPAIN

i cos iU- la Frontera (14 minutes) A study of
the people of the town of Vrcos de la I rontera

in Spain and of the country around it.
Balele (7 minutes). A film of gieit vitality
showing the native dances of Spanish Guinea,
Un Dia en Santiago (11 minutes). A picture ot
the town o( Santiago, where the sin me of St

lames of CompOStella is situated

SWEDEN

A Divided World (9 minutes) I his. a new film
by Sucksdorff, contrasts the cruelty of wild
life in the forest with the peace and beauty of
the church on its outskirts. The film is remark-
able for the superb photography of the animals
ihc Open Road (13 minutes). I his. another
film by Sucksdorff. gives a picture of life in a
gipsy encampment, in the north of Sweden.
The Sacrifice (12 minutes). A remarkable and
vivid reconstruction of the rite of human sacri-
fice as it was practised in Sweden in very early
times.

The Train (20 minutes). The story of a journey
in Sweden as seen from a train.

UNITED NATIONS

Clearing the Way (33 minutes). The need for
building the United Nations Headquarters in
New York, how it is being planned, and what
it will look like.

First Steps (10 minutes). The treatment and
rehabilitation of crippled children.
Searchlight on the Nations (21 minutes). The

PHOTOMICROGRAPHY

Scientific and Nature Films

Supervising: Dorothy Grayson, B.Sc.

Whitehall, Wraysbury

9 Gt. Chapel St., W.l

108

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

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l)islribnti'<l by

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right of nations to an international exchange
of information and the need for a pooling of
knowledge and experience between countries.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Chinese Shadow Play (II minutes). This film
gives a charming example of one of the oldest
entertainments in the world — the Chinese
shadow play — and shows how it is worked.
Florida — Wealth or Waste (22 minutes). Be-
hind the beauty spots of Florida the land is
going to waste. The film surveys the rich
natural resources of Florida, which are slowly
being eaten away, and makes a strong plea for
a firm policy of conservation.
Henry Moore (18 minutes). A comprehensive
study of the work of Henry Moore as a sculp-
tor and artist.

Louisiana Story (79 minutes). Robert Flaherty"s
new film is a beautiful and moving story of life
in the Louisiana swamp lands. The hero is a
small French-Canadian boy, simple and super-
stitious, but happy with his animals and his
games. Then to the swamp come the oil men,
and soon a great derrick goes up in the river,
and we watch the impact of this monster of
civilization on the primitive mind of the boy.
Oil is found but the gusher blows and for a
time all is chaos. Eventually it is got under
control with the assistance of the magic charms
of the boy and the science of the engineers, and
the derrick departs, leaving the boy and the
land as they were before, except that the boy
now has a gun of his own.
Strange Victory (68 minutes). Brilliantly edited
and with a telling commentary, this film is un-
fortunately marred by excessive length and re-
petition. The first part is a compilation of
library material which reminds us of what we
went through during the war years, and traces
the rise of the Nazi party and its race theories.
From this it passes to an indictment of the anti-
negro and anti-semitic tendencies growing in
the United States, and stresses their dangers.
The Quiet One (70 minutes). This moving film
deals with the psychiatric treatment of delin-
quent children from the slums of New York.
For its theme the film reconstructs the life of
a small negro boy, poor, backward, starved of
love, and hating the home in which he lives
alone with his grandmother. Gradually he

drifts ainlessly into crime and is taken to a
specj il ichool. Here we see how the staff with
endless patience slowly coax him back to a
more normal attitude to life.
The School that Learned to Eat (22 minutes).
This film shows how one of the backward
schools in the Southern States of America im-
proved its standard of diet and feeding ar-
rangements by means of co-operation between
the children and their parents, resulting in
better health and happiness both for the child-
ren and the community as a whole.
Two Chinese Dances (11 minutes) Two ex-
amples of Chinese dancing, demonstrated by
a Chinese-American.

UNION OF SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLICS

A Day in the Life of the USSR (75 minutes).
This is an omnibus compilation shot by fifty
cameramen showing scenes and events in the
many different parts of the country on a single
day in 1947.

Springtime in the Mountains ( 1 1 minutes).
A picture of the beautiful scenery in Caucasia.
The Vain Bear (12 minutes). A delightful car-
toon about a bear, who, dissatisfied with his
appearance, acquired a peacock's tail. The re-
sult is a disaster for him. and he is only res-
cued from hunters by the joint efforts of his
friends.

White Gold (11 minutes). An interesting com-
bination of cartoon and actuality to illustrate
the uses and importance of cotton in the eco-
nomy of the USSR.

YUGOSLAVIA

Children's Welfare (11 minutes). This is an in-
structional film dealing with the care of child-
ren in the nursery schools of Yugoslavia.
Slavitza (100 minutes). This is a feature film
which tells a story of the fight against Fascism
in Yugoslavia during the war. The heroes and
heroines are the workers of the village, who
rise against their capitalist oppressors. These
are assisted first by the Italians and then by the
Germans. Eventually the villagers are obliged
to take to the hills, where they join the Parti-
sans. After many adventures the war is won
under the leadership of Tito, and they return
with depleted ranks in triumph to their vil-
lage.

An Exhibition about Documentary
Films?

(Continued from page 99)
asked whether it could be made available for
showing. In addition, George Toeplitz of Po-
land, the secretary of the World Union- of
Documentary, saw it during a visit here and
also wanted a copy for exhibition purposes in
his own country. But the exhibition, success-
ful as it was at Edinburgh, has only scratched
the surface of the problem. Once again docu-
mentary has spoken onl\ to the limited few.
But it has proved one thing — that the proposed
exhibition about documentary was no unwork-
able airy-fairy scheme. Part of it has been
made to work, and made to work in the span of
a few weeks and with practically no money. The
need for an exhibition about documentary
films for the man and women in the street is as
strong as ever. The knowledge is there; the en-
thusiasm is there; but where is the money?

LONDON SCIENTIFIC FILM SOCIETY

the London Scientific Film Society has now
been in existence for ten years and was the
first film societj of its kind to be formed. Its
policy has always been to bring, through the
medium o( film, the Litest developments in the
world of science to the members. The word
scientific is interpreted in the widest sense unci
the subject matter of the films has ranged
from pure research to social science.

Once again the society has had to change its
meeting place, this year the show will be held
at the Royal Empire Society on week-das eves
ings. The eleventh season opens on November
1 i when the show will consfft mainly of medi-
cal films, including the Canadian Tiding o>
Hostility and the new COI film Polio Diag-
nosis and Management.

Inquiries regarding membership should be
addressed to the Hon Secretary at ?4 Soho
Square. London, YV1 .

An ESSENTIAL handbook
for everyone interested in

DOCUMENTARY

INFORMATIONAL

FILM YEAR BOOK

19411

World list of Documentary organizations:

Directories of British producers, studios,
laboratories, libraries, societies, etc., etc.

Documentary Who's Who.

Films of the Year.

Buyer's Guide to new apparatus, etc.

IM IMII ItlLMIOXSIIir III MS III)

Recent Films: —

"THE GREEDY BOY"

Awarded Silver Medal at Venice Festival

"THEY TRAVEL BY AIR"

Both films were shown at Edinburgh and Venice

Richard Massingham in charge of production

29 WHITEHALL. S.W.I

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''If it's documentary that you're specifically after,
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quite performs.' — Daily Film Renter.

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'For every member of the flourishing 16 mm.
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UNDER C: CLASSROOM:- IMMONIA {I.C.I), ILLUSTRA-
TIONS OF CONDUCTION, ILLUSTRATIONS OF
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Place, si James's Street, S.W .1

9 GREAT CHAPEL STREET, W.l

GERRARI) 1958

The Critics

on the

Steps

it ' "waverley steps" does in part for Edinburgh what

"RHYTHM OF A CITY", "BERLIN" and "MEN'SCHEN AM

sonntag" did for Stockholm and Berlin, and what no

film has done for any other British city. . . .

To convey all this without a commentary by nuance

and suggestion to one who, like myself, has never seen

the City of Edinburgh is the signal achievement of

"waverley steps" — a crisp, rhythmic film with brain

and wit behind it. . . .

This half-hour film, of which I shall write again when

it is released, has, in fact, found something that should

be pursued and developed.'

RICHARD WINNINGTON
News Chronicle, August 23, 1948

tAt 'By far the best of the three new films is "waverley steps". Here something very

much like genius is displayed by director, cameraman and editor in combination — respec-
tively John Eldridge, Martin Curtis and John Trumper. The Central Office of Information
produced it for the Scottish Home Department, and if all official patronage were to be like
this there would be no grumbling. For Eldridge has plainly been allowed to reproduce his
own impression of Edinburgh — and no nonsense about susceptibilities. Black and white
here, misty there, sometimes squalid, often touching and nearly always amusing. It is the

Edinburgh of life, not that of the guidebook.'

'critic's note'
Manchester Guardian, Augi4st 31, 1948

We would like to thank the Central Office of Information
for giving us the opportunity to make this film

GREENPARK PRODUCTIONS LTD

Managing Director: PAUL Fletcher

{in association with THE FILM PRODUCERS GUILD LTD)

guild house • upper ST martin's lane ■ London ■ WC2 ■ Temple Bar 5420

IIII SHINS. \l I'RISS. lONIlON \ND HI Rl I HRP

^RARY

DOCUMENTARY

news

INCORPORATING DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

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ONE SHILLING

THE SHAPE
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OCUMENTARY film news

/OL. 7 NO. 70 NOV-DEC 1948

EDITORIAL BOARD

STEPHEN ACKROYD
DONALD ALEXANDER
MAX ANDERSON
EDGAR ANSTEY
GEOFFREY BELL

KEN CAMERON
PAUL FLETCHER
SINCLAIR ROAD
GRAHAME THARP
BASIL WRIGHT

,

EDITOR

GEORGE SEAGER

CONTENTS

The cover still is from Rossellini's Paisa
Printed by permission of Film Traders Corporation

Editorial

The Sociological Implications of the Film in Colonial
Areas
Dr K. L. Little

Rossellini and Us: Paisa
Peter Brinson

One Dog — Two Trees
Jorgen Roos, Arthur Elton

Ten Minutes That Shook Me Rigid
John Trumper

The Peaceful Years

A Pioneer Document
John Maddison . .

Friese-Green

New Documentary Films

New Canadian Films

Research and Films

Films Produced in September, October and November

Published every month by
Film < «'iin<- :t l Solio S«|. I oiulon \\ I

ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION 12 5. SINGLE COPIES 1

109

110

111

112

114
115

116
117
118
119
120
120

DO YOU WANT TO MAKE A
VISUAL AID?

•\\c shall be missing the greatest chance we ever had of making
education a living thing unless we take the fullest advantage of
the new medium o\' visual aids.' From a statement made at a
recent meeting in London called by the National Committee for
Visual Aids and the Educational Foundation for Visual Aids.

There's a lovely new pie in the sky bo\s.
A lovelj new pie in the sky,
If you can't pull a plum out first time boys,
Don't despair at having a try.

True, the contents are rather obscure boys,
But don't let that worry your head.
It won't be the last pie in the sky boys,
Whatever the critics have said.

It was stirred up with very great care boys,
When the world and his wife were abed.
Now it's hot and ready to serve boys
To the visually underfed.

All thanks to a committee or two boys
Planning away in a room ;
We now have a solid foundation boys
For the start of a wonderful boom.

So here's to the best of both worlds boys,
The future is rosy pink.
We've nothing to lOse but ourselves boys,
For we've not had much time to think.

For the pie is as high as the skies boys
And there's room for us all inside.
And so long as you don't lift the lid boys
You won't know who's taking the ride.

To found a committee is one thing boys
To commit a foundation's worse.
So don't get rash ideas in your heads boys
About stinging the public purse.

And to think it has all been prepared ho\s.
In the name of the kids at school
Won't it give you a great big thrill boys,
I >> make a new teaching tool?

Hut you've got to remember its name boys,
Take care not to call it a spade.
It's dod's gift to this generation boys,
I ho wonderful \ isual aid.

110

DOC I MLVIARY FILM NEWS

The Sociological Implications of the Film

in Colonial Areas

by

DR K. L. LITTLE

i shall limit myself to an examination of the
general sociological implications of film as
applied to colonial audiences, relating my
points particularly to the areas of West Africa
with which I am most familiar, namely the
Protectorate of Sierra Leone and the Gambia.
What is the relation of film content to society?
We always assume that the film has an influ-
ence on society, upon customs and upon
morals. My impression is that, scientifically,
we know very little about this matter. Such
scientific work on the sociological influence of
film as has been carried out has not borne very
impressive results. Cinema is merely one of the
many cultural media operating in society. Pos-
sibly film content tends to recapitulate social
trends and tastes rather than to initiate them
or to set them in motion. It may, of course, be
true that film helps to form some minor habits.

Film works with established stereotypes,
with ideas which are current. It uses stereotypes
which are already familiar and helps to imprint
them more strongly on the popular mind. Film
strengthens existing social attitudes (cf the
work of American sociologists). It is important,
however, to realize that the film and the
cinema possess institutional significance as
part of the general life of society. Cinema in
Europe and America has reached a stage of de-
velopment, which also contains a strong ele-
ment of 'cultism', as exemplified in the adora-
tion of popular 'stars'. This is not yet so in
Africa and other tropical territories.

In colonial areas, I think it is necessary to
conceive of film on two distinct but interre-
lated planes — i.e. that of entertainment and
that of education. The function of film in either
case is to make African or other indigenous
peoples socially conscious of themselves in a
changing world. African society is now chang-
ing with extraordinary rapidity, and in conse-
quence there are many individuals in a 'mar-
ginal' position between the African and the
Western world. They have a foot in cither so-
ciety and an uncertain insecure position in
both. There is a constant pull between the two,
a constant conflict, entailing for the individual
gieat difficulty of personal adjustment. Here is
one important function of the film. It should
bo a means of assisting people to adjust them-
selves to their changing environment and so-
ciety. Hut to accomplish this, the film must
present material and lines of action in a mean-
ingful context. It will be most effective if it is
designed in terms of the characteristics of the
indigenous culture. For example, the lilm

could be used as a story-telling medium, a type
of medium which is familiar to African cul-
ture, and one which traditionally is one of the
main forms of instruction and entertainment.
Application of this story-telling method will
help to attain successful results, particularly if
the narrative technique used starts from a
background of familiar events and happen-
ings. Such a technique will enable new ideas to
be introduced into a context which is already
known and understood. To make films for
Africa it is vital, as far as possible, to think in
terms of African culture, to understand and,
i! possible, to use African symbolism. To my
mind the basic need for the effective produc-
tion of films for Africa is that film-makers
undergo a thorough anthropological training
and should study deeply the African culture,
particularly from the angle of linguistics and
formal symbolism. Failing that ideal prepara-
tion for film-making for Africa, might I sug-
gest a number of themes, a number of lines
of action which are likely to be effective, to
attract the African, and which could be ex-
ploited in the production of films.

The first is litigation and court procedure.
This should provide the kind of dramatic situa-
tion which would be generally understood and
immediately significant to any African audi-
ence.

Secondly, films dealing with traditional
scenes and events are likely to be successful. In
every African community the sense of history,
of tradition, is very strong. Particularly among
the illiterate people there is a very intense
r.ense of continuity with the pilst, which largely
takes the form of stories about the deeds of
predecessors and forebears — stories which are
absolutely lifelike and vivid to the audience.

Films with simple themes, the jealous wife.
the thief, bargaining at market, etc., would be
equally meaningful. One must remember that
one is dealing with folk forms which are indi-
genous as well as innately dramatic. A paral-
lel may be found in the Irish plays of Lady
Oregory. This applies to the rural areas: in the
'urbanized' districts, films of a more sophisti-
cated type will be necessary.

Another form which might well be used is
thai of the return of the ex-Servicemen, which
could be used for description of life abroad.
It is not uncommon in Africa to see ex-Ser-
vicemen in a market-place or on the verandah
0) a friends house, recounting talcs of their
adventures and describing the sights they have
seen overseas

With regard to the more specifically educa-
tional film, some suggestions are as follows:

Films could usefully be made showing the
wide ramifications of the native production of
cash crops, like cocoa, as part of world
economy. This could be made in the form of a
narrative of the whole proces of production,
exchange in trade, followed by the processing
and preparation of the manufactured product,
its distribution, and consumption in a Euro-
pean home. This could equally be done for
manufactured goods for which native products
are exchanged, as with cloth, cotton goods,
etc.. Such a type of film might help in intro-
ducing a sense of belonging to a world com-
munity and in breaking down the state of
affairs in which many people barely move
beyond the village horizon, both geographic-
ally and psychologically.

With regard to technique in film-making for
rural Africa : a non-sophisticated technique is
necessary. Any symbolism that is employed
must be indigenous to the culture of the people
concerned.

To sum up briefly some of the important
points on the subject of film-making. For suc-
cess, the cinema should fill the place of an in-
stitution— like that of the story-teller — with
which the people are familiar. A narrative se-
quence should give the best results. Production
should be in the vernacular for specific pur-
poses, and the participation on all levels of
African personnel is desirable, particularly if
they have a knowledge of and pride in their
own culture. The use of the folk idiom is neces-
sary, whenever possible. Incidentally, film-
makers should remember that music can be
very important, especially drumming, in re-
spect of its symbolical as well as entertainment
value, while satirical themes acted by Africans
arc likely to be successful.

(/)r K. /-. Little is a lecturer in social anthropo-
logy at the London School of Economics. This
address was given %' a meeting of the Inter-
national Committee of the Scientific Film Asso-
ciation >'n September 20, 1948. The Scientific
Film Association, in co-operation with Britisl
Documentary, lias established a permanen;
committee for the study of the Film in Mas
Education and Colonial Development, and jo
the collection and distribution of informatioi
on the subject.)

DOCLMEM AKN 1 II M NEWS

111

Rossellini and Us: Paisa

by
PETER BRINSON

'NO man.' wrote Caudwell in Illusion and
Reality, 'can look directly at himself, but art
makes of the Universe a mirror in which we
catch glimpses of ourselves, not as we are, but
a? we are in active potentiality of becoming in
relation to reality through society. . . . The
more we grip external reality, the more our art
develops and grows increasingly subtle. . . .
Art tells us what science cannot tell us. and
what religion only feigns to tell us — what we
are and why we are. why we hope and suffer
and love and die. It does not tell us this in the
language of science, as theology and dogma at-
tempt to do, but in the only language that can
express these truths, tha language of inner
reality itself, the language of affect and emo-
tion.'

It is our criticism of Rossellini that in Paisa,
whilst taking hold of 'external reality' he yet
does not tell clearly enough in the 'language
of inner reality itself the story which he has
to unfold; he does not truthfully enough ex-
press the underlying significance of the events
with which he deals and the relationship of his
characters to those events. Paisa is the work of
a master; it is not. what some of the critics
would have us believe, the work of a genius.

We acknowledge the grandeur of its com-
position and the sympathy which touches
every character, a sympathy in step with the
time. These were the days of Liberation and
the defeat of fascism, when America still
meant for the peoples of the world the pro-
gressive policies of Roosevelt. There moved
then 'A spirit abroad in Europe which is
finer and braver than anything that tired con-
tinent has known for centuries, and which
cannot be withstood.' The future of Italy, and
of Europe too, rested then and remains with
the little thief* with Carmela below the cliff,
with Cigolani whom the Nazis hanged and
with his friends whom they murdered. Paisa is
a noble monument to them. Yet the inscrip-
tion thereon lacks the note of hope, of faith
in the future, which is here the inner reality
of the story. The dominant theme is of horror
and destruction. The great truth of the triumph
of the poor, the masses themselves, over
Nazism and all that it means, this is concealed
We suspect that in treating his subject thus.
Rossellini has allowed himself to overlook a
famous dictum of Engels which no artist
should forget: 'the more the author's views
are concealed the better for the work of art'.
We suspect this now all the more when the
note of gloom has deepened, reaching its
apotheosis in Germany Year 7.ero.

But in assessing the works of Rossellini
available in this country, and in comparing
these works with productions over here, it is
important to bear in mind both the dates when
the films were made and the character of the
events with which they deal. To bear in mind
these dates is to draw the conclusion that a
comparison between Rossellini's work and
British documentary production only becomes
significant if British war productions are in-
cluded. Nothing produced in this country since
the war can compare either with our own war
productions or with Open City and Paisa, and
to what extent Rossellini is succeeding with
more contemporary themes where British pro-
ducers are failing can alone be judged when
his latest picture is completed.

However, the appearance of Paisa at this
juncture does underline both the advantages
which Italian documentary producers enjoy
over producers in this country, in spite of the
incomparably greater pressure of the dollar
against Italian economic independence, and
the stagnation of British documentary itself. It
may be, as one reviewer believes, that force
of circumstances in part accounts for the 'new
realism' of the Italian cinema. "They have had
to improvise and use their ingenuity as never
before.' wrote Miss Cullen. 'in order to over-
come the lack of studio space, new photo-
graphic equipment and a shortage of electricity
for their arc lamps. They have taken their
cameras out into the streets of the cities, and
into the fields of the countryside; they have
used non-professional actors and actresses, and
stiuations for their scripts that they have ex-
perienced themselves.' But we need to remem-
ber also that Italian legislation gives docu-
mentary film production an encouragement
and a protection still lacking over here. Not
only does the law of April 8, 1948, recognize
that the protection and development of Italian
cinematography is the task of the Government.
it lays down important regulations with regard
to Italian production, which can be summar-
ized as follows

'(<;> The producer of an Italian film of over
2,000 metres length, the first performance of
which takes place before December 31, 1949.
shall receive a grant of 10 per cent of the gross
receipts for a period of four years from the
date of its first performance.

(/)) A further grant of 6 per cent on the
above-mentioned takings and for the same
period will be made, by way of premium, to
films which the Technical ( omnussion of the

Film Division recognizes as being of cultural
and artistic value.

ic i In the case of Italian documentary films
a grant of 3 per cent of the gross receipts i^
made within the same time limits, but only to
films which have been recognized as meritori-
ous by the Technical Commission

(</> Producers of Italian newsreels of over
150 metres length shall receive a grant equiva-
lent to 2 per cent of the gross receipts from
performances at which those films are shown
for a period of six months from the first pub-
lic performance.

(e) A fund, equivalent to 1 per cent of the
gross receipts of Italian films has been estab-
lished for the purpose of financing the artistic
and cultural development of the Italian film
and the exchange of films with foreign coun-
tries.

(/) The quota for the obligatory showing of
national films is 80 days per year.

(g) The programme of each performance
must include the showing of at least one short
film (documentary or newsreel) of national
production.

(/i) The State Treasury's contribution to the
National Labour Bank's autonomous Section
for Film Credits is authorized to give credits
up to 60 per cent of production costs

The differences between Italian and British
legislation do not. of course, alone account for
the present state of British documentary
Paisa v appearance in this country, together
with the praises lavished upon it by nearly
every critic serve to throw into relief the ab-
sence here in recent works of any comparable
inspiration and technical virtuosity The
warmth of this welcome is well merited h>
Rossellini's mastery of his medium, but its al-
most totally unqualified nature, in spite of the
fact that the film falls short in some degree
from what would have been the most sincere
and. in the artistic sense, the most truthful in-
terpretation of the subject, i^ the measure not
only of the absence of comparable recent
wmks of our own but of the urgent need to

considei the whole orientation of British dc
mentar) today, the direction >>f its movement,

its role and obligations, of the need, in vhort

loi documentary as ah art to reconsider its
approach to external reality and to ■-peak in

clearei terms the language oi inner rcalitv u
self, the language of allect and e notion

Rrporl "t thr < OmmlMSlon OH Ir.hm.ii \ , r., ■• ■

ami Film p 237 UNESCO •

112

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

One Dog — Two Trees

WHO SAYS EXPERIMENTAL FILM?
by Jorgen Roos

Documentary today is as big as a house . . .

JOHN GRIERSON

Well, indeed there is something wrong with
documentary films. We have heard it from
the audience, we can see it in the films, and it
appears from the current discussion among
film-men.

Just as there was reason to laud the pro-
duction' basis created for the fighting docu-
mentary film by Grierson, Cavalcanti and
other pioneers — there may be reason today
to stop for just a moment and ask: 'Well,
why then have we built this house?'

1. Is it to be the place where the vanguard
of the world's film creators is striving to
achieve new possibilities of expression, and
sharpen and develop their artistic weapons
for creations of unknown dimensions?

Or

2. Are we to get together a staff of helpful
men giving their social services to a robot
organization, watching their energy and
youth being wasted on the platform, which
was erected by Grierson, and which fits into
the plans for all existing authorities in all
countries, irrespective of political opinion?

We recognize in point 2 the way things are
today.

But we want point 1 instead.

When Len Lye came to his boss in the
GPO and said, 'I want to make a film with-
out a camera,' Cavalcanti answered: 'Well,
we haven't very much to lose — go ahead.'
We all know the scope of this conversation
and must admit that this was an attitude
from a producer, which we need today. If
documentary film in its future life will yield
a couple of rooms in its house to experiment-
ing film art, maybe even support it.by virtue
of its position of production — then there is
every reason to believe that documentary
film will not go on being a term of abuse.

I n Denmark documentary film has absorbed
all the film-men who are not working in the
commercial production. As documentary
film is mainly financed by the State, this
means that in our production we have no
free film creators. Only the artists and
engineers who are able to subordinate their
intentions to a propagandists or educational
tendency can be certain of a continued
production.

But a few privately produced films have
proved that there is a wish to make film an
individual branch of art. It is all in an embryo
state, and it is impossible to refer to a develop-
ment beset with tradition. As a matter of

About a year ago Dansk Filmforbund
(Danish Film Association — the Danish
documentary film organization) started a
spirited, critical and informative paper —
DF Bulletin. The tenth number of Volume
2 was an international issue, and printed
in English. It was reviewed in our last
issue. It contained an article by a well-
known Danish documentary worker,
Jorgen Roos, headed Who says Experi-
mental Film? Arthur Elton wrote a
reply, translated into Danish, under the
title Hus Forbi (Barking Up the Wrong
Tree), and published in the November
issue of DF Bulletin — by whose courtesy
the two articles are here reprinted. Almost
all the Danish films mentioned are listed
and synopsized in Documentary in Den-
mark— the English edition of the Danish
Government film catalogue.

fact, it is still a question about few films
only, but considering the interest, which
especially the young film-men but also the
finance authorities have shown towards
these small works — then there is hope for a
development in the desired direction.

In the first experimental film The Escape*
Albert Mertz and I tried to free ourselves of a
stagnated documentary style and find freer
forms of expression. In the subsequent The
Heart Thief, which was financed by a group
of abstract painters, we went still farther
and told a completely improbable story in a
naturalistic milieu. Richard Winther, a
young painter, last year produced his first
film Triple Boogie which was the first
abstract film in this country. This year,
Soren Melson, a well-known director of
documentary films, has produced The Tear
painted direct on the film strip. Our latest
production is Opus 1 which I have scratched
direct into the black film, picture by picture,
and which is accompanied by a New Orleans
march.

I shall leave the judgment of these films
in the hands of a more competent and
qualified jury, but I think I have the approval
of my friends in stating that these small
experimental films have been a greater
satisfaction to us than a long series of
documentary films. We are working in the
production of documentary films and want to
support it to as wide an extent as possible, as
we think that it will be possible to find a
production basis which will support the
experiments to a higher degree than is the
case at present.

* Documentary in Denmark. No. 19. 1942.

This is a cogent necessity, not only for the
notion of documentary film, but for film art
as a whole. The documentalists often use
their acquired abilities as a spring-board
into commercial production. The reason for
this must also be sought in the much too
uniform arrangement and the resulting
limited possibilities of personal formulation.

Let us have a reform in the production
conditions, give the film artists the freedom
which is necessary, and which will make the
house that is built for film as a means of
education a centre for film as an art.

It is the film-men who want this.

Who says experimental films?

We do!

BARKING UP THE WRONG TREE
by Arthur Elton

By making the tenth issue of the Dansk
Filmforbund Bulletin international, with
authoritative articles on Danish documentary
and film legislation, the Danish film move-
ment has made yet another contribution to
international understanding. I hope the
paper will be ready everywhere. I am sure it
will be admired— and envied. Papers owned
and produced independently by documentary
are still all too rare. Since the international
number of the Bulletin has given some space
to the battle between the old aesthetic and
the new, I hope I may be allowed to loose off
some shells at my friend, Jorgen Roos, and
to reserve a salvo or so for his brother, Karl.1

Firstly, let me tell what the battle is about.
On one side is the sanctity-of-personal-
expression school, bumbling, bombazined
and sometimes more than a little bad
tempered, with its feet in the mud and its
back to the future. From his article Who says
'Experimental Film? I think Jorgen Roos
must be a Captain or even a Colonel of this
school, with Karl Roos as a Sergeant
Major. On the other side is "the realist or
documentary school, drawing its strength
and inspiration from the patterns of every-
day life. Among its leaders are Skot-Hansen
and half a score of Danish film artists.

The Roos school sighs and says, if only
society or the government or Dansk Kultur-
film would give us money and equipment and
time, without either directive or control, we
would turn out some real film art which would
make everyone sit up and hold their hats on.
Only give us freedom (which is their way of
saying cash), they cry, and we will spin films
out of our souls or stomachs or what-have-
you's which will show everyone What's What.
Jorgen dislikes official sponsorship because

DOC I \U \ I ARY FILM NEWS

113

he says it kills art and means that one is
serving 'a robot organization'. Karl seems
equally upset that two Danish documentary
directors, including Bjarne Henning-Jenson2
have decided to make commercial features,
in spite of the fact that many of us find their
commercial work powerful, striking and
sincere. If the Roos school has its way and
compels the film artists to deprive them-
selves of both official and commercial
sponsorship, all that may be left for them to
do is what a malicious critic said Swinburne
did — that is, to sit in their own excrement
and add to it. What the Roos school wants,
in common with American big business and
reactionaries all over the world, is freedom to
use resources without control, privilege
without reponsibility, and suckers for
sponsors.

The films of the documentary school, from
Night Mail to A Matter of your Freedom,
have their origins in the realities of the out-
side world. Their raw material is life. They
gain both their motive power and their drama
from the reciprocal pressures always to be
found between people and their social,
political and governmental organizations. It
is therefore not only right, but inevitable
that documentary looks to government for
its finances, and has a very deep interest in
seeing that its films meet the wants of the
public whose needs have called them into
existence.

The documentary school finds beauty in
an appeal to the mind no less than to the
senses. The very clarity of good exposition
is a pleasurable quality in itself. For this
reason, documentary has developed an
aesthetic to contain at once Hydraulics and
Listen to Britain, Chants Populaires and We
are the Railways. The range of documentary
is as wide as literature itself. Within it, you
will find the simple teaching film, the
advanced scientific film report and the lyrical
film poem. It is worth remembering that
what Theodor Christensen calls the 'all-
dominating British information film' em-
braces Lord Siva Danced, Steps of the Ballet.
Waverley Steps, Three Dawns to Sydney and
Four Voices of Malay — to mention only five
notable British films released since last
Christmas.

The Roos school wants to make the film
'an individual branch of art'. For them,
film experiment is a method of finding a
'freer form of expression'. They seem more
concerned with how to express themselves
than with that they say. On one of the rare
occasions when a government seems to have
given a completely free hand to private
inspiration, the result was Pan and the Girl3 a
film which has taken a deal of living down,
and one which is greatly inferior to the same
director's The Corn is in Danger* which has
its roots firmly in agricultural propaganda.
For the documentary school, almost every
film, from Colour Box to The Corn is in
Danger, and from The Film of Denmark? to
The Feeling of Hostility, is an experiment.

For each subject presents new problems in
shaping and expressing material so thai it
may be comprehended, not only intellectu-
ally, but also with all the feeling that a work
of art can evoke.

If the documentary school can call up a
whole host of notable and experimental
films in its support, the Roos school is
oddly shy of naming films. They prefer to
find their support in personal witnesses
rather than film titles. Having excom-
municated Grierson as a deviator, or even a
destroyer of true film art, they rely on
Cavalcanti. Winifred Holmes, ken Lye,
Irmgard Schemke and 'the bulk of cinema-
goers'. I do not know the views of Irmgard
Schemke. 1 do know that the Roos school
have no idea at all what the bulk of cinema-
goers think, feel or say. They must have
introduced the cinemagoers as a bluff in the
hopes that no one would call it. I do know
the work of Cavalcanti, Winifred Holmes
and Len Lye.

Cavalcanti made his living in France by
making commercial features, and his name by
making Rien que les Hemes and the charming,
sensitive, gay but unimportant En Rode.
Grierson hired him in the middle thirties to
help with the GPO film unit. His technical
virtuosity is great, and everyone profited
and is grateful for his skill as a craftsman,
critic and teacher. Almost his only personal
expedition into film making at this time, the
comedy Pett and Pott, was a failure. He then
worked in a general way on many films, and
his contributions to the sound tracks of
Night Mail and Coal Face were notable.
He stayed on with the GPO film unit after
Grierson had left, and was the producer of a
number of excellent films, including two of
the first wartime documentaries, The First
Days and Men of the Lightship. Towards the
end of his time with the government film
unit he seemed to become disgruntled. In
1940, he left documentary for what I
suppose he hoped would be the greater and
more invigorating freedoms of the studios.
Since then, most of his commercial films, if
sensitive and tasteful, have been common-
place. Cavalcanti's most significant con-
tributions to the art of the film have un-
doubtedly been made within the framework
of British government sponsorship. At his
best, he was a solver of problems in bringing
alive the public services on the screen.

Though I do not wish to pooh-pooh
Winifred Holmes as a film critic, I am pre-
pared for the Roos school to have her.

Finally, Len Lye, Jorgen Roos is really
cheating by introducing him at all. Lye is
a New Zealander — a schoolmaster and an
artist. He came to London in the early
thirties with Jack Ellit, a New Zealand
musician and expert on jazz. Together thej
made Tusilava, an abstract film which few
people saw, and fewer remember. Except
for a puppet film which has never finished,
Tusilava was Len Lye's only expedition into
self-expression for its own sake, tusilava

had no point because it had no purpose

However, it is probable thai Lye's later and

more creative film work had its origin here.
Tusilava must tune been the first film ever to
be made by drawing directly on the celluloid.

It was not till Len Lye had an opportunity
to use his great talents for public information
that he made films of real experimental or
artistic value. Colour Box and Rainbow
Dance were both propaganda films for the
GPO Savings Bank, and Trade Tattoo
inter-dominion trade. Should Jergen Roos
argue that these films prove his case, be-
cause their content is divorced from the aims
of their sponsors, he must think again. All
three get their inspiration directly from their
subject matter. The Jorgen Roos fantasy of
how Colour Box came to be made must be
skotched, too. He says: 'When Lye came to
his boss in the GPO and said: "I want to
make a film without a camera", Cavalcanti
answered: '"Well, we haven't very much to
lose — go ahead." ' First of all, Grierson was
Len Lye's boss, and not Cavalcanti. Secondly
it was only by an effort that Grierson was
able to mould both the inflexibilities of
the Savings Bank, and Len Lye's artistic
aspirations, so that each side could contri-
bute to the joint affair which culminated in
Colour Box.

Len Lye's early films came straight out of
the public service. If you would follow his
influence and see where it has taken root,
you will have to go to Ottawa, where it is
flourishing under the benevolent but also
careful sponsorship of the National Film
Board of Canada. The splendid and imagina-
tive works of Norman Mac-Caren and his
colleagues are at once major contributions
to the art of the cinema, and ten thousand
miles away from the preciosities of the Roos
school. When the film history of the last
twenty-five years comes to be written, I am
afraid that Jergen Roos's The Escape is
likely to be dismissed as pastiche. The
historian will surely look for the aesthetic,
creative and dramatic roots of Danish
documentary in such works as The Film of
Denmark, Motherhelp Sugar. People in a
House, The Corn is in Danger. A Matter of
Your Freedom, Cutter H.l\, Potatoes, Gen-
erator Gas, Pay Your Taxes Gladly and The
Toad6.

1 Karl Roos. Poet and documentary script-
writer. Wrote the poetic commentary I •■ \ Matter
of Your Freedom (1946), the record of the
Danish underground movement. Reviewed by
Winifred Holmes in Sight and Sound. Vol. 15,
Wo ''0. 1948. In another article he regrets that two

able Danish documentary directors 'now direct
practically only commercing films'

2 Director of Ditte —Child of the Peop
Those Dratted Kids, both seen private.

on. I Edinburgh.

'■ Documentary in Denmark, No, 61. 1945
4 Documentary in Denmark . V, > 59, 1 1'44
5 Documentary in Denmark. Wo l. i •
* Respectively Documentary in Denmark.

Nos. I; 25; 28; 40; 59; — ; 47; 52. 56; 68;

114

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

Ten Minutes That Shook Me Rigid

by

.JOHN TRUMPER

'thjs is regarded by the highest authorities as
revolutionary screen treatment ranking with the
introduction of the close-up, the camera boom
and sound.' Thus the publicity blurb. An alterna-
tive, T gather, presumably intended for an
illiterate arc of the Critics' Circle, was simply
a length of cord ; a gag, after all, far more com-
patible and in scale with the advertised article
than the pompous nonsense quoted above. For
the story that Rope tells and the idiom of its
telling are inseparable, the one as freakish as the
other, and furthermore the difference between its
idiom and that of any other story-telling film is
one merely of degree, not of kind.

'Thou shalt not kill.' The fact that the censor
felt himself constrained to make this platitudi-
nous statement of faith before the main title, and
also to excise the original opening in which
murder most foul is committed before our very
eyes, illustrates both the strength and the weak-
ness of the original story. Its strength, of course,
lies in its strict unity both of time and of place, a
unity that is both a technical tour de force and
also a very tangible element in the creation of
convincing naturalism and suspense. But against
this strength we must set an almost equivalent
weakness, that of abnormal and occasionally
unreal characterization. Can we really care less
whether these two effete young homosexuals,
priggish and neurotic as they are respectively
made to appear, meet their merited doom in
Reel 2 or in Reel 20? Despite the unusual
urgency given to the story by its two unities, we
can only watch the development of situation —
plot would be too strong a word — and the clash
of character with the same kind of cold and de-
tached excitement with which we would follow
an expert game of chess.

In his film treatment, Hitchcock has done all
in his power to retain the strength of the original
story, but its weakness has been increased rather
than lessened by the softening of eccentricities of
character, eccentricities without which the inter-
play of action and reaction seems to have no
convincing starting-point. The weakness has
merely been shifted from freakish characteriza-
tion to arbitrary and imposed behaviour.

As the strength of the story, its unity of time
and place, is retained by a deliberate abhorrence
of visual interruption and consequently by rejec-
tion of the infinitely variable rhythms and scan-
sions associated with film-editing, in favour of a

uniform flow of visual prose, far more responsi-
bility than usual rests with the actors, especially
as their actions must still remain convincing
within a framework of character whose corners
have been carefully rounded by the scriptwriter.
And it is here that Rope, as a film, succeeds
brilliantly. The cast, with one exception, bless
her, give us acting whose subleties of emphasis
and timing are precious little in evidence on the
London stage and whose qualities of speed and
urgency must be held up as an example to those
who managed to make The Small Voice, despite
its advantage of a more normal editing scheme,
the monotonous charade it was. IT I had to single
out a name to praise above the others, it would
be Farley Granger's pathetic study of neurotic
and conscience-stricken misery : his tardy and
ineffective rebellion against the hypnotic arro-
gance of his partner is one of the few really
moving things in the film.

Without the infinitely variable rhythms of
editing, too, the visual tempo relies largely upon
camera-movement. Apart from the same kind of
premonitory wobble that made us exclaim during
Hamlet, 'Here comes a crane shot," these move-
ments are well-selected and succeed in assembling
an astonishing variety of significant set-ups within
the limits of each reel. It's worthy of mention,
though, that the most effective moment in the
film finds the camera, for once, motionless while
we wait in mounting suspense for Mrs Wilson to
open the chest. The changing colours of the New
York background give the story, with the nominal
assistance of Natalie Kalmus, a perspective
which Lifeboat totally missed and, towards the
end, a melodramatic accompaniment which
made music unnecessary. This background only
betrayed its artificiality when we tracked to-
wards or away from the window and the sup-
posedly distant skyscrapers became larger or
smaller with the objects in the room.

Don't imagine from all this that there was a
mere routine job for the editor. Apart from his
work on the original script, the sound track was
his to make or mar. The brilliance of the sound
at the end of the story is obvious enough, but less
obvious is the handling of off-screen dialogue
and the dramatic use of silence. One small piece
of sound will illustrate its integral part in the
film: the police-siren which is heard distantly
when Rupert is first questioning Phillip and
which foreshadows the banshee wail that draws
its hideous curtain over the final climax. Some-

thing, I feel, more sinister and morbid could have
been chosen as the often repeated piano piec-
than that jolly little Poulenc Mouvement Per
petuel.

There remains, in this survey of the film's
resources, the purely physical problem of reel-
changes, and it must be stated in all fairness that
this problem remains unsolved. Three times we
are asked to admire, intensely but irrelevantl\.
the midnight-blue of someone's back and the
little green dot that hops on to it and off again
just below the right shoulder. There are, besides,
four very ordinary cuts, from observer to
observed, from speech to reaction, from off-
screen speech to speaker and from question to
answer. The final reel-change, where Rupert, in
opening the chest and discovering the body,
blacks out the screen, would have been dramatic
indeed but for the fact that the darkness reminded
us irresistibly of our previous back-scratching
explorations.

This unsolved problem of reel-changes suggests
that the ideal medium for a story like Rope is
television, where a mobile camera can grind away
to its heart's content and where the normal film
practice of rhythmic visual interruption and
punctuation is impossible in any case. The
problems of adequate rehearsal, however, are
probably insurmountable. We can only wait and
see.

It's sheer madness to insist, as mam well-
meaning critics have done, that the film repre-
sents a serious menace to the future of creative
editing. The story it tells has been handled in the
only compatible way. but because its idiom would
be not only unsuited to. but unneeded by. anv
story without the same two strict unities, that
alone is enough to show how freakish and in-
imitable Rope must remain. It's new and unusual,
yes: but then, so is a well-respected film-tech-
nician's concerto for sackbut. virginals and three
lavatory-chains. We go on writing music. But
even if Rope had been less than the small-scale
imperfectly-realized tour de force that it is. we
must admit that Hitchcock's instinctive enthus-
iasm for experiment and his delight in his craft are
such that we can forgive him even his total
failures. No doubt his genius for shock tactics,
for the sudden image and the unexpected word,
will soon reassert itself after this brief period ot
strenuous self-denial.

DOCl Ml \I \RY FILM \F.WS

ll<

The Peaceful Years

The Peaceful Years. Pathe Documentary Unit.
Producer: Peter Baylis. Commentator: Fmlvn
Williams. Drawings'. Joy Thomas. Music: Hal
Evans.

Few people would take a contemporary history
book out of a local library to read for pleasure,
but The Peaceful Years, winch is. alter all.
history with the skin rubbed off, will draw people
to the cinema on its own account. Here is a new
experience for most of us: a chance to see some-
thing of the pattern of history, the pitiful
repetitions in man's behaviour and affairs, and so
to gain a perspective about events usually too
difficult to attain when we are living in the middle
of them.

Peter Baylis and his team have carved from
newsreels of the period and other sources visual
records of some of the main events of those
fateful twenty years, 1919-39. They have tried
to give a balanced review covering activities in
every field where the film camera has penetrated
— and it has managed to get into some murky
corners. That they have succeeded in making a
film which will be vitally interesting to students
of social behaviour as well as to the poor sap
whose behaviour is being studied is no little
compliment to their disarming selection of
material. The subjects range from battles t"
bathing belles, from the songs of 'Hutch' to the
voice of Roosevelt.

It is admittedly a journalist's history, mad: up
of the kind of matter that would anyway have
got on to the front page, but that is no flaw in a
film which succeeds in being both a thunderingly
good piece of entertainment and a stark object
lesson. For here in just over an hour's run is all
the folly of man's conduct of affairs over those
twenty vital years.

This film follows the earlier review of one
year, Scrapbook lor 1922, made as a venture bv
Pathe. That film was very well worth-while
because of the historical comparison it afforded
with the post-war situation of 1947, twenty-five
years later. The sobering effect of seeing the
kind of things happening then on a far larger
scale than they are occurring today could not but
help to make people see the present-day difficulties
in a better perspective —and any film which can
do that at the same time as making people laugh
is the most valuable addition to a cinema pro-
gramme. In The Peaceful Years there is not this
easily discerned parallel, because they cover the
whole of the inter-Great Wars period; con-
sequently there is nothing so clear-cut. But this
film is going to make people look a little more
deeply into their daily news and wonder if we

haven't ahead) started another twenty years'
march to some other bigger catastrophe. To set
people thinking is unusual enough for a film in
an ordinary cinema programme: to do so with-
out grinding an axe, and with real humour and
wit is an even rarer achievement.

mentaiv sums up or makes a general statement.
Although the later drawings are (he least success-
ful, the first one, and the use made of it, certainly
adds something to the film: it convinces that
there is .in idea of ptcscntation here which is
worth pursuing even if in this case it has not

The technique of presenting the v isual material
has been developed since the earlier film.
Fmlyn Williams gives a pleasant and unaffected
introduction to it, as well as speaking the link-
ing commentary. But the body of comment is
carried by character voices which display some
special interest or point of view that often gives
an intriguing twisl to the subject mattei \n hour
glass, with its sands on the run, and drawings are
used (with perhaps a little too unfailing a
regularity) as devices to link the main sequences.
The use of symbolic drawings is an interesting

attempt to get over the appalling difficulty,
common to all films conveying ideas, of finding
something to put on the screen while the com-

reached its best realization. Music, too, has
been used intelligently and humorously, often
giving point or poignancy to the event on the
s. icen.

I here is no doubt that The Peacefiii
will have a vcrv wide distribution on its own

merits, [f anyone wishes to learn the reason
such a desirable prospecl lor a film, it is to be
found in the film's entertainment value. 1 he
presentation is lively . simple and. above all.
human. Even more important, there is no feeling
in the film that its makers were so merhurned
with an important message to be got over" that
thev couldn't stoop to pick up a bit o\ \\\n by the

wayside,

116

DOCLMKM \RY FILM NEWS

Book Reviews

A Pioneer Document

Science in Film

Edited by BLODWEN LLOYD
Reviewed by JOHN MADDISON

AMONG academic scientists, it is rare to find one
who has really come to grips with the problems
of film in teaching and research. Dr Lloyd, editor
of this 'world review and reference book', illus-
trated with stills, is such a rarity. Her knowledge
of the making, distribution and use of scientific
films is broad and sympathetic. Happily, too, she
has chosen, in editing this book as her Preface
implies, to interpret" science in a wide 'impure'
sense. Uneasy perhaps lest at this point her more
austere colleagues may be looking over her
shoulder, she tends rather to apologize for in-
cluding science for the citizen in her area of
operation. Reverence for what is called, I think,
in another field, the apparatus of scholarship leads
her sometimes to write pompously and to bring
in the impressive but ill-defined neologism. Some
of the contributors also fall into the flat official
manner, which plays such odd tricks with lan-
guage. But these are minor faults in an immensely
stimulating and valuable work.

The book is divided into two roughly equal
parts ; a series of individual essays and an inter-
mit ional scientific film directory. The essays are
especially valuable because they bring together
under one roof, so to speak, a mass of data,
hitherto scattered about in many periodicals
and reports. In the chapter, 'The Scientific Film
Today', after an uncertain start, the editor her-
self assembles many interesting facts about the
teaching film, particularly in America. One of
her observations may be underlined:

By the end of 1943, its (the US Govern-
ment's) War Department had 10,200 training
films and 11,890 training 'shorts'. Many of
these are now released for use by educational
and other establishments. A similar policy in
Rritain would no doubt release much valuable
materialfor scientific, industrial and technical
training.

Roger Shattuck of UNESCO in his essay
'Scientific Films and the People's' surveys the
international dissemination of scientific know-
ledge by films. Cataloguing is an important aspect
of this traffic in ideas, and we learn that UNESCO
is drawing up a list of films designed to popular-
ize science. (This, Shattuck says, should be ready
by the end of 1947 — a sidelight on the tedious
mechanism of book production these days.)
Contemplating present UN discontents at the
Palais tie Chaillot, one can only sadly agree with
him that films, dealing popularly with the
scientific outlook and method, arc urgently
needed. Professor George Bell provides in 'Visual
Physiology and the Cine-film', a summary,
generally speaking authoritative, of our know-
ledge of such matters as screen brightnesses, and
the best manner of placing screens and arranging

the seats for classroom projection. In a wider
context, he recalls Kleitman's experimental find-
ing that looking at films is by no means a physio-
logical relaxation, in a subject remaining seated
for two hours or more, there is an increase in
muscle tension, shown according to Kleitman.
by a statistically significant rise in body tempera-
ture of -j to 1 degree Fahrenheit. Bell, incidentally
and rightly I think, attacks the conservative
aestheticism of Rudolf Arnheim who resents by
implication the increasing illusion of reality
which technical progress brings in the cinema
In this part of his discussion, there is strangely
enough no mention of the work of Michotte of
Louvain.

In his review of British films in medicine in the
last ten years, Brian Stanford points to the diffi-
culties and the advantages of medical film-making.
With medically untrained actors, slight lapses of
behaviour are immediately detected by a critical
professional audience. (This isn't, one may add,
confined to medical films.) Characteristically and
endearingly, Stanford campaigns for a more
ordered and functional approach to medical film
production. Russell Reynolds, a veteran in the
use of cineradiography, describes in detail its
techniques and their applications in diagnosis
and research.

Two other essays are of great practical value.
Denys Parsons writes sensibly on scripting and
the sources of information upon which the scien-
tific film maker may draw. Quite outstanding is
Derek Stewart's 'Technique and Equipment'.
This is a tightly packed, carefully marshalled
conspectus of recent advances in the use and
manufacture of photographic materials, light
sources, lenses and camera and projector
mechanisms. The book is worth having for this
chapter alone.

It is left to the mathematicians to remind us
of what is after all the most important single fact
about the cinema. In it, we have a new language
of symbols. Those who have listened to Robert
I airthorne rapidly throwing out the darting
stimuli of new conceptions will not be surprised
that his, though the briefest, is the most original
and thought-provoking chapter in the book.
Stressing the visual quality of many everyday
symbols, Fairthorne remarks quizzically 'Even
the arbitrary symbols "?" and "!" look really
puzzled and surprised'. At the recent SFA meeting
at the Royal Institution, I was struck again by
the entrancing visual quality of his and Salt's
pre-war films on the differentia] calculus. In
'Film and Mathematics", I. R. Vesselo analyses
these and practically all other available mathe-

matical films. This is a lucid and restrained piece
of writing, enjoyable to read.

Customs formalities and the high cost of film
merchandise are no doubt great obstacles to the
inter-change of scientific films between peoples.
But one of the greatest problems is perhaps that
there is no easy way of finding out what films are
available and where they can be got. The
reference section of this book comes partly to the
rescue. For it, Dr Lloyd has taken the whole
world as her parish. Over a hundred closely
packed pages describe persons and institutions
producing and distributing films, give addresses
and shrewdly provide answers to exactly the
sort of questions likely to be asked. Inevitably
there are gaps and false emphases; but fewer than
might have been expected. There are, too, some
irritating signs of hasty proof-reading. The book
is nevertheless a tour de force.

Dr Lloyd undoubtedly took her courage in
both hands in assuming the role of the first
encyclopaedist of scientific cinema. The risk was
worth taking. It was good to see Dr Lloyd as a
delegate to the recent international scientific film
congress making new contacts, and finding, it
may be hoped, new collaborators. In this work,
she deserves the co-operation of scientists and
film-makers everywhere.

Science in Film. Published by Samson Low. 15*

INTRODUCTION TO VISUAL AIDS

On December 17, the National Committee for
Visual Aids in Education and the newly formed
Educational Foundation for Visual Aids — now
jointly responsible for promoting the use of the
medium in schools — took their bow before the
public at the Royal Empire Society. A pro-
gramme of speeches and films was presented to a
large audience representing the educational
world, the film industry, and other interested
sections. The speakers— Mr Hardman (deputis-
ing for the Minister of Education), Alderman
Wright Robinson (vice-Chairman of the
National Committee), Sir Rolande Wall and Dr
Harrison (of the Educational Foundation)
under the Chairmanship of Mr H. H. Williams
(Chairman of the National Committee) — spoke
of the great prospects for \ isual aids in education
now that the new machinery had been established.
Six films were then shown to illustrate the
start which the National Committee and the
Foundation had made. The films were designed
for a variety of different age groups and were all
sponsored b> the Central Office of Information.

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

117

Friese-Green

Friese-Green : Ray AUister.

tions, 1948). 12s. 6d.

{Mar stand Publlca-

friese-green fits straight into the English
mythology of science. He is the mad inventor
immortalized in ephemeral children's magazines
of the late nineteenth century- He borrowed
something from Captain Nemo and the other
Jules Verne scientist who proposed to shoot the
ice cap off the North Pole with a gigantic cannon.
but accidentally rubbed the noughts off a calcula-
tion on his blackboard and missed. He may have
lent something to Professor Challenger, for
Conan Doyle and Friese-Green may have been
neighbours in Brighton. Friese-Green was an
individualist, anarchic, unbusinesslike, vague.
To these qualities he added genius, enthusiasm
and a disregard of the ordinary conventions of
living and love. He helped to make other men's

fortunes. He fell dead at the age of 66 at a joint
meeting of the KRS and CEA under the chair-
manship of Lord Beaverbrook on May 5, 1921,
with only the price of a cinema seat in his pocket.
The industry which had coined millions, but had
allowed the man who had contributed so much to
them to die virtually of starvation, erected a
monument by Lutyens, which ran:

WILLIAM FRIESE-GREEN.

THE INVENTOR OF KINEMATOGRAPHY.

HIS GENIUS BESTOWED UPON HUMANITY

THE BOON OF COMMERCIAL CINEMATOGRAPHY

OF WHICH HE WAS THE FIRST INVENTOR AND

PATENTEE.

Ray Allister's book studies the evidence for
priority of invention of the film camera and
projector (as opposed to the moving picture),
and proves pretty conclusively that the honour

PHOTOMICROGRAPHY

(A Section of Realist Film Unit Ltd.)

Producer: Dorothy Grayson, B.Sc.

9 GREAT CHAPEL STREET, W.I Gerrard 1958

FIRST CATCH YOUR GRUB ....

We have had a good deal of experience one way and
another, and we would rather deal with small flora
and fauna at Wraysbury than at Great Chapel Street.
For one thing, they are easier to find in the country
and, for processes such as time-lapse photomicrography
ax high magnification, we like the country peace and
quiet and absence of vibration.

LABORATORIES AT WRAYSBURY for
CINEBIOLOGY MICROMANIPULATION
COLOUR and TIME-LAPSE CINEMICROGRAPHY

belongs to Friese-Green. By 1888 he had record-
ed a series of consecutive photographs of move-
ment on oily paper. By some time in January
1889. he had managed to make sensitized
celluloid. He had also designed a camera anda
projector. His first successful film was projected
to a passing policeman in January 1889. He filed
a provisional specification with the Patent
Office on June 21, 1889. The completed specifica-
tion was accepted on May 10, 1890. With the
exception of sprockets, which Friese-Green had
temporally abandoned, the principles of his
camera were the fundamental ones from which
the camera of today has been developed.

In June 1889, Friese-Green wrote to Edison,
proposing to associate his camera with Edison's
phonograph in order to make talking pictures.
The letter was acknowledged by Edison's
laboratory, but not by Edison himself. A full
description of the camera was requested. Friese-
Greene sent it. There was no reply, but Edison
patented his film camera, the Kinetoscope, in
1891 in America. The patent was not taken out
in England, because it could not claim 'novelty'
over Friese-Green's earlier patent. In 1910
Edison made an affidavit he had never seen the
Friese-Green letters, yet from 1891 to this day
Edison has usually been given the sole credit for
the invention. Indeed, Friese-Green muddled
away the proceeds of his own work, and Edison's
drive, combined with the Lumiere projector of
1894, laid the foundations of the film industry.
It was the Lumiere show at the Polytechnic in
1896 which first awoke the imagination of the
public.

Though Mr Allister's book is readable and
authoritative he has managed to conceal good
scholarship under an irritating, diffuse and some-
times slipshod style and presentation. Ik-
seems to belong to the school that believes in-
vention to be the isolated and unpredictable
product of individual genius. Yet most modern
historians agree that inventors are sensitive
vehicles, expressing and synthesizing the collec-
tive scientific experience of their time. Had the
author taken this point of view, his book would
have been no less readable, but more profound,
and Friese-Green might have appeared as an
even greater figure. His motives and character
might have b er to understand. Mi

AUister interpolates imaginary conversations,
which makes his book seem arch and unreal.
He says in his foreword: 'This true Storj 's
written in a wav that I have sometimes thought
intolerable in other biographies. It reports
conversations al which the author could not

pOSSiblj have been present, these conversations
appeal in this book because, as Scenes were

described to me b> members of I riese-Green's

familv and In his old colleagues and friends,
thej set themselves in mv mind m dialog ( I

118

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

New Documentary Films

This Is Britain No. 30. Produced by Merlin Film
Productions.

Robinson Charley. Produced by Halas and
Batchelor.

Man Alive. Produced by Anglo-Scottish Pictures.
Technicians: Leonard Reeve, Jim Davies, Dick
Andrews and Julien Canter.

One Man Story. Produced by the Horizon Film
Unit Productions. Directed by Max Munden
and Dennis Shand. Photographed by Henry
Hall. Music by William Alwyn.

this recent batch of COI films can perhaps be
regarded as a typical selection of the best of 1948.
They exhibit the strengths and weaknesses of
British Documentary at the present time. This Is
Britain is the excellent informative COI magazine.
If it has not got quite the verve and pace of
Rotha's original Worker and Warfront, which
it supersedes, it has a solid, sensible approach to
present-day happenings which should make it
popular all over the world. The Issue No. 30
starts with a description of a new motor-car,
passes on to a description of some ingenious
methods of handling heavy loads, and ends up
with a run round the open-air exhibition of
sculpture in Battersea Park. The fact that the
film is due to be released in January, while the

exhibition of sculpture was in August, suggests
that the COI should step up its tempo. It is
absurd to take four months to bring such a
simple item to the screen. Moreover, the maga-
zine is released monthly, which makes it even
more difficult to understand why the item was not
included in the September or October issue. A
maddening feature of this particular reel is that
the name of the motor-car in the first item is not
mentioned. If the motor-car is worth showing, it
is worth identifying. Are we still in the dark ages
where, if a Government mentions the name of
one motor-car, all the other motor-car manu-
facturers twitter like a cackle of schoolgirls?
Robinson Charley is one of the latest examples
of the new colour cartoons made for theatrical
release by Halas and Batchelor. If their tech-
nique has not broken much ground unfamiliar to
Disney, the reels have a verve and a sprightliness
of their own and are usually amusing and good-
tempered. This one takes us for a trot round
contemporary economic theory. Charley explains
that if we want to import, we must export. We
lost our overseas investments in the war, if we
must have wars, what do we expect? To him,
evidently, the war was an exciting expedition
into knight-errantry, which we took on for the
love of it. And now we must pay for our fun.
One cannot help feeling that Charley's attitude

PUBLIC RELATIONSHIP FILMS LTD

MAKERS OF ENTERTAINMENT AND DOCUMENTARY FILMS

Recent Films: —

"THE GREEDY BOY"

Awarded Silver Medal at Venice Festival

"THEY TRAVEL BY AIR"

Both films were shown at Edinburgh and Venice
Richard Massingham iii charge of production

29 WHITEHALL, S.W.i

WHITEHALL 4000

is a little strange, and it does not occur to him
to explain to us how and why it was that our
overseas investments were removed while we
were holding the baby for just those people who
stripped us.

Man Alive and One Man Story are two
documentaries running along more or less normal
lines. Both of them are made for the Foreign
Office. They are finely photographed, smoothly
directed and well edited. They meet their points
clearly and succinctly. Yet one feels that the
writers and directors have not done more than
attempt a smooth, workmanlike job. They have
not felt the subjects. As a consequence, the very
efficiency of the films is a little dull. They run
smoothly from end to end, and show little
variation in pace, a"nd little sense of dramatic
climax. Man Alive tries to be humorous, but
without much success.

Man Alive deals with safety in factories, and
the Safety Inspectors. (Incidentally, surely the
directors of Man Alive could have found a better
joke than to make the Inspector trip over his
own carpet?) The world the film shows us is just
a little too easy. We are blandly informed that
most progressive employers co-operate. Of course
they do. But what about the unprogressive ones?
The film implies that we have reached a kind of
paradise where lions and lambs, employers and
workers, managers and Government inspectors,
doss down together in one great, glorious bed of
luke-warm self-esteem.

One Man's Story is a sketch of the life of Dr
McGonigle.thecelebrated medical officer of health
for Stockton-on-Tees who, second only to Sir John
Boyd Orr, aroused the national conscience on
such questions as bad housing and malnutrition.
He was a social scientist of great importance
and a pioneer. He had an uphill struggle against
reaction and complacency. Little or none of this
goes into the film. Again, we are shown the world
of mutual luke-warm self-esteem. It is character-
istic of the film that the only housing problem
McGonigle runs across is that of a slum land-
lord, dependent for a living wholly on the rent
of two cottages and his old age pension. He can-
not afford repairs and our sympathies are with
him. This kind of odious distortion of truth is
something which the COI had better avoid in
future. In fact, most landlords are not living on
old age pensions and the rent of two cottages.
At that time, for every hard-luck case among
landlords, there were a score of thousand hard-
luck cases among tenants. Why not select, then,
from the majority? If these two films, expertly
handled though they be. are representative of
what the Foreign Office (for whom both were
made) considers suitable propaganda abroad,
the sooner these matters are taken out of Foreign
Office hands, the better. The presentation of
Britain as a country of luke-warm compromises.
complacent reformers, bobbish workers and
suffering landlords, is one which can do us no
good. If the recent Social Films from Denmark
could deal with social problems as yet unsolved,
surely such a powerful country as Britain can
onl> gam esteem by being equally frank, a. e.

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

ll«*

up

c

be

some months ago we reviewed in these pages
J selection of new films from the National
Film Board of Canada. The result of our criti-
cal remarks was a lengthy and explosive letter
from the pen of Him Who Must Be Obeyed.
For when Big Chief Jollyjaek waves his stick
there is nothing to be done but dive into the
nearest slit trench and scream for mercy.

Now, sadder and wiser men, we again take
up the pen. the pen. please God. of fairness,

ace and understanding. A new batch of films
from the same source has arrived, and rather
belatedly we say our little piece.

Stanley Jackson has made a little picture
called W ho Hill Teach Your Child? It is not
such a little picture, for it runs to four very
substantial reels. The first three-quarters or so
is a beauty. The idea is to emphasize the im-
portance of the right sort of person taking up
teaching as a career, and it is presumably in-
tended for screening not only to trainee
teachers and youth organizations, but also to
the community in general, for its appeal is cer-
tainly directed to those who have children to
be taught as well as to those who will do the
teaching. Charming studies of children and
pleasant, dramatic moments show that a lot of
good work has gone into the film, and that
Jackson knows what he is talking about. What
a pity it is that when the story is apparently
over and a pretty fade-out prepares us for the
end. a dull elongated anti-climax starts, the
significance of which completely escapes us. A
contrast is played between the old type of edu-
cation and the new, but it is scarcely success-
ful and adds nothing to the message of the
film. One feels that the boys in Ottawa have
the idea that all material must be used some-
how and that they haven't yet learned when to
stop.

The criticism of over length can easily be
applied to many of their productions. Home
Town Paper is also a likeable work on the pub-
lication of a local newspaper in the Okanagan
Valley — or anywhere else for that matter. The
gathering of domestic news of the type so vital
to a country community, the births and deaths.
the public meetings and auctions, is illustrated
nicely enough, although to British audiences
the theme is a trifle over-obvious. Again one
gets the impression that discreet trimming
could have made such a great improvement.
There, of course, we are possibly falling into
the mistake we made last time. Maybe, with
more years of documentary behind us, we tend
falsely to estimate just how much our audi-
ences can cope with. But Canada should learn
just a little more of the horrors of being boring.

There is nothing boring about It's Tun In
Sing, A perfect little gem of a picture about the
Leslie Bell Girls' Choir, it has everything. So
rarely does documentary attempt a film deal-
ing intelligently with music or any of the skills
attached to music, and when attempted so
rarely do they succeed, that this reel amply
makes up for any of the duller moments. It
has good film sense, good film technique, and
good honest humour. And that is one of the
most precious of all jewels in the documentary
movie.

New Canadian Films

It is a bit ol .1 jump to come to Bob Ander-
son's I e<l or.; oj Hostility. It is the psychologi-
cal film with all the trimmings, Hie story of a
girl's mental problems caused bj her unfortu-
nate home life is handled much more smoothly
and with much more confidence than the ear-
liei / eeling of Rejection. Although the tempo
i leisurely it grips as much as all the schizo-
phrenic montrosities from Hollywood put to-
gether. Whether the message of the film would
satisfy a psychologist depends, we imagine.
upon the psychologist. Certainly Canada de-
serves great credit for the skilful and orderly
handling of a subject which must be im-
mensely difficult

\s usual, the icing on any programme of
films from Canada is the latest batch from
Norman McLaren and his team oi fantasy
merchants. His Fiddlededees and Hoppityhops
and other flibbertigibets have a brilliance and
a zest all their own. McLaren has developed
himself into something unique, and all honour
is due to Canada for providing him with a
niche where he can mix colour and boogy-
woogy to his heart's content. It is tragic that
Britain, which originated so much of Lye and
McLaren form of abstract work, cannot now
find even a tiny crazy corner for experimental-
ists to play around in.

The thing which is as impressive as anything
else in these new Canadian films is the great
advance made in all the technical skills of

filmcraft. It is not so long ago that we
tain thought that we were the top in this type
ol film. The documentaries that came her*
from ( anada, or from most other countries
for that matter, were to us imitations of a tvpc
of movie exclusively our own I heir handling
was heavy and laboured, their technique pool
But now some of us feel, with a new and not
altogether unpleasant sense of humility, that
this one-sided state of affairs has gone for
good, rake a look at the camera movement in
the Bell singers film and McLean's photo
graphy in Who Will Teach ) our Child? Listen
to Kathburn's charming, simple and wholly
expressive score to the same film, and the ex-
cellent recording of the girls' voices in the Bell
choir — and it is none too easy to keep purity
in the female voice when it goes up high — and
you may see what we mean. I he Canadians
have lost their terrible Transatlantic habit of
making their commentators scream at the
audience until it is bludgeoned into mute sub-
mission, and they write these same commen-
i nics with a skill which we rarely reach. May-
be some of the films are a wee bit too long;
maybe some of the post-synching in // ■
Town Paper does look a little odd at times:
but these chaps definitely have something, and
if we don't pull our socks up a mighty long
way we are going to have members of the
Board coming over here to teach us our job.
C o ne to think of it. the idea's not such a bad
one at that

J

Happy JVerp Year

WITH THE COMPLIMENTS OF
DOCUMENTARY TECHNICIANS ALLIANCE LTD

DATA

2 1 so II 0 S (,> I x it I LONDON vm
GERHARD 28 26

120

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

Research & Films

it has lately become apparent that a
special Film Research Service is required to
meet the needs of the variety of bodies —
film units, academic institutions, charitable
and educational trusts, business organiza-
tions and Government departments — con-
nected with the documentary film, and inter-
ested in extending its work and influence.

The Research Division at Film Centre has
been established to meet this need and is now
available to carry out sponsored research
into all matters connected with films and
visual aids. The facilities offered cover a
wide field from the investigation of subject-
matter and the preparation of topic analyses
to audience and distribution surveys at

home and overseas, sociological investiga-
tions and historical research.

Discussions are also beginning about the
possibilities of making a comprehensive
inquiry into the value of the film as an instru-
ment of scientific research, particularly
emphasizing the way in which it might assist
the social scientist, giving to him what he
lacks at the moment — a form of microscope
and instrument of measurement.

By centralizing background research for
films, it will be possible to speed up the
preparatory work necessary before a film
can go into production, thus helping to
make production as a whole more economical
and more efficient. By studying existing films

and maintaining proper catalogue records
the Division will also be able to assist pro-
ducers to avoid overlap and supply them
with source material.

In addition to outside commitments,
the Division intends to undertake original
research of its own, and to make what
contribution it can in published form to-
wards extending and deepening knowledge of
the documentary film in the many fields
with which it is associated. Hence it be-
comes an additional link between docu-
mentary films on the one hand and a whole
variety of outside organizations amongst
whom the universities will be a new, most
important addition.

FILMS PRODUCED IN SEPTEMBER, OCTOBER AND NOVEMBER, 1948

TITLE

UNIT

No. of

PRODUCER

DIRECTOR REG. FOR

DIS

REELS

QUOTA

A. A. Action

Merlin

3 reels

Hankinson, M.

Gunn, G.

Adversis Major

Blackheath

.1 reel

Cathles, R.

No

Airfield into Farmfield

COI

\ reel

Re-edited from

'This is Britain' series

Asdic Series, Two Films

Basic

2 reels

Baxter, R.

Rhodes, J.

No

(Admiralty)

Bernard Miles on Gundogs

International Realist

2 reels

Wright, B.

Wright, B.

Yes

British Steel

Data

1 reel

Alexander, D.

Thompson, T.

Yes

Crossroad Drill

Blackheath

1 reel

Cathles, R.

No

England's Wealth from Wool

Basic

3 reels

Baxter, R.

Napier-Bell, J.

Every Drop to Drink

World Wide

2 reels

Bond, R.

Francis, M.

Farm in Spring

COI

i reel

Re-edited from

'This is Britain' series

Farmer and the Goatherd

Greenpark

Re-edited from

'Cyprus is an Island'

No

Fishermans Yarn, A

World Wide

2 reels

Rotha, P.

Holmes, J.

Good Health

World Wide

2 reels

Carr. J.

Dyment, C.

Heating Research for Houses

Crown

3 reels

Taylor, J.

Warren, E.

Katsina

Crown

1 reel

Kelvin Hughes Marine Radar

Basic

2 reels

Baxter, R.

Napier-Bell. J.

King's Colours by the King to the RAF

Pathe

1 reel

Bay lis, P.

Th.

Major Power on the Land

Pathe

3 reels

Baylis, P.

Lim.

N-th

Mining Review No. 2

Data

1 reel

Alexander, D.

Yes

Mining Review No. 3 (Second Year)

Data

1 reel

Alexander, D.

Yes

Peaceful Years, The

Pathe

6 reels

Baylis, P.

Yes

Th.

Probation Officer

Data

4 reels

Alexander, D.

Holmes, J.

No

Plan to Work on, A

Basic

3 reels

Baxter, R.

Mander, K.

No

Radar A A No. 1 Mark 6

Basic

2 reels

Baxter, R.

Sherman, J.

No

(Army)

RAF Festival Reunion

Pathe

1^ reels

Baylis, P.

N-th

Rhondda and Wye

Crown

2 reels

Taylor, J.

Welsh, D.

Scottish Universities

Data

2 reels

Alexander, D.

Gysin. F.

Yes

Spinning (Silent)

Basic

\\ reels

Baxter. R.

Napier-Bell. J.

No

Summer-Drought Island

Greenpark

Re-edited from

'Cyprus is an Island"

No

Summing Up No. 9

Pathe

1+ reels

Baylis, P.

Th.

This is Britain No. 29

Merlin

1 reel

Hankinson, M.

„ „ „ No. 30

Merlin

1 reel

Hankinson, M.

„ „ „ No. 31

Merlin

1 reel

Hankinson, M.

Trained to Serve

Crown

2 reels

Taylor, J.

Wallace. G.

Tree of Wealth

Crown

1 reel

Re-edited from

llm of same title madeb> Information Films India

Tube Wells

Crown

1 reel

Re-edited from film of same title made b

y Information Films India

Weather and Sunspots

COI

i reel

Re-edited from

'This is Britain' series

Weaving (Silent)

Basic

\\ reels

Baxter. R.

Napier-Bell. J.

No

Work and Speed

COI

J reel

Re-edited from

'This is Britain' series

DOCUMENTARY III M NEWS

121

DFN VOL. VII. INDICES

(1) ARTICLES AND BOOK REVIEWS

Reviews of books are indicatd by an asterisk. Notes of the
Month are printed in ilalii s

Academy Honour. 26
American Film Magazines, 62
Animated Films (N. Maclaren), 52
Arnot Robertson Fund. The, 86
Art and the People (S. Road), 39

Barking I'p the Wrong Tree I \ 1 Iton), 1 1 1

Basil Wright (lose I p. M

Book Review, 9*

British Documentarj . 4

British Documentary, 14

British Film Institute. The, 50, 120

British Film Academy, 21

Canada Goes to China. 64

Cats out ol haus. I

Censored. 6 ;

Children's Cinema (George Bennell), 22

COl Report. 55

Congratulate >ti\ , 1 4

Congress ol World I nionol Documentary <D Alexander and

Basil Wright). S8
Correspondence. II. 12, 23, 24, 35, 36. 47. 48, 58, 60, 84, 96
Cultural Needs of our People, 26
Czet. hosktvakla, 62

DFN Competition. 4. .2. 58
D for Denmark. 104*
Do, uincnhirv in Parliament. 50
Drawing the Line. 16

Edinburgh. 1948 (John Grierson), 87
Kdinburgh Illustrated, 90
Edinburgh in Retrospect (B Wright), 102
Education Foundation for ' isual I/./s, 50
English Diary (A. Von Rautenfeld), 17
Exhibition about documentary films. An, 99

February Filldyke, 1 3

Film Toda I . -

Film Classification (J Harris). 59

Film Society Movement in South Africa. The ( L. Rabkin), 95

Films in the Colonies. 1

Films in Germany (Arthur Elton). 3

Films and the Colonics, 14
Films BUI, I he. 14
Films of the Mouth. 30

Films and the Nal al ( oal Heard ill k I ewenhak), 44

Films produced in September. October anil November. 1948,

120
Films show at Edinburgh, 105

Final Straw. The. ::
Fricse-Green, 1 17*

German Feature Films (B. Wright). 5
Germain Near Nought. 53
Graduation from Newsreel (James Harris), 16
Grege Inland |1 ester Koenig), 69, 80

Hamburg I Urn Sot let) . 18

Hamlet, 67

Happ) v. m Year, 2

India ( inema (K. Ahmad Abbas), 56

International Scientific Film Congress, London, 1948 (J.
Maddison), 98

John Grierson, 26

John Taylor. Close Up, 82

Labour-Part) I Urn, The, 74

1 1st of film strip manufacturers, 72

Man Hunt. 101
March Merr> Weather, 15

Musician's Approach to the Documentary Film, A (W.
Alwyn), 44

Nationalism and Internationalism (R. F Whitehall) 32

iVch Bill. The, 2

New Books on film. 20*. 7*

New Canadian Films, I 10

New Flaherty Film for Edinburgh, 74

N,w Docunicntan Films. I,, is. 42, s-J. i.i,. IIS

New Films from Canada, 7

New Films, 31

News from I nited Nations, 33

New Films Agreement, The, 38

.V m / tints Act, 62

New Medical Film. 79

Normandv Diary, 57, 71

Notes on the IDHEC (R. Partington), 83

Notes of the Month, 2. 14, 26, 38. 50, 62. 74

What we don't do . . .

Every now and then our Secretary pleads that our
advertisement should bleakly state: Realist Film Unit does
not sell or loan films. That and nothing else — to save the
time and postage of enquirers and ourselves.

This is usually sidetracked into reflections about the
garbled versions ol our name on some pf the envelopes-
such as 'Realism Ltd', 'Real Films', 'the Reality Film
Unit' . . .

However, as it's the New Year, we give in and publish
the plea: wondering, nevertheless, what an enquirer
can do to disc over the \\ hereabouts of films we've made,
except to write to Realistic-I-think-it-was, and ask.

REALIST FILM UNIT LIMITED

9 GREAT CHAPE1 strut, W.i ■ Carari IOCS

O Canada' We stand on guard lor til,.

dii »nli their Heads i j Beddington), 77

Olivet Iwist. 74

One Doc-Two li.is. 112,113

Open I eiter irnni a Schoolteacher, It)

Overseas News. 16

Pas de Deux i P B lylis, J. How,

Peat I lul ^ ears. I lie, I 15

Pioneer Document, \ (John Maddison), lift*
Progress in Brazil iHnan Stransi

Quotes about tin Quota, 75
Quota, 97

Recording Angel (Alex Shawl. 9

Red Shoes, I he, 14

Religion and Films. 26

Report from Edinburgh (S ^ckroyd), 85

Research ami Films. 120

ROSS Md ean (< lose I p), 45

Kossellim and I s (Peter Brinson), 1 1 1
Roberto Rosscllini. 49

S. until it I Urn AsSOl iation, 2

Sequent

Shorts. 14. 26

Sixpence on Rates, 40

Sociological implications ol the Film in Colonial Arias. I hi

110
Stuart Legg (D. Alexander), 68
Stuff of Documentary (1 Shephard), 100
Summer in Peine (Ci. Wallace), 27
Survej of Films, 8

Technician at a Conference, A.. 33

I en Minnies that shook me Rigid (John Truniper). I 14

This Modern Age. 41

Tour in Belgium (J Maddison), 76

Turning it Over, 73

/ went) -nine > eai s, 38

University Film Centre (S. Oreanu), 78

Venezuela to \ crdoux (E. Anste] ). 4

What shall it prolit a man (K. Cameron), 15

Which Hunt. 37

Who Says Fxperimental Film? (J. Roos). 112

Why Scientific Film Societies? (J. Oswald), 46

Why should truth go dowdy? 93

World is Rich. 5

Wot I No Money, 50

Young People's Film Club. 38

(2) FILM TITLES

Reviews of films arc indicated by an asterisk. Film titles
appearing in the COl Report, piejc 55, Films Shown at
Edinburgh page 105. Films Produced in September, October

and November page 120. have been omitted.

\ccidents Don't Happen. 60

Vdmiral Nakhimou, 32

Ml I \es on Britain. 21 *

Artificial Insemination, ! !
Atomic Physics. I8\ 46, 98, 99

Baron Munchausen, 5 1
Ball of Fire. 69

Batttle for Stalingrad. The. 32
Battleship Potemkin, 78
Battle ol Heayj Water, 87, 90

BBt V oiccs of Britain
Beginnings of the Cinema. The. -2
Beloved I mini . 69
Best liars ol .uir I ins. The. 69, SI

Bill Blewett, 9

Uiitish Ire the] artistic? The, 43*

Bronco Boaters, 7*, 18, :

( aliiiut ol l>r ( aligari, 95

( .nlri Rouselle, 21* '

< an. nil. in 1 anils, ape. 22

Cargo from Jamaii ■

< , niniiis Between, I he, 6*

( elllre. I he. 19*
ClM I \in,,n. 21, <2
( li ins. in ilr ( In-/ nous. 21

f hams Populairas, 1 1 3

t hildren .it the Ruins. Is-

( hildren learning in experienci -•. 76

( hildren al St hool 1 1

( hildren on I rial. 14, 96, 102

i hildren ol the • ity, 102

( hiiiisr Shadow Plaj 96

( n idel, I he. 12

( i|\ Speaks V

I it] 1 1..

( iti/in Kane, 69. B i

Claire Fontaine, I a. 35

( oaslal ( oininaiid. s)

122

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

Coalface, 102, 113
Colour Box, 113
Common Ground. 8
Coming of the Light, The, 26
Condition Improved, 7*, 28
Corn is in Danger. The. 1 1 3
Cracking, 76

C reatures of Comfort, 42*
C risis in Italy (MOT). 54*
( rosstire, 32
Cumberland Story, 96
Cutter, H., 71, 113
Cyprus is an Island, 9, 76

Daphnia, 98

Dark Angel, 69

Dawn of Iran, 82

Dead End, 69

Denn Findcn Wir Uns Wieder Derein. 51

Devil Dancer, The, 69

Diary for Timothy. 34, 95

Dittc" Child of Man. 86, 90

Divided World. A., 86, 102

Dollar Dance. 52

Downlands, 6*

Down to the Sea, 54*

Dover, '47, 6*

Dragon of Cracow, The, 86

Dramma Di Christo, 86

Eie Im Schatten, 3, 51
Elephant Boy, 74
Escape, The, 1 12

Fabrics of the Future. 26

Fairy' of the Phone. The, 9

Fantasia, 21

Feeling of Rejection, 60, 119

Feeling of Hostility, 90. 98, 113, 1 19*

Fiddle-de-dee, 21*

Film OhneTitel. 51

Film of Denmark, 113

Film and Reality, 95

File 3615, 60

Fingers and Thumbs, 68

First Days, 1 1 3

Five Towns, 30*

Five for Four, 52

Forty Million People. 9

Generator Gas, 1 13
General Line, The, 95
Germany Year Zero, 51,
Goemons, 86
Grand Hotel, 5*
Grapes of Wrath, 69
Grosse Freheit, 51

53*. 86, 87, 102, 111

Hamlet. 67*. 93, 114
Harvest Shall Come. The, 34
Heart Thief, The, 112
Hellzapoppin, 21
Henry, V., 32
Hen Hop. 52

Here is the Gold Coast. 18*
Home Town Paper, 91, 119
Houses in History, 10, 48
Housing Problems, 82
How the Telephone works, 76
How, What and Why, 66, 84
Hydraulics, 1 1 3

Industrial Britain, 82

In Jehen Tagen, 3

Instruments of the Orchestra, 9, 20, 76

Intermezzo, 69

Irgendwo in Berlin, 51*

Iron Curtain, 32

Italian Straw Hat, The, 95

Italy Rebuilds, 96

It's Fun To Sing, 119*

Jamaica Problem, 43*

Kameradschaft, 96

Khazanchi, 56

Kid From Spain, The, 69

Kidnapped, 69

Kismat, 56

Klee Wyck, 7*

KRO Germany, 1947, 27, 31*. 60

Land Short of People, 43*

Land, The, 74

Last Chance, The, 32

Let's Look at Water. 7*

Life Cycle of Pin Mould. 76

Lifeboat, 114

Listen to Britain, 9, 20, 113

Listen to the Prairies, 60

Little Foxes, The, 69

Local Studies, 10

Loon's Necklace, The, 86, 102

Long Voyage Home, 69, 81

Londoners, The, 82

Lord Siva Danced, 92*. 113

Louisiana Story. The, 74, 85, 87. 102

Love on the Wing, 21

Man Alive, 118*

Man of Aran, 74, 82

Matter of Your Freedom. A. 1 13

Men of Africa, 34

Men of the Lightship, 1 1 3

Men of the Mists, 86

VIenschen Im Gottes Hand, M *

Millions Like Us, 99

Miserables. Les, 69

Monsieur Verdoux, 4*

Montreal by Night, 7*. 18, 23, 28

Monkey into Man. 68

Morder Sind Inter Uns. 3, 51*

Mother, 95

Motherhelp Sugar. 1 1 3

Moving Millions, 66

Mr Deeds Goes to Town, 12

Mrs Miniver, 32

Nana, 69

Nanook of the North, 74, 95

Nation's Wealth. The, 22

Near Home, 10

Nettezza Urbana, 102

Neuro-Psychiatry, 34

New Town, 18*, 54

Night Mail. 34, 44, 95, 99, 113

Nor Orchids for Miss Blandish. 61, 6

O'er Hill and Dale, 34
Oliver Twist. 74*
One Man Storv, 118
Open Citv , 32. Ill
Opus 1. 112
Our Road to Peace, 8
Out of the Ruins, 96
Overseas Trade, 31*
Ox-Bow Incident. The. 95

Paisa, 99, 111*

Palestine, 26

Paloma, La, 51

Pan and A Girl. 113

Paris, 19J0, 102

Park Here. 6*

Patent Ductus Arteriosos. 19*

Pay Your Taxes Gladly. 1 13

Peaceful Years, The, 115*

People's Charter. The. 8. 33

Pett and Pott. 1 13

Polio Diagnosis and Management 1948 79

Potatoes, 113

Poulette Grise, La, 21*, 52

Power, 68

Precise Measurements for Engineers. 98

Quiet One. The. 102

Rade, En, 113

Rainbow Dance, 113

Rattan, 56

Red Shoes, 94*

Report on Industrial Scotland. 31*

Rescue. The, 69

Rien Que Les Heures, 113

Rhodesia — Is this vour Country. 29, 42*

River. The, 59

Robinson Sharley, 118*

Roman Scandals, 69

Rope, 114*

Rose et la Reseda. La, 86

Rubens. 102

Russians Nobody Knows, The, 96

Sabotage, 95

Sacrifice, 86

Safety First, 22

Santon Les, 86

Scrapbook for 1922, 6*. 23, 115

Scarface. 99

Searchlight on the Nations, 33

Seeds of Destiny, 96

Shadows over Snow. The, 86

Shephard's Spring, 34

Slavitza, 86

Sleeping Village, 91

Smoke Menace, The, 82

Song of Ceylon. 6, 34, 38, 44, 58, 99

Small Voice, The, 114

Song of Russia, 32

Splendour, 69

Spring in Park Lane. 101

Star and the Sand, 96

Stars Look Down, The, 96

Steps of the Ballet, 86, 92»,

Storv of Penicillin, 76

String of Beads. A., 6*. 24

Swan. The. 22

Take Thou, 26

Tale in a Teacup. 6*

Target for Tonight. 9, 99

Tear, The, 112,

Teeth of Steel, 95

T' for Teacher, 6*

Their Great Adventure. 74

These Three, 69

They Travel by Air. 42*

They Also Serve, 82

Third Dimension. 7*

'■
'

■

113

•. - . - -

■ ^rVPU.; ■'■

a~

New gas industry films

Three new educational films have been added to the British Gas
Council Film Library — 'Creatures of Comfort.' 'It comes from
CoaV and ''Three Men Made History.' The first deals with the
scientific aspects of heating and ventilating the home, the second
shows why coal is a priceless raw material and the third deals his-
torically with Matthew Boulton, one of the founders of Industrial
Britain. The first and last-named films are accom-
panied by notes for teachers. These films together
with 20 others, including transference of heat
specially designed for classroom use, are offered on
free loan. All films are listed and described in the
catalogue available on application to

BRITISH GAS COUNCIL, I, GR0SVEN0R PLACE, LONDON, S.W.I

Visit tin- Nation's Wealth Exhibition
1 Crosvenor PI. ice. London, S.W I

^ — H^^— -^-^^_^^ O.uh 10 a. at. to 6 p.m

- — -JJ2 -^_ Admission tree

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

123

This is Britain No. 30, lis*
Thoroughbreds for the World. 2r>
Three Dawns to Sydney. 102. I 13
Those Blasted kids. 9 I
Toad, The. 113

Tomorrow s Ctizcns. 7*. IS. 2S
Town Rats. 42*
Trade Tattoo. I 13
Triple Boogie. I 12
Trespasser. The. 69
Tugboat Annie, 69
Tukaram. 56
usilava. 1 1 3

Uber Uns Die Himmel. SI
Under The City, 68
Unter Die Brucke. 38
Upturned Glass, The. 21
Vain Bear. The. 86

(3) NAMES OF PEOPLE

Names printed in the COI Report, page 55.
Films shown in Edinburgh pp. 105-108. and
Jilnn produced in September, October and
November have been omitted. Signed
articles, letters and reviews are indicated
by an asterisk

Abady, 9

Abel, C, 76

Ackroyd. S.. 6. 85*

Adamson. M. A . 14

Ahmad Abbas. K., 56'

Ainlev. R.. 74

Albers, H.,51

Alexander, D.. 6, 21, 68*. 87. 88*

Alexander, W„ 39*

Alexandrov. 95

Allen. J.. 42

Allen. Lady. 120

Allister. R., 117

Alwvn. \\ . 9. 42. 44. 118

Amado, 89

Amsor, J., 30

Andersen, H. 24

Anderson, M., 6, 82

Anderson, D.. 60. 119

Andrews. D.. 69. 118

Anstey. E.,4*. 14. 33. 68. 82

Applebaum, 28

Aquinas, St T., 101

Aragon, L., 86

Arnheim. R.. 116

Arnot-Robertson, E., 86

Asquith. A., 21, 120

Attlee. C, 37

Auden, W. H..99

Aylmer, F., 67

Bacon, F . 32

Baily, L., 6

Balcon, M.. 14. 21, 85

Balk. T., 88

Balasz. B., 89

Barnett, I., 18

Barber. D. M., 19

Barcy, von, 51

Bara. T.,'69'

Barnard. E.G.. 120

Barnes. G., 69

Barrault. J. L.,4. 86. 102

Batchelor. J.. 18, 54

Bathos, H., 11, 24

Baylis, P., 6, 23.92*, 115

Ba/in. A., 83

Beales, M., 6. 21

Beadle. S. 92

Beaverbrook, Lord, 117

Bech. 88

Beddington, J., 38. 77*

Belfrage. B . 19

Bell. G . 116

Bell, L.. 119

Bellon. Y.. 102

Bendick, J., 20

Bennell. D. G, 22*

Benjamin, A., 92

Bernes, J., 18

Beveridge, 28

Bishop, T., 6, 30

Blackburn, 28

Black. P.. 24*

Bohnen. R.. 69

Bonr. N.. 18 .

Boote. C, 31

Bond. R.. 31, 36V 75

Boswell, J . 2

Bossak, 88

Bouscrie, J . 14

Box. S., 2

Boyd Neel, 102

Bradford. P.. 99*

Brinson. P. Ill*

Britten. B.,9, 44

Brycc. M., 74

Burgoyne, Johnson J., 42

Burmcston, C . H>4

Bustamente, 43

Calder Marshall, A.. 96
(alder. R.,98

VI, 9

V for Victory, v2

Vegetable Insects, 60

\ ivere 80 Pace. 12

\.,..,- dI Malaya. 30*. II 1

Water Supply. 10, 3S

Was We 1 i>>-. [lie, i"
w.^ ol Ml Flesh, IIh-. 56
Waverlej Steps, rhe, 86 102. I H
Wealth of a Nation, 68
\\ e are the Railways, 1 1 I

We I IK Again. l>'>
Welt im Film. 3

Who Will reach your I bild! M9*

Whs m Fight, 95

Wicked Lady, The. 3

WiUI Elephant Round-lp. 22

W indmill in Barbados. '4

w uits over ili> I rnpi

World li Rich ITm ■ 2, 47. 7..

World oi Plenty, I

Worker anil W arlionl. I IS

World oi Paul Delrami ■•

World .,1 ( rssi.,1

\n inhering Heights, 69

>, ouni Housewife, I lie. 2 1
lour i hiidren i Meals, >l*

i our ( liililri-n ■, Sleep, 42*

Your ( hildreo'i lies. 76, 99

I our Inherit. in

Your \ <r% ( I Health, 34*

Zoo l>i Peira, 86

Zugvogel

Zwiscben Gestern I nd IVforgen, 59*

c ameron, K . 6. 15*. 20. 36*. 92

Camp. A.. 54

Cantor. I . l>9

Canti. R., 76. 104

Capck. G., 62

Capra. F.. 95

t arr. E., 7

Cavalcanti, A.. 9, 20. 34.45.95. 112

Caudwell, C, 111

Cauwter, J.. 118

Cavell, E., 37

Chaplin, C, 4, 34. 95

Chagrin. F.. 6

Cherkasov, 89

Chester, C, 93

Chesterton. G. K.. 94

Clair. R..95

Clarke. J. 48*

Cleinge. J.. 76

Coblans. H, 95

Cocteau, J., 4, 76

Cockcroft. 18

Cochran, C. B . 43

Cole. S. 21

Collins. N.. 43. 120

Colman, R., 69

Conan-Doyle. A., 117

Comingore, D.. 81

Cork. T.. 67*

Cortot, A.. 102

Crawley, 102

Crawley. B., 28

Crawlher, B. J., 60*

Creech Jones, 2

Cross. J.. 2

Crowley, A.. 2

Cullcn. P.. Ill

Curthoys, J., 26, 74

Curtis, M., 6

Curwen, P., 6

Dando. G.. 12
Davis. B . 71
Davies, J., 118
Davidson, J. D., 82
Deane. M., 86
Dekeukelaire, C 76
Densham, D., 30
Dickenson, T., 21
Disney. W, 21. 118
Donat, R.. 43
Doushenko, 83
Dragesco, 98
Duck. D . 60
Dupont. J., 83
Duncan. K., 88
Dunning. G , 21
Durden, J. V., 76

Eckman, S., 12

Edison. T., 117

Edwards. Sir I., 38

I isler. H.. 71

Eisenstcin, 95

Eldridge. J.,6, 102

Elliot, J.. 54

Ellit, J . 1 13

Elton, A., 3*. 14, 17, 82, 87. 104. 112*. 120

Elton. R.. 30

Emmett, E., 96

Engels, 111

Erulker. S..92

Evans. H. 6, 115

Fairthorne, R., 1 16
Farnum, W., 69
Fell. 14
Fergusson, S. G.. 18

45*
Filho. P. D.. 29

Flaherty. R , 74. 82. 85. 87. 95. 102
Flack, j.,6

Fletcher. P.. 6, 24*. 30. 54
Ford. J.. 58
Forman, C, 35*. 104
Freedman, C.. 30
French. Sir H . 38. 75. 120
I riese-Green, 1 17
Fritsch. W., 51
Fuller. W . 120
Fursc, R., 67

Gaillard, 9

Gardiner, R„ 23

Gardner, P. A., 60

George, G., 69

Gesell, A., 19

Gilbert, L., 8

Goebbels, J.. 3, 51

Goldwyn, S., 69, 81

Goldschmiut. 1 . 101

Golightly, J., 82

Goodman. 14

Goodliffe, F.,42

Gopal, R.. 92

Gottschalk, 51

Gould-Marks, L.. 19

Goulding, E., 69

Graham, A. S., 31

Grayson, D., 19

Grey, G, 69

Grierson. R, 82

Grierson, J . 2. 14. 15. 16. 26. 28*. 45. 58.

60. 64, 68. 82, 87*. 97. 98. 104. 1 12
Griffin, F. R., 22
Griffith, W., 38
Griffith. D. W , 68
Guardia, F. La. 5. 64
Gunn, G., 6
Guthrie, T., 86

Hackluyt. 32
Haesaerts. L.. 76, 104
Haesaerts, P., 76
Halas, J., 18, 54
Hall, H., 118
Hankinson, M.. 6
Harper Nelson, J., 26
Harris, J., 16*
Harris. J., 59*
Harris, S. W., 62
Harrison. 50
Hardy, F., 87. 102
Hawes, S., 68
Hay. W.. 82
Hayworth, R. 61
Helpmann, R.. 92, 94
Henessey, P . 54
Henning- Jensen, R.. 86. 1 13
Hess. M.,9
Hill, F., 120
Hitchcock. A., 114
Hoare, F., 38
Holman. J. B., 19
Hollingsworth, J., 6
Holmes, J. B., 19
Homes. W . 113
Hopkinson, P., 96
Horner. H. 69
Howard. A., 92
Howells, J.. 92*
Hon. J., 120
Hudson, E., 30
Hughes. H . 10, 38, 75
Hughes, A., 104
Huxley, G., 34
Huxley. J.. 17
Huxley, J.. 68

Inglis. R.. 20
Innes, G.. 79
Ivens. J., 88

Jackson, A. Y . 22
Jackson, S.. 28. 119
Jackson. I

Jeakins, A. J . 19, 42, 92
Jennings. H.. 68, 96
Joliol-Curic, 18
Jones, (■ \ . 12*
Jones J 19
Johnstone, E.. 15

K.uitner. II . I, 18, SI

Kaye, D I
Kccnc. R 6
Kemp. (. M.. 60*
Kcnm. 14
Kerte

Kettlcwell. K . 21
Khan. > . HI
. i 120

King, T . 14
Ki/cr. 64
Klcitman. I 16
Klos. 1
Klencrman. I
Koenig. I. . 69*
Korda, Sir A.. I. 21
Komgold, J., 104

Lambert Williamson. W., 42

Langlois, s li it

Larkins, w m 6

Lautour, C. U., 6, 31

I aundcr. 1 . 21

Law. R. 30

Lean, D , 21

Lee. J. 96

Lee. L.. 6. 9

Legg. S . 28, 34, 45. 68

1 egg. M..68

Leigh. W., 34, 44

Leslie, E., 12

Levitt, W., 102

Lewenhak. H. K . 44

Lie. T.. 37

Lindsay. D.. 86

Little K.. 110*

Lloyd. B., 116

I lovd. II , 22

Lods, J.. 83

Loose, P., 98

London, K., 71

Luke. F. R..95

Lutyens, E.. 6, 30

Lye. L.. 21. 112

Macdougal. R.. 6
Macdermott, R . 31

Macgregor, S., 92

Macleod, J.. 96*

Mackie, P., II, 24, 58*

Mackenzie. J.. 30

Madill. J.. 26

Maddison. J., 76* 96. 98* 104. 1 16*

Manvell, R . 20. 87

Mander, K.. 66

M use. II . 10

Marx. K., 28
Marlow. C . 32
Marlowe, 50
Marshall, S. H.. 38
Marshall. K.. 66
Marais. W. D, 96
Mary. K . 101
Massingham. R , 42
Massinc, L , 94

Massy, J-. 42
Mathieson. M..9. 92
Mauro. II . 2><
May. i

Mayne. D.. 18
Mayer, R . 51

M I lire... N., 21, 15, 52*, i 13, 119
McK.,\. J . 21
McGonigle. Dr. I IS
Mclean. R . 45. 58. 96
M in, 2S
Mclean, <■• . 64*
McPhcrson. A . 101
"Mcllor, J . IS
Melson, s . ll2
Mentarn. II
Menuhin, Y . 102

Mert/. \ . I 12

Michotte, 76. 1 16

Milncr-< i.irdner. \ '•
Miller. I) .96

Miatri, K

Mitchell. M
Mitrs

Mis, I

M i iiighlin, R . 73

M re. I . M

i 120
\i I

Mullen. P . '4
Mullen H

Mulholland. n . 60

Muml.

Mu

124

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

16mm. and 35mm. SOUND
Sponsored by

EVANS MEDICAL SUPPLIES LTD

Distributed by

CENTRAL FILM LIBRARY

Descriptive brochure from

Publicity Manager

EVANS MEDICAL SUPPLIES LTD

Spcke, Liverpool 19

214-7 4IH8

Neame, R., 21
Neergaard, E., 104
Neiter, H. M., 48
Noble, P., 71
Nonflam, N., 11*, 24
Norris, H. E., 12, 96*

Oakley, C, 87
O'Flaherty, R., 34
Olivier, L., 67
Orr, Sir J. B., 5, 32, 37
Oreanu, S., 78
Oswald, J. W.,46

Page, J., 18

Painleve, J., 88, 98, 104
Parker, J., 18
Parker, C, 47
Parker. J. B., 60
Parsons, D., 116
Partington. R., 58*. 83*
Peake, H . 21
Pearson, S., 14
Pearson, 87
Peddie, I., 120
Percival, O, 42
Perski, L., 88
Pick, F., 101
Pinto, R., 29
Piriev, 89
Plautus, 93
Plaskitt, P., 54
Powell, D., 120
Powell. M., 21, 94
Poulenc, F.. 114
Prechner, L, 1 1
Pressburger, E., 94
Priestley, J. B , 17
Pritchett, V. S., 30
Pryce-Lewis, O., 96
Pudovkin, 29. 95

Rabkin, L.. 95

Radcliffe, Sir C, 120

Raleigh, W., 32

Rank, J. A., 1, 2, 73. 75

Rathburn, 119

Rautenfeld, A. von, 17*, 31, 60

Ray, 64

Read, N.,96

Reed, C, 21

Reeve, L., 118

Reeves, M., 60*. 66

Reid, C. 2

Reiningerr, L., 6

Renoir, J., 58

Reynolds, R., 76, 116

Ritchie, J., 19

Road, S., 6, 38*, 76

Road, S., 76

Roberts, T., 42

Romm, 89

Rooks, 64

Roosevelt, F., Ill

Roos, K., 112

Roos, J., 112*

Rossellini, R., 32, 49, 50, 58, 86, 87. 102,

111
Rotha. P., 2, 5, 19, 21, 32, 34, 47, 58, 87, 1 18
Rubens, 102
Russel-Roberts, 12
Rutherford, Lord, 18

Sachs, P., 6
Sadoul. G.. 83
Sainsbury, F. , 82
Sanders, G., 101
Santis, G. da, 83
Santos, R., 89
Sansubin, O. B., 30
Scellen, J., 45
Schary, D., 32
Schemke, 1., 113
Schonberg, 71
Scliar, 89
Scobie, A., 42
Seiber, M., 18
Seong, L. M., 30
Seneca, 93
Shattuk, R., 116
Shaw, G. B.,4
Shaw, A., 9*, 92
Shah Jehan, 9
Shakespeare, W., 32, 93
Shand, D., 118
Shearer, M., 94
Shearman, J., 32, 84*
Shears, R., 42
Shephard. 1 ... 100*
Sorthall, D., 30

Simmons, J., 67
Skot-Hansen, 1 12
Slater, Dr, 14
Smith, B.,42, 82
Smith, G„ 95
Smith, P., 104
Snagge, J., 6
Somen ille, H., 31, 42
Spoor, A., 40*
Spice, E., 45, 60
Stanford, B., 19, 98, 116
Stevenson, FL, 92
Stewart, D., 116
Stein, G., 102
Still, G., 6. 54
Stoney, G., 89
Storch, O., 98
Storck. H., 76, 86, 102
St John, A., 69
Strange, B., 29*
Strasser, B., 31. 42
Sucksdorff, 102
Summers, D., 18
Sussex, J., 58*
Suschitzky, W., 6, 21
Swanson, G., 69
Swinburne, A., 113
Swingler, H., 6, 54
Swingler, R., 30

Tallents, Sir S., 14
Talbot, K.., 18
Tanner, P., 30
Taylor, J., 19. 31, 34, 82
Taylor, S. 120
Tharp, G., 6
Thorn, 10
Thomas, J., 115
Thompson, J. J., 18
Thompson, M., 19
Toeplitz, G., 88
Toland, G„ 69, 80
Train, J., 18
Trench, T.. 30
Tree, D.,42
Tritton, R., 66*
Trouncer, C 74
Trumper. J.. 6. 1 14*
Tunnah, 22
Tweedsmuir, Lady, 120

Urban, C, 76

Vasconcellos. H. S. de, 29
Velibelova, 88
Vedres, N., 87, 102
Verne, J., 117
Vernaillen, 89
Vesselo, I., 14. 116
Vicas, V.. 96
Vigo, J., 58, 76, 102

Wallace, G., 17, 27*, 31

Walton, W.,9

Wall, Sir R., 38

Walbrook, A., 94

Walker, P. G., 98

Warrack. G.. 18, 30. 54

Ward, B . 37

Watt. H.. 21.95

Waterhouse. J. 42

Watson, Watt. Sir R., 104

Waxman. H., 19

Weisenborn, 28

Weine. R . 95

Wells, F.. 18

Wells, W.. 64

Wells. W. H.. 96*

Welles, O.. 81

Wheeler, G. L., 26

White, E., 120

Whitbv, C. 66

Whitehall, R. E.. 32*, 45

Williams. E., 115

Williams, D. M., 18

Williams, G . 31, 38

Williamson. L.. 6

Wilson. H.. 1. 62, 75

Wilson. N.. 87, 102

Wilkinson. D. H.. 18

Wilkinson, J. B.. 63

Winninizton. R.. 2.96

Winther. R . 112

Woolfe, H. B . 38. 76

Wright. B . .'4. 51*, 68, 82*, 87. 88*, 95,

102*
Wright, Bros. 44
Wynn. G.. 74
Zsigmondy, 88

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K i

\ /

The Scottish critics, who should know, praise 'Waverley Steps' as a
human and authentic film.

Some of the London critics have written about it in equally glowing
terms.

The film cost half as much as one would imagine from the results on
the screen.
See it for yourself.

The film is produced by Greenpark Productions, whose artists, direc-
tors and craftsmen have given you 'A String of Beads', 'Five Towns',
'They Gave Him the Works', 'Cyprus is an Island', and many more.
There are many more to come.

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(Members ol the Association ol Specialized Film Producers)

THE SHENVAL PRESS, LONDON AND HERTFORD

UDnrtr t

THE MU8IUM
OF MODERN ART

Received:

DO CU MENTARY

INCORPORATING DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER

JANUARY 1 949

ONE SHILLING

f 1

the Film
the Future
and You

Not only the future of the Cinema itself, but its
incalculable influence on the future of society, are
largely in the hands of those whose faith in the film
is taking an active form today. The British Film
Institute offers one effective means of focusing
constructive opinion on the Cinema's development
— and the force of its arguments is directly related,
of course, to the strength of its membership.

It is the British Film Institute which has pioneered
the educational use of films, which maintains the

ever growing National Film Library, and which keeps
film enthusiasts in fifty countries in touch with one
another and with the Cinema's cultural progress. To
be a member of the Institute costs two guineas a
year. In return you gain the satisfaction of taking a
positive part in raising film standards, and tangible
advantages in the form of free monthly and other
publications — Sight and Sound is one of them — and
reduced rates for the hire of films from the National
Film Librarv. Please write for full information to

THE BRITISH FILM INSTITUTE

164 SHAFTESBURY AVENUE ■ LONDON W.C.2

AN INDEPENDENT ORGANISATION FINANCED THROUGH H.M. PRIVY COUNCIL

DOCUMENTARY film liVUS

OL. 8 NO. 71 JAN ll>-W

EDITORIAL BOARD

STEPHEN ACKROYD
DONALD ALBXAND1 R
MAX ANDERSON
EDGAR ANSTEY
GEOFFREY BELL

KEN CAMERON
PAUL FLETCHER
SINCLAIR ROAD
GRAHAME THARP
BASIL WRIGHT

EDITOR

GEORGE SEAGER

CONTEXTS

This month's cover still is from Trained to Serve

-ilm in Educational and Social Life
Dilys Powell

ilm Society Movement in Australia
Malcolm Otton

lealist Tradition in Italian Films
R. E. Whitehall

Documentary in Germany

r\n American Film

The Film in Society

No Matter of Black and White
George Stoney

slew Documentary Films. .

ientlemen's Agreement . .

estiva! 1951

Correspondence

2-4

5

6

7
7

9

10

12

Published every month by
I ilm Centre •*! 1 *nlio Si|. London \\ I

ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION 125. SINGLE COPIES Is.

BRITISH FILM CRISIS

Scene I. Wardour Street

H \Kiii i) Wii son:

The industry has been having financial crises throughout
its history.

Daily I ii \i Renter:

Really though, this parrot cry of crisis is a bit wearying.

Harry Mears (CEA):

The only things that can save us are a revision of entertain-
ment tax, and a reduced quota, or better still, book British
films on their merits.

Sir Alexander Kord\ :

The Scottish critics, who should know . . .

Today's Cinem \

One is tempted to wonder how Mr Wilson feels now, about
the ill-advised policies he has adopted for the film industry
— policies which have alienated American goodwill, and
have resulted in diminishing markets elsewhere.

British Hi i m Producers' Association
The Quota can be filled.

Sydney Wynne (Rank PRO):

[f you looked at the national Press, you would think the
British Film Industry was a corpse.

Studio Workers :

Representatives of the ten studios now open met on Sunday
and called for a new public relations policy from the unions
to supply the true facts of the film crisis to the public.

Daily Film Renter:

One way and another, labour is ruling the roost — o
least, trying to.

{Cinematograph Weekly:

Mr Wilson told delegates ol the studio union on I uesda\
that he had plans to assist the immediate financial problems
of producers through private channels of finance.

\ IOCIATION OF ClNl I I i HNN I VNS

We asked Mi Wilson to commandeer two studios and make

then available to independent producers, while making
Sure that the\ receive distribution and exhibition facilities

Daii y Film Renter:

I he question ol nationalization was raised several times, but
was ignored bj the President ol the Board ol Trade

Ai i 1 1 Kcepl M I

( ioody, ( ioodj

EXEUN1

DOCUMENTARY FILM \KV\S

Film in Educational and Social Life

By DILYS POWELL

it was, 1 believe, the Duke of Wellington
who, faced with the development of the Eng-
lish railway system, opposed the movement
on the grounds that it would encourage the
poor to wander aimlessly about from place to
place. Today we move about aimlessly, no
doubt, and a great deal faster than in Wel-
lington's time. But when I say, repeating a
truism, that we live in an age of speed. I
mean not simply that transport is quicker
and communication more abrupt than ever
before. I do not mean simply that we have
made it possible to project high explosives
farther and faster, or that atomic fissure has
made the old diplomatic methods of pre-
senting an ultimatum appear delightfully
leisurely. 1 mean that the pace of discovery,
development and superannuation in the
world of ideas itself has acquired a new haste.
Even memory is shorter : quicker to forget.
It is almost exactly seven years to the day
since the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour
and the opening of the first great Russian
offensive which drove the Germans from
Moscow. But we forget : memory can only
with difficulty recapture the emotions of
those huge days. So much has intervened : so
many crises, such fabulous experience. 'The
world is so full of a number of things, I'm
sure we should all be as happy as kings.'
The world is so full of a number of things
that the mind refuses to accept them. In this
age of speed in change the mind feels the
need to protect itself, to preserve some kind
of stability by forgetting, sometimes by
ignoring. Four centuries ago the curious and
subtle Montaigne found humanity elusive,
changeable, diverse. In the twentieth century
the human individual is the stable, the
changeless factor.

This world of change and speed has been
a bad nursery for the artist. The new insta-
bility of the framework of society was recog-
nized a quarter of a century ago and more by
T. S. Eliot, when in The Waste Land he
described a civilization rusting away under
the influence of uncertainty and disbelief.
Eliot was to return to a system of religious
belief; since Eliot some of the more confident
spirits among younger poets have tried to
find conviction in the very change which sur-
rounded them, to elicit the material of poetry
from the physical imagery of the slag-heap
and the turbine. The attempt was, one feels,
looking back at the 'thirties, unhappy; and
nearly all that is valuable in the poetry of
our time has proceeded from a revolt against

the form and pressure of the age. But for
the cinema, that upstart arrogant art. the air
of change has been life itself. It is in change
that the cinema has grown and flourished,
and of change that it has been a manifesta-
tion. Nothing has been more mutable than
the cinema with its suddenly shining and
suddenly vanishing stars and its films out of
date in a decade. And nothing has been
more indicative of mutability than the
development of this popular pleasure.

Less than three years ago we were cele-
brating the fiftieth birthday of the films.
Two years ago we remembered that the
sound film, the talking picture which we
accept without question, was only twenty
years old. The vast majority of those who go
to the cinema today — since the films are
the pleasure of the young rather than the old
or the middle-aged — have never seen a silent
film. They take it for granted that the shadows
on the screen will speak and bang doors, and
that love-making will be accompanied by full,
invisible orchestra. Even those who remember
the silent film — which itself advanced from
the accompaniment of a single pianist rattling
off Mendelssohn's Spring Song or Chopin's
Funeral March to the splendour of a full
team in the orchestra pit — even they take for
granted the elaborate technique of the con-
temporary motion picture. Yet the thing has
grown in a man's lifetime. Fifty years ago or
less the film was a fair-ground turn, a peep-
show. Literally a peep-show: relics still
persist on Brighton Pier, where the slot-
machines will show you primitive films of
dancing girls and similar delights; I do not
guarantee that you will see what the butler
saw, but you will see something very like it.
In my childhood the cinema had escaped
from the peep-show, but it was still treated
with small respect : it served, for instance, as
a last turn in the music-hall. One went to
Boscombe Hippodrome to see Marie Lloyd
or George Lashwood; the audience trooped
out to the accompaniment of a vaguely
flickering news film. You can judge how im-
mense the change since then in social status.
Today we have a National Film Library
and a Royal Command Film Performance;
and the cinema enjoys the serious attention
of the Royal Society of Arts.

In half a century, then, we have made an
honest woman of the cinema; though there
are a few people left protesting that the
woman is still fallen; not so long ago 1 was
honoured with a tract assuring me that films

were red with ruin. The reformers speak, I
take it, of the fiction film, not of the docu-
mentary or instructional cinema; unless, of
course, they ha\e discovered indelicacy in the
glimpses, admirably offered in this country
by educational film-makers, into the pn\ate
life of the fern, the stickleback or the liver
fluke. No doubt of it, the reformers are right
to concentrate on the film made, not for
instruction, but for fun. The documentary
and educational film has grown out of recog-
nition during these last twenty years; in this
country it reachesalargeandagrowingpublic.
But it forms only a fraction of the cinema as
a whole; its influence cannot equal the in-
fluence of the fantasies, brilliant and allur-
ing, which draw queues night after night,
week after week, to theatres rightly called,
in the old days, picture palaces. The influ-
ence of the fiction film is upon the whole
public, or nearly the whole public : listen in
a crowd, in a train, in a bus, and sooner or
later you will hear the conversation turn to
the piece at the Odeon or the Granada. And
I think it will not be out of place, in this brief
consideration of the development of the film
in educational and social life, to look back
for a moment over the moods and the themes
of the popular cinema.

The producer's difficulty has always been
to find subjects enough to satisfy the public
longing for a story, and it is only natural that
the screen writer should spend much of his
time at the library sheUes. In the earh \ears
of the cinema literary originals, from the
classics downwards, provided plots for one-
reel films; Parsifal was rattled off in less
than ten minutes, and so were Dr Jekyll and
Mr Hyde, Uncle Tom's Cabin and As You
Like It. Those were the days of the cinema's
innocence, when emotions were simple and
morals clearly defined. We were to wait forty
years or so for the advent of schizophrenia,
which today explains all and excuses all. And
when the first and greatest of all the creatne
artists in the cinema began to make himself
felt, when the American D. W. Griffith
began directing the vast panoramic films
which taught the world to take the cinema
seriously, the morals ot the screen were still
Victorian morals, dominated, like the novels
of Dickens, by simple concepts of courage,
loyalty, love, tenderness.

In the decade which followed the grand
period of Griffith, other concepts were influ-
encing the screen, and. through the screen.
the millions who by the 'twenties were going

■

:

The development of the Film in Educational and Social Life is the Peter Le Neve Foster lecture,
given by Miss Dilys Powell to the Royal Society of Arts, by whose permission this article is printed.

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

"

to the cinema. Already during the 1914 [918
war Theda Bara had created a new film tj pe
—the vamp. By 1919, Cecil B. DeMille was

remarking: "The ruined woman is as out of
style as the Victorian who used to faint';
and in the years after the war a sophisticated
and cynical view of sex temporarily super-
seded the romantic view. It would be rash
to claim that the sophistication of the films
in this period had an\ very great direct in-
fluence on behaviour. But the screen, which
acquired early in its life a remarkable sensi-
tiveness to popular moods and fashions, by
reflecting certain current ideas helped to
make them known to a vast public. It would,
1 think, be lair to say that the screen familiar-
ized audiences li\ing remote from capital
cities with metropolitan shades of feeling.

Yet in spite of this note of cynicism in the
films of the 'twenties the cinema retained to
the end of the silent period its basic inno-
cence. The great comedians of the 'twenties
— Charles Chaplin, Harold Lloyd, Buster
Keaton — spoke, without a word said, the
universal language of fun. Those were the
days when a good film was a good film for
everybody. No division had been set up
between the highbrow and the popular
audience ; nobody was too smart to enjoy the
cowboy exploits of Tom Mix. 1 must not
fall into the trap of talking about the cinema
as if it were a purely American creation. By
the second half of the "twenties the work of
Continental directors was leaking into this
country : French realism, German express-
ionism, Swedish landscape-painting, and,
presently, the troubling revolutionary furies
of the Russians. But, if we are to consider
the cinema as an element in English social
life it is mainly to the output of America
that we must look — mainly, that is, until we
come to the 1940s, to the renaissance of our
native cinema and the revivifying influence
of the documentary style. The suffocation of
British films during the 1914-1918 war and
after is an old, sad story. 1 need not recount
here the stages by which American films came
to occupy, to the exclusion, almost, of every-
thing else, British screens; nor is this the
occasion to enumerate the attempts at legis-
lation for the benefit of British film-makers
in the home market. Todav . twenty years or
so after the first suggestions of a quota for
British films, our native industry has reached
yet another economic crisis. But today at
least we can see films which reflect, however
crudely, the life of our own people. For a
quarter of a century audiences from Land's
End to John O'Groats looked, when they
went to the cinema, at the American scene :
American cities, clothes, habits. For more
than a decade they listened to American
speech and American idiom. In all that time
a boy or girl in a manufacturing town m the
north or a market town in the south might
well have had a cleaier idea of New York or
Chicago than of London.

The influence of films on popular habits
and ideas increased with the addition of

sound to the silent shadows of photography.
And with the loss of silence the innocent age
of the cmema ended. Henceforward the
screen was to speak with undertones of
knowledge, good and evil. The simple,
naive poetry of love and courage was gone,
never to return; speech had introduced new
complexities into the interpretation of life
and character. We have all fell at tunes how
basely the cinema has betrayed its oppor-
tunities for the rendering of the human
scene. But it is fatally easy to be pompous
about the films: to complain about their
vulgarity, their silliness, their frequent bru-
tality, and to forget that, simply because
the cinema is ubiquitous and powerful,
it is apt to be judged more harshly than
the popular manifestations of the other
arts. The critics of social influences never
think to read the thousands of bad and vul-
gar novels; they ignore what is odious in the
newspapers; their attack is concentrated
almost wholly on the cinema. Yet humanity
fell now and then into error before the in-
vention of the cinema; and, indeed, much as
1 personally shrink from the savagery of
many a gangster film, I should hesitate to
recommend in its place one of those pleasant
outings, popular with our ancestors, to a
public hanging.

One must beware, too, of over-estimating
even so minor a part of the cinema's influence
as its effect on fashions and manners. In the
United States, it seems, direct imitation of
the film star is widespread; when Norma
Shearer played Juliet, millions of American
women appeared in jewelled caps; when the
English film of Pygmalion was shown,
American shop-girls brushed up their society
manners by reading what a public library
called 'books Eliza should have read'—
books such as Well- Bred English and Give
yourself Background. When Clark Gable, in
// Happened One Night, disclosed the fact
that he wore no undershirt, "the sale of
masculine underwear', says Margaret Thorp
in that excellent book America at the Movies,
declined so sharply immediately afterwards
that knitwear manufacturers and garment
workers' unions sent to the producers asking
them to take out the scene'. The English are
less sensitive about their underwear or,
indeed, their overwear: at any rate I have
not heard that the demand in this country
for frilled shirts was appreciably altered by
the appearance of James Mason in The Man
in Grey, Yet, no doubt of it, the movies do
affect mass fashions. I for one can see little
harm in an influence which persuades young
women to brush their hair more often and
keep themselves, as the advertisers have it,
neat about the ankles.

I may seem to be dwelling on the social
consequences of the popular film when I
might devote mv time to discussing more
solemn and perhaps worthier material. But
thirty million tickets or thereabouts arc
bought for the cinema in Britain ever) week ;
and to the buyers the cinema does not mean

the documentary film, nor the newsreel, nor
The March of Time, nor This Woden

even though one learns with gratification
that this British series of inquiries into
political, economic and controversial sub-
jects has a growing public. In London and in
one or two provincial cities the t ontinental
cinema has a small adoring audience. But to
the shop-girl, the mill-hand, the office-
worker, to the boy or the girl just leaving
school to earn a living, the cinema means
Danny kave and Margaret Lockwood, it
means Rita Hayworth and Abbott and
Costello, Stewart Granger and Humphrev
Bogart, Lana Turner and Bmg Crosby, Bi
Hope and Dorothy Lamour; it means
romance, colour, excitement and an escape
from the fog, the bus-queue and the gas-ring.

Players such as these, figures seen only as
shadows on the brilliantly-lit rectangle at the
end of the auditorium, are sharply real to
those who go often to the cinema ; there are
times when they seem more real than Mr
Attlee. They have become part of the fabric
of life. The impact of their imaginary adven-
tures may be superficial. Yet the fantasies
which they create, fantasies of love and
death, fantasies of wealth, romance and the
underworld, are in their cumulative effect
more powerful even than those serious and
realistic films which now and then, bragging
a little, edge on to the universal screen. For
the cinema of entertainment has its serious
moments : more than is commonly conceded ;
now and then there even emerges some great
monument to human suffering and tenacity,
such as, before the war, The Grapes oj Wrath.
The Grapes of Wrath came to us from
America; Hollywood still sends us now and
then some essay in controversial fiction, a
Gentleman's Agreement perhaps. I believe
myself that the moral influence of these
openly didactic fictions is small, and that
anyone already blind enough and stupid
enough to be, say, anti-Semitic will not he-
converted by Cross-Fire — which belongs to
the same controversial group as Gentleman's
Agreement. But the mention of these titles.
with their reminder of the present attempt
in Hollywood to set against the pure fantasy
of the musical film the solid and occasionally
savage realism of the message-film, brings
me to a crux in the social history of the
cinema; the emergence and the influence of
the documentary film.

In the period of the silent cinema, pro-
grammes were often padded out b> what
were known as interest films; films, that is
to say, whose distinguishing quality was that
they were not interesting. Anybody who fre-
quented the films in those far-off days will
remember the interminable trips through
meaningless landscape, the busy little lingers
making useless articles, the coolies hacking
away in fields full of puddles, it was not until
well on in the 'twenties that the film of" fact,
transformed into what we now call the
mental v. made a genuine and excitin,
tribulion to the cinema medium in Butain.

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

For the sources of the contemporary docu-
mentary we must look not to the interest
film but to the work in America of Robert
Flaherty and to the Russian cinema, which,
bursting on an affrighted world, taught a
young Scot, JohnGrierson, among others that
the ordinary man, living and working, was in
himself heroic and his work in itself
exciting.

So much that is valuable has been said and
written about the development of the docu-
mentary film in this country — I recall in
particular a lecture delivered before the
Royal Society of Arts by Sir Stephen Tallents
himself- that I should be tedious were I to
go over the ground again. Today the farmer,
the cook, the doctor, the engineer, the
naturalist can learn from the factual film; he
can assimilate new methods and involved
techniques through this visual medium ;
he can learn about the behaviour of butter-
flies and the workings of blood transfusion ;
he can learn how to make steel, how to drive
a tank, even how to make short pastry. All
over the country specialized audiences are
grappling, helped by the instructional film,
with fresh ideas and techniques.

But when we come to look we see that the
triumph of the instructional film is a direct
result of the war we have just survived.
Modern war means that unskilled men and
women have to learn at speed highly skilled
trades; they have to learn the handling of
machinery, the working of engines of
destruction : the cinema can help them.
Modern warfare means that people have to
be persuaded to do things contrary to their
custom and their nature; they have to be
persuaded to part with their children, to
leave their homes, to eat unaccustomed food,
to accept unaccustomed guests. The need for
some instrument to perform these tasks of
persuasion as well as instruction gave the
cinema its chance. And, its powers once dis-
played, the film has held its place as a
weapon of propaganda and information. We
should, however, be belittling the functions
of the non-fiction film in society were we to
overlook a less tangible contribution.

In the 'thirties one or two documentary
producers began to experiment with a type
of film which, though its setting was fact,
permitted the intrusion of imagination into
character and story. North Sea, for instance,
made in 1938 by Cavalcanti and Harry
Watt: this story of the ship-to-shore radio
service off the north-east coast of Scotland
used trawlermen and radio operators as its
actors, but in its shaping of plot allowed it-
self an element of fiction. Extraordinary
things were to proceed, during the war, from
this marriage of fact and imagination : Target
for Tonight, Western Approaches, Fires
Were Started, Coastal Command, to name a
few: films with not only truth, not only
visual beauty, but also human warmth. The
documentary film in this country has not
always been free of pedantry. But there was
no pedantry in the portraits of the airmen in

Target for Tonight, none in the touching con-
versation piece in Fires Were Started, with
the firemen singing 'One man went to mow'
while they wait for the alarm call. And sud-
denly the audience which watched these
reflections, these reconstructions rather, of
the life around it — suddenly the audience
was united in a new understanding and
sympathy. Suddenly we were taken back to
those days of the cinema's innocence when a
good film was a good film for everybody.
And here, in my opinion, was the triumph of
the cinema in war-time. Education for a
limited object is important: education for
the professions or the crafts. It is important
to know about silage and smoke abatement ;
it may even be important to know how to
make short pastry. Education is the skeleton
of life: without it society collapses. But
society, like the human being, cannot persist
as a skeleton only. The story-documentaries
made in this country during the war brought
into the cinema the living breath.

All this — the documentary film in war-
time, the instruction in new techniques of
living, the crystallization of national senti-
ment in the group of fiction-documentaries,
the growth in short of what Grierson called
'the creative treatment of actuality' — is our
common experience. But in the age of speed
even the war years recede from memory,
dwindling and fading like a view seen from
the last coach of a train; meanwhile a new
generation grows up to which our common
experience has become dead history. I said
just now that the majority of those who go to
the cinema have never seen a silent film.
Millions today in this country will never
have heard of Target for Tonight. Target for
Tonight was made in 1941, and in the light-
ning life of the cinema seven years is a long
time. But the new cinema-generation are
going to the films in greater numbers, prob-
ably, than their parents before them. The
cinema has become a habit with children.
They go, of course, to the children's matinees,
where they see pieces of varying quality. Some
of the new entertainment films being made
for child audiences are very good: I do not
hope to see a more charming story of adven-
ture than Bush Christmas. The residue from
the past, on the other hand, is sometimes
deplorable: though I am not of the party
which believes that the cowboys-and-Indians
piece will necessarily breed a race of hooli-
gans. A riskier part in moral education, I
fancy, is played by the crude films of urban
violence which are to be seen in cinemas for
adults : films in which every argument is
settled with an automatic, and making an
arrest means shooting a man dead. The
whole question of the attendance of children
at cinemas is at present the subject of a
Government inquiry. In the meantime the
schools are concerning themselves with the
idea of turning the weapon of the cinema
to their own use.

The employment of the film as an instru-
ment of education within the school has been

a matter of slow growth in this country'. The
number of projectors in school use even so
lately as 1946 was comparatively small:
according to one estimate, seventeen hun-
dred silent projectors and four hundred
sound projectors: according to another, a
total of three thousand of all types. (Whether
the disparity in the estimates is to be
accounted for by the secrecy of the schools,
or by the deficient mathematical education
of the inquirers, I am not prepared to say.)
America is far ahead of us here : in Chicago
alone there are a thousand school film pro-
jectors, in New York eleven hundred. But
with the setting up of the National Com-
mittee for Visual Aids in Education a new
era has, presumably, begun. Teaching films
and films strips are produced, scrutinized
and used in increasing numbers : geography
films, films about natural history and the
crafts. Obviously this is laudable, since most
children learn more easily through their eyes
than through their ears; and I stand self-
condemned as a reactionary when I say that,
as an obstinately literary type, I am thankful
that my formal education is over. But even
my kind might have benefited by a little
visual aid in, say, geography, where the use
of the film as an adjunct to the text-book
might serve to correct, for example, the be-
lief, common in my youth, that the popula-
tion of modern Athens went about in white
nightdresses, caught, rather unbecomingly
for the full figure, high round the chest.

The cinema, then, is taking its place in
laying the foundations of education. Yet I
cannot help feeling that the film in schools
has other functions than to impart the
principles of, say, chemistry. If we look back
at the life of the other arts — for I persist in
regarding the cinema as an art — we find that
they existed for themselves before they were
put to alien practical uses. Or rather I should
say that they had their origin in humane
and religious needs before they became di-
dactic instruments. Man wrote poetry before
he began to use language as a means of
teaching algebra. The development of the
cinema has been so sudden that, almost
before it has established its right to existence
for its own sake, we are putting it to practical
uses. Well, it is to the good that the films
should be an instrument in a society which
needs more and more instruments. But 1
think we should not forget that, even w ithin
the circle of education, the cinema has a
right to be looked at for itself. We use
drawing to teach accuracy of eye, we use
language to teach geography. But we also
teach literature : in our more reckless moods
we even teach art. It is useless to complain of
the moral and social ill-effects of the cinema
if we do not ever suggest to children in the
schools, to the new generation of audiences,
that there are good films and bad, just as
there are good books and bad. In other w ords
I should like to see others follow the example
of certain enterprising and enlightened
continued on page 12

HOC I MINI \RV IT! M NEWS

Film Society Movement in Australia

by
MALCOLM OTTON

/when in 1940 John Grierson came to Australia
to strengthen Dominion ties on behalf of the
Imperial Relations Trust (and was sent, inci-
dentally, straight to see M(iM). there wasn't a
solitary Film Society in the length and breadth
of the continent.

In the State capitals, a small cinema screened
an occasional French film, a Kermesse Henrique
or a Cm net de But. the Post Office had a few
prints of the GPO Film Unit's documentaries,
but public taste for the staple fare of the English
Film Societies was yet to be awakened.

But the War years proved that Grierson's
suggestions did not fall on deaf ears. Stemming
from his talks with various Federal and State
Ministers, Documentary Film Committees were
set up in Canberra, Sydney, Melbourne. Ade-
laide and Brisbane. They were financed by the
Imperial Relations Trust, and immediately
proved that there was a lively demand for non-
fiction films in Australia. Though short of staff
and limited in funds, these State Film Centres
swiftly created a wide appreciation of the mani-
fold uses of 16 mm film. Today, financed by their
respective State Education Departments, acting
too as distributing agents for the National Film
Library established in Canberra in 1945, the
Centres are the axletrees of the Film Society
movement.

During the mid-war years, the spate of docu-
mentary films from Great Britain and America
rapidly widened the Australian non-theatrical
audience, and with the armed forces putting
16 mm to full use, there sprang up a vivid aware-
ness of the power of the cinema as a tool of social
criticism and educational construction.

1944 saw leader articles and national broad-
casts on Documentary, pioneered by A. K. Stout,
Chairman of the NSW Documentary Films
Committee and Professor of Philosophy at Syd-
ney University (late of the Fdinburgh Film
Guild), leading to the foundation of the first
Australian Film Society, the Sydney Workers'
Educational Association Film Group. Later that
year the Australian Film Society. (Victorian
Division) was set up in Melbourne, while early
in 1945 the Sydney Film Society was inaugurated.
Then a Society developed around the Canberra
Film Centre, several other cities followed suit,
and today there are between fifteen and twenty
full-time Australian Film Societies in action,
with more in process of formation — apart, of
course, from countless groups centred around
Parents' and Citizens' Associations, Trade
Union Clubs, and various social organizations
using narrow-gauge film for cultural and educa-
tional purposes.

From this brief flashback it is clear that the
Australian Film Society movement has a back-
ground quite different from that of the British
movement. Both are basically concerned with
screening the best available films, keen to give
screen-space to the new, the unusual and the
experimental in cinema. But here in Australia
the emphasis has been perforce upon the factual
rather than upon the fiction film.

Subscriptions, and funds, have always been
low, and the cost of importing Continental

features absolutely prohibitive. The few features
available have come from one or two small in-
dependent importers, or from the Russian Em-
bassy, which brought in such godsends as
Alexander Sevsky, and Mark Donskoi's The
Rainbow. But even if more 35 mm features were
available, very few Societies would benefit, as
the Projectionists' Union bans Sunday screen-
ings, and no cinema will consider one-night
stands except on exorbitant terms.

'Trade' opposition to the Film Societies in the
past has ranged from violent antagonism to
splenetic apathy, but in the past six months,
with the belated but financially successful im-
portation of a few such excellent productions as
Les Enfants du Paradis, Open City, Symphonie
Pastorale, and Les Visiteurs du Soir, two or three
managers are beginning to believe (we hope)
that the folk who enjoy 'foreign' films are neither
long-hairs, 'reffos' nor agents of a foreign
power, but normal adults with a bias against
stereotyped entertainment. 'The Trade' with-
holds all films, no matter how old, from the
Film Societies unless they can fulfil the im-
possible condition of screening them in a com-
mercial theatre under 'trade' conditions. Sixteen
millimetre prints of British features such as Odd
Man Out and Brief Encounter were recently im-
ported by one firm, but their distribution to
anyone except boarding schools, nunneries,
etc., was immediately banned by 'the trade'.
Inquiries made recently about 35 mm prints of
( 'itizen Kane and Grapes of Wrath met the reply
that all prints had been destroyed.

Sixteen millimetre then, bless its heart, has
proved and will continue to be the backbone of
the Australian Film Societies. Much may be lost,
we realize, in quality of sound and image, but
perhaps this is compensated for by the friendly
informality of Society screenings in the smaller
halls and clubrooms so suitable for 16 mm pro-
tection. Some country groups, isolated by hun-
dreds of miles, owe their entire existence to the
portable substandard projector and the low cost
of freight for its films. An attempt is now being
made by one or two commercial distributors to
build up rural circuits among backblock audi-
ences— this being a field which could be tilled
very fruitfully by the State Agriculture Depart-
ments.

Relations between the Australian Societies
are remarkably cordial, considering the long dis-
tances separating them and the natural rivalry
of the city groups to scoop the all-too-rare new
films. 1949 should see the establishment of a
Commonwealth Federation of Film Societies,
giving the movement an authoritative national
status. In Victoria and Tasmania the move is
afoot to set up State Federations, which will
collaborate, it is hoped, with the Canberra I ilm
Centre and the Federation of NSW Film
Societies.

This latter body, inaugurated earl) m 1948
after nearly a year's spadework by the Sydney

Film Society, now has some twelve full-time
Film Societies as members, and eight part-time
Film Groups as affiliates. A regular bulletin is in
production, a State Convention of Film Societies
with a weekend Summer School is on the calen-
dar later this year, and a representative, John
Heyer, Director of the new Shell Australian
Film Unit, has been appointed to the NSV\
Documentary and Educational Films Council.

That Australian Film Society members do not
join up merely to 'see something different' is
evident from these aims, taken from the federa-
tion Constitution:

'To secure representation on Government and
other Committees relating to films.'

'To improve the standard of commercial film
programmes for adults and children.'

'To increase the supply of films available to
Film Societies and to improve non-theatrical
film distribution generally.'

There is general appreciation on all Society
Committees of the importance of film as a mass
medium, and perhaps a brief survey of the
activities of that Society to which 1 belong, the
Sydney Film Society, will demonstrate the truth
of this.

The Society has two regular monthly screen-
ings which are advertised as a matter of policy
in the Press and open to the general public. A
monthly discussion group argues the merits and
techniques of films such as Sucksdorff's Rhythm
of a City or Jennings' Cumberland Story. A
monthly eight-page magazine with a rising cir-
culation of about 800 is printed (exchanges are
welcome), and a growing library of film books
is available to members. Last winter a course of
lectures on Film Production was held, among the
speakers being Stanley Hawes, Harry Watt, and
Geoffrey Bell. Social evenings are popular, and
discussion is encouraged at all screenings, where
distinguished visitors such as Eugene Goossens
or Ralph Smart are invited to speak. A Scientific
1 ilm Group died an untimely death last year, but
a production unit is now mooted; the Committee
is constantly conferring with educational and
cultural groups to further the appreciation of
film in the city. Annual subscription is £1, with
levy for the Federation, and concessions for
students and others under 2 1 .

Much encouragement and assistance has been
given to the Film Society movement, particularly
in NSW, by the United Kingdom Information
Ollice and the Canadian National Film Board,
which both have 16 mm film libraries, and ajso
by the British Council. The growing output of
Australian documentaries from the Film Divi-
sion of the Commonwealth Department of
Information, under Producer-m-C hief Stanley
Hawes, a colleague of Grierson's in Canada and
founder of the Birmingham et>. has

also given audiences considerable Uh\\

thought on home affairs \ spice of variety
comes on occasion, too, from the small collec-
tions of the I tench. C zech and Swedish c onsu-
lales

continued on p..

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

Realist Tradition in Italian Films

by
R. £. WHITEHALL

the spectacular rise of the Italian film indus-
try since the end of the war has been much
commented upon, but it has recently been sug-
gested by some writers that the flood of vital
films from Italy is in danger of drying up. This
suggestion is probably due to the financial dif-
ficulties of the Rossellini films, and the com-
mercial failure in Italy of Vittorio de Sica's
bitter Shoes/line, coupled with the box-office
success of some ponderous costume dramas
and arid comedies, from which it has been
deducted that the realism of so many Italian
films is not popular.

This, however, is not entirely a true picture;
il overlooks the success of a number of realis-
tic films; it does not take into account the
talents of such directors as Rossellini, Luigi
Zampa, or that group of Italian directors prac-
tically unknown in Britain — Ltichino Visconti,
Pietro Germi, Guiseppe de Santis, Duilo Coletti
— who work in a semi-documentary style; it
forgets the naturalistic talents of Aldo Fabrizi
or Anna Magnani; and it overlooks the pro-
duction programme of Lux Films.

This company. Lux, has been in the fore-
front in the use of factual backgrounds or semi-
documentary themes. Between 1945 and 1947
they produced To Live in Peace, Angelina MP
and An American on Leave, directed by Luigi
Zampa; Two Anonymous Letters by Mario
Camerini; Anna Magnani's two working-class
comedies, Down with Misery and Down with
Poverty, either of which might have come from
Chaplin; Alberto Lattauda's The Crime of Gio-
vanni Episcopo, wtih Aldo Fabrizi in the lead-
ing role.

Within the last year Lux have produced most
of the significant films of the period. Luigi
Zampa's Difficult Years is a human comedy
adapted from a short story by the playwright-
novelist Vitaliano Brancati, looking back over
twenty years of Fascist rule and the dangers
of compromise, treated in the manner of To
Live in Peace.

Mario Soldati's Flight into France is this
director's most successful film since Signor
Travet in 1946. Forgetting the heavy un-cine-
matic nature of the novels of Balzac and Fogaz-
zaro which have furnished him with the basis
of his last few films, culminating in the unbe-
lievably static Daniele Corn's, Soldati took a
theme which is part and parcel of post-war
Europe — the search for war criminals.

The subject matter is described by the pro-
duction company thus: 'Many men and
women have been tempted by the mirage of a
new life beyond the frontiers of their war-
ravaged countries to risk the dangers of an
illegal crossing of the Alps, discounting the
risks of tempest, cold, and death. This is the
background of reality to Fuga in Francia, the
story of a condemned war criminal who, es-
caping from prison, takes a false name and
joins a little band of clandestine emigrants.

Cold, calculating, without compassion or
mercy, the fugitive is deterred by no scruples
when he finds himself discovered . . . .'

The claim that Flight to France has a back-
ground to reality is no idle one. The main ac-
tion was shot in the valleys and high passes of
the Graian Alps and the unit of 32 people,
technicians and players, often worked in a
temperature below zero. The approach is pure
documentary — only two actors appeared in the
film. Folco Lulli and Pietro Germi (this was
the latter's first appearance, he is actually an
extremely fine director).

The other parts in the film were cast on the
spot. The heroine was discovered by Soldati
in the Fiat works at Mirafiore, and returned
there when the film was completed. Other
parts were played by a builder, a journalist,
and by the director and the producer of the
film. The smaller roles were filled by their real-
life counterparts.

Pietro Germi. who played the emigrant who
is instrumental in the ultimate death of the war
criminal, is a young Genoese graduate of the
Centro Sperimentale, the Italian film school,
who has made three films, all of which have
their roots deep in the real life of the Italian
people, and the problems of our time. He is in-
terested in economic conditions as they affect
individuals. The Witness, while drawing its in-
spiration from everyday life does so in a tra-
ditional way, with its story of a young servant
girl trying to save her condemned fiance; but
Lost Youth and In the Name of the Law go
beyond the basic 'thriller' ingredients in their
approach. The former deals with a new gen-
eration of Italian youth, freed not only from
the Fascists but from law and order and all
moral standards, while the latter deals with the
notorious secret society, the 'Mafia'.

Lost Youth deals, specifically, with a group
of university students and with Stefano, the
degenerate leader of a gang of youthful crimi-
nals. It is a hard, tough film which, as Shoe-
shine did, harks back in many ways to the pre-
war social films made by Warner Brothers. It
is a study in circumstances and environment
shot against actual backgrounds, and so realis-
tic in its approach it proved too strong for the
stomachs of the authorities, who banned it — ■
an act creating such a storm of criticism in the
film industry the authorities quickly reversed
their decision and allowed it to be screened.

In the Name of the Law was again filmed
almost entirely on location. It deals with the
secret society which supplied America with
some of its most notorious gangsters (and
Hollywood with some of its best films), stress-
ing the tie-up between these racketeers admin-
istering their own brand of justice on the pea-
sants, and the rich landowners who are guaran-
teed tranquillity on their estates. In the last reel
of the film the message underlying the whole
work is given in plain words by the honest

judge — the delinquents, the murderers, are no
less guilty than those who stand by and dc
nothing.

Were it only for these films to represent the
total achievement of the recent Italian cinema
it would constitute a remarkable record, en-
riching society with the force of their emo-
tional outlook, but the honesty and consist-
ency of the new films by Luchino Visconti and
Guiseppe de Santis testifies to the strength of
the younger directors who do not seek refuge
in escape, and who are not so tired they cannot
see the future for the past.

Visconti, known over here by the glowing
reports of his Obsession — an adaptation of
The Postman Always Rings Twice, which can-
not be shown because it was produced during
the war, and the producers omitted to acquire
the screen rights — has recently completed The
Earth Trembles, made on location in Sicily and
dealing with the harsh struggle for existence by
a community of fishermen. It was made with a
cast of non-professional players.

Just as the quality and force in the work of
Pietro Germi was apparent in his first film, so
the directorial debut of Guiseppe de Santis.
formerly a script-writer, has been hailed by the
critics during 1948. Tragic Chase, made for the
ANPI (National Association of Italian Parti-
sans), is set against a peasant background, deal-
ing with Fascists and collaborationists, who
prey on the peasants until the latter rise up and
destroy them. The second film from this direc-
tor, Bitter Rice, filmed in the rice-fields of
nothern Italy with Vittorio Gassmann. a very
fine actor who was seen in London during the
Italian Stage Festival at the Cambridge
Theatre. This has only recently been com-
pleted, as have Castellani's In the Sunlight of
Rome, which is supposed to surpass Shoeshine
in its realism, and Duilio Coletti's Exodus.
treating on the flight of European Jews to Pal-
estine, with the British-born actress Marina
Berti in the lead. This film is made somewhat
on the lines of Rossellini's moving piece of
reportage from the flaking ruins of Berlin.
Germany Year Zero.

Dealing, like Exodus, with the plight of
European Jewry is Geoffredi Alessandrini's
Wandering Jew, somewhat spoiled by the arti-
ficiality of its prologue set in ancient Jerusa-
lem, but gripping and vivid when it touches
upon the fate of the Jewish people during the
war. It deals with a wealthy French Jew (Vit-
torio Gassmann) who chooses to hide his race
and collaborate with the Germans when they
reach Paris. He finally chooses to stand by his
people, and goes to his death in order to save
hostages in a concentration camp from being
murdered in retaliation for his resistance.
Alessandrini is less sure of himself than most
of the other directors, and although moments
of The Wandering Jew achieve a perfect fusion
continued on page 12

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

Documentary in Germany

FROM A CORRESPONDENT

a striking compilation film, Nurnberg has
recently been released in the American Zone of
Germany. It was sponsored by American Film
Section under the inspiration of Pare Lorent/,
who initiated the work in New York. It has been
produced by Stuart Schulberg and edited by Jo
Zigman. It is a summary of the Nurnberg Trial
and has been made in the English and German
languages. It gives a calm, unemotional summary
of the proceedings and the results. Originally it
was intended to build the commentary wholly
from extracts from the speeches of the prosecu-
tion, defence and the witnesses, but this was
found impossible. So the commentary takes the
form of a precis. The film is remarkable for a
number of reasons. In the first place, a great
proportion of it is built up from material taken
in the courts, and one has ample time to study
the faces and bearing of the protagonists. A less
courageous producer would have been tempted
to cut away, and to allow only a minimum of the
film to take place in the court. Schulberg and
Zigman decided otherwise and their decision is
amply justified by results.

The court scenes are supported by a collection
of seized library material, including a record of a
pogrom enlarged from 8 mm. and some scenes of
an improvised gas chamber. To give an idea of
the mentality of some of the people who took
these films, the gas chamber scenes were found
on 16 mm casually inserted among idyllic scenes
of the countryside of occupied Poland. They had
been dropped in as if they were an ordinary part
of an enjoyable week's leave. The film is more
than an indictment of the leaders of fascism.
Though the commentary makes a sharp distinc-
tion between Nazis and Germans, the ordinary
onlooker must draw the conclusion that the
ramifications of the plot were so wide and deep
that every German person was to some extent a
participant, not only on the battlefield, but in the
torture chamber. In days when some people
w ould ask us not to give the matter of Germany's
guilt another thought, the film gives a salutary
reminder of things which happened only a little
over three years ago. Since it has been shown
with considerable success in the American Zone
of Germany, it suggests that, for the first time,
the German people themselves may be taking
stock of their own record.

Between them, the British and American Film
Sections have been responsible for promoting a
number of documentary films in Germany, and
at long last the movement looks like taking hold
of the imagination both of producers and the
public. All the films are made by German units.
As one might expect, the styles of the films from
the two zones are in contrast, those from the
American tending to rely on library' compilation
and, more often than not, deliberately pointing a
moral. Those from the British side tend more to be
objective accounts of what is going on. They rely
less on library' material and more on actuality
shooting.

Hunger — a joint production of the British and
American Film Sections, distributed mandatorily
to every cinema in the American and British
Zones, was a joint affair. It was built up from
librarj material and was issued in the spring of
1948. It was designed to make clear that much of
the starvation and hunger in Germany was
caused by a dislocation of world agriculture,
caused, in its turn, by the German war. It explains
that our Indian and other Eastern Allies have a
better claim on world food supplies than the
( tel man people. The film also pointed out that a
great deal of food in Germany, designed for the
ration, was being diverted to the black market,
owing to faulty and corrupt German administra-
tion. Since that time, American Film Section has
sponsored a number of films dealing directly
with the moods, feelings and outlooks of the
German people. It's Up To You contrasts two
kinds of Germany before the war. The gentle,
industrious, religious Germany and the tough,
fierce, cruel Germany. These two contrasts, the
film says, were present before the war. Which is
to predominate in the future? Marschieren,
Marschieren! made by Renaissance Film and
produced by Gerhard Born, says, quite simply,
that everyone who marches to the beat of a
mi lit try band and becomes hypnotized by martial
music sooner or later marches to his death.
Ich unci Mr Marshall deals with the relations of
the Marshall Plan in Western Germany.

Other films in production deal with life in
Berlin, the free German Press, racial toleration,
the air bridge and the Joint Import-Export
Agency. All the films so far released are well-
paced polished one-reelers.

The British Film Section is inspiring films deal-
ing with the day-to-day life of Germany, de-
signed at once to make the public well-informed
on current problems of the day, and to influence
people to be more tolerant towards one another.
Lebensadern is a documentary dealing with
transport. It explains how the present diffi-
culties arise. It points to difficulties overcome and
it says that, given initiative, the German people
have in themselves resources to bring the trans-
port system back to the point of efficiency which
was once the envy of Europe. The film ends with
a moving ceremony of the first train to cross the
repaired Hohenzollern Bridge at Cologne.
Another film deals with returning prisoners-of-
war. It suggests that this problem is not being
tackled as sympathetically as it might be by some
Burgomeisters, already driven to distraction by
shortages of housing. It puts in a claim for more
sympathy, more tact and more practical treat-
ment. A film in production on the raising of
wrecks in Kiel harbour is as exciting a piece of
documentary journalism as one will see any-
where. Yet anothei deals with the rehabilitation
of the German fishing industry. At least one
documentary worker of note has come up in the
British Zone. His name is Rudolph ECipp. His
shooting has a freshness and strength winch

British documentary director and came ra
man will envy. I inally, one must not overlook
the ( term in workers in Berlin, mainly concentra-
ting on trick films and labouring under the
greatest of difficulties. Nevertheless, 1 Otte
Reiniger is getting ahead with silhouette films
and two other people are beginning to make
remarkable progress. II ins Bolke is making
puppet films, and the illustrator and artist. I
Haakon, has begun to make cartoon films which
show great promise.

No note about films in Germany can omit the
newsreel Welt in Film. This is a joint Anglo-
American affair, though produced almost wholly
by German film men. The shooting is as good as
any newsreel in the world. If by virtue of its
position it avoids some political topics, its treat-
ment of contemporary life in Germany has a
raciness and quality of observation which puts
it in a class by itself.

AN AMERICAN FILM

Round Trip. Producer: Raymond Spottiswood.
Director: Roger Barlow. Produced by The World
Today Inc. for 20th Century Fund.
20th Century Fund is an association in America
which seeks to promote a liberal economic
policy. It stands for free trade in America, for the
lowering or total removal of tariff barriers. The
film hopes to convince the Americans that
American prosperity ultimately depends on the
free flow of trade, and not in the artificial pro-
tection of inefficient industries in America, when
it would be cheaper to purchase abroad and allow
an inefficient industry to close down. Technically,
the film takes the form of a trans-continental and
trans-oceanic argument between an isolationist
businessman, transport workers, producers and
workers in Europe and Latin-America. The
speakers call out to each other and argue, and
the isolationist businessman is final!) reduced by
having his clothes and watch whisked awaj from
him, since the former were in uie in Britain of
British cloth and the latter in Switzerland. I >> an
English mind, the arguments seem a little strange
until one realizes that the film is flogging a horse
which died m Britain about 1848 h 'lort.
America is now where Britain was a hundred
years ago. and seeking to explain to herself that
a country cannot sensibly be a creditor nation,
and have tariff walls, ihe argument is as valid
in Amen, s it was in Britain a hundred

years ago fee i ally, the film is well made. The

characters ate well cast and speik their minds
with relish. The fact that dialogues t ike place
across gaps of thousands o\ miles gives the film
a kind of universality which Stimulates the imagi-
nation. It is distributed in the S non-
theatrical l>. and is not available in Britain.

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

BOOK REVIEWS

The Film in Society

British Cinemas and Their Audiences: J. P.
Mayer. ( Dobson. 279 pp. 15.S.).
The Negro in Films: Peter Noble. (Skelton
Robinson. 288 pp. 1 5s.).

Kierkegaard wrote: 'The Crowd is untruth'.
The dictum implies that 'somewhat contemp-
tuous attitude towards the masses', which Mr
Mayer condemns in the other four writers and
disclaims in himself. But no sociologist will
agree that the crowd whom Mr Mayer has
collected together for analysis in his book
can tell the truth about British cinemas and
their audiences. As sociology, the book is bad.
It is slovenly, misleading and thoroughly un-
scientific. It is not about cinema audiences at all,
but about a particular section of those audiences,
the most vocal section, the cinema fans. What else
is to be expected when the source of the author's
information is a questionnaire addressed to the
readers of Picturegoerl

Having said this, let us record, in deference
to the preface, that we are familiar with Pro-
fessor Allport's study on The Use of Personal
Documents in Psychological Science, that we
have referred to Mr Mayer's bibliography, have
re-read his Sociology of Film, and carefully noted
the quotations, historical and otherwise, which
lend a certain pretentiousness to his text. In
spite of all this it is impossible to maintain that
Mr Mayer has made more than a superficial con-
tribution to the study of the function and influ-
ence of the cinema in society. Such a work is of
vital importance. It remains to be done.

To criticize the present book does not imply
that its documents are uninteresting, even when
seen as a cross-section of the views of British
cinema fans. Very much more could have been
done with them. They emphasize that one of the
most compelling reasons for cinema attendance
is the desire to escape from the realities of every-
day life. Frequent assertions of this nature
should have led a conscientious social scientist
to investigate more deeply the causes of such be-
haviour. This would be an important contribu-
tion towards understanding the function of the
cinema in our society.

The documents indicate that the early in-
teresl of children in the cinema frequently arises
because adults, in order to see films themselves,
have no alternative but to take their children with
them. In this way a child of six weeks was taken
to the cinema. The ages of two, three and four
are often quoted as the age when films were first
seen. This is an indication of the influence of
social conditions upon film habits rather than of
the influence of films on social habits. Once
again, Mr Mayer does not face the implications.
It is not only a question of more and better chil-
dren's films and of raising the content of general
film production from its present level. It is a
question of more nurseries and creches, more

youth facilities, more and more alternatives to
supplement the one recreational activity whither
all too many children today must turn.

Again, the documents indicate, the extent to
which films from America bring with them and
spread, in this country and elsewhere, American
ideas and conceptions of 'the American way of
life'. How powerful is the impact of this medium,
not only upon the cinematograph industries, but
also upon the cultural independence of the coun-
tries most closely concerned! How little atten-
tion, relative to its importance, has this question
received! Mayer ignores it.

If his audience selection is arbitrary, the author
is equally arbitrary in his selection of films. Such
a fault follows inevitably from the use of Picture-
goer. He deals only with the influence of feature
films and apparently excludes the influence of
the documentary film in spite of the fact that its
audience is rapidly growing and now exceeds an
annual total of twelve million people.

A responsible study of cinema audiences surely
involves an assessment of the attitude which the
cinema has taken up on the important social
questions of the day, whether it takes this atti-
tude openly and clearly, as in documentary films,
or more subtly, as in feature films. Only thus,
can one reach any conclusion about the role and
function of the cinema in contemporary society.
Such an approach never seems to have occurred
to Mr Mayer. He is too steeped in academic
method and the academic outlook. Moreover, he
seems to despair (p. 10) of the power of man to
control the society of which cinematic art is so
faithful a reflection. He writes: 'We are small
wheels within a big machine. We are tools which
others handle. We serve the machines, we per-
form routine duties without grasping the mean-
ing of the whole. The complex rationality of the
world of which we are a part, is torn from our
instincts and sentiments. Beliefs — we no longer
have.'

Mr Noble measures the influence of the
cinema against one of the great social problems of
the day. He does so by examining the content of
a large number of films which deal directly or
indirectly with this problem. In spite of the fact
that a social study of audiences lies outside the
scope of his book, the evidence he presents and
the conclusions which he draws are, we submit,
of greater sociological significance than those of
the professional sociologist whose work we have
just reviewed.

The book demonstrates how an art reflects
the material conditions of the society which gives
rise to it. By tracing in films discrimination against
the Negro race from early silent days until the
end of the late war he shows in what way the real
conditions of the American way of life, the
fierce persecution of the Negroes in American
society, find their expression on the screen and

elsewhere. He shows, too, how discrimination
is reflected in other ways, limiting the freedom of
the screen, and restricting negro film production.

The great weakness of the book lies in its
extremely narrow approach to this problem. The
author never steps outside its reflection in
films and on the stage. Consequently, fortified
by the author's own proposals, the reader is left
with the impression that somehow the mon-
strous crime of the colour-bar can be fought, and
perhaps conquered, in the relatively narrow
sphere of art unrelated to the political and eco-
nomic struggle outside this sphere. Mr Noble
never explains the role of the colour-bar in
present-day American society, nor does he make
any really effective proposals for its eradication.
Neither the National Association for the Ad-
vancement of Coloured People, nor the Inter-
national Film and Radio Guild, nor the Inde-
pendent Citizens' Committee, nor documentary
films, nor personal letters to the Press, all of
which he rightly indicates have a role in the fight.
can do the slightest good unless they become a
part of the whole struggle taking place in the
world today, for or against the right of its citizens
to live a full and free life.

If we approach the question in this waj we
throw into relief the other limitation in Mr
Noble's approach. Not all the Negroes of the
world and not the only colour-bar exist in the
USA. True, he briefly indicates some of the ways
in which colour prejudice gains expression in this
country. But to represent, as he does, that it is
only a secondary problem in Western Europe
compared with America, is to ignore the implica-
tions of the colonial system, which find their
expression in the cinema as in every other sphere
of national life and which, in their total effect, are
as evil as the discrimination practised in the
Southern States.

The artificiality of much of contemporary film
production is too well known to need emphasis
here. The real conditions of the Negro peoples
cannot be fully and truthfully portrayed because
it would be such an indictment of the system
under which they live. Hence their manner of
living can only become a subject for docu-
mentary films, w ithout explanation as to how the
conditions portrayed came about, or be falsi-
fied in the now traditional treatment of Negro
characters in most American feature films. In
either case Negro susceptibilities are rightly
injured.

The author emphasizes that everyone has a
personal dutj in combating the colour-bar, but
his omission to place the problem in its proper
context means that he can put forward no proper
solution for the problem with which he deals.

In spue of us weakness, however, the book is a
valuable weapon in a tight, w hich too often in this
countrv we regard as no affair of ours.

!)()( I Ml N I \\<\ I II \l M \Ns

No Matter of Black and \\ hite

by
George Stoney

chief characters in Mr Noble's newest di-
vertissemenl on films, named in ascending

order of righteousness, are: Old Devil Holly-
wood, who. when he occasionally does some-
thing that seems admirable, is merely being
two-faced; British Film-makers, often mis-
guided but essentially Good: Foreign Film-
makers, who form a seraphic chorus with those
from the USSR singing most sweetly.

But patience a moment. Mr Noble has put
into print for us the dilemma that greets anyone
who sets out to make an honest and useful film
in which Negroes are to appear.

'The really ideal film.' he says, would be one
in which Negroes and Whites are shown walk-
ing together and living together in complete
harmony, as neighbours, with only the occa-
sional discords arising from any normal human
relationships.' Then in the next sentence he
asks for realism.

Again, after asking repeatedly that Negroes
not be treated as special individuals on the
screen, he says, '. . . the intelligent cinemagoer
very naturally condemns all films which show
the Negro in an unsympathetic light. . . .' Now,
in Mr Noble's view any Negro who appears on
the screen is. willy-nilly, also 'the Negro', no
individual but a representative of his race. By
massing quotations from the letters and re-
view s of Negro actors and intellectual leaders
the author indicates that his remarks are a fair
consensus of their opinions, too.

Illogical? Perhaps, yet Mr Noble illustrates
through such contradictions the basic film re-
actions that cluster about this problem.

These reactions film-makers who are trying
to make useful films in which Negroes appear
must keep for ever at the front of their minds.
This is especially important for cutters, since
it is through what one might call "psycho-
sociological editing' (pardon the coinage!) that
one can solve, or at least avoid, many of the
difficulties raised not only by Negroes but by
other groups whom society has caused to feel
sensitive about the way they are represented on
the screen.

Let us apply this to a familiar sequence in a
documentary: You have a scene of rickety
houses, ragged children, primitive toilet facili-
ties, a scene which to you, the editor, says,
'Look how these poor people must live; some-
thing needs to be done". Yet if there are Negro
children shown the sequence may say to mem-
bers of that race simply: Here is how typical
Negroes live — like pigs.' And so it speaks to
most white people, too, whether they live in
London, Lagos or in the southern US where I
make films. Negroes know this stereotype in
most white minds all too well. (See, for ex-
ample, the storm of protest from London-
educated natives that greeted the showing in
Lagos of 77n's Modern Age — Nigeria.)

Editing can avoid many such reactions by
prefacing the scene of slums with a contrast
that features people of the same race or. as we
do very often in our films for the southern US,
use a scene with white people in slums imme-
diately preceding thai with Negroes. Thus the

conditio! rather than the race of the people
shown is made the important thing.

Similarly the immediate reaction ^\ an
audience (particular!) a hostile one) to the race
of your character before thej considei his in-
dividual personality or his actions can be
avoided very often by introducing long or mid-
shots in which he is shown doing something,
e.g. long-shot of a school teacher who . . . (m.s.)
happens to be a Negro; or (l.s.) a man in over-
alls . . . (m.s.) is loading a crane, and as we
watch him (c.u.) he appears to be a Negro.

There is no rule-of-thumb for this kind of
cutting. Most strangely, for example, what
seems a perversely provocative cut in earlier
sequences of a film becomes quite acceptable
in its latter stages. This seems equally true for
both White and Negro audiences.

Thus the important thing for the film-maker
to keep in mind is not just what appears to him
true and obvious, but what the presentation of
this visual truth will mean to his audience.
Somehow he must take into consideration
all the preconceptions, the stereotypes and
prejudices that the viewers will add to what
he, the film-maker, is going to put on the
screen.

Though a protester against stereotypes and
distorted pictures. Mr Noble indulges in these
sins himself to a remarkable degree when he
discusses America in general and the south in
particular. Many statements he makes about
film censorship in the south are simply untrue.
He appears to think the censor in Memphis
controls the film programmes for all of Dixie,
which is about as true as saying that the "Wee
Frees' control the drinking habits of all Scot-
land.

Nowhere does he indicate a consciousness
that the US has but ten per cent of the world"s
roughly 137,000,000 Negroes (of whom forty
per cent live within the British Empire!, for he
concludes:

'There is much ignorance and prejudice in
the world concerning the Negro race and it is
certainly the duty of the US Government to
dispel this lack o\' knowledge. . . .' True enough.
vet leadership among all Negro groups must
be developed before this can be done. The vast
majority of Negro educators, scientists, artists.
writers and intellectual leaders whose lives Mr
Noble asks to sue portrayed on the screen are
found among America's ten per cent. The US
was the training ground and home of all except
two of the Negro actors whom he considers
worthy of individual biographies. Judging bv
his own accounts, too. these men and women
have had lives not unlike white members of
their profession while the two actors drawn
from the British Empire whom he gives honoui
could get a stall in this country only after
making names for themselves as professional
wrestlers.

... All of which goes to prove that the role

user becomes neither oi us. (And it also

proves. I note with amusement, how much

'psycho-sociological' cutting we southerners

require ' )

luimn. mill .V.tmm. SOI VD

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10

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS

NEW DOCUMENTARY FILMS

Trained to Serve. Crown Film Unit for the C.O.I.
1,457 feet.

Trained to Serve is the third in a series of COI
made in Germany by Graham Wallace of the
Crown Film Unit, working with German film
technicians. The other two films were KRO
Germany, 1947 and School in Cologne.

Contemporary films, when dealing with a
situation that is possibly debatable, are in-
clined to be tepid in their approach. Facts are
given, but not all the facts. In most cases there
is a simplification of the problem, to the detri-
ment of the whole. It was apparent in One
Man's Story, and the same impression is left
on the mind in Trained to Serve.

The film indicates that when hostilities
ceased in Germany, there was no police force
available that had been trained to serve the
community as we understand it in this coun-
try. The German Police Force had been used
as a heavy arm of the Gestapo, and it was
necessary to recruit a body of men. and train
them in the traditions of a democratic security
force.

We are shown the black market, prostitutes,
and juvenile delinquents, in fact the whole bag
of tricks. Social problems being dealt with,
even under the guidance of the Control Com-
mission, do not necessarily contribute to social
stability. This film says that the situation is
difficult, but that everything is going to plan.
Is it?

Artificial Insemination of Cattle. Made by Dar-
lington Hall Film Unit for C.O.I. Approx. 900
feet.

Artificial Insemination of Cattle is an excellent
film that can be fairly called a first-class in-
structional record. Artificial insemination,
when applied to homo sapiens, has provoked
considerable argument. Cows evidently have
no scruples. As the film ably demonstrates,
this is all to the good, because, with care and
training, artificial means of reproduction en-
ables the small farmer to build good class dairy
herds and livestock, for the payment of 25
shillings service fee.

Prior to the introduction of this scheme,
which is sponsored by the Ministry of Agri-
culture and the National Farmers' Union, the
quality of the dairy herds in this country was
conditioned by the economic circumstances of
the farmer. With the introduction of this plan
there appears to be no reason why there should
not be a progressive improvement in the value
and quality of livestock.

Films of this nature can be dull, very dull,
but this film tells its story in a straightforward
and scientific manner, with excellent visuals
and an unobtrusive commentary.

Hill Sheep Farm. Campbell Harper Films Ltd,
lor Department of Agriculture C.O.I. 20 minutes.
1,682 feet.

A film which demonstrates the urgent need to
repopulate and refarm the Highlands of Scot-
land again.t a background of the destruction
of Scottish sheep farming and the general de-
cline of Scottish agriculture.

The shepherd's job is a skilled job, vital for
all. This film shows how he wages his battle
with nature almost single-handed. It leaves us
regretting what might be done with help better
planned and more generous than the Hill
Farming Act provides. Direction and photo-
graphy are good. The film moves rapidly and
has a refreshing authenticity.

Scottish Universities. Data Film Unit for C.O.I.
and the Scottish Home Department. Director:
Francis Gysin. Running time: 22 minutes.

Unbelievably dreadful and pompous. The film
moves in the manner of a tired professor, on
whose behalf the commentator reads a lecture.
Most of the problems of university life re-
ceive a mention, which is about all that can be
said in the film's favour — unless we add that
its very dullness indicates in a negative kind of
way how far behind the times our universities
move. It is understood the Unit encountered
many outside difficulties and conflicting
opinions during production. They are reflected
in the film.

AN AMERICAN FILM

Florida— Wealth or Waste. Produced by the
Southern Educational Film Production Service.
Written by George Stoney. Camera by Leo
Seltzer. Length: 3 reels (?)
Those who have always regarded American docu-
mentary as lying somewhere between Chevrolet
advertising films and the purity of Bob Flaherty
will do well to examine the specifics of a modest
self-confident little film called Florida — Wealth or
Waste. Therein is to be found, among other
things, that pleasing sense of gusto which comes,
or used to, when producers embrace the difficult
with enthusiasm, and when films, having taken
on almost too much, arrive breathlessly at the
end title, conscious of having done and said a
good deal, and said and done it well.

Consider as sponsor, in general a Region, com-
prising six south-eastern states of the United
States, and in particular the State of Florida with
its jostling attributes and competing interests, its
geography and climate, its forests and orange
groves and farmlands and sponge beds and
fisheries, and that most mystical and marvellous
of all resources in the eyes of the Chamber of
Commerce — the Tourist Trade.

Consider further that the legend which gives
the State of Florida its special quality is the
legend of limitlessness — of inexhaustible fertility,
of expendable plenty, the bounteous extrava-
gance of nature bestowing on native and tourist
alike endless oranges, endless sunshine, endless
sea beaches, with the Chamber of Commerce
wisely adding its own bounty of endless parades,
bands, board-walk attractions, bathing beauties
and luxury hotels.

The Southern Educational Film Production
Service, with grave and honest regard for the
njeds and interests of its sponsors, enters whole-
heartedly into the picture postcard view of the
state, moves soberly over the denuded devas-
tated exploited farm and timber lands without
reproaching anj component part of the sponsors.

defines a Florida which is far from perpetual
plenty, and begins decisively about the end of
reel two to pull an educational film on conserva-
tion and the planning of resources out of all that
has gone before.

Some of us may wonder that in the richest and
most powerful nation on earth it is necessary to
calculate the attitudes of conservation with such
caution, and present them so deftly and carefully.
But they are new attitudes to a country which has
hitherto suffered little under reckless extrava-
gance and the waste of its resources.

Nothing better can be said of a unit than that
it truly understands its local and national prob-
lems, and that it finds as well the effective idiom
to make that understanding prevail. Florida —
Wealth or Waste by gearing the policy of con-
servation to the most local of needs has also
done a good job for FAO in the United States.
And while it is busy on the long slow task of
creating new attitudes to resources, it contrives
at the same time to suggest that Negroes, given
the potential of skills and opportunities, might
also have something to contribute to the future of
the south.

But for the audience which isn't concerned
with how difficult it must have been to launch
these particular arguments in this particular
situation, it is anyway a good film to look at. It
is a better piece of information for the United
States than those expensive Voice of America
broadcasts which prove that the New York Times
is an objective newspaper and etcetera.

BASIL
WRIGHT

his vigorous andjorthright
THE USE OF THE FILM

Basil Wright's title, The Use of the
Film, reveals the angle ol his
approach, and whilst he lias much
to sav about the actual making >>t
films he bears in mind throughout
that the) are always made For semi-
use or other. He covers concisely
the nature ol this great new mass
medium, its enormous poten-
tialities, the present position of
Hollywood and the luture ol the
British Film industry .

35 6J

THE BODLEY HEAD

DO(T Ml \ I MO Ml M M.WS

Gen I lemen \s Agreemen t

FESTIVAL 195 I

mk swiuel goldwyn recently resigned From the
Motion Picture Association ol America. On the
strength of that resignation the following ex-
change of greetings took place between Mr
Goldwyn and Mr Eric Johnston.

M, Samuel Goldwyn said: ... "I have re-
signed from MPAA in order 10 give my
undivided support to the interests of the So-
ciety of independent Motion Picture Pro-
ducers. . . . The future of good motion pictures
is completely bound up with the efforts o\'
Independent Producers to bring this about.'

Mi Johnston said: . . . During his associa-
tion with us Mr Goldwyn has demon-:
a unique Hair of saying one thing and doing
exactly the opposite. Mr Goldwyn's fabulous
material success in the motion picture industry
is irrefutable proof that free enterprise tnd
free opportunity exist in a very real and posi-
tive way for all producers. Mr Goldvwn's
statement is the latest example of his penchant
forgetting into violent disagreement with him-
self on all sides of a question.

Mi Goldwyn retorted: 'It is unfortunate for

the industry thai \li I ric Johnston's manners
arc as bid as his judgment. . , , During the
period thai Mr Johnston has been president
the public relations o\ the industry have de-
clined alarmingly. Mr Johnston's contributions
to building line relations has consisted mostly
of turning the offices of the Ml'\ \ into a
personal Press bureau for Mr Eric Johnston.
This is not surprising in view of die fact that
all this time Mr Johnston has been preening
himself to accepl call to public office. The
overw helming silence of the public with respect
to Mr Johnston*s political ambitions has un-
fortunately not prevented him from devoting
his major efforts to his personal objectives.
... As far as I have been able to observe Mr
Johnston's chief contribution to the economic
stability of the industry has been to give it such
advice as has caused the filing of law suits
against the MPAA and various of its members
totalling some $65,000,000 — one of which has
been decided against the company involved.
The industry has survived many misfortunes
and I am confident that it will survive Eric
Johnston.*

nit. hoard of Governors of the British I ilm
Institute have announced the appointment of
Mr John D. Ralph as I xecutive Officer
responsible for organizing the film side o! the
I cstival of Britain, 1951.

Mi Ralph has been associated during the
last live years with the National Film Board
of Canada where he served in various capaci-
ties including Production Secretary and
later as Director of Distribution. He was
responsible for organizing the Board's ex-
tensive network of rural circuits and urban
film libraries and developing the international
distribution of Canadian films through
theatrical and non-theatrical channels m
Great Britain, France, United States. \
tralia and other countries.

Before joining the Board, he worked in
radio, and films, as an actor, and later as a
writer and commentator. He has also had
experience in finance.

VISUAL AIDS IN SCIENTIFIC &
AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION

I.C.I, has prepared the following lists

of its productions. Copies will be sent to

educational authorities who apply on their
official notepaper.

I.C.I. MEDICAL FILMS

I.C.I. AGRICULTURAL & VETERINARY FILMS

LCI. FILMS FOR SCHOOLS

LCI. AGRICULTURAL FILM STRIPS

Write to the LCI. FILM LIBRARY, Imperial Chemical
Industries Limited, Nobel House, London, S.W.I

•fa Films available in 16 mm. sound on free loan to approved borrowers.

K.i

Film Society Movement in Australia continued

front /».; "

All these libraries, like the State Film Centres.
find the demand for films far and away bevond
the possibilities of supply. Fortunately, however,
the evergreen problem of broadening the scop
our programmes has recently been thoroughly
tackled by the National Film Library I a
a batch of 16 mm prints which included The
Cabinet of Dr Caligari; lite Battleship Potemkin;
The Italian Straw Hat. and the Great Train Rob-
bery was imported from the British film Insti-
tute. These films had a rapturous reception, and
came as a blood transfusion to thcSocictv move-
ment generally. Now we're all smiling the air
like Bisto Kids, waiting for a far larger batch
already on the water, and reported to contain
Birth oj a Saltan; The General Line: Vfotl
The Last Laugh; Mcmlmontant; The Seashelland
the Clergyman, and many others too.

Gone foi ever are the days when programme
committees tore their hair, trvmg to decide
between a mangled version o( / that

Shook the ll oild and a 9.5 mm re-hash ol

, ofthe World. Reared for so long on the hard
feed of 'documentary-and-educationaT the Vus-
iralian 1 ilm Society movement is probably a
little collar-proud at the moment, and apt to kick
over the traces at the prospect o\~ these long-
dreamed-ol exotic fruits. Bui then coming will

not, I think, show a swing awav from the ic.ilist

film foi long, but rather that fuller appreciation

..I the achievements, the complexities and the
ibilities of the medium as a whole, which

should be the aim of every ' llm So. ictv.

12

DOC I MEN I \RY FILM \KV\ S

Realist Tradition in Italian films -con tinned from
page 6

of poetic and realistic, other moments recall
his Furia. the saga of a sex-starved wife of a
horse-breeder who is the Italian counterpart of
Miss Blandish.

Another film with a racial theme is Alberto
Lattauda's Without Pity, featuring John Kitz-
muller. who played the negro GI in To Live in
Peace. Lattauda's best-known work is his 1945
documentary The Italian Army in the Libera-
tion of the Country.

Of the directors known to us through films
publicly shown in this country. Luigi Zampa
is in process of completing Children of Chance
for a British company; Rossellini is preparing
the Rome sequence of A Tale of Five Cities;
while Vittorio de Sica has just completed The
Bicycle Stealers, with a largely non-profes-
sional cast. The film, the story of an Italian
workman who has his bicycle stolen, has been
bitterly attacked by L'Osservatore Romano
(The Vatican newspaper) because it pokes fun
at the holding of Mass.

( iood intentions are such a novel state of the
mind in the cinema that one may be forgiven
for falling into the great error of thinking that
i- all a film needs, but as the hardening tra-
dition of realism in the Italian cinema is formed
into a more mature whole, more sure of itself
the cinematic design of the Italian film is be-
coming stronger and abler. There is the quality
of life in these films, there is a truth beside
which a so-called human document such as
Monsieur Vincent qualifies for Madame Tus-
saud's.

Film in Educational and Social Life — continued
from page 4

schools where a beginning has been made in the
teaching of film appreciation parallel with the
teaching of literary appreciation. You may say
that there are not enough good films — films suit-
able for the purpose. That argues a pessimism
which I do not share. For if you turn not to the
deliberately educational cinema, but to the vast
cinema of liction about which I began by speak-
ing, there are enough serious, beautiful and
exciting films, there are enough aesthetically
stimulating passages even in unequal films, to
form the basis for a hundred courses in the study
of the screen. The Continental cinema and the
America classics, Eisenstein and Rene Clair,
Griffith and Chaplin— and today we have at last
something of our own to offer. We have our
versions of English classics — for the cinema
reverts, overmuch indeed, to its early reliance on
literary originals. We have our Dickens films. We
have our Shakespeare films; and. whatever the
controversy over Henry V and Hamlet, these
two have taught us to look again at Shakespeare
(the I rench, that acute race, realized before we
knew it ourselves that Olisier had given us some-
thing new here: not a photographed si, me play,
hut film-theatre). And we have a small group of
simple and moving fiction films which, learning
from the documentary, have set before us in
terms at once realistic and poetic the life of our
own country and our own people. Let us by all
means use the cinema for factual instruction. But
let us also use it to educate in the broadest sense
i i word: to prepare and equip for life, and
to do it tli rt, which is itself the distillation

Ol hie

CORRESPONDENCE

February 15, 1949

DEAR SIR,

Referring to the polemic published in your
last issue, I would be grateful if you would
publish the following extract from my lecture*
on Len Lye's work.

'There is a gap of six years between
Tusalava and Colour Box. I was then
Grierson's right-hand man at the GPO
Film Unit and I remember that Len Lye
came to see us and said that he wanted
to make a film without a camera. It took
a lot of his personal charm to make us
listen to him, but when he had explained
what he wanted to do both Grierson and
myself were convinced that he could do it.
Grierson, that king of show-men. would
not miss this opportunity. Furthermore, it
sounded frightfully simple.'

I hope this will put a stop to an obvious and
slightly unpleasant mis-construction of what
I said in the lecture.

Yours sincerely

CAVALCANTI

* Published in 'Sight and Sound' .

DEAR SIR,

Hoping, one day, to have a firm understand-
ing of film art behind me I always make an
effort to see the critics' point of view. But in the
case of Paisa I just could not enthuse with
them. Even the public seemed against me, for

it has obviously found something' in Paisa to
keep it so long and so successfully at the
\. demy Cinema.

So i'eter Brinson's article Rossellini and Ls.
Paisa provided the necessary support for me to
persist in my opinion.

\s Peter Brinson says. Paisa is the work of a
master — a master of the documentary tech-
nique. It surprises me that this fact alone
should have attracted the public, because none
could admit to having been moved by the film.
And after all its subject should move us. The
subject and the technique cancel each other
out.

Paisa has for its subject Emotion. The emo-
tional impact of two peoples thrown violently
together; the emotional reaction of the Italian.
from urchin to priest, to the American soldier;
the emotional reaction of the American soldier,
from negro MP to OSS leader, to the Italian.
Yet the way in which Rossellini has treated this
subject has led critics to judge the film as a
documentary of a military advance. Else why
the childish carp about the anti-British atti-
tude '

Readers of doi i mimari fii m news need
no reminder that documentary is the objective
technique which appeals to the brain in pre-
senting facts and problems which can only be
settled by clear thinking. When a director's
subject is Emotion he must appeal to our emo-
tions, he must make us feel. No one can feel
when the cold-blooded wall of perfect docu-
mentary is down between the person and the
subject. No one. not even Rossellini. can docu-
mentalize Emotion. j. ellis park

What they say about

W@SOa® WW& pictures

♦GOOD HEALTH '

'The film will remain as a lasting memorial of the authority's notable
administration and as an inspiration to the new regional service.'

LOCAL GOVERNMENT JOURNAL
'Intelligent and comprehensive.' CINEMA

♦THE CRAFTSMAN '

'—a magnificent film.' NEWS CHRONICLE

' — fascinating insight into the life and work of R.E.M.E.' SCOTSMAN

'Documentary treatment at its best.' FILM USER

TAKEN FOR GRANTED/

' — The best film, however, was "Taken for Granted'
(Reporting a show of films on Local Government)

PROGRESS

World Wide Pictures Ltd.

LYSBETH HOUSE, 10a SOHO SQUARE, W.I

Telephone: GERrard 1736 7 8

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DATA

is delivering
in the first few weeks of 1949

THROUGH A NEEDLE'S EYE

to the National Union of Tailors and
Garment Workers

HEADSPRINGS and

SPRINTING ii.i'li in -ouihI i\ -ili'ni versions)

to the National Committee for Visual Aids

and, of course, once a month

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Member of the Federation of Documentary Film Units

Hi

*//

<fy/

fy

The PHOTOMICROGRAPHY

UNIT expects that the not incon-
siderable results of its work, which
has been steadily proceeding during
the last three years, will be on the
screen in 1949

CINE - BIOLOGY

PHOTOMICROGRAPHY
D. Grayson, B.Sc.

Whitehall, Wraysbury, Bucks, and 9 Great Chapel Street, W.I

The Scottish critics, who should know, praise 'Waverley Steps' as a
human and authentic film.

Some of the London critics have written about it in equally glowing
terms.

The film cost half as much as one would imagine from the results on
the screen.
See it for yourself.

The film is produced by Greenpark Productions, whose artists, direc-
tors and craftsmen have given you 'A String of Beads', 'Five Towns',
'They Gave Him the Works', 'Cyprus is an Island', and many more.
There are many more to come.

from t^ ^Jjgjjg

S°ca«fthe S" f the
ov the ^**SRgg&?5
festival tha - w ^ * weady
taern b«f weefe. * ht F\aherty s-
London l^ul Robert n hRV«

*'«uen ,S Story b_\lev lSteps ."
■■ Louisiana ^ .. waveviev re

onV £°* ffar more *»»
w\iicn n^erest mm and 1

Scottish mf\e'cinatmg ^tvlp\e of ■
It ^ a tasc exan w ^

lecotnmend « WW, screen
Ine mt «P -e^n aj° g Pg
not bc oonosed l° indication
style as oPPnd as ^ fll and

ot .vnlted m a bC"' producer-
ancxp.cne her the £ anrt
Paul«. J, id^e the i^ nlCi
John ESrnerfteW S j nave
J°m] «S« «edit. thous con-
must snaic tnowin=,
no means or what. nicVi 1

AVierson sU™ saying " to the
DeVtcctly W c0ncessions ». lM

nol^ns ol the north- th« ^
•%lme Stuarts, and the n^ o(

oir David Hume ana ^ the
en^Wen^pohs «**• *l*

ound

^ TrniE nhn to ^"-ncidents
T a bunch °j_.^ on a

mghUvam^dh

around the s ^ t puV3 ms

«vftog£«l» ffW a midday
«et ^ie bigamist tlf,elromancc

mir;*0 Vi1 A to2 medvc

S°rst. between two

starts °^ d never

sn£e Englishman *h° £und *p

An c.ns uprtint)uvgh l" mterest-

>^en n°told mm a wt of uft n0

picture toia things *nrl 0f

^^n^one^e,

^LoK ffV&Vaf^ch
SSSS i? -enVhnoU »»
SfdloW^v ov
handling.

bTln? appreciate^0, * al *■«
which has n7^ ln a land

G^rsonand^S^ohn

It was Dr John r*

™ce described th^r'HrSOn who
tary as " th+7* documen-

»bout Scoaanf.hu?*^

a»ou icon- ,5y-" °:

festival hvesL thja
description* P n°bl*
"WaverW o..„ ..

film
I saw
year's

"' that

tiear-bnllianf t^ made U, a

documentaries 5lnburgh- F™
W&t the atm^c Tel-V ha^e
city in _atmosPnere of «

8 can surelv have
authentic - ?

FTama

of a
or

u-v in more C rre
^hentic fSa hUman

« *7k£i SmpTh Uvia*

have many mor^' -1 h°Pe we

"V ■;W.f.e3eTs<SS™entari's
-otiand Ik f'eP5-
ject*^.„...t!emlng with

T^me3 «« ^otC^ fteps' '

films.

st^-

Ltd

1HE SHFNVAL I'RFSS, lOMKlN AND HERTFORD

Tr

FILM CENTRE LTD.

1.7/168, Tottenham Court Road,
London W. 1.

Dear Sir,

When the publication of DOCUL.ENTaRY FILfc NEWS was
suspended in January 1949 , it was the intention of Film
Centre to continue their publication activities in a
different form.

We are now publishing in association with Unesco
a series of pamphlets, a list of which I enclose, on
the use of films and filmstrips in fundamental education.

These pamphlets are available from Film Centre, and
we would welcome your support in assisting us to obtain
as wide a distribution as possible.

Yours faithfully.
FILM CENTRE LID.

k^ '

ir

300107237