Documentary News Letter (1940)

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER MARCH 1940 placent and over-optimistic publicity is distrusted in a world which has put up the barriers against tendentious propaganda. To carry conviction we must show that the vigorous democratic spirit which fought for British social reform still lives to preserve, in spite of war, a maximum of our gains and even in certain fields to increase them. The choice of method in national film publicity still lies open. We can make films of a democracy of contented cowmen. Or we can show a people who, by debate and discussion, are arguing their way towards better things ; a people who believe that the threat of foreign totalitarian stupidities is the immediate but not the only obstacle to be overcome, who believe that the sacrifice of democratic practices in fighting that threat would leave Britain without hope of a better national order in the post-war world. THE CANADIAN FRONT In the January issue our Canadian Correspondent outlined the plan and purpose of Ottawa's new film policy. This new dispatch describes the immediate action which is being taken to put that policy into action. The article was written at the end of January ; hence the references to the late Lord Tweedsmuir. IN SEPTEMBER Canada did not hurry to formalise a Ministry of Public Information. She preferred to watch and to profit by the mistakes made elsewhere, meanwhile letting the existing media of information carry on with only such censorship regulations as military discretion demanded. As a result she now possesses a Department of Public Information whose pattern may well be a source of envy to others. Instead of the massive British band-wagon — point-blank target for every wit — she has a small, mobile "flying-squad" of men, each experienced in one medium of information (press, radio, films, etc.) and mainly concerned in the direction of policy and the giving of encouragement to the existing service provided by that medium. Coordination is falling naturally and spontaneously into the hands of a single adviser who works in close touch with the Prime Minister. This light-weight organisation, shaped more by the course of events than by the dictate of authority, is one which England has long claimed as her own special method of administration ; and observers abroad were the more astonished to see so abrupt and strange a departure from it as that represented by the first structure of the Ministry of Information. In Canada the National Film Board, with the Film Commissioner as executive, acts as the film wing of Public Information service. The last four weeks have seen the swift initiation by the Board of a war film service which will appeal to many different levels of discussion. They have seen the first of these films hit the screen in theatres from Atlantic to Pacific ; they have seen the mobilisation of all available production units to maintain the flow. On January 12th the first Canadian War Loan was scheduled for public announcement. Shortly before Christmas the Board placed in production a one-reel news story emphasising the importance of the industrial and economic war fronts of Canada, and explaining the loan method of financing them. The Board provided the script and production supervision. The film was made by Associated Screen News in Montreal. Production, which included the shooting of a discussion between Mr Mackenzie King and a group of cabinet ministers, was completed in three weeks. At the time of writing, the film is showing in more than 700 of the 1,100 theatres in the country. So successful has this War Loan film been in obtaining blanket coverage at theatre level for a Government statement that a series to appear every two months is now planned, each film to give dramatic information on one aspect of Canada at war. The general approach of the series will be that of showing to the people of Canada how their fellow-citizens are getting on in their new-found occupations, and of keeping visual and human contacts alive in spite of the distances created by the war. The first of the series — a one-reeler on the work of the Navy — is in production, and this will be followed by such items as Canadian women in the war, the work of the Exchange and Supply Boards, and, it is hoped, a news story on the Canadian forces in England. The idea has been enthusiastically received by the trade, and programme space is being reserved for the series. It has been suggested in public discussion that the twomonthly release should as soon as possible become monthly, and that the alternate months might be filled by films of a similar nature from the United Kingdom. The March of Time unit, whose arrival in Canada to produce a big item on this country's war eff'ort was recently announced (see DNL, January), has now nearly completed its work/ Scheduled for release in February, the film is eagerly awaitec in Canada, but the Film Board is perhaps even more interested in the fact that March of Time has showing time in 11,00( theatres throughout the world, and that foreign versions ir several languages are to be issued. On the newsreel side proper, the Board has recently api pointed a contact-man to work with Associated Screen New and the American reels. His duties will presumably be to watcl for war items of immediate interest both to home and oversea; audiences, to arrange special facilities and effects for newsree units, and to develop Canada's place on the world's new; screens. A rumour which has gained strength over the last few day has aroused interested conjecture in connection with th theatre approach to Canadian war information. This rumou has it that Walter Wanger, and possibly other first-line Holh wood creative men, are shortly due in Ottawa. In a reccr broadcast the Government Film Commissioner stressed th fact that when he was in Hollywood in September, the younge producers were showing concern at the insistance of the olc timers that war meajit "give 'em froth", and were determine that Hollywood should face the issue of this war boldly on th screen without distortion of facts. Mr Grierson has since ar nounced that a Cavalcade of Canada is now due, and that sue a film would obviously derive great benefit from the associatio idu Ll