Documentary News Letter (1940)

10 DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER MARCH 1940 NEWS lETTEII MONTHLY THREEPENCE NUMBER 3 MARCH 1940 DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER is issued only to private subscribers and continues the policy and purpose of World Film News by expressing the documentary idea towards everyday living. DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER is produced under the auspices of Film Centre, London, in association with American Film Center, New York. EDITORIAL BOARD Edgar Anstey Arthur Elton John Grierson Paul Rotha Basil Wright Outside contributions will be welcomed but no fees will be paid. We are prepared to deliver from 3 — 50 copies in bulk to Schools, Film Societies and other organisations. Owned and published by FILM CENTRE LTD. 34 SOHO SQUARE LONDON W.l GERRARD 4253 FILMS FOR PRIMITIVE PEOPLES A NEW TECHNIQUE Acknowledgments are due to Mr W. Sellers, and to the Editor of the Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, for permission to reprint the extracts from the commentary to Machi Gaba included in this article. LARGE AREAS of our Colotiial Empire are inhabited by illiterate, semi-literate, or otherwise backward populations. The problem of education— in its widest sense — has been looming larger and larger in past years, and steps have been taken both by Whitehall and by local administrations to get rid of financial and technical difficulties in this important field. The use of films can of course be only a part of any educational scheme, but it is clear that in many colonies, and particularly in Africa, it can play a much larger part than might originally have been expected. In the vast areas covered by Kenya, Tanganyika and Uganda in the East, and Nigeria and the Gold Coast in the West, the first urgency is for simple instruction and propaganda as regards more hygienic living conditions and the prevention of disease. Next comes the need for general (elementary) education and the improvement of agricultural methods (for nearly the entire population lives by the soil). Finally, it is necessary to broaden their knowledge of the world around them and of their place in it, if the avowed British policy of advancing all Crown Colonies to a self-governing status is to become anything more than a hollow catchword. Results To Date Already experiments have revealed the practical value of films. Notcutt and Latham in East Africa carried out their Bantu Education scheme, whose interesting results were formulated in their book The African and the Cinema. And in Nigeria the work of Sellers, under an enlightened Health Department, has proved over a period of years that films, properly planned and used, are in the first line as adjuncts to all campaigns in health instruction, let alone more general educational schemes. These and other experiments have proved clearly that films for natives must be regarded as a highly specialised subject. Many technical tricks which are the commonplace of English educationals and documentaries must be jettisoned, and much simpler systems must be substituted. This means that existing English educational films are of little use except for more advanced natives, who usually represent a very small proportion of the population. For the great majority, special films must be made. Production Methods In Nigeria, Sellers has formulated certain essential rules which must be followed in making films for primitive populations: 1. The general tempo must be slow, and the length of individual scenes must be twice or three times as long as is usually considered necessary for English school audiences. 2. The content of any given scene must be very simple in its composition, because natives view all objects on the screen with equal interest, unless the important object is clearly emphasised. Close and mid shots are therefore preferable to long shots. 3. Strict accuracy is vital in portraying native habits and customs. Mistakes at once turn a serious film into a comedy. 4. No camera tricks of any sort. Continuity must be clearly maintained in all changes of scene, even if it means using three shots where one would normally do for audiences more used to film technique. 5. Films must be made as silents. A master commentary is then written, and is added by a native commentator, or by disc records, through a microphone during each performance. This system is vital, owing to the great variation in local dialects. Distribution The distribution of the films must perforce be by travelling vans. When a van arrives at a village the show is announced through the loudspeaker, and (in Nigeria at least) an audience of anything from 2,000 to 15,000 can be rapidly collected. Before the film is shown, its story is first explained in simple terms through the microphone. After it is over, a short talk follows, punching home the main message of the film. During the actual showing, one of the commentator's jobs is to get the audience to shout answers to questions about what is happening on the screen. Here is a sample. It is part of the commentary to Machi Gaba, a cleanliness film produced by Sellers in Northern Nigeria : — Commentator: "Here is a very dirty house. Who is that man? He is a farmer, but he is not walking very quickly, and he does not work very quickly. There is something the matter with him. What is the matter with him?" Audience: "He is sick." Commentator: "Yes. Sick people cannot work properly. That man's sickness, it is more than likely, is caused by all this filth and dirt that you see lying about his house, and a great deal of the sickness in the town is caused by the filth and dirt that the people allow to lie about all over the town. We do not blame the people ; they have never been told properly that dirt brings sickness. Here is a very dirty house. They are foolish people who live in that house. ,The man is a weaver, but he is not working very quickly ; in fact, now he is leaving his work altogether. Oh, poor man! If he lived in a clean house, it is more than likely that he would be