Documentary News Letter (1940)

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER APRIL 1940 NEW DOCUMENTARY FILMS k«' Point of View No. 5. Drifting in Danger. Production: Spectator Short Films. Distribution: Denning Films. 17 minutes. HERE, once again, is Mr Ivan Scott keeping the peace between Mr Pro and Mr Con and finishing up by asking us in the audience what we think. In this latest release the argument is about the plight of the herring industry and whether the 1935 policy of the Herring Industry Board was right or wrong. Unfortunately the well-documented views of Mr Pro and Mr Con suffer from untidy arrangement, and the scenes chosen to illustrate them do little to clarify or reinforce the verbal contentions. The relationship between spoken word and visual image is often clumsy to the point of incomprehensibility. In general, Point of View is to be congratulated on its choice of subjects, for there is still powerful opposition in the film trade and in the censor's office to the presentation of controversial issues on the screen. It is a pity that, in order to disarm any criticism of subject-matter, a style of presentation has been evolved which is in danger of representing controversy itself as a somewhat comic English pastime, an end in itself rather than a means of arriving at valuable conclusions. The highly artificial conventions of a Point of View debate forbid the stating of conclusions in the film and the audience may be forgiven if they feel no stimulus to draw any of their own ; a poor result for a series which presumably sets out to entertain by facilitating wider public participation in the solving of topical problems. Apart from the handicap imposed by its framework of three men at a table (and the box office value of always repeating this theme-scene may easily be exaggerated). Point of View occasionally sees other reasons for omitting essential factors in its controversies. The question of distribution costs and middlemen's profits is not debated in the current issue on depression in the herring industry. It was a pity Mr Con did not ask just how an unpretentious London restaurant comes to charge three shillings for a pair of grilled herrings. The Republic of Finland. Production: March of Time (No. 11, Fifth Year). Distribution: R.K.O. Radio Pictures. 18 minutes. FINLAND is a subject with which March of Time has already dealt on an earlier occasion, and it is obvious that there was no possibility of obtaining fresh and exclusive material in Finland in time for inclusion in this new issue. The war scenes are indeed the same as those we have seen in the newsreels; and the remainder of the Finnish material is composed of well-shot scenes of Finland's peacetime activities (including a monumental shot of Sibelius) and a certain amount of historical material. One hesitates to accuse an excellent series like the March of Time of anything in the nature of padding, but the Cook's Tour of Washington's embassies with which this item begins appears to have little relevance to the main argument, except in so far as the Russian and Finnish representatives are concerned. The argument of the film is, however, clearly stated, and does not diverge in any way from the general attitude of the press. In general, it may be said that this item, though highly topical and therefore box oflice, is not in the first line of March of Time eff"ort. Island People. Production: Realist Film Unit for British Council. 10 minutes. By an American ISLAND PEOPLE, a neat little documentary, grapples with an interesting problem. Intended for neutral consumption, it is a production of British minds untainted by foreign viewpoint. As such it demands close inspection, careful criticism. Herewith the verdict of a neutral tainted by contact with the British. The film is built up on a nice formula. I approached the British Isles by way of a map, an air view of the countryside, and assorted general views. Then I settled down to a few examples of Britons and what they do. Done with them, I wound up with a quick summary, and it was all over. As propaganda it has virtues. It is quiet, not obviously pushing, seems an attempt to explain England simply. Its faults are not great, but are several. I feel that a spoken commentary of calm, dispassionate British understatement should be eff"ective as propaganda, but that commentary, to be most successful, should be accompanied by visual overstatement. (Someone says in hurt tones: "That's hardly British, old man!" But if it's to be propaganda, why not superlative propaganda?) The photography was workmanlike, but quite unexciting. Direction and cutting were jerky at the film's start, but settled down later. For me the film was too simple. England just can't be as simple as she was here painted. The England I know is an industrial nation. In the film the stress was heavier on agriculture than on industry. The choice of a farmer boy, a woman clinician, the captain of a merchantman, a secretary and a silversmith as examples of the English did not seem typical to me. Thank God, though, for an English documentary without the usual tortuous panoramic meanderings about the landscape. There was not the usual time to be wasted, for a lot of material was crowded into this film. I liked the emphasis on craftsmanship in the case of the silversmith. And thanks for a nice bit of light music that popped up momentarily midfilm. I liked Island People. It just could have been a lot better. Maybe the others in this series will answer all my arguments. By a film industry executive Island People is a welcome and much-needed addition to documentary lists. Documentary, as I see it, has two objectives; first, to interpret the social scene, and second, to interpret it to the widest possible number of people. Island People satisfied the first objective and will, I am certain, satisfy the second. There are no technical fire-, works or heavy-footed and academic excursions into sociology. The film is simple and emotion talli ally warm. It does not look at "the masses" fr(( V' the outside. Island People is more than an accoi of how the British people live, though this is I W" raison d'etre : it is a story of how common peo|l bI' live and work all over the world. The Realj t'™' Film Unit have put themselves on such ten with ordinary people that they are doing the v{l best work for documentary. I searched for an adjective to describe ti: film, but there is only one that fits it, and that "artless" — artless in the same way that a pot by Herrick, or a painting by Botticelli is pi and artless. ^^j,. Handicraft Happiness, Rugmaking, Quiltii Thrift. Production: G.B. Instructional. Din tion: Mary Field. Photography: Peter Herbe Distribution: Non-theatrical. 16 mm. silent, i cept for Handicraft Happiness, of which there i: 16 mm. sound version. Each film runs for a proximately 10 minutes. By a woman THESE FOUR films have been made for t Women's Institutes to encourage countrywom to relearn the crafts which were the pride of thi great-grandmothers. As the first series of films be made at the request of the Institutes they i present an important development in the use film in education. Except for Handicraft Hapj ness they are unpretentious straightforwa demonstration films made with a strict eye on t cost. G . B. Instructional have shot on 1 6 mm. fil, so skilfully that it looks every bit as good as 35 mi One of the difficulties of making such things sewing or rugmaking look attractive on t screen is that you have to sit down to the woi The only movement is in the hands and the chi interest is in the design of the stitches. Althoui I am not able to face a darn with equanimi myself, I was fascinated by the details of thra^fr ,, and finger work. The women's hands quilting t traditional feather pattern, the cross stitchl^,, which go to make a rug — these are the thin which please the eye and encourage the ignorai Quilting is the best of the series for this reaso It shows how the work is done. Thrift and Ru making rely a little too much on pictures women bending over their work with gre patience and determination. And they did lo« ''.' determined. It would have been a relief to see younger face among them. All the fine things which the Women's Ins tutes make are not show-pieces ; they are made be used. Yet no one walked on the hand-wov rug, no child slept in the cot made of sackclot no one lay on the home-tufted mattress. Th« should have been some attempt to show hi these things would add to the comfort ai pleasure of the family. Handicraft Happiness serves as an introduci to the other three films. It begins in an eig tcenth century farmhouse, brings in the facto system with a good blast on a siren, and she the modern woman going to town by bus to b her provisions. But the machine may not turno goods to suit her purse or her individual wan h '=« (St