Documentary News Letter (1940)

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER DECEMBER 1940 21 ORGANISING A SCIENTIFIC FILM CLUB By NAN L. CLOW, B.Sc, M.A. Reprinted by courtesy of The Scientific Worker Twelve months ago the Aberdeen Branch of the A.S.W. decided to try a film show as an item ofits winter activites and ended by having a vigorous film club with 130 members, which, in addition to its instructional and entertainment value, has formed a valuable liaison between the A.S.W. and other local organisations. As a guide to other branches which might desire to establish such film clubs and have already been making enquiries, the following is a brief account of the evolution of the Aberdeen Scientific Film Club. The desirability for the formation of a club, as opposed to the holding of random film shows, is closely connected with the fact that a club which exists for the display of educational and scientific films is not subject to entertainment tax, even though the Customs and Excise have to be notified of each show and the programme submitted before exemption is given. Having decided to form a club, the next question is where to meet. This will depend entirely on local conditons, but it should not be difficult to find, where there is a University or Technical College, a Physics or other department equipped with 16mm. talkie projector, etc. The cost of the hall and the use of the equipment will vary from a nominal charge to cover wear and tear and a gratuity to the operator, to a definite payment for hire. To bring the activities of the Club before the public, contact was made with the local W.E.A., who undertook to make a part of their syllabus available to the S.F.C., in addition to posting 500 of the Club's own leaflets along with their syllabus of lectures. A further batch of leaflets went to the local Film Society and a Press notice capped the advertising campaign. The oflTers held out by the S.F.C. leaflets were membership of the club at 4s. 6d. for five shows, which were to be held about the time of the full moon — a fact which made quite a number of members venture forth in the black-out. The season's programme was so designed that more than one aspect of a subject was explored from show to show by diff"erent films. Thus a physiological series considered in turn, nutrition, vitamins, functions of the body, and this emerged into a sociological series which considered housing problems, vermin, smoke abatement, etc. In connection with some of the more highly specialised films, demonstrations were given, as when a demonstration of chemical analysis on the macro scale preceded a film on micro-chemical technique, thus enabling non-chemists to anticipate and appreciate the points illustrated. Further, in order to give something more than can be expected in the ordinary cinema, the makers of some of the films shown were invited to come and supplement the material given in their films. DR. EHRLICH'S MAGIC BULLET A composite review by two scientific observers, reprinted by courtesy of The Scientific Worker (abridged) The basis of this film is the life of the bacteriologist, Paul Ehrlich (1854-1915). The following is a factual criticism only, not one of technique or acting, of which it can simply be said that nothing seems inappropriate or ungenuine. One admires the restraint shown by the use of orthodox apparatus in the normal manner. The film covers the whole of Ehrlich's scientific career, commencing with his clinical post in Berlin, in a manner which is broadly true but in many ways inaccurate. There is a great connecting theme running through Ehrlich's work — that of the combination of substances with dift'erent parts of living organisms — and this is illustrated in the film, beginning with the specific combination of dyestuff's with micro-organisms in order to render them visible under the microscope. But this idea was not entirely Ehrlich's, and it seems unnecessary that Ehrlich should be made to explain such staining to Koch on the occasion of Koch's announcement of the discovery of the tubercule bacillus (1882), when Koch had used the method at least five years earlier for the anthrax bacillus. Again, at other points, the main errors occur in attributing too much to Ehrlich and in over-dramatising incidents of his life, e.g. in the use of diphtheria antitoxin, and in the '606 trial.' Even with such criticism of details, it is excellent that a popular film should be made which shows so much of the genuine difficulties and triumphs of scientific work. It shows that much of Ehrlich's research was on problems of im mediate practical importance — the standardisation of diptheria antitoxin, the development of salvarsan for cure of syphilis — and that others, apparently abstract, contributed to practical as well as theoretical advances. The difficulties of getting adequate financial backing for research are shown many times. Though science had in Germany at this time attained an official recognition which was achieved only later in England, this involved restrictions with which Ehrlich and Koch are shown in conflict. Many points are raised of a general nature which are only too topical to-day; fortunately the audience is led to side against such futile obstructions as racial prejudice, inadequate financing, prevention of scientific workers from attending important lectures, etc. Conventional taboos are satirised in an amusing sequence where the mention of syphilis at a dinner table causes violent reaction. The points about Ehrlich's personality which have been noted by his biographers are also well interpreted by Edward G. Robinson: his tendency to advance a theory on little evidence, and then to defend it impetuously, and the impression which the film gives of rapid and great discovery in bacteriology during Ehrlich's life is true and can hardly be over emphasised. A few excellent microscope slides in colour were incorporated in the film; the exemplary views of the tubercle bacilli, spirochaetes, and particularly the living trypanosomes would in themselves make a viewing worth while. DE WOLFE'S 25 years experience in film music at your service LARGEST LIBRARY of v/ell-recorded ORCHESTRAL SOUND-TRACKS ' not less than 25 performers NO CHARGE FOR THE LOAN OF NEGATIVES GERRARD 2992 GRAMOPHONE RECORDS HUDSON RECORD CO. Cinema House, 80-82 Wardour Street, W.I