Documentary News Letter (1944-1945)

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER JANUARY AND FEBRUARY 1944 M l ^ "WORDS AND ACTION" is the title of a new documentary film now available for distribution. It is an unusual film, even among documentaries. ... a film which may be received with mixed feelings by some filmgoers, but will rarely be received in silence! "Words and Actions" is a film about democracy. It shows democracy without a capital letter — the democracy that is no abstract catch-phrase to be thundered from political platform, pulpit and press . . . but the democracy that is PEOPLE— peop e working out their own salvation by the "democratic method". Looking back over the past hundred years the public may well marvel at the social progress achieved by this same social "dynamic" ... no more children for coal pits or chimneys, rapid advances in education, acceptance of trade unionism (once a penal offence), and many other "revolutionary and indecent" ideas. The high test of total war has spot-lighted the democratic method as it now solves new problems, and we have tried to add our tribute to the quota. "WORDS AND ACTIONS" has been sponsored by the British Commercial Gas Association. It is now available for distribution to applicants. Details and booking form, for this and other documentary films, available free to approved borrowers, will be sent gladly on application to the Secretary, British Commercial Gas Association, 1 Grosvenor Place, London, S.W.I. New Documentary Films (Continued from page 5) about the dignity of labour, but whether by accident or design, the people in the film all look supremely unhappy. As the commentary says, Portugal is one country where food is still abundant, but as most of it is sold to the belligerent nations, prices have been boosted beyond the means of the average citizen and wages are frozen by Government decree. The wealthy still manage to have a very good time in Lisbon and the shots of the capital with its hordes of refugees, spies, journalists, diplomatic representatives and what-have-you are full of interest. There is a wealth of really good material in the film, and although it steers clear of too positive a line, it is not difficult to draw your own conclusions, and for most people these conclusions will not be very flattering towards Salazar and the people who back him. Cameramen at War. Production: Realist Film Unit. Compiled by Len Lye. Commentary: Raymond Glendenning. Music: Ernst Meyer. M.O.I. 14 minutes. Subject: The men through whose eyes the plushseated audience sees the blood and the sweat of the battlefields. As one watches the bombs drop on the target, the aircraft carrier shudder as it gets a hit, the wounded men struggling through the Pacific Island mud, it is easy to forget that there was a cameraman there making the pictures. However exciting or frightening the moment, the lens still had to be focused, the exposure set and the camera held steady. Cameramen at War is both a tribute to the men of the newsreels and the Service camera departments, as well as a record of their skill and initiative. Propaganda value: The spectacular shots collected together here certainly make the film good entertainment, and the emphasis on the importance of the camera in both the last war and this gives the film an added weight. Clyde Built. Production: Spectator Films. Director: Robin Carruthers. Camera: A. H. Luff. M.O.I. 23 mins. Non-T. Subject: A brief account of Clyde-side today. The nature of its modern methods of shipbuilding and their relationship with tradition. Treatment: A magazine type of film with loose continuity between dialogue and commentary episodes. The film ranges widely and for the most part superficially, yet occasionally plunges into technical detail beyond its compass. Propaganda Value: Dubious. In its attempts to say everything, this film, in the reviewer's opinion, gets very close to saying nothing at all. It leaps madly from an apprentices' lecture to a works' committee meeting to an alibi about w hy American methods are inappropriate on the Clyde, to the inevitable workers watching launching and so on and on, one thing leading to another and frequently back again to something we thought we had already disposed of. The film is shapeless, prosy, yet well-meaning to the point of becoming in place a burlesque of old-style documentary. Moreover it comes to a natural, and not ungraceful end at least three times before the final fade-out.