Documentary News Letter (1944-1945)

66 DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER Status of the British Documentary By J. R. Williams Head of Non-Theatrical Section, Film Division. British Information Services, New York TThe prestige of British documentaries has, of -■• course, stood high for many years wherever, in America, there is keen interest in the more serious uses of film. Prestige and circulation do not always go hand in hand, however, and it is probably fair to say that up to the beginning of the war a succes cVestime amongst the documentarians was all there was to compensate for a general lack of knowledge of British films amongst the American non-theatrical public, and a vague impression, derived from theatrical circles, that all British films were bad. When, therefore, the British Information Services tentatively began to distribute M.O.I, documentaries as part of their job of acquainting America with the nature of the British war effort, their situation was something like that of a yacht sailing against a strong current with the aid of a fair following wind. We have moved a good way upstream since then, but fundamentally I believe the situation is still the same. The general atmospheric conditions under which our progress is made, however, have changed a good deal. When Richard Ford began to develop B.I. S. distribution from New York, America was not at war, and peacetime conditions obtained in the 16-mm. market. These peacetime conditions are predominantly commercial. The dealers, of whom there are vast numbers, buy films either for re-sale at a substantial profit or for renting on such terms as will recoup the print cost in anything from twelve to thirty bookings. Alongside the dealers, there are the educational film libraries (run by universities, colleges or local education authorities) which also buy and rent films. Some of these libraries operate very much as the dealers do, renting films to all comers, though their interest is naturally biased towards groups whose work has some kind of adult educational flavour. Other libraries operate within the closed circle of a state or municipal school system, and others again do not extend their activities much beyond the field covered by the college or university to which they belong. 20,000 Sound Projectors These dealers and educational libraries make up an enormous distribution network — when the Office of War Information began to distribute 16-mm. films, it found 250 of them worthy to be its agents. The field they serve is equally enormous. It is estimated that there are 20,000 sound projectors in public or institutional buildings in the U.S.A. Texas alone claims to have a thousand. A high proportion of these projectors are in schools and colleges, and alongside this vast technological development has gone the progress of educational experiment in the use of films. Departments of audio-visual education have been set up by universities, colleges, and school authorities all over the country, the normal practice being for these to be equipped with every facility for storing, shipping, servicing and showing films. Last summer, forty-seven educational institutions in twenty-one States offered courses in audio-visual education. It must not be imagined that this vast distribution machinery is a kind of insatiable maw which even the films of all the nations of the world might well leave unfilled. The school market is much the biggest section of the whole. It is this market which the dealers comb most assiduously. There is a huge number of films made for it, some of them, notably those of Encyclopedia Britannica Films Inc. (formerly ERPI) being cut and tailored to the curricula with a very exact knowledge of their requirements. The last edition of the Educational Film Catalog listed over three thousand films, most of them American, and many of these are suitable for adult organisations, as witness the inclusion of quite a few of our own titles. War Films Operating in a non-belligerent America, against this commercial and educational background, the British Information Services began in 1 940 to offer British war films to the American public on the only terms that would have been tolerated at the time. The films were sold and rented at prices conforming to U.S. commercial practice. On America's entry into the war, however, the picture changed. The Office of War Information began to produce and adopt films for non-theatrical distribution. Prints of these were placed free with the dealers and libraries, who accepted full responsibility for developing distribution at nominal service charges very much below the old commercial rates. Substantially this is the situation which still exists. Though the O.W.I, suffered a severe cut in its budget in 1943, it has contrived to keep its machinery in being as a means of distributing films paid for by other agencies. At the same time, the War Department and the Navy Department have both . set up schemes under which "incentive" films, chiefly battle subjects, are lent to war factories (again at very low charges) and the very large distribution which has been achieved in this field is the chief adult counterpoise to the heavy school distribution. Soon after the establishment of the O.W.I. non-theatrical schemes in 1942, it became apparent that it would no longer be possible to distribute British war films at commercial rates — indeed, the actual circulation secured on commercial terms was never very large. The O.W.I, had set a pattern which borrowers approved. They began increasingly to protest against rental charges on war films, and when the O.W.I. adopted British films for its non-theatrical scheme (Target for Tonight, Listen to Britain and Dover were eventually so adopted) the anomaly became unsustainable. From the autumn of 1942, therefore, the B.I.S. films were loaned at nominal service charges and the sale prices were dropped to a minimum level. At the same time, following a plan made by Tom Baird during his visit to the United States in 1942, the system was begun of decentralising the work by establishing additional loan libraries outside New York. As the system now stands, there are six main libraries, with a Film Officer in charge of each, and at seventeen other points there are libraries (less complete but thoroughly representative) under the charge of British Consulates. In this way, the whole of the States are covered, each library serving a definite area. At practically all these distribution points, the films are housed and shipped by American 16-mm. distributors, who in most cases assist the British office in the work of promotion. The extent of their assistance is a widely varying quantity. In some cases it amounts to no more than an occasional verbal recommendation to customers ; in some it is a vigorous collaboration. In terms of the country we are working in, this is a very modest organisation, and it looks very small beside the corps of 250 professional or educational distributors who handle films for the O.W.I., or the massive organisation by means of which the U.S. War Department promotes the showing of its films in war factories. Neither can our bookings compare with those of American agencies. It is not to be expected that foreign films should have the same interest for the American people as the productions of their own country. The more deeply America becomes involved in the war, the more is this true. In the days when Britain stood alone, London Can Take It could electrify a country which, for all its neutrality, was deeply shaken by the spectacle of Fascist advance; and in 1941, Target For Tonight shone like the first-risen star. But the growth of American war films, which have rapidly improved in quality as well as quantity, has naturally transformed the market. Nevertheless, through the indomitable persistence of our officers, we have reached an extraordinary variety of organisations. What is more, such analyses as we have been able to make show pretty clearly that we have avoided the pitfall which even American war film distribution has not altogether escaped — the overemphasis on schools. These, with their wealth of projectors, are the line of least resistance for the professional distributor. As he concentrated most of his sales drive on them in peacetime, so he turned first to them when he became a distributor for the O.W.I. Our own officers ha\e frequently been reminded that our main job is one of informing the adult population, and the reports show how loyally they have gone after the more difficult game. Adult organisations of all kinds figure amongst our borrowers — civic groups, religious bodies, trade unions, professional organisations, government agencies and the armed services. Factories are amongst our best customers. Distribution Areas Our chief distribution is, naturally, around the great centres of population — New York, Chicago, Detroit, Boston and the other great industrial cities of the east, though Los Angeles has, not unnaturally, always been one of our fertile spots, and the distribution in Washington, where so many'government agencies are centred, has a special importance. Apparently, howe\er. there is no spot so out-of-the-way that one of our films may not creep into it at some time. Army Education Officers have carried prints to the lonely outposts of Alaska, the Department of Agriculture has congratulated us on the effect of our farming films in a Spanish-speaking village of New Mexico, and Nenro-Psychiatry has been circuited with great success throughout the Hawaiian Islands by the Regional Health Department. These are Rembrandtian highlights, however, and should not be allowed to produce the illusion that the whole picture is one o\' brilliance and light. The job of finding out what sort of British film is of interest to the American non-theatrical