Documentary News Letter (1947-1949)

104 DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER NEW DOCUMENTARY FILMS Chasing the Blues. DATA Films for the Cotton Board. Music: Jack Parnell's Quartet. Dancers: Alan Baker, Donald Britten. Optical Superimposition: Studio Film Laboratories. Distribution : T and Non-T in Lancashire. 6 minutes. Whenever films are made to propagate policies there arises the difficulty of flushing the shy living things that lurk in the undergrowth of official and semi-official phraseology. Typewriters chatter through the Hampstead night as directors and \cript-writers devise methods of making columns of statistics walk and talk, or of imparting attractive flesh-tints to a stack of white papers. When their devices are successful, which is not always by any means, it is an occasion for warm congratulation. Chasing the Blues undertakes the task of encouraging cotton-mill managers to pay more attention to the welfare and comfort of their workers, and giving them a few ideas on how to go about it. The DATA technicians have avoided ponderous exhortations and wordy argument. Instead they have produced a kind of film ballet which makes its points almost entirely in music and movement. The technique derives, partly at any rate, from Len Lye's abstract film posters of the 1930s, and it fulfils its purpose to admiration. Experiments of this kind are as welcome as they are rare, and it is to be hoped that both sponsors and producers will explore further the land of fantasy. They will find it an invaluable base in their war against the Great Ho-Hum. Puddle Muddle Riddle. Seven League for PFB. Distribution: PFB. 12 mins. Playing in the Road. Public Relationship Films for PFB. Distribution: PFB. 12 mins. The Ballad of the Battered Bicycle. Seven League for PFB. Distribution: PFB. 8 mins. In this country the production of entertainment films for children is still in its infancy and little is yet known about the effectiveness of this medium for conveying ideas. The Petroleum Films Bureau is therefore to be congratulated upon having sponsored a series of experimental story films on road safety, each having been made for a particular age group. It is not easy for an adult to appraise films made for children. They must clearly be of a slower tempo than those for adults, and are therefore liable to seem boring to us. The humour must be broad and rather obvious, and not of the type to which we are used to responding. The camera must move quietly and deliberately, making its points explicitly rather than by reference to symbols, significant close-ups, cross-cutting, etc. The children and grown-ups must appear as they do to children. But having said that we have said very little, and the only real test of such films is the influence they have on behaviour. We understand that the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations is undertaking some research on children's reactions to these films. This should yield sonic extremely interesting results. Of these three films, the least successful was the one designed for the youngest children, Playing in the Road. From the adult point of vic>\ it is a delightful film — well shot and neatly edited, amusing and interesting. But it is very doubtful whether small children would follow much of it. It moves very quickly, the dialogue is sophisticated and spoken rapidly, and the points are emphasized too subtly. The most suitable film is the one for children of over 10 years, The Ballad of the Battered Bicycle. The commentary is in the style of Stanley Holloway, who speaks it. It is the tale of a boy who, breaking every rule of the road, rides his bike to its death. It is a clear and simple story, straightforwardly told, and should appeal to the juvenile road-hog. Puddle Muddle Riddle is difficult to assess, since its humour is not intended to appeal to grown-ups and it depends on humour to make its point. It is the story of Puddle Muddle, where there were no traffic rules, and of the various types of rules devised by the grotesque Town Council when the chaos became unbearable. Eventually some sensible people step in and work out the rules we use today, and they appeal to the children to co-operate in carrying them out. There seems every reason to believe that the main point will get over to the children, even if they do not follow the transition from the Puddle Muddlians to the sensible folk who put everything right. Whatever their result, the making of these films was a step forward. We want more of every type of film for children, but we especially want more research and experiment into the entertainment film for juveniles. Is it asking too much for the Ministry of Education to give some consideration to this question alongside its work on educational films? A Power in the Land. World Wide for Electrical Trades Union. Producer: Ralph Bond. Director: Terry Bishop. Camera: Arthur Graham. Distribution: Full-theatrical. GFD. 40 mins. This film has been made in two versions, a three reeler for the theatres, with an extra reel to be added for showing throughout the trade union movement. The main body of the film deals with the uses of electricity. Through the membership index of a trade union office we are introduced to the work that has to be done in electrical supply undertakings, in factories making electrical fittings, in steelworks where the machinery is electrically controlled, on board ship, etc. Before our eyes pass electric irons and cookers, generators and scientific timing machines, X-ray apparatus, an encephalograph, and finally a cyclotron (with a brief introduction to atom-splitting). The commentator works up to a high-sounding peroration on all these marvels of electricity, to be interrupted by an ordinary electrician doing his everyday job repairing somebody else's wireless set, with a timely 'A fat lot of use you'd be without me'. It is a very necessary reminder. The ETU has a couple of hundred thousand members; on their work and skill depends the supply of many services we take for granted. The extra reel gives a brief description of the ETU, its organization as a trade union, how it functions, and the wide range o\ activities it is concerned with. It seems a pity that this should be the section which is omitted from the theatrical version. It is the general public, rather than the trade union movement, that needs to be informed of these things, particularly as the film does a good job of explaining union organization. The film is competently made, though rather slow-moving at times. One could have wished, in the theatrical version, for more emphasis on people, on the electricians themselves. The fact that the film is to get theatrical distribution is particularly important. It will be the first time a trade union viewpoint about a major industry will be presented on the cinema screens of this country. Out of the Ruins. Canadian National Film Board for UNRRA. Distribution: N-T. CFL. 30 mins. This film made in 1945 tells the story of the relief work undertaken immediately following the liberation of Greece. Today it might well be written off as out of date, were it not for the fact that its implications are profoundly topical. As its title suggests, Out of the Ruins prov ides a picture of the devastation of Greece and of the pitiful situation of its population at the time of the liberation. Such scenes are still salutary, even after our own wartime experiences and the discomforts of the recent fuel crisis. The work of UNRRA makes an inspiring theme, with its welcome by the ordinary people, its preoccupation with providing the homely but important things of life (such as mules), and its concern to draw the Greek people fully into the work of reconstruction and replanning. The director has made the most of the opportunities provided. The Greek peasants are brought close to us and we are impressed by their courage and their simple dignity. The beauties of the countryside — surely a sore temptation to the cameraman — have been utilized without artiness or artificiality. There is a very effective and moving sequence depicting the Resistance in symbolic terms. As it stands, this film is a fitting tribute to all that was best in UNRRA and to the ideals of disinterested relief which have received such setbacks since its premature demise. But Greece is the centre of world political battles and is torn by civil war. Any good film must therefore be expected to reflect in some way the underlying reasons for this. Within the limits set by the subject Out of the Ruins does this. It shows for example, the contrast between the standard of living of the rich and of the poor, the expensive shops crammed with luxury foods while the mass of the people live on. or over, the starvation line. It shows the demands for democracy of the ordinary people. It shows foreign troops on patrol in the heart of Athens. We can draw our own conclusions from these facts. The real topicality of this film lies, however, in what it does not show. \\ hen it was shot it was apparently still possible to be optimistic about the future of Greece. The film breathes confidence about the reconstruction of the country, about the participation of the common people in this work, and about the re-estahlishmeni ot' the cultural and democratic heritage o\ Greece. N et, two years later, with UNRRA at an end. civil war raging, and thousands o\ the ordinal) folk exiled, imprisoned or seeking sanctuary in the mountains, one can onb feel shaken .\^J shamed by the frustration of all the ideals and plans so enthusiastically portrayed in the film. The Canadian film Board have turned out a good film, but thev have done more than that. Perhaps inadvertently thev have challenged the consciences ol' the freedom loving peoples of the world.