Documentary News Letter (1947-1949)

114 DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER WELCOME TO SCOTLAND A thousand years hence, some zealot may sit down and write, with all the simplifications that perspective gives, a Book of the Genesis of the documentary film movement. Perhaps he will be — as that earlier zealot was — an historian of such clear perception, that he will be able to distil the whole revolutionary proceedings into seven creative days. Certainly he will be amazed by the revelation that so many of these days must be sited not in Soho Square but in Scotland. To carry this metaphor too far risks much besides blasphemy, but at least it is time to remind the South how much has been pioneered in the North. John Grierson himself — that goes without saying. Drifters was made in England? But who but a Scot would have shot his first film about the herring? Not the facts themselves, but the art with which they were presented was the secret of the early success of documentary. The magazine which lifted public appreciation of film on to the level of high art, and set the highbrows scurrying to see the latest EMB or GPO product, was the Cinema Quarterly, edited and published in Scotland. Statistically, Scotland is satisfied, if she provides one item of any kind to every ten from England. There are 44 million people in England, only 41 million in Scotland. But start counting film technicians, particularly documentary film technicians. Scotland was the first nation boldly to present itself on the screen in a planned series of films for all the world to see. The seven Films of Scotland — about the people, economics, fisheries, sport, education, agriculture, civics, were executed on a national scale by a Films Committee of the Scottish Development Council, with the aegis of the Secretary of State above it. That was eight years before the accident of war finally gave us a peacetime Central Office of Information. For some years before the war, two Scottish Directors of Education, Allardyce of Glasgow and Frizell of Edinburgh, were developing visual education in schools. They had their own silent films made, and these and many other films were collected into the Scottish Central Film Library. Kensington's Central Film Library only grew up during the war, and Committee A and Committee B are only just about to give us our first English programme of planned visual material for schools. When the war first started, it was a group of Glasgow school teachers, using the resources of the Scottish Central Film Library, who extracted sufficient money from the Treasury to pioneer the first non-theatrical scheme for general rather than commercial purposes. They collected motor cars, converted mains projectors to batteries, and drove thousands of miles round the Highlands, throughout one of the worse winters on record, so that their evacuated schoolchildren could see films. If Thomas Baird (a Scotsman) was able later to persuade the Treasury to finance the Ministry of Information's non-theatrical scheme, it was largely because this pioneer work had proved that the thing was possible. Distribution is still being pioneered in Scotland. The Highland Films Guild, which Alastair McNeil Weir has organized, represents all the main interests (civic, governmental, commercial) of the Highland Counties, and with help from St Andrew's House and finance from the Carnegie Trust, is bringing good single-feature programmes to villages which have never seen a film. And now we have the first International Festival of Documentary Films. The introductory leaflet points out that it is no accident that the Festival is being held in Britain. Let us be honest and admit that it is no accident either that it is being held in Edinburgh. There could be nothing more apt than to bring the whole matter to a focus-point in the birthplace of so much that is fundamental to documentary's progress. There will be four separate performances in the city's largest cinema and supplementary performances in the Guild theatre. Films to be shown: Paisa, Farrebique, A String of Beads, Indonesia Calling, Cumberland Story, and shorts from France, Denmark, Poland, Italy, Czechoslovakia. Belgium, Australia and Canada. Naturally, this article was drafted by a Scotsman. But dnl assures its readers that the Board is unanimous in its approval. We wish the Festival every success. Welcome to Scotland ! NOTES OF THE MONTH The cover still on this issue is from a Danish film Sclwolship One Up to Belgium everyone who went to the Brussels Film Festival was impressed by the efficiency of the organization, the wide variety of the programme and, not least, the helpfulness, courtesy and generosity of the Belgian Government and the various Festival officials. One of the most striking aspects of the Festival was the vast public enthusiasm for the more serious and specialized programmes. It was almost impossible to fight one's way into the scientific film show, which, incidentally, was held in a hall with large seating capacity at the same time as the projection of an American feature film to a rather sparse audience in a small hall nearby. The British film industry, mainly via the BFPA, brought off a big scoop by putting flags inscribed 'See a good British Film' on the bonnets of most of the local taxis. There was also a British Information Centre which attracted a large number of visitors, many of whom bombarded the staff with pertinent and serious questions. In this re spect the Centre left something to be desired. Despite the availability of a considerable number of roneoed handouts, there was a definite lack of personnel for answering questions. Documentary production was given too little prominence (possibly because interest in this branch of film-work had been underestimated) and. for most of the time, there was no one at the inquiry desk speciallybriefed for answering questions on documentary developments in Britain; yet such questions accounted for a large percentage of the daily queries. Nevertheless there can be little doubt that the British Centre was very much more successful than its American counterpart, which, in the words of a Brussels newspaper, 'resembled a dance hall on a transatlantic liner'. Nor. film for film, did the US industry manage to stand up to the product of this country, of France, and above all of Italy which, with Sciuscia. Vivere in Pace, II Sole Sorge Ancora and the superb Paisa. proved itself to be the most important production centre in the world today.