Documentary News Letter (1947-1949)

SK DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS r-YiA 1948 Congress of World Union of Documentary Reported on by Donald Alexander and Basil V/right i here was no iron curtain; only cloud covering all Europe, and blotting out every frontier we crossed. At Prague Air Terminal (so fast had been the crossing, so reasonable and smooth the formalities at the airport) there was not the expected English-speaking Miss Velibelova of Kratky Films to meet us. The chairman of British Documentary had provided us with a sketch map, a warning that the lifts in Prague only worked if you had one of a number of possible coins of varying sizes, and a heartfelt report on the steepness of the seven-floor ascent to Kratky Films. We decided to face all the risks, and set out. In any event, what with one thing and another, we spent the whole of that afternoon and evening in Prague on our own, exploring. We must record a few simple facts. We were not shadowed. There were many bookshops (more in a small space than in any city we know except Edinburgh) well-stocked with books of all kinds in many languages. There were several bookstalls selling English newspapers, and the reading-room in the hotel had them all. Beer was fivepence-halfpenny a pint (that's how we got the right coin to work the Kratky film lift). But most of all we saw that people looked cheerful, much more cheerful than crowds in Oxford Street. We knew that our superficial inspection of Prague could not be of much academic value — but we knew, too, that when people look like that, they are certainly not living under a reign of terror. At 8.30 in the morning we were taken by Miss Velibelova to the President Wilson Railway Station by a circuitous route, picking up essential documents and curious boxes as we moved from office to office. Outside the Wilson station, where we learned that we had to walk a hundred yards for our (reduced-fare) tickets, we encountered with joy our old friend Perski, who i in charge of Polish newsreels and whose sketches of the delegates to the Congress adorn these pages. We then made our way to the platform where we found a not-so-smart-as-in-themovies Orient Express, with no seats outside first-class. Establishing ourselves in a secondclass corridor, we awaited events and we didn't have to wait long. Down the platform came Joris Ivens, accompanied by the Australian, [Catherine Duncan, who we learned was working as his assistant. Mot on their heels came the American Marian Mitchell, also working with Ivens. and at that precise moment, seeking vainly for his luggage, together with the typewriter of the correspondent of I'Humanite, a red-haired lady who claimed that this was the .only time — including the battle of Teruel — in which she had let it out of her clutches. Two seconds later arrived, amidst acclamation, another member of the Polish delegation, Bossak, with an important briefcase, which we learned only later, during breakfast at Marianske Lazne. contained butter, Nescafe, marmalade, goat cheese, bacon, and the remaining comestibles without which no self-respecting Pole would, it appears, venture beyond his own border. Pausing officially only at Pilsen, where beer was served from trolleys, the Orient Express deposited the delegates at Marianske Lazne. Inaugural Meeting Within less than an hour of our arrival the inaugural meeting of the Congress took place in a room at the appropriately named Hotel Yalta. The provisional secretary, Jean Painleve, was there from France, together with Henri Langlois. Georges Toeplitz, the leading Polish delegate, had come on from Prague the night before with Elmar Klos, the director of Kratky Film, which co-ordinates all short film production in Czechoslovakia. There were two delegates from Hungary, Mr Kertesz and Miss Zsigmondy. Theodor Balk from Yugoslavia, who was at the 1947 Brussels meeting, Bech from Switzerland. Vernaillen from Belgium (standing in for Henri Storck who could not come), and two other Czech representatives, Kadar and Sulc. Slightly later arrived two Brazilians, Amado and Scliar. We all sat down and the official reception began. We were addressed by the Czechoslovak Minister of Information, the Director of his Films Division, and by Dr Brousil. already well known and well liked by all those concerned with earlier Film Festivals in Prague and London. From these speeches, which were all of them both practical and inspiring, one very important phrase emerged. 'Documentary is the conscience of the cinema'. With this in mind the delegates gave their own consciences no chance and prepared to set to work. First, however, there was one very important function. As our host, Elmar Klos, offered us ceremonial bread and salt. One delegate refused on the grounds that he was not hungry, later the interpreting swern became smoother, ami such dictionary deadlocks were rare. The defaulting delegate made good his mistake at the tail end of the round. Congress, within an hour of meeting, then got down to business. Delegates presented their credentials, and i1 was at once clear that Great Britain was so far the only country which had formed an organization specially to represent it in the World Union. This fact, together with a brief report on the work of British Documentary, given by the British delegation, later that same afternoon, created a very strong impression amongst the other delegates. A president for the Congress and three vice-presidents then had to be elected. The British delegation proposed Elmar Klos as president: and Toeplitz. Ivens and Wright were elected vice-presidents. The acceptance of the delegates' credentials was, as became clear a few minutes later, deeply allied with the approval of the Brussels Declaration of 1947. and. therefore, with the terms of reference of the Draft Constitution, drawn up at Cannes, to the discussion of which the Congress proceeded without any further delay. The Brussels declaration and the definition of documentary at the beginning of the statutes were both accepted practically without discussion. Following this remarkable unanimity on first principles, the Congress was faced with the slightly muddling problem of sorting out its agenda. It was agreed that the size of the Congress did not make it necessary to appoint a vast number of commissions, and, for the time being, only one commission was appointed, whose job it was to present a practical report on the Draft Constitution before the next meeting of the Congress at 10 a.m. the following morning. It was also proposed, and courageously agreed by the British Delegation, that the language of the Conference should be French. The British delegation accepted this situation with remarkable goodwill in view of the fact that they then became obligated to translate the transactions currently from French into English for the benefit of the Hungarian delegation: this tour de force would never have been achieved had it not been for the assistance of Miss Velibelova of the Czechoslovak delegation, who, like her colleague, was apparenth able to speak and interpret every known European language. What was more remarkable was that the French of the British delegation did not. repeat not. have to be translated for the benefit of the members of the French delegation. Second Day The bulk of the second day was devoted to reports h\ the delegates of various countries regarding the position and activities of the documentary movement. In this way detailed