Documentary News Letter (1947-1949)

112 DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS One Dog — Two Trees WHO SAYS EXPERIMENTAL FILM? by Jorgen Roos Documentary today is as big as a house . . . JOHN GRIERSON Well, indeed there is something wrong with documentary films. We have heard it from the audience, we can see it in the films, and it appears from the current discussion among film-men. Just as there was reason to laud the production' basis created for the fighting documentary film by Grierson, Cavalcanti and other pioneers — there may be reason today to stop for just a moment and ask: 'Well, why then have we built this house?' 1. Is it to be the place where the vanguard of the world's film creators is striving to achieve new possibilities of expression, and sharpen and develop their artistic weapons for creations of unknown dimensions? Or 2. Are we to get together a staff of helpful men giving their social services to a robot organization, watching their energy and youth being wasted on the platform, which was erected by Grierson, and which fits into the plans for all existing authorities in all countries, irrespective of political opinion? We recognize in point 2 the way things are today. But we want point 1 instead. When Len Lye came to his boss in the GPO and said, 'I want to make a film without a camera,' Cavalcanti answered: 'Well, we haven't very much to lose — go ahead.' We all know the scope of this conversation and must admit that this was an attitude from a producer, which we need today. If documentary film in its future life will yield a couple of rooms in its house to experimenting film art, maybe even support it.by virtue of its position of production — then there is every reason to believe that documentary film will not go on being a term of abuse. I n Denmark documentary film has absorbed all the film-men who are not working in the commercial production. As documentary film is mainly financed by the State, this means that in our production we have no free film creators. Only the artists and engineers who are able to subordinate their intentions to a propagandists or educational tendency can be certain of a continued production. But a few privately produced films have proved that there is a wish to make film an individual branch of art. It is all in an embryo state, and it is impossible to refer to a development beset with tradition. As a matter of About a year ago Dansk Filmforbund (Danish Film Association — the Danish documentary film organization) started a spirited, critical and informative paper — DF Bulletin. The tenth number of Volume 2 was an international issue, and printed in English. It was reviewed in our last issue. It contained an article by a wellknown Danish documentary worker, Jorgen Roos, headed Who says Experimental Film? Arthur Elton wrote a reply, translated into Danish, under the title Hus Forbi (Barking Up the Wrong Tree), and published in the November issue of DF Bulletin — by whose courtesy the two articles are here reprinted. Almost all the Danish films mentioned are listed and synopsized in Documentary in Denmark— the English edition of the Danish Government film catalogue. fact, it is still a question about few films only, but considering the interest, which especially the young film-men but also the finance authorities have shown towards these small works — then there is hope for a development in the desired direction. In the first experimental film The Escape* Albert Mertz and I tried to free ourselves of a stagnated documentary style and find freer forms of expression. In the subsequent The Heart Thief, which was financed by a group of abstract painters, we went still farther and told a completely improbable story in a naturalistic milieu. Richard Winther, a young painter, last year produced his first film Triple Boogie which was the first abstract film in this country. This year, Soren Melson, a well-known director of documentary films, has produced The Tear painted direct on the film strip. Our latest production is Opus 1 which I have scratched direct into the black film, picture by picture, and which is accompanied by a New Orleans march. I shall leave the judgment of these films in the hands of a more competent and qualified jury, but I think I have the approval of my friends in stating that these small experimental films have been a greater satisfaction to us than a long series of documentary films. We are working in the production of documentary films and want to support it to as wide an extent as possible, as we think that it will be possible to find a production basis which will support the experiments to a higher degree than is the case at present. * Documentary in Denmark. No. 19. 1942. This is a cogent necessity, not only for the notion of documentary film, but for film art as a whole. The documentalists often use their acquired abilities as a spring-board into commercial production. The reason for this must also be sought in the much too uniform arrangement and the resulting limited possibilities of personal formulation. Let us have a reform in the production conditions, give the film artists the freedom which is necessary, and which will make the house that is built for film as a means of education a centre for film as an art. It is the film-men who want this. Who says experimental films? We do! BARKING UP THE WRONG TREE by Arthur Elton By making the tenth issue of the Dansk Filmforbund Bulletin international, with authoritative articles on Danish documentary and film legislation, the Danish film movement has made yet another contribution to international understanding. I hope the paper will be ready everywhere. I am sure it will be admired— and envied. Papers owned and produced independently by documentary are still all too rare. Since the international number of the Bulletin has given some space to the battle between the old aesthetic and the new, I hope I may be allowed to loose off some shells at my friend, Jorgen Roos, and to reserve a salvo or so for his brother, Karl.1 Firstly, let me tell what the battle is about. On one side is the sanctity-of-personalexpression school, bumbling, bombazined and sometimes more than a little bad tempered, with its feet in the mud and its back to the future. From his article Who says 'Experimental Film? I think Jorgen Roos must be a Captain or even a Colonel of this school, with Karl Roos as a Sergeant Major. On the other side is "the realist or documentary school, drawing its strength and inspiration from the patterns of everyday life. Among its leaders are Skot-Hansen and half a score of Danish film artists. The Roos school sighs and says, if only society or the government or Dansk Kulturfilm would give us money and equipment and time, without either directive or control, we would turn out some real film art which would make everyone sit up and hold their hats on. Only give us freedom (which is their way of saying cash), they cry, and we will spin films out of our souls or stomachs or what-haveyou's which will show everyone What's What. Jorgen dislikes official sponsorship because