Educational film magazine; (19-)

EDUCATIONAL FILM NEWS FROM GERMANY By Hans Pander Special Correspondent of Educational Film Magazinb T Berun, Germany, January 25, 1922. HE "Zentralinstitut fiir Erziehung und Unterricht" (Ber- lin) together with the "Bayerischer Verband zur Forder- ung des Lichtbildwesens in Erziehung and Unterricht, E. V." (Munich) recently held, at Munich, the second Bildwoche." It was a crowded congress of school authorities .and manufacturers of educational films. Lectures, discussions, and showing of educational films as well as courses on the techni- cal side of cinematography formed the program of this import- ant meeting. During the "Nordische Woche" held at the town hall of Lubec, Dr. Volger directed a great so-called "Filmschau." Many Ger- man and Scandinavian non-theatrical films were exhibited, in- cluding a new mountaineering film of the "Bergund Sport-Film- Gesellschaft" of Freiburg, entitled In Sturm und Eis (In Storm and Ice), showing a most dangerous ascent from the Betempshiitte over the Lys glacier to the Lyskamm (height nearly 14,000 feet) and containing marvelous landscape pictures. Also was screened, a film by the Laokoon Film Society, Munich, showing the Wal- chensee power plant, and a picture by the Landesverein fiir Volks- wohlfahrt in Hanover, Malchen, die Unschuld vom Lande, dealing with hygienic matters disguised as a dramatic story. Among the Scandinavian pictures were some wonderful landscapes, and a film on paper manufacture is worth mentioning. A German "Battle of Jutland" Korvettenkapitan Otto Groos has completed a great film about the battle of Jutland. In this film he made use of the official reports of the German as well as the British admiralty staffs. For getting the graphic trick scenes about 10,000 single phases.have been necessary. Most of the leaders have been selected from Admiral Scheer's report to the former Kaiser. At Zurich, in the new building of the Eidgenossiches Polytech- nikum a special department for scientific motion pictures will be installed. During the winter the Swizzerland Volskino, Bern, together with the Swiss Red Cross, will show at all important places in Swizzerland motion pictures in connection with lectures, dealing with tuberculosis, venereal diseases, care of infants, cancer, etc. The total number of these performances will reach several hun- dreds. At Zurich in the Kunstgewerbeschule a notable scientific film by Halierkorn was shown for the first time, describing the in- vention, the technic, and practical handling of the world-known ■'Metallspritzverfahren" invented by Schoop. This film, short- Jned, will be run in the United States. Under the direction of Professor Dr. Korff the Laokoon Film Society, Munich, has produced a fine agricultural film for propa- ganda purposes. • Official Catalog of 2,000 Educational Films The Reichsfilmstelle, a department of the Reichsministerium les Innern (Home Ministry) has published an official catalog of ill German educational films, containing nearly 2,000 different luhjects. The second edition of Deulig's (Deutsche Lichtbild- jesellschaft) list of educational and entertainment pictures, which 15 has just been published, contains about 500 films, while the first edition, which appeared in 1918, contained only 110. The lUustrierte Filmwoche, a Berlin weekly, publishes a six- teen-page weekly special supplement dealing with educational films and motion pictures for juveniles. Brunsvig (town) has founded an association which will show three times a week educational films in a rented motion picture theater. In the Berlin-Friedenau Schulkino Engineer Haehnle showed for the first time some remarkable films of the Society for the Protection of Birds, Stuttgart. These films are nature documents which will preserve forever living pictures of animals which will soon become extinct in Germany, such as the moose deer, the sea eagle, and the heron; or have already become extinct, like the wisent, which, in the forest of Bialowies, was protected by the German authorities during the German occupation. School Societies Active in Many Towns Otto Glaesner, chief manager of "Maerkisches Wandertheater der Gesellschaft fiir Volksbildung," has developed a plan for founding a society with the object of spreading educational mo- tion pictures together with the authorities, magistrates, minis- tries, etc. The annual report of the "Gesellschaft fiir Volksbildung," which has just been issued, states that in the year 1920-21 the society had donated 422 motion picture projectors and 1,905 films. The motion picture committee of several towns in the coal and iron district—Solingen, Ohligs, Hoehscheid, Greifswald and Wals—founded an "Arbeitsgemeinschaft fiir Jugendlichtspiele" which has given motion picture projectors to several schools of that district. In Zurich a "Genoseenschaft fiir erzieherische Volkslichtspiele" has been established whose purpose is to spread knowledge and instruction among people by aid of motion pictures. At Hamburg the new "Kultur-Film-Gesellschaft'' has shown motion pictures dealing with zoology, geography, sociology, and sport during the "Kuitur-und-Sport-Woche" in the university's classrooms. At Hamburg, too, the Ufa exhibited films for the education of the deaf-and-dumb, produced by order of the Arbeitsministeriam under the direction of Professor Flatau. One of these educational pictures deals with the finger-alphabet of the deaf-and-dumb; an- other with the "Sprechsehen" (reading off the lips); a third shows the Lord's prayer in deaf-and-dumb gestures. These reels proved very useful in the deaf-and-dumb's education. Two Rem.«ikable Canal Films At Mannheim the Canal-Federation of the south-west of Ger- many in a special performance showed Neckar-Film. a picture composed of technic, laindscape, and graphic tricks, dealing with the Necker-Donau-Canal. This film was run in Baden for propa- ganda purposes. Another canal-film whose subject is the Rhein-Main-Donau- Canal has been exhibited in almost all the Munich schools. It was made by the "Neue Kinematographische Gesellschaft," Mu-