American cinematographer (Jan-Dec 1945)

fulien Bryan (Continued from Page 119) Before his 1933 jaunt he came to me and we discussed his trip. I advised what he should use to better his pic¬ tures, how to go about getting the best continuity and the importance of the use of a tripod. I especially cautioned him that if he panned his camera without reason, that I never wanted to see his films again. For many years after that Bryan continued to roam, especially to the USSR. Four times he went into almost inaccessible regions of the Cau¬ casus, Siberia, Manchukuo, Japan, China, Turkey, Poland, Finland and Nazi Ger¬ many. By 1933 Burton Holmes had learned of the Russian films made by Bryan and invited him to tour with him and co¬ ordinate their lectures. Though the en¬ tertainment business was then at a low ebb, crowds packed the houses for their joint program, “Russia as It Was — Rus¬ sia as It Is Today.” I attended one of Bryans lectures at Carnegie Hall in New York City, and at this writing, I clearly recollect the quality of Bryan’s films and the steadiness of his pictures. Bryan has a flair for reporting and covering all questions asked by his audiences, for his audiences take his material seriously, which is good reason for his success. The films are carefully prepared for his lectures because if the audience has the faintest suspicion that what he is showing is anything but actual incidents and honest reporting, he is terifically challenged. Challenges thrust upon him by his audiences have taught him just what people want to learn and what they will and will not accept. For his own work, Bryan says, “I have learned one thing from my trav¬ els, whatever the dictators and militar¬ ists of the world may desire, the vast majority of all populations, the common people like ourselves, want peace and are bitterly opposed to war; so, I speak for them, the common people in foreign lands, in my lectures here in America. In my motion pictures, I show the peo¬ ples of all countries as human beings, not as political symbols. As I come back each year with new pictures to show with my lectures throughout Amer¬ ica, it is my hope that I may be giving to my own people a truer understanding of how these other races live, work and play and thus perhaps in some small way to counteract those unjust preju¬ dices which so many of us still harbor toward people in other lands.” Bryan’s film material grew to such importance because he brought out of the countries the answer to the ques¬ tions being asked by people everywhere, for Bryan had documentary proof as evi¬ dence of his statements. All of Bryan’s earlier films were pure documentaries, for they were simply edited, of neces¬ sity to shorten them to time limit. There was no music added, only Bryan’s voice coming from the stage. His lec¬ tures are prefaced with a ten or fifteen minute talk. Then the motion pictures are shown while he lectures in the form of a running commentary, and explana¬ tion, which is followed at the end, by a question period. The question period gives the public an opportunity to oppose Bryan or accept his views, for here you will find the critical, comparing his re¬ marks with statements found in books, newspapers and those made by com¬ mentators on the radio. Julien Bryan’s film “Siege,” which reached the theatrical screens about 1940, is one of his best works in which he gives an account of his experience in Warsaw, Poland. He was the only photographer there throughout the Nazi bombardment of the Polish capital and anyone who has seen this film or read his book, published at the same time, will remember the terrific impression the beast called Nazi made on one. “Siege” was distributed by RKO-Pathe, as were several of his later works, such as “I Saw It in S. A.” The March of Time also released much of Bryan’s films in earlier years, using of his Rus¬ sian material, Vol 1, No. 4 and Vol. 2, No. 2, for which Bryan never received any screen credit. His material is in¬ teresting to audiences both theatrical and non-theatrical as it helps make for better relationships between our gov¬ ernment and the governments of other countries. When World War II, came along, our government found it necessary to create a film board for producing of films for showings in South America and so came about the organization for the Coordi¬ nator of Inter-American Affairs for whom Julien Bryan became a contributor and producer. For this work, he had to enlarge his organization, for it was nec¬ essary for him to produce films in sev¬ eral South American countries and Mex¬ ico. Because of time limits he had to send other cameramen and writers to the South American countries because his programs called for completed films with date limits, and he therefore found it necessary to get to as many countries as time could allow him and to send others to the places he could not go. The films he produced for the Coordi¬ nator are as follows: “Americans Ail,” “Good Neighbor Family,” “Schools to the South,” “Argentina Primer,” “Co¬ lombia, Crossroads of the Americas,” “Venezuela Moves Ahead,” “Peru,” “Lima,” “Lima Family,” “Housing in Chile,” “Atacama Desert,” “South Chile,” “Found in Chile,” “Bolivia,” “La Paz,” “High Plain,” “Uruguay,” “Montevideo Family,” “Young Uruguay,” “Roads South;” there are twenty-one Latin American films which he produced. Eng¬ lish versions of these films were placed by the Coordinator’s Office in all im¬ portant film centers in the United States, including colleges, university centers and branches of the Y.M.C.A. Of the hundred and one centers in the fortyeight states listed by the Coordinator, one or more are within the reach of any school or other user. Any of these films can be borrowed from the center without charge other than transportation and sometimes a small fee to cover the cost of booking and handling at the center. Every exhibitor is asked to fill out a brief report card sent with each film. When I anticipated writing this article for the American Cinematographer, I phoned Bryan and told him that I should like to see some of his late films. I at¬ tended one of his recent lectures at a meeting of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers in New York, of which I am a member. I also attended a private showing of several of his films and I want to state that they were delightful and informative. I want to say a word of praise for his staff of writers and photographers who have contributed to the series for the Coordinator; especial¬ ly to Miriam and Jules Bucher for their splendid contribution in teaming as writ¬ er, director and cameraman to produce several of the Bryan series. They have done a brilliant job and I have asked Bryan for the privilege of including some of these films in my personal library. Julien told me that one question which people invariably ask of him is, “Why do you give your people who help make films, screen credit, when they are really unknown to us?” To this, Bryan re¬ plies, “When my first film was released theatrically, I did not receive screen credit and when I told people that the film in such and such a series was mine, I don’t think they believed me and that was always a sore spot for me for my having to tell people about my own film. It was then that I resolved I would never take screen credit for the work of oth¬ ers and damned if it doesn’t work out better that way.” Bryan’s earlier efforts were pure docu¬ mentary films but the films he produced for the Coordinator are not documentary in the true sense of the word, since it was necessary to make re-enactments, add music and special narration. These were produced from special scripts either written in this country before the crew ventured south of the border, or written on the spot of filming. Quoting from one of Bryan’s books on the documentary films by him, he says, “The documentary film’s only ‘actors’ are those actually living their parts, unaware that they are being photographed, perhaps indif¬ ferent and sometimes camera shy but never acting in the theatrical sense.” The list of lecture halls on whose stages the shoes of Julien Bryan have trod to tell the many thousands who come to listen to him, are long and varied and vast as any one man could possibly hope for. They include almost every large city in the United States. NOTE: ALL RIGHTS RESERVED BY THE AUTHOR INCLUDING THE RIGHT TO REPRO¬ DUCE THIS ARTICLE OR PORTIONS THERE¬ OF, IN ANY FORM. The moon, when full, gives off about nine times as much light as it does when at the quarter. 136 April, 1945 • American Cinematographer