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PROPAGANDA AND THE CINEMA 59
The general position with regard to the use of the cinema for propaganda in England appears, like so many other new ideas, to be complicated and uncertain. Apart from the work being done by the Empire Marketing Board film unit, very few contacts have been established between industry and cinema. The root of the trouble would seem to lie in the conflicting opinions as to what should be publicized and how it may best be done, whilst no great aid to the problem is afforded by this country's general ignorance of all matters relating to the better uses of the film. Industrial firms are shy of the cinema and the latter, dominated by vulgarians and cheap showmen, does not go out of its way to invite confidence. A number of small publicity films manufactured in the old vein are in circulation, but have little or no connection with our inquiry into the film as propaganda. As far as I am aware, Ralph Smart's excellent film Port Sunlight for Lever Brothers, the same director's short picture for the Boy Scout's Organization, The Woodpigeon Patrol, and Hankinson's slum reform film are the only examples of modern propaganda cinema in England, with the exception, that is, of the films of the Empire Marketing Board.
The work of John Grierson and his drive for British Empire propaganda stand isolated from the mediocrity of British film production as a whole. Grierson has realized to the full the varied merits of the Soviet cinema, and through analysis has come to an understanding of the expressive technique employed by Russian cinematographers. He has profited, also, from the films of Flaherty and from the conquering quality