Cinema Quarterly (1933 - 1934)

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Therefore, three demands must be made by the documentarv director: the right to theorise, the right to experiment (time and footage), and the right to attempt to satisfy his conscience. He mav have to travel to sacrificial lengths to obtain these rights. Becauxhe must look to the future he will try to satisfy the publicist's demands, perhaps produce a bad film thereby, and get kicked in the pants just the same. It is at present a matter of compromise, of bluff as bluff can. If he is ambitious he will hope to get away with a number of second-rate films, goaded on by the belief that one day he will turn out a top-notcher. The documentary director must remember that his theme (or message) alone compels audience interest. There is nothing personal in a documentary with which an audience can identify itself. Perhaps there are mass or social instincts, but not individual emotions. But in story-film the audience can assume a personal interest in characters or incidents, often projecting itself into the position of a participant. Because there is a story to divert attention from realities, the task of making story-film is more simple than that of documentary. In fact, the audience will accept deliberate misstatements of truth in story-film, but to lie in documentary demands infinite skill, perfect craftsmanship and an accurate knowledge of audience psychology. Unlike the story-film director, the maker of documentary has yet to gain the full co-operation of the trade. The renter and the exhibitor do not understand documentary, and I am not sure that they have tried. They search for established publicity angles and, finding none, invent them. Yet their habits are retrogressive. Moana was issued as "the Love of a South Sea Siren." Documentary must always go forward. It needs new distributions and new publicities. These will come. Meanwhile, production becomes specialised, demanding mentalities capable of approaching a multitude of treatments, from the school-film to the dramatic industrial. But, if it is not to go the way of story-film, documentary musl be protected against exploitation for commercial profit alone. I directors must retain freedom for their ideals. ANOTHER REPERTORY CINEMA The famous Everyman Theatre, Hampstead, has been re-opened with a programme of repertory. J. S. Fairfax-Jones, one of our London correspondents and a prominent member of the film societies' movement, is a director of this new venture. Among the first films to be shown are Le Million, Tabu, and Cimarron. 79