The Cine Technician (1953-1956)

July 1956 CINE TECHNICIAN 105 formation, all associated with the slogan which the fertile brain of Cesare Zavattini gave us: 'to produce and show films of value to mankind.' The Conclusions Every nation has the right to its own production of films and to access to the screens of all countries. Oldestablished industries should not swamp the screens of less favoured nations, but should help them to establish their own production with access to material equipment and expert advice. Co-production between nations should be organised solely from the point of view of economics and should respect in every department the integral character of the subject concerned. . . . Film training schools, now internationally affiliated, should be open to all students, particularly those from countries where no such schools yet exist. Film festivals should be urged to present films which authentically reflect national characteristics. Let the film-makers of all nations — (1) Try to make available acknowledged works of art which meet with distribution obstacles in their own country. (2) Protect foreign films from alterations made without the approval of their authors. (3) Intervene whenever an acknowledged work of art is forbidden export from its country of origin. (4) Encourage in their own countries international film festivals unrestricted by extraneous conditions of any kind. (5) Demand the standardisation of all screens, so that no film shall be projected on any screen of a shape or size other than that for which it was designed. (6) Make known by means of an international bulletin audience reactions in each country to films made abroad. (7) Pay respect to all efforts for the international exchange of films, to UNESCO, to the International Federation of Film Archives, and to the International Centre for Film Schools. (8) Welcome film-makers forbidden to work in their own countries. Cinema is an art limited too often by economic, commercial or other restrictions. Films are made for the millions — no film exists without an audience — and any demand for freedom of expression is justified only by a sense of responsibility. The conference recognised the moral influence of the cinema, notably its effect on the young. This sense of responsibility should encourage the film-maker to fight against triviality, dishonesty, and everything tending to degrade human dignity; to think twice about the way in which he will depict other peoples and races to avoid misrepresentation and gross caricature. The conference affirmed its will to fight against all forms of censorship (pre-censorship, official censorship, the officious censorship of powerful organisations). They decided to plead on an international level before the Hague Tribunal, the International Labour Bureau at Geneva and UNESCO against any obstacles to the right of film-makers to work or any attempts on their persons or dignity. They stood out against the practice' of mutilating films and changing titles without consulting the authors, and against Lab Topics REDUNDANCY I AM not much given to shouting about either A.C.T.'s misfortunes or employer organisations' misfortunes, but in view of all that has been written about the redundancy of workers at Technicolor in various newspapers, which, to say the least, are certainly not prounion-minded, it may be as well for a few words from me. First, I feel that all industry should, and must in the future, be financially equipped, and controlled, by minds that are prepared to use its reserve funds not only to protect the shareholders from buffeting in lean times but also to use those reserves to maintain the employees' jobs. The handling of this very unwelcome situation by the two sides, although a long way from perfect, could well be commended to the very large organisations in the English Midlands that are even now struggling with the same problem. Let me say at once that the Technicolor management started off, so far as A.C.T. is concerned, very much on the right foot, by immediately reporting their difficulties to the Union and calling for joint discussions. A.C.T. obviously will not recognise the validity of redundancy as the first means to be applied to stay any loss of funds in any company, especially when a company has had a fairly long run of good annual balance sheets. Much joint discussion took place, with the final result that, " last in first out", irrespective of sex or age, became the yardstick to be used by the firm, although our Union refused at all times to be involved the destruction of old films of value to mankind. They recommended general adoption of the system of ' legal deposit ' and the promotion of film archives. Finally, the conference adopted the proposal of Cesare Zavattini, derived from his slogan " films of value to mankind ", to publish regular lists of approved films and to organise annually a week of public showings of the best of these films available. in discussions as to who the individuals should be. It is also very creditable that, although these members have not been able to retain their jobs, they have at least received four weeks' pay with which to enable them to carry on for a short time while seeking fresh employment. By ALT COOPER It must be reported that during the whole of these discussions our General Secretary was present and members of the Technicolor Shop Committee recorded their thanks and full confidence in George and the Executive Committee on their handling of this matter. Many meetings have been called at very short notice, and I must report that it became necessary to collect the whole of our electricians together one lunch time, including the night workers, and such is the quality of electricians' ingenuity in 1956 that pigeons were released with notes on their legs to call these members from bed. Brothers, that must be real Trade Union progress, methinks. One meeting, held on Tuesday, July 10th, at 9.15 a.m., was attended by about nine hundred members from Technicolor. This, of course, meant the shut down of the Lab, and here the management certainly assisted the Union to carry out its business and placed no obstacles of any sort in our path. During this meeting the membership agreed that on no account would it tolerate the dismissal on redundancy grounds of any one of the Shop Committee members, it being realised that the efficiency of any Union shop can only be maintained by continued activity of members on the job, and that these members must at all times know that while holding office the " shop " is behind them. (Continued on page 106)