Documentary News Letter (1942-1943)

!)()( I MENTARY NEWS LETTER JANUARY 1942 FILM/ OF GREAT BRITAIN LIMITED PRODUCED IN 1941 SIMPLIFIED FIRST AID MINISTRY OF INFORMATION EMERGENCY OUTDOOR COOKING MINISTRY OF INFORMATION / MINISTRY OF FOOD GOVERNMENT TRAINING COURSES TRAILER MINISTRY OF INFORMATION / MINISTRY OF LABOUR SURPRISE BROADCAST FOR ANDREW BUCHANAN PRODUCTIONS YOUTH TAKES A HAND MINISTRY OF INFORMATION BOARD OF EDUCATION LONDON, AUTUMN, 1941 0* sPani8h' ***w»*& English) MINISTRY OF INFORMATION HOT ON THE SPOT MINISTRY OF INFORMATION MINISTRY OF FOOD HEATING ECONOMY TRAILER COOKING ECONOMY TRAILER HOT WATER ECONOMY TRAILER MINISTRY OF INFORMATION / MINES DEPARTMENT GRATE DAYS TO GREATER DAYS FOR BRITISH FILMS LIMITED HE WENT TO THE CUPBOARD MINISTRY OF INFORMATION / MINISTRY OF FOOD Managing Director ANDREW BUCHANAN NEW DOCUMENTARY FILMS W.V.S. Production: Venn Films. Direction: Louise Birt. Camera: George Plowman. Music: William Alwyn. 19 minutes. Subject: Mary Welsh, an American newspaper writer, is looking for a story about the W.V.S. She interviews Lady Reading and subsequently pieces together, at her typewriter, a few of the seemingly innumerable jobs that the volunteers in this Service perform. They organise sorting depots for clothes, mend oilskins for the Merchant Navy, look after blitzed families and take care of children in reception nurseries. Every little job of personal service, whether it is ambulance driving or arranging street salvage dumps, billeting evacuated families or servicing rest centres, making hot tea for the mobile canteens or helping mothers whose children are evacuated, is done willingly and efficiently by this unpaid army of a million women. Treatment: This film is an extremel) competent and straightforward job of reporting. It succeeds in covering a very wide field, ranging from streets dumps to nurseries, rest homes and i Scottish fishing village, with a dozen other places in between. It has a very nice feeling for personal detail and for ordinary people doing an ordinary job of work. Photography is excellent and Alwyn's music helps a lot. Mar\ Welsh who commentates all through has a pleasant voice and speaks a thoughtfully written commentary well. Pitipuxaiulii value: Very good. Made speciticallx for American release it does its job. If it secures exhibition in this country— and it should do — some commentary changes would be advisable. At times it is a little too patronising to America for British consumption. The film is a worthy record and a worthy tribute to a great body of people who get little or no publicity but are doing a job as good as any. All Those in Favour. Paul Rotha Productions Direction: Donald Alexander. Camera: Geoffrey Faithfull. 2-reel Non-T. Subject: The impact of the war on local government in a rural district of Devonshire, and tht steps taken by a special committee of the loca council to Solve the various problems arisini from emergency conditions. Treatment. The most striking thing abou Alexander's direction o\ this film is his use o synchronous dialogue, spoken in open-ai locations and often while the characters ar walking along roads or across fields: this dia logue is used to point the moral rather thai adorn the tale, and it is often very effectiv because the conversation is intimately relate; either to background action or— dramatically-' j to an entire landscape. The story is shaped fron a personal investigation made by an America news correspondent who \isits Devonshire an; discusses matters with members of the locii council; but in addition to this, various sectior of the film are compered by the council peopl concerned, and here Alexander has ingeniousl mingled actors with real people. This is especiall successful in the meeting of the council. Tr l0;