Documentary News Letter (1942-1943)

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER JANUARY 1942 INDIAN FILMS The following is a report on the work done by the "Indian Film Unit", the Production Department of the Film Advisory Board, during the period IXth of January to 28th of October, 1941 1. Films Made by the Unit (a) India's War Effort The Handyman. A film of the work done by the Royal Bombay Sappers and Miners. Kirkee. Its object was to show that the work of this section of the Army is important and highly skilled. "Without the Sappers and Miners no advance is possible ... no victory can be gained." Seamen of India. This dim is in Hindustani. A sailor visits a village and while there tells his friends about the Royal Indian Navy. "Our job," he says, "is to protect the great ports and the coastline of India, to protect convoys on the first part of their journeys and to sweep the enemy from our seas." The film shows an Indian sailor's life at sea and the sort of jobs he does. Convoy from India. This is a shortened, re-made version of Seamen of India in English. The sailor once again visits the village, but this time he tells of the work done by the R.I.N, in escorting and protecting a large convoy. The commentary is written as though it were actually spoken by the sailor and uses village symbols to explain to his friends, who have never seen the sea, what ships, convoys and waves are like. Tools for the Job. This film surveys India's war production. It concentrates on some of the lesser known war materials as the heavier industries are covered by other films in the programme. It opens with a sequence showing the "obscuration of light" in a big Indian city, goes on to explain India's strategic position in the war and then shows war industries such as trucks, tyres, khaki drill, tents, medical supplies, etc. Armaments, ships, war funds and the fighting forces are mentioned. Cavalry of the Clouds. A short recruiting film for the Indian Air Force, for pilots and mechanics. Defenders of India. A tribute to the Indian soldiers who played such a splendid part in the African victories. It was made from material supplied from the Middle East. General Sir Claud Auchinleck speaks the foreword. Wartime Factory. The story of how a large^'motor factory in India speeded up its production of army trucks to meet the demands of war. The film, while it concentrates on the individual men working on the assembly line, also relates their work to the Indian war effort in general. It also has a brief factory A.R.P. sequence. Armoured Cars. Made out of Indian steel, built by Indian workmen, armoured cars are being produced in India. The film shows the making of the steel, the marking out and cutting, and the assembling and building of the cars. It ends with a sequence showing armoured cars carrying out mass manoeuvres on service in the war zone. Railway Workshops. This film has two objects. One to show that India has great engineering workshops and skilled technicians working in them. The other to show that Indian factories can still keep up their essential services and yet make room for direct war production. Here we see the repairing and re-making of railway engines as well as the production of shell cases, fuses, gun rings and precision gauges. (b) Might of the Commonwealth The films wider litis general title are made out of newsreel material from Movietone and Cairo Wat Pictorial News. They are intended for rural audiences. There is a written cammentai v with eaeh film in English and Hindustani. Our Navy. A survey of Britain's sea power. We show the battle with the Graf Spee the Mediterranean Fleet and the Fleet Air Arm in action from an aircraft carrier. We see destroyers, battleships and convoy work in the Atlantic. Our Air Force. This film shows the training o\' pilots; a Bomber Command; a lighter Command; anti-aircraft defences, and ends with an air battle over Britain. New Weapons. Here we see mobile Bren gun units, tanks, big guns and mobile anti-aircraft guns. The final sequence shows the training of parachutists and ends with a mass jump. Comrades-in-Arms. This film shows the people who are fighting together with Britain against the enemy. Indians, Australians, Canadians, South Africans, Poles, Czechs, Norwegians and Free French. At the end America too is helping us by supplying us with the weapons of war. Thrills! This is a film made up of stunt sequences and is intended for entertainment purposes, (c) Documentaries on Modern India Made in India. This is a film showing the industrialisation of India. It takes as its theme the suggestion that part of the solution of the great economic difficulties of India lies in rapid industrialisation. But it points out that at the same time the village industries have an important part to play in the life of the country. The village industries shown are spinning, weaving, paper-making and tanning. The large scale industries in the film are : Bata Shoe Factory, Titaghur Paper Mills, Associated Cement and Tata Iron and Steel. Also shown are aeroplane and shipbuilding and the new chemical works in Kathiawar. The film is based on chapters of Minoo Masani's book "Our India." The Women of India. The Indian woman of today is no longer a person of veils and shadows. She is playing her part in the modern world, and this film shows some of her activities. It starts with a country wedding, shows women in offices and shops, women in the professions and women in the entertainment world. We then see women organising and a session of the All-India Women's Conference, and some of the important work which is being done by the progressive women among the poorer sections of the community. Modern India. This film contrasts the India ol the country and of the villages with the India of the cities and of the sciences. We see a typical Indian village, the village school, the village doctor and some of the village entertainments such as the performing bear and a troop of marionettes. The film moves to modern India and we see the ballroom of a big hotel in Bombay. The film then surveys progress in India today in the fields of Agriculture, Medicine. Scientific Agriculture and new industries. The film ends in a modern school. 2. Films Produced through llurmah Shell Calcutta The Grand Trunk Road. This is a film of transport in India. It takes as its theme the Stor; Grand Trunk Road" and shows how this road serves industry, tourist traffic, places of pilgrimage, and the villages. 3. Edited Items supplied to Messrs. 20th Century Fox for their Newsreel Italian prisoners being landed at Bombay. \ll India Cattle Show, New Delhi. 4. films made by the Studios, on which the "Indian Film Unit" worked at various stages Here Comes the Letter. The Awakening. Towards India's Defence. Careless Talk. Nazi Rule. 5. Films in Production Defence Forces. Material for this film has all been shot, except for an Indian Air Force sequence which it is hoped to include. 'V for Victory. This film has been scripted and scheduled to go into production. A Day in the Life of a District Officer. This film is to show the work done by an Indian District Officer. After consultation with the Chief Secretary to the Government of Bombay, shooting will start. Agriculture. A film on modern scientific agriculture in India. Some of the material has been shot and research work has been done on the whole subject. It is to show how agricultural developments help villages and it is to include a sequence on the Sukkur Barrage. SCOTTISH CENTRAL FILM LIBRARY ONE OF the features of the educational film movement in Scotland during the past three years has been the tremendous expansion of the Scottish Central Film Library. The increase of output is best shown by the following statistics giving the number of films despatched each month from the Librarv since it began operations in March. 1939. 1939 1940 1941 Januarj $56 1,406 Februan 467 1,706 March S7 512 1.931 April 54 489 1,217 Mav 183 706 1,500 June 179 696 1.662 .llllv 195 106 786 727 August September 74 432 1,181 October 183 1,104 2.533 November 286 1,476 3.302 December 353 1,403 not yet The Library's growth is the more remarkable in view o\ the fact that it has operated throughout under the severe handicaps occasioned by the war.