Documentary News Letter (1942-1943)

CONTENTS FACTS TO BE FACED NOTES OF HIE MONTH VALE ATQUE AVE FILMS AND ARMY EDUCATION NEW DOCUMENTARY Ml MS I III \ NEWS LETTER A JOB in m done by Bosley Crowther FILM AND reality by Basil Wright SHORI I II M BOOKINGS I OR MARCH/APRIL VOL 3 NO 3 PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY FILM CENTRE 34 SOHO SQUARE LONDO&. Wl FACTS TO BE FACED F morale in Britain is low this is due, not to defeatism, but to frustration. Libya, Malaya, Singapore, Burma, Java, the Scharnhost episode, have all presented the British people with a vision of themselves in relation to the rest of the world which they have never seen before. "Lesser breeds without the law", and all sorts of "peculiar foreigners" are either inflicting ignominious defeats on us or are, for the present at least, our main defence against defeat. These and similar realisations are still in the process of sinking into our consciousness, and our sense of frustration is due not merely to them but also, and in greatest sense, to a feeling of hopeless inadequacy at home. The critics of the Government may well be wrong, but until something is done to prove them wrong, or until an active and convincing policy is outlined by the War Cabinet, the dangerous state of morale that at present exists will remain. Maybe we shall achieve this summer a great victory. Victories are naturally good for morale. But victories cannot be won without morale. And the danger of the present situation is that our propaganda system is a failure. Years of neglect are bringing their harvest, and unless our propaganda switches to an active policy at home as well as abroad it is in danger of becoming a contributory factor to an unnecessary prolongation of the war. Our propaganda has not failed merely for mechanical reasons. It has failed because it is bankrupt of ideas and bankrupt of policy. It will continue to fail just as long as our propagandists continue to shut their eyes to the fact that we are living in the middle of a world revolution, and that therefore revolutionary tactics are not merely expedient but also absolutely vital. The Press is the only propagandist medium not controlled by Government sources, and it can achieve much (more indeed than it is doing) by forming an independent focus of active criticism. But media like radio and film — particularly as direct propaganda weapons — suffer from the disability of being, by and large, the nouthpiece of Government. A radical change in the Government's policy towards these two powerful media and what they say is an absolute necessity. It is too late for authority to plead, cajole, or reassure. There nust be no more radio-features or propaganda films whose main nessage (however interesting or box-office) is likely in any way to ead to a feeling of complacency. There is absolutely nothing to be complacent about. Nor is it any use producing "calls to action" without their being Dacked by hard thinking — and how many official propagandists have ione any hard thinking so far? If people aren't working hard enough in the war effort there can, in the long run, he only one reason — that they have no basic incentive to an all-out effort. That basic incentive can be supplied either ad\entitionsly and from without (e.g. an invasion of this country or an allied victory) or from within by a gigantic propaganda effort which will frankly admit that this is a revolutionary period, which will step down from the pedestal of present authority whenever necessary, which will formulate and implement the real ideas for which people as a whole are fighting (nobody in Britain has bothered to do this yet), and which will use all and every revolutionary tactic to gain its ends. If propaganda is to play — as it must — a vital part in the winning of this war, our propagandists must adhere closely to the following principles: — 1. Consciousness that they are the vanguard of policy, and that therefore they must not merely keep in touch with, but, whenever necessary, merge themselves with the broad masses of the people. 2. They must be hard thinkers. Their leadership in strategy and tactics must be correct and far seeing, for they cannot be successful unless the mass of the people can, as time goes on, be convinced by experience that what the propagandists say is correct. Only on such principles as these can we help to build up the iron discipline which is now so badly needed and which is the absolute necessity if we are to win. Any survey of the present situation as regards propaganda makes it clear that these pre-requisites have been and are continuing to be neglected. How far this state of affairs can be remedied without drastic changes in a wider political field is a matter of some conjecture. But in any case it is the duty of all true propagandists in films or in radio to devote their own eneig.es and thought to the purposes outlined, to campaign vigorously against ideas and subjects which do not fit into the scheme, and to play their part in converting inadequate official ideas into something approaching the active attitude which is needed. It is not a question of stimulating a comatose people. It is a question of providing a means by which they can feel, in a practical sense, that there is an ultimate purpose, leading forward to a better state of affairs and not back to the status quo, in the present holocaust. Only if they are quite certain that they are lighting for a positive result (a new world) rather than a negative result ("beat the Axis and make the world safe for pre-1939 democracy"), can people freely give themselves to "the unprecedented torment and sacrifice, unprecedented revolutionary heroism, incredible energy, devoted