Documentary News Letter (1942-1943)

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER APRIL 1942 lg to be provided for them from above, their place and function is to be lively, do their job and support their leaders. This is certainly : possible future for this country, but it is by 10 means a pleasant one and certainly not one ve are fighting Hitler for. The film about the future of the country should tell us not what the working-man would like to have given him, but what he feels he wants badly enough to go and get for himself. The Countrywomen. Production: Seven League Productions. Direction: John Page. Associate Producer: Paul Rotha. M.O.I. 15 minutes. Subject: This film is a fireside chat about country life and the activities of the Women's Institute, past and present, for the benefit of a woman evacuated from the town. The discourse is illustrated by appropriate visual accompaniment. The evacuee is invited to a W.I. meeting at which matters of local and national importance are discussed. itment: In spite of an attempt to give a natural and informal setting to this film, the approach to the subject is quite impersonal. The evacuee seems to have very little connection ith the film ; she is merely the audience listening \ the countrywoman's talk on the work of the Institute, and occasionally she asks questions. The \ lsual aspect of the film, often very beautifully photographed, illustrates the commentary, but in itself is rather meaningless and disjointed. We are told there is a communal allot it in the \illage; all we see are several different types of women apparently doing some gardening. Miscellaneous shots of a village shop, a bus. a telephone box, evacuee children having tea and so on, are held together by the slender threads of the conversation between the two women. We see no more of the life of the women in the village than would be observed by a casual visitor: it is not only rather superficial but is inclined to be patronising, and disappointing to one who has known and lived among country people. Propaganda value: As an instructional film on the activities of Women's Institutes it is reasonably adequate; but if it had given the towndweller a real understanding of country people, their difficulties and the social importance of r community life, it would have contributed to that finer type of propaganda which presents the democratic institutions of this country from the point, ol' view of human values. For Children Only. M.O.I, for Ministry of Food. Production: Strand Film Co. Producer: Alexander Shaw. Direction: John Eldridge. Camera: Charles Marlborough. Non-theatrical. 9 minutes. Subject: This film introduces mothers to a scheme for providing children with fruit juices and codr oil and shows them how these things can be obtained. Treatment: It points out that in wartime when the usual foodstuffs are restricted children must be given something to make up for the deficiency. It is for this reason that the Government has allowed valuable shipping space to be taken up in bringing cod-liver oil from Iceland and fruit juices from America. Mothers are told that their children must have one or other of these concentrated foods to get the right amount of vita mins. The film goes on to say that it is a mother's duty to take advantage of this new scheme not only because of the trouble that has been taken to make it possible but to assure the good health of her children. Films made for the sole purpose of giving information such as this are always in danger of becoming boring. But For Children Only somehow manages to avoid this by introducing a central character — a mother, who makes use of the Government's offer, and thus gives the film a slight personal interest. Propaganda value: This film is a good example of how films could be used for making important announcements. It gives the facts in a clear and interesting form and would make an excellent starting off point for a lecture or discussion on the subject. Should not such a film as this be available also for theatrical distribution? Filling the Gap. Production: Realist Film Unit. Cartoon: Halas-Batchelor. Music: Ernst Meyer. 5 minutes. Subject. An appeal for us all to grow our own vegetables, in order to leave farming land free for crops. Treatment. Animated diagram and cartoon meet in this film on common ground. The result is pleasing, for the treatment is simple and imaginative. By adopting the cartoon's flexibility and some hint of its inconsequent gaiety in their diagram sequences, and by retaining something of the diagram's essential simplicity in their pure cartoon sequences, the makers have achieved a lively and entertaining film. In details, however, it falls below the high standard it sets itself. One of the early sequences lacks clarity : the play with the three categories of food leaves the audience in doubt. And there is an unpleasant change of style at the end in the drawing of a gathering of vegetables: it smacks of advertisements for Heinz 57 varieties. One discounts the roughness of the purely mechanical work — the excessive outline wobble, the evidence of celluloid buckle, the unsteady camerawork — as being due to the limitations of time and cost. It is, perhaps, inevitable to compare any cartoon form with Disney's work, which is neither fair to Disney nor to the cartoonist; for time and cost play a decisive part in the execution of cartoon ideas. But there is one factor common to the making of all cartoons, and that is the film sense behind the execution. This, and not necessarily his million pound equipment and his hundreds of personnel, gives Disney his place in cartoon. His films, in the main, are gems of imaginative construction. It is just this film sense which Filling the Gap lacks to some extent. There arc awkward transitions and odd uses of screen space. However, altogether it is an enterprising film, to which Ernst Meyer's abstract music contributes an adequate, if uninspired sound track in company with the easy, straightforward commentary. Propaganda value. A film such as this will probably command more attention in the cinema than most. Its simple message, therefore, stands a good chance of going home. It is unfortunate that the sponsors have seen fit to end the film with an ugly title describing the urgency of the problem (surely a tacit admission that they don't believe in the propaganda value of the film). Its only effect is to make what one has just seen appear quite trivial. Via Imperial. Production: Strand Films. Direction: Desmond Dickenson. Story: The growth of cables and wireless. The British Empire's need for rapid communication. Coming up to date with war communications, official and personal. Treatment: Starting off with the development of communications, via Imperial works up through reconstructed sequences — such as the first murderer to be arrested by a telegraph message beating the train he was on. The difficulties of laying and maintaining the first Atlantic cable. Queen Victoria exchanging telegrams with President of the United States. Marconi and the first wireless signal across the Atlantic. Modern cables, wireless telegraphy and news picture transmission. There is the whole sequence from the G.B. newsreel of Scott and Black's arrival in Australia. Each frame of film was enlarged and telegraphed to England and the film was in the cinemas the next day. Propaganda: Good straight-forward film. Very good for schools. PLUS CA CHANGE D.N.L. readers may be interested in the following extracts from a periodical of the last war (title unknown), pages of which members of the Editorial Board recently found wrapped round three pennyworth of peanuts. A Rapid Conversion It would be difficult to find a more striking instance of the power of personality and practical work than in the case of the Minister of Information. When Lord Beaverbrook was appointed there was quite an outcry in the Press and the critics in the House of Commons were loud voiced. To-day, on all sides there is nothing but praise for the excellent results of his efforts. Even the enemy has been moved to admiration. Keen Interest Movies are attended by some risks at Jerusalem. where they have been instituted since our occupation of the Holy City. It seems that the natives are quite unable to comprehend that the characters are not present in the flesh. Not only do they cheer the hero and heroine, and groan and growl at the villain, but they even pelt him with stones, sticks and offal, damaging the screen and not infrequently injuring the stage hands. The New Taxi Manners A friend of mine living in Roehampton could not get a taxi to bring her to the Ritz to lunch the other day. In despair she made a sign to a luckj woman who was driving past in one and begged for a lift, and she proved a friend in need, and soon they took up another wayfarer. 1 am told that it is becoming quite the commonest occurrence for perfect strangers to share taxis nowadays. (Questions in Parliament Talking of boxing one cannot help wondering what Lord Lonsdale thinks of the precio v. Conn match, which has taken a soldier and an artificial limb-maker away from their work to share an enormous purse. Most sportsmen seem to think the whole thing was ill-advised, and there are rumours that questions on the affair will be raised when Parliament next meets.