Documentary News Letter (1942-1943)

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER JUNE 1942 POST-WAR CULTURE Reprinted by courtesy of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, New York City I. he subject of intellectual co-operation may »r ound out of place after the picture of necessary ^construction in the basic services such as the istribution of food, housing, sewage, water suply, and resettlement, or even in relation to the ;-education essential to the development of a eaceful society within the Nazi and FascistI ominated countries of Europe. And, since all coll perative planning must be global, because deastation and disorganization extends to Asia as 'ell ds to Europe, the material problems of the 'eriod of reconstruction appear to be so gigantic s to exclude other considerations. Yet, if we consider China first, we will be refunded that the Chinese, even under the scorched arth policy, preserved their educational instituions, if not their educational establishments, and lave transported some of their laboratory and ibrary equipment with them in order to continue heir educational and cultural life. Moreover, publications on the higher levels of scholarship lave in some cases been maintained. In the reonstruction interval in the Far East, therefore, ssistance should be given for the continuance of 11 phases of cultural and intellectual, life, else nuch of the precious heritage of civilisation will : forfeited. The situation after the last war was simple in omparison with what we must anticipate after his one; for more schools and universities, braries and laboratories, have suffered deduction and disorganisation than formerly, "he training of teachers will perhaps be more lecessary than finding housing and equipment. Nevertheless, co-operative projects for the requipment essential to study and investigation vill have to be undertaken. The use of educational motion pictures at idult levels as well as within schools must be provided for. Preparation for this exigency should >e begun now within and among the countries lhat are not yet experiencing war inside their erritorial boundaries. Standards of evaluation hould be agreed upon, and institutes created or accrediting, storing, and distribution of such ilm libraries. Canada has done a good job even r-time in developing this field of activity, t is not too much to ask that educational instituions and agencies in the United States and in .atin America should work actively and co)peratively here and now, setting up institutes for evaluation and distribution, in preparation for his form of intellectual co-operation, for the subect matter of the films can be extended to teaching improved methods of agriculture and other :ssential tasks of rehabilitation as well as to the general content described as the social sciences — ;eography, history, and economic, social and political relations. Something similar should be undertaken in the ield of educational broadcasting. Schools of the of various sorts will need to be established and naintained. The success that Columbia has had n the use of radio in mass education suggests possibilities at the lowest educational levels, iome of the developments in the United States n the dissemination of public addresses and Educational forums, such as the University of Chicago Round Table, only indicate the range of opportunity. The possibility of distributing electrical recordings of good educational content suggests the present need for the establishment of special libraries of educational electrical transcriptions comparable to the institutes proposed as clearing-houses for educational films. The re-establishment of museums, including folk museums, and the encouragement of education and activities in the field of music are measures essential to the restoration of the cultural life of various peoples. Such re-establishment will contribute to their morale, and to their consciousness of identity and worth, for among Europeans, as among Asiatics, even the peasants have pride in their own particular heritage. The pioneer work that was done under the direction of the International Committee on Intellectural Co-operation in the early nineteentwenties for facilitating exchange of information concerning scientific and scholarly work may not have to be repeated in exactly the same form ; instead it may be essential to provide the ways and means for the continuation of scholarly investigations, and to reopen the channels for the exchange of ideas. The American Library Association, anticipating one of the needs, has collected files of educational and scientific journals, which will be forwarded to libraries and universities in the war areas after reconstruction can be begun. This isolated project is but illustrative of the possibility of beginning here and now, in order to be ready for immediate and effective action when the opportunity offers. Many associations in their individual capacity can and will do much. But the task is too large to be left to individual initiative or private enterprise. Perhaps the best method of procedure would be through the establishment of an International Cultural Relations Committee to parallel the International Labour Organisation, an International Health Agency, and such groupings in the economic field as will be immediately essential. A Cultural Committee could have divisions, sections, authorities or boards, depending upon the choice of nomenclature; and these divisions, with the assistance of representatives of related international bodies that now exist, and suitable representatives from the United Nations, should plan and provide for the administration necessary for carrying out the planning in the following fields: — Education : its content and personnel ; educational equipment: a related matter; interchange of educational films and educational radio broadcasting, as a means of re-education for those beyond school age as well as within the curriculum ; re-establishment and reconditioning of museums and the loaning and interchange of art ; support of musical opportunities and activities ; encouragement of scholars and scientific work with provision for the exchange of information concerning their findings. Such a correlated group of correlating agencies might evolve into a permanent body, if its programme were well directed. Although intellectual co-operation has sometimes been thought of as something removed from the life of the multitude, in reality it embraces the programme and content of education from the elementary stages through adult education, both formal and popular, including the exchanges of the most erudite groups of scholars. Formerly, correlation in all these fields was handicapped by diversities of national practice and set political patterns; the post-war situation will offer the opportunity, the necessity, and the challenge to rebuild for and in terms of education for life in a co-operating world society. All this will take funds and effort, and the programme to a degree must be applied to the United Nations as well as to the "occupied areas". But intellectual co-operation with re-education will be essential to the functioning of a reconstructed economic, social, and political order. CORRESPONDENCE TO THE EDITOR, Dear Sir, Because the shorts film business is working to capacity the powers that be seem to assume it is happy. But a more careful scrutiny of the situation would reveal that documentary isn't getting a fair deal. I should say at a guess that eighty per cent of documentary workers are technically expert, that seventy per cent are ethically and socially honest, and that (taken all in all) around sixty per cent are downright capable from whatever angle they are viewed. Yet in growing measure do we come up against a bureaucratic interference from Government sponsors who, only rarely, are qualified to take a hand in technical matters of presentation and treatment, and even less often are capable of deciding approach and questions of subject matter. Arrant ineptitude and a mistaken sense of values have for too long characterised the majority of sponsors, both civil and military. To any less vigorous industry such a situation would cause no alarm, but to documentary this surely must become untenable. It is nothing less than a challenge to its very raison d'etre. The labourer is worthy of his hire, but, more than this, the expert is worthy of his opinion — worthy of his knowledge and experience. All this is counted for naught among the petty martinets, and apart from the fact that the right message is not being put over, nor the full scope of the medium exploited — it can be stated that the time wasted over inessential details is directly sabotaging the war effort. By analogy, would the Press feel satisfied were they similarly placed? They may have to rely upon Government departments for most of their material, but they can virtually present it and interpret it in any way they please. Editorial comment is still, thank God, their birthright. Nor is the Newsreel shackled by the mailed fist of sponsorship. It is a sign of the times that the Denham workers have taken the matter into their own hands and made a forthright statement of what was in their minds. If necessary we must all be prepared to do the same. Documentary has always prided itself — and justified itself— by the ability to say something potent and significant, and to say it with skill That it should now have to suffer dictation from puppets and jacks in office with inferior qualifications, will if allowed to continue, evaporate that peculiar quality of documentary which has always been its essence. (Continued on page 92)