Documentary News Letter (1942-1943)

DOCUMENTARY NKVVS LETTER JUNE 1942 NEW DOCUMENTARY FILMS (Continued from page 90) Water. G.B. Instructional Ltd. for Imperial hemical Industries. Direction: Mary Field. Camera: Jack Parker and Percy Smith. Ten ninutes. si Subject: The elementary physics and chemistry of .vater. All the everyday things around us contain vater yet water is rarely found pure; the minute | juantity of impurity contained in water is often jj he very thing which gives it a particular pro 4 jerty ; water does perhaps more than any other M >art of our physical environment to condition he way in which we live. Treatment: The film is set in a framework of a iaive question and simple answer, both voices >riginating with unseen commentators. The juestions and expressions of incredulous surprise are sometimes on the stupid side and the :rs faintly patronising. The film does, how:ver, deal satisfactorily and clearly with the issorted points raised. The visual demonstraions — as, for example, the diagrammatic illusration of the water-content of certain simple )bjects— are lively and help to hold the general nterest of the film from beginning to end. ij 'instructional value: This film never appears to be bsolutely clear about what precise scientific rround it is trying to cover and for what level of ntelligence. As a miscellany of tit-bits of interest ng information it will, however, whet the appeite for further knowledge of a subject too vast o be tackled in such a limited footage. <Vork Party. Production: Realist Film Unit, vith the Herrick Family. Director: Len Lye. ant Director: Bert Pearl. Camera: A. Eeakins. Director of Music: Dr. Meyer. M.O.I. ;ive minutes. tubject: The work of women in munition actories. nent: The film is built round a large family f which the mother and a whole covey of laughters are all engaged in a factory turning »ut gun barrels. One of the daughters is having twenty-first birthday, and the factory scenes vhich form the central part of the film are ramed in the morning and evening reactions to he birthday event. This is a good enough idea in ;self, but unfortunately, the home scenes have ,>een shot in such a way that they give an imiression of indescribable drabness and sordidity riiich is not merely unfair to the people in the lm but also the people who have to see it. "he crowded party scene at the end might just ave come off had the sound track-been built up vith a really popular current song instead of a airly esoteric swing record. Something like Knees up. Mother Brown" or even "The Lam>eth Walk" might have saved the situation. But s it is, the whole film is anything but a recomnendation for or of factory workers. It must be idded that the factual shots of the workers are ery well photographed. Propaganda value: Nil or even minus. JOTE.— Reviews of documentary films represent he opinions of the reviewers and are not necesarily the same as those of the Editorial Board of O.N.L. STRAND TO FILM THE BRAINS TRUST RADIO'S most popular feature . . . The Brains Trust ... is to be filmed by the Strand Film Company. Dr. C. E. M. Joad, Commander Campbell and Dr. Julian Huxley, the three resident members of the Brains Trust and Question-Master Donald McCullough will be appearing in the films ; in addition there will be many well-known Guestmembers. Donald Taylor, of the Strand Film Company, will be producing and directing the films in close collaboration with Howard Thomas, producer of The Brains Trust. The films will all be produced at The British National Studios at Elstree. THE STRAND FILM COMPANY LTD. DONALD TAYLOR MANAGING DIRECTOR ALEXANDER SHAW DIRECTOR OF PRODUCTION New address: — Offices: 1 GOLDEN SQUARE, W.l. Tel.: GERRARD 6304 5. Studios: BRITISH NATIONAL STUDIOS, ELSTREE. Tel.: ELSTREE 1644.