Documentary News Letter (1940)

18 DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER APRIL 1940 NON-THEATRICAL FILM LIBRARIES Borrowers of films are asked to apply as much in advance as possible, to give alti'rnative booking dates, and to return the films immediately after use. H. A hire charge is made. F. Free distribution to approved borrowers. Sd. Sound. St. Silent. Association of Scientific Workers, 30 Bedford Row, W.C.I. Scientific Film Committee. Graded List of Films. A list of scientific films from many sources, and their distributors, classified and graded for various types of audience. On request, Committee will give advice on programme make-up and choice of films to prospective users. British Commercial Gas Association, Gas Industry House, 1 Grosvenor Place, S.W.I. Films on social subjects, domestic science, & the manufacture of gas. 35 mm. & 16 mm. Sd & a few St. F. British Council Film Department, 25 Savile Row, W.l. Films of Britain, 1940. This catalogue is for overseas use only but provides useful synopses of at least a 100 sound & silent documentary films. British Film Institute 4 Great Russell Street, W.C.I, (a) National Film Library. An important collection of documentary & other films. Available only to full members of B.F.I. 35 mm. & 16 mm. Sd. & St. H. {b) Some British and Foreign Documentary and other Short Films. A general list of films & distributors, (c) Early Films. A list of early films still available in Britain. Crookes' Laboratories, Gorst Road, Park Royal, N.W.IO. Colloids in Medicine. 35 mm. & 16 mm. Sd. F. Dartington Hall Film Unit, Totnes, South Devon. Classroom films on regional and economic geography. 16 mm. St. H. Educational General Services, Little Holt, Merton Lane, Highgate, N.6. A wide selection of films of all kinds, particularly of overseas interest. Some prints for outright sale. 16 mm. Sd. & St. H. Electrical Development Association, 2 Savoy Hill, Strand, W.C.2. Four films of electrical interest. Further films of direct advertising appeal are available only through members of the Association. 16 mm. Sd. & St. F. Empire Film Library, Imperial Institute, S.W.7. Films primarily of Empire interest. With a useful subject index. 16 mm. & a few 35 mm. Sd. & St. F. Ensign Film Library, 88-89 High Holborn, London, W.C.I. Wide selection of all types of films including fiction, comedies, documentaries, films of geography, animal life, industry. Some prints for outright sale. 1 6 mm. St. & a few Sd. H. Film Centre, 34 Soho Square, W. 1 . Mouvements Vibratoires. A film on simple harmonic motion. French captions. 35 mm. & 16 mm. St. H. Gaumont-British Equipments, Film House, Wardour Street W.l. Many films on scientific subjects, geography, hygiene, history, language, natural history, sport. Also feature films. 35 mm. & 16 mm. Sd. & St. H. G.P.O. Film Library, Imperial Institute, S.W.7. Over 100 films, mostly centred round communications. 35 mm. & 16 mm. Sd. & St. F. Kodak Ltd., Kingsway, W.C.2. {a) Kodascope Library. Instructional, documentary, feature, western, comedy. Strong on early American comedies. 16 mm. & 8 mm., St. H. (A separate List of Educational Films, extracted from the above, is also published. A number of films have teaching notes.) {b) Medical Film Library. Circulation restricted to members of medical profession. Some colour films. Some prints for outright sale. 16 mm. St. H. March of Time, Dean House, 4 Dean Street, W.l. Selected March of Time items of general CATALOGUE OF THE MONTH G.B.I. Films. List 5. Issued free, by GaumontBritish Instructional Films Bureau, Film House, Wardour Street, W.l. This handbook selects and describes those 16 mm. films most likely to interest schools, from the larger Gcbescope catalogue. It is handier to use because of its classification and the index of titles which has now been added. Teaching Guides are available, price 3c/., and teachers can check the content and quality of films by the reviews in the Bulletins of the British Film Institute and the Scottish Educational Films Association. The first and longest section of the handbook gives detailed notes describing each film, and a key letter indicates for which section of the school audience it is designed. Films are listed under subjects, and in each subject silent films are given separately. The junior school teacher will find especially valuable the group of silent films on Food from the Sea and Earth and Great Changes. Among other subjects, biology and natural history are plentifully served ; many interesting films have been added to this section. A generous proportion of films is given to Geography, but the small group of History films has not been increased and the Language section remains minute. This scarcity, one understands, is due, not to a lack of good-will, but to a very sensible reluctance to take risks without hope of a response from teachers. It is, nevertheless, unfortunate that the language and culture of France is practically unrepresented in the nontheatrical film, and one feels that the resources of such an organisation as the Alliance Fran^aise might he mobilised in this connection. The catalogue lists all films now available for hire; information about future projects, particularly of possible dates when the new "Secrets of Life" films in Dufaycolor will be issued for non-theatrical purposes, would have been welcome. interest. Includes Inside Nazi Germany, New Schools for Old, America Thinks it Over. 16 mm. Sd. H. Mathematical Films. Available from B. G. D. Salt, 5 Carlingford Road, Hampstead, N.W.3. Five mathematical films suitable for senior classes. 16 mm. & 9.5 mm. St. H. Metropolitan-Vickers Electrical Co. Ltd., Trafford Park, Manchester 17. Planned Electrification, a film on the electrification of the winding & surface gear in a coal mine. Available for showing to technical & educational groups. 16 mm. Sd. F. Pathescope, North Circular Road, Cricklewood, N.W.2. Wide selection of silent films, including cartoons, comedies, drama, documentary, travel, sport. Also good selection of early American & German films. 9.5 mm. Sd. & St. H. Petroleum FUms Bureau, 15 Hay Hill, Berkeley Square, W.l. Twenty technical & documentary films. 35 mm. & 16 mm. Sd. & St. F. Religious Film Library, 104 High Holborn, W.C.I. Films of religious and temperance appeal, also list of supporting films from other sources. 35 mm. & 16 mm. Sd. & St. H. Scottish Central Film Library, 2 Newton Place, Charing Cross, Glasgow, C.3. A wide selection of teaching films from many sources Contains some silent Scots films not available elsewhere. Library available to groups in Scotland only. 16 mm. Sd. & St. H. Sound-Film Services, 10 Park Place, Cardiff. Library of selected films including Massingham's And So to Work & Pollard's Dragon of Wales. Rome and Sahara have French commentaries. 16 mm. Sd. H. Southern Railway, General Manager's Office, Waterloo Station, S.E.I. Seven films (one in colour) including Building an Electric Coach, South African Fruit (Southampton Docks to Covent Garden), & films on seaside towns. 16 mm. St. F. Strand Film Company, 5a Upper St. Martin's Lane, W.C.2. Eleven films available for nontheatrical distribution including Aerial Milestones (historical survey of British civil aviation), Chapter and Verse (survey of books and writers), Give the Kids a Break, & a number of others of Empire and general interest, including 3 silent Airways films. Mostly 35 mm. Sd. A few 16 mm. St. F. Wallace Heaton, Ltd., 127 New Bond Street, W.l. Three catalogues. Sound 16 mm., silent 16 mm., silent 9.5 mm. The sound film catalogue contains a number of American feature films, including Thunder Over Mexico, & some interest' shorts. The silent 16 mm. catalogue contains a first-class list of early American, German & Russian silent features and shorts. The 9.5 catalogue has a number of early German films & a wide selection of early American & English slapstick comedies. 16 mm. & 9.5 mm. Sd. & St. H. Workers' Film Association, 145 Wardour Street, V^.l. Films of democratic & co-operative interest, with a selection of films from other sources. Notes & suggestions for complete programmes. Some prints for outright sale. 35 mm. & 16 mm. Sd. & St. H.