Documentary News Letter (1940)

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NEWS LEHER CO VOL 1 No 7 PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY FILM CENTRE 34 SOHO SQUARE LONDON W1 FOURPENCE 1 NOTES OF THE MONTH 3 GO TO it! An editorial on the immediate urgency for film propaganda 5 VISUAL NOTATION The use of film in mathematical instruction 6 NEW DOCUMENTARY FILMS 9 CHILDREN AS FILM CRITICS 9 STORY FILM OF THE MONTH — Gaslight 10 THE HOME OF TRAVEL FILMS 13 DOCUMENTARY IN THE UNITED STATES 15 REAR-GUARD FILMING A cameraman's experience in Poland and Holland 16 FILM SOCIETY NEWS 17 THE REPERTORY CINEMA TO-DAY 17 DOCUMENTARY FILM BOOKINGS 18 FILM LIBRARIES Cobwebs and Bluster !lT WOULD APPEAR that One of the troubles in the Films Division of the Ministry of Information is one which has been only too common in other Government Departments during the War^a deficiency in the quality of certain members of the Civil Service personnel. In those cases where the per;sonnel in question has already been removed it is true that Tecrimination would serve no good purpose. But at the time of writing the Films Division has not yet been freed of the trammels of wrongly-allocated staff. In general there would seem to be two characteristics which prevent planning and action. Firstly, the smugness of established civil servants who, by some psychological aberration, have refused to adjust themselves to the rapid tempo and the iconoclastic urgencies j of a total war ; this smugness, entrenched behind a barricade \ of precedent, procedure and prejudice, can do much to il hamper, and often to prevent, the putting into action of plans which should have immediate priority over the niggling claims of red-tape and of official hierarchies. The second characteristic has been acutely analysed by J. B. Priestley, who says, "It is the refuge of the man who hates democracy, reasonable argument, give-and-take, tolerance, patience, and a humorous equality . . . who loves bluster and swagger . . . plotting in back rooms, shouting and bullying. ... It is not really a balanced attitude of mind at all. It belongs to those people who cannot find their way out of adolescence, who are really overgrown, self-tormenting schoolboys, who may be middle-aged, but are really at heart so many Dead End Kids." The Need for Action THE CHARACTERISTICS outUned above have done a great deal to stultify any reasonable efforts at progress on the part of the more enlightened members of the Films Division of the Ministry of Information. And as long as this "Sixth Column" remains — however small numerically — nothing that Messrs Duff-Cooper or Harold Nicolson may do or ilA