Documentary News Letter (1940)

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DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER JULY 1940 11 lothing when the 'accidents', 'bUzzards', and avalanches' can be faked in the studio by the lUdicious use of 'sets, salt and aeroplane pro tellers'. His miserable efforts at the authentic, his ictures of scenery, count for naught against the «nsational products of Elstree and Hollywood. The public has been so soaked in sensational nake-believe, that the unvarnished truth is no onger anything but boring. Truth has been srostituted on the altars of 'art'. The cinema ludience of to-day would hardly be content to see '.he conquest of Everest without the introduction )f a fatality. The cleverness of the faker has '», k Encompassed the death of truth, and those who it breathing the disinfected air of a cinema are [^jjiuBncapable of realising the effort of the cinemaographer who fumbles with frozen fingers at his ipparatus on the snows of the poles or the artBjjU limalaya; they will turn with relief from the obriety of truth and enterprise to the insobriety >f the cabaret and the murderous antics of the jv£|jji, lunmen. Truth is dead, and those explorers J ijpij /ho contemplate an anfaked film record of their ixpeditions will do well to mark the fact." We witnessed fake incidents in parts of ^rader Horn and Bring 'Em Back Alive. The reult of these false values brought the various ^P^d ocieties, representing animal cruelty, crashing gjj^ lown with vengeance on all such films, comu,!^, idling the censor to very stern regulations. The -jjjj abit of doping animals for exciting scenes was xposed in the American press. The combination of these actions has taken way a deal of heart from travel producers, and iubilioii (Sy, 10 i.Ok! as a consequence there have been fewer subjects in the last few years in the mood of Chang, Kamet Conquered, or Dassan. It would have been thought that the burden of commercialism on an explorer's work might have been shouldered by such recognised bodies as the Royal Geographical, Zoological, or kindred societies. But in this country they have said, a resolute NO to the actual sponsoring of exploration or travel from the standpoint of film only. They argue that a journey through Africa or scaling Mount Everest, when once decided upon, is a serious mission for definite attainment of a specified object. A film record could only be a part and unfortunately is viewed as a very small part of the actual work undertaken. Whilst they are willing, and have on nearly all occasions made grants towards the cost of expeditions, they would not consent to be responsible for the complete scheme or enterprise, however well the producer may plead his cause. In spite of this fact they fully recognise the value of "stills" and films (indeed they greatly use and exploit them) when collated by the undaunted producers. I learnt this attitude on the part of the Royal Geographical Society when Captain J. B. Noel, official cinematographer to the first two Everest Expeditions in 1921-23, found it necessary to make himself responsible for all his gear and equipment and the major portion of his personal expenses. He also carried with him the knowledge that should he prove a nuisance, or get in the way, he was to be thrown over the nearest precipice! The contrary, how ever, has proved possible in the U.S.A. where the Geographical Society of Washington and other similar bodies, have deliberately undertaken responsibility for many film achievements of travel, exploration, animal and bird life. Some of the late Martin Johnson's efforts were made possible by their finance and planning. Capt. C. W. R. Knight's bird films and the scientifit exploration in Alaska conducted by Father Bernard Hubbard, S.J., owe some of their success to this enterprising society. They have become a wealthy society by courage and enterprise and they have extended the knowledge of their many members to almost every corner of the globe, by means of the Geographical Magazine, which has a circulation of over 2,000,000. This great interest on the part of the public should prove a stimulus to a continuous ever-growing picture-conscious generation. For the travel film fulfils the first fundamental requisite of the cinema — it shows one half of the world what the other is like, and this elementary interest in the strange, the dangerous and the unknown remains today the psychological basis for descriptive travel films. Looking back on the list of travel film makers, we cannot fail to distinguish those who, instead of filming the surface of things, have endeavoured to bring a deeper interpretation to the subject matter. Thus from Flaherty's Nanook and Hurley's Pearls and Savages (1920) at almost regular intervals up to the current Dark Rapture, each producer has brought a higher approach to the "documentary" method. 101 ami uiiefi ikns kdiJi <li I Kl Im. Slof: or "i (lid profia ■ffltai irt TOdtf akiiffl liiatii fall* icotl" his I* SIGHT AND SOUND NUMBER THIRTY-FOUR AUGUST FIRST Need we say much more? CINEMATOGRAPHY IS A PRODUCT OF APPLIED SCIENCE The position of the working scientist, the organisation and application of scientific research, the place of science in modern civilisation, questions of scientific education and popularisation, are discussed in THE SCIENTIFIC WORKER JOURNAL OF THE ASSOCUTION OF SCIENTIFIC WORKERS This paper discusses such questions in a nontechnical way from the point of view of the scientist himself. Monthly, price 3d. Annual Subscription 4s. PUBLISHED BY THE A.S.W., 30 BEDFORD ROW, W.C.I