Documentary News Letter (1940)

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER DECEMBER 1940 "Feature Comedian." Judging by the scripts which have been hawked about Wardour Street, an enquiry into the methods and experience of the technical film section of the army is overdue. At the least, the army authorities might consult the technical film section of the R.A.F. which has sponsored some of the finest technical films yet made in Britain. Training Army Film Officers THE MARCH OF TIME is training men of the U.S. armed services in cinematography, and three marines and two coastguards have been seconded to the New York studio. Have the British armed forces, and especially the army, considered solving their own film difficulties by attaching likely men to the newsreel and documentary companies to be trained? This might go far to remove the incompetence which is so marked a feature of army films. Military Service a"^ TRIBUNAL, drawn from the Film Industry, has been set up to consider the claims of film workers for deferment from military service, and to make recommendations to the Minister of Labour. The members of the tribunal are Major R. P. Baker (Features), Captain Crickett (Secretary of the Film Artists^ Association), Arthur Elton (documentary and short films), George Elvin (Secretary of the Association of CineTechnicians), T. O'Brien (Secretary of the National Association of Theatrical and Kinematograph Employees), Maurice Ostrer, Chairman (Features), F. Watts (Newsreels) and Miss Woods, Secretary drawn from the permanent staff of the Ministry of Labour. Such a tribunal has become urgently necessary. The film industry — at any rate, the sound-film industry, and documentary in particular, is a young industry. Many key documentary directors and a few documentary cameramen are under thirty — the age of reservation. It is to be hoped that, in the national interest, the essential technicians will be allowed to carry on their work. Brassieres FOR THE PAST few years the advertising industry has been faced with the need to readjust itself to new social conditions. For the most part it has obstinately entrenched itself behind a technique of chorus girls and chocolate-box pictures — what we may call the brassiere school of advertising. Documentary film directors have long recognised this technique of advertising as out of date, and have allied themselves to that school of thought which supports what is called "Public Relations". It is not often that the backwardness of advertising is recognised by practitioners of that "art" and for that reason Mr. BuchananTaylor's speech, printed in another part of this issue, is of great importance. His point of view reflects a constructive outlook which can go far to putting the advertising industry on a sound, not to say a decent and honest, footing. 49th ParaUel THE PRESS lately has been full of The 49th Parallel, a feature film on Canada, partly financed by the Films Division of the M.O.I. This film has gone wrong, largely because the star, Austrian-born Elizabeth Bergner, refuses to return to London from Hollywood to complete the studio scenes. Among the general sensation-mongering, two points have been overlooked ; the idea of the original script was and remains a good one; in spite of Miss Bergner's absence, there is, as yet, no reason to suppose, either that the film will not be finished, or that it will not be a success. The Imperial Theme FOR ALL WE sce of the Empire on the public screens of Great Britain, it might be as important to this country as a village in Manchuria. We neither see the imperial scene nor hear the imperial voice. The newsreels confine themselves to the stamping feet of the Dominion soldiers, but their personalities, their lives, their culture remain as remote as those of the Chinese. Are we never to bring alive the horizon of Empire? We in Britain want to be on familiar nodding terms with the sheep farmers of Australia, the timber men and wheat farmers of Canada, the miners of South Africa, and the livestock breeders of New Zealand. Canada is the only Dominion so far to take itself seriously on the screen, and four or five films made in Canada are already in this country; but even these concentrate on the fighting services and not on the mode of living which Canada is fighting to protect. Australia, New Zealand and South Africa (with the exception of a thoroughly bad film from the latter country) seem to have made no attempt to reach our screens. From what we can hear, our own attempts to reach the screens of the Dominions are equally ineffective. If we are unable to express the solidarity of the English speaking peoples within the Empire then there must be something seriously wrong with our communications. Central Film Library A FIRST DUPLICATED list of ncw films in the Central Film Library has been circulated and may be obtained from any of the M.O.I, regional offices, or from the Imperial Institute, S.W.7. The list contains no less than 66 films, nearly all of them produced since the outbreak of war, and represents perhaps the most important collection of documentary films ever to be released at one time under one authority. The Films Division deserve the thanks of everyone interested in the film as propaganda and as a method of widening cultural life. The films themselves are of a high technical level and represent a genuine liberal outlook. Corrections WE SALUTE the vigilance of the many readers who have pointed out two errors in our Film of the Month article in the November issue of D.N.L. The producer of Rebecca was, of course, Selznick, not Zanuck; and McCrea is the correct spelling of the name of the star in Foreign Correspondent. ^