Documentary News Letter (1940)

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER DECEMBER 1940 13 FILM SOCIETY NEWS The National Film Library has put in hand the construction of a further block of twelve vaults specially designed for long-term film preservation in Buckinghamshire. These will be required in part for the storage of the library's own rapidly growing collection of films and in part for the storage of Government films, mainly records of the 1914—18 war. Most notable among recent acquisitions to the National Film Library's Preservation Section is the whole of the film record of Captain Scott's Antarctic Expedition comprising master prints of the two films made from it, The Great White Silence and Ninety Degrees South : this material has been presented on loan by the trustees. The Library continues to add to its collection of current entertainment features, and its newsreel section is to be augmented by a copy of each issue of British News, the composite newsreel edited by the British Council, the donors. An interesting early acquisition has been a copy of Yvette, one of the feature films made on the Continent by Cavalcanti. The repairs to the Institute's premises, damaged by enemy action, are now well advanced and it is hoped they will again become habitable early in December. The viewing theatre has already been restored to use. The Governors of the Institute have addressed a memorandum to the Court of the Goldsmiths' Company suggesting the expenditure of up to £400 on the making of a short series of experimental films for use by craft teachers in demonstrating the manipulation of silversmiths' tools. A fourth supplement has been published to the list of films suitable for children. (Price 3d.). The Tyneside Film Society is carrying on, although suitable films are not now so easy to get and many members are absent owing to evacuation and active service, because it is felt that the aims of the Society are just as important now as they were in peacetime. Everyone regrets the absence of Mr. M. C. Pottinger, who has been such an able secretary for many years, and this year became chairman of the Tyneside Film Association Ltd. ; he resigned this office lately when he left to take up a commission in the R.N.V.R. The new chairman is Mr. B. S. Page, who has served on the committee for some years, and was at one time secretary of the Birmingham Film Society. The first annual meeting took place recently of the Tyneside Film Association Ltd., the company limited by guarantee which was formed during last season to control the aff'airs of the Society. The company is in a very sound position and it was decided for 1940-41 to hold, at any rate, a first half-season of four private exhibitions on Sunday afternoons, to take place in the Haymarket Theatre, Newcastle-on-Tyne, on November 17, December 8, January 12 and January 26. For the first of these exhibitions the feature film was Le Dernier Tournant, and for other dates it is hoped that some of the following will be available: Remontons les Champs-Elysees, La Marseillaise, lis Etaient Neuf Celibataires, Accord Final. The programmes will also include some of the best available documentary and experimental films and cartoons, etc., and it is intended to continue having discussions on the films shown. It is very much hoped that conditions will allow of the season being extended further into the spring, as in previous years. The Edinburgh Film Guild has shown remarkable initiative in its recent programmes. One was "timed to coincide with the Presidential elections' and aimed to present a cross section of American life." The films shown included New World Metropolis (March of Time on New York), Life in Sometown, U.S.A. (an M.G.M. short directed by Buster Keaton), The River, and Young Mr. Lincoln. The second programme was dedicated to Holland, and included Joris Ivens' early film Rain, Netherlands Old and New, and Rutten's Dood Wasser. A Polish programme is being planned. The enterprise shown by this Society should be a help to others, who might well plan to run similar — or even identical — programmes. The Stirlingshire Film Society and the Lochaber Film Society are starting up again. The former's first show was on November 24th. Ayrshire reports a successful season in progress. This Society still operates from two centres, thus catering for the major population areas of the county. On the initiative of the Glasgow Branch of the Association of Scientific Workers a meeting was recently called of people interested in scientific films, as a result of which it was proposed to form a Scientific Film Society in Glasgow. The programmes will be designed to show scientific films of popular appeal and an occasional high grade technical film. Membership is open to all who are interested, and the applications have been so heavy that the lists have had to be temporarily closed. The Society is holding six meetings during the winter at which 16 mm. films will be shown (the majority being sound films), and the subscription for the season is 5s. Members will be entitled to bring a limited number of visitors at a charge of 1.?. for each performance, the account being rendered to members at the end of the season. If the membership is sufficiently large, a greater number of meetings may be held, and possibly one performance in a cinema. The formation of an experimental group is also under discussion. The first meeting of the season was held in Room 24, the Royal Technical College, George Street, on Wednesday, 23rd October, at 7.30 p.m. The programme was as follows : — (1) P.F.B. Cine-Magazine (General). (2) Transfer of Power (Engineering). (3) Grey Seals (Natural History). (4) Smoke Menace (Public Health). (5) Distillation (Oil Refining). (6) King Penguins (Natural History). Dundee and St. Andrews showed City of Ships, Early One Morning, and Der Zerbrochene Krug at the beginning of November, and Peter the Great at the end of the month. We are much indebted to the Secretary of this Society for sending us a cutting from a Scots paper which refers approvingly to the directorial work of Remonton's "Les Champs Elysees". Societies will no doubt look forward to seeing further examples of this new director's work. The Manchester and Salford Film Society is still hoping to run a spring session, and in the meantime notes with approval the activity of the Manchester and District Film Institute Society, which has started a series of continental film shows at the Tatler Cinema, including Pieges, Innocence, lis Etaient Neuf Celibataires and Rois du Sport. CENTRAL FILM LIBRARY The Ministry of Information has published its first list of 66 films available on 16 mm. A number are also printed on 35 mm. Application for the list should be made to the Regional Offices. All films were listed in the October issue of D.N.L. with the exception of a few titles added subsequently and listed below. The following five-minute films are now available for non-theatrical use: — The Front Line, Britain Can Take It, Yesterday's Over Your Shoulder and Salvage with a Smile. A new series of cookery films is also available, under the general heading: Ministry of Food Cookery Hints. The subjects are: — Oatmeal Porridge, Herrings, Potatoes, Steaming, and Casserole Cooking. A silent version of Miss T has been added. The titles of certain films appearing under "Films Commissioned by the M.O.I." on page 15 of the October issue of D.N.L. have been altered. A Day in a Factory, The People's Health and School Services in Wartime have been retitled Speed Up and Welfare, Health in War and Tomorrow is Theirs respectively.