Documentary News Letter (1944-1945)

32 DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER No. 3 1944 TRAVELLERS TALE by ALEX SHAW HPhere was a very small scale map of the world ■* outside the lounge on A deck, just round the corner from the Angela Thirkells and bound volumes of Blackwood's, ft was one of those maps which clearly mark the positions of the major continents and oceans but are rather reticent about the boundaries of the Balkan countries, the district North East of Calcutta and the Polish-Russian frontier. Interrupting fierce games of shuffleboard and Under-and-Over each news bulletin blared its way across deck chairs and trays of drinks. It silenced the footsteps of the ever walking Merchant Navy men on their way to join new ships, the small-talk of the young men bound for the oil ports of the Persian Gulf, the incessantly clicking knitting needles of the group of nurses on their way to Ceylon and the share and steel conversations of the mysterious business men. The news raised questions of where and how. Our lack of geographical knowledge was displayed in the clear Mediterranean sunshine. How far from Messina to anywhere? What sort of road was the Road to Rome? These were the kind of questions we asked each other in the autumn of 1943. But when the announcer came to the Russian front we could all be pundits, for, placed securely on a notice board were large scale maps of Russia with even the obscurest hamlet marked and the rivers and hills plain for all of us to look at. Ralph Parker, The Times Moscow correspondent, saw to it that even if we did not know much about Sicily, we should share his knowledge of Russia. History was being made and history itself was just across the water as the coast of Africa rolled by — Benghazi, Derna and Tobruk, Bizerta and Cape Bon. But war had left them, jumping the ancient sea, and they were again small towns under a blue sky. We talked, as travellers do, of this and that, with the restlessness that the sea gives to all conversation when everyone is anxious to get on with a job and the sea is only a tiresome interruption. We talked, among other things of films in general and of Russian reactions to AngloAmerican films in particular. Some of the results were unexpected, some could have been foretold, but they helped to fill in details of a larger picture and even though trivial in themselves are therefore worth recording. A fuller report from Moscow may be forthcoming later on. First of all, some notes on the film production background. Russian film production at the beginning of the war had made some plans for evacuating in line with other movable industries. But the German advance found the studios at Odessa, Kiev, Moscow and Leningrad still working. They had to move and move quickly. Alma Ata on the Turkestan border was a place where a few films were made for some of the republics. These films were mostly shorts of a localised character and the facilities for making them were correspondingly small. This became the new Russian film centre and to it were moved technicians and equipment. It must have been a hectic period. Rather as if some of the gear and people from Shepherd's Bush, Denham and Pinewood were suddenly shifted to a cinema situated a thousand or two miles away. But book and periodical publishing had more or less packed up and it was the job of radio and film to carry on the spreading of information. One immediate task was to destroy the German strength and invulnerability build-up created by their successes. The Russians made films to destroy this idea — partisan films which often centred round the activities of three greybearded old peasants who always diddled the Germans in the end. The Germans were caricatured on the lines of Shoulder Arms, and although the films were crude they were made for the moment and did their job. In this connection one must remember that at that time there was in Russia an almost complete ignorance of the outside world. The people had no information about the Germans, for instance, by which any rumour however fantastic could be checked. (continued on p. 33) THE SCREENWRITERS' ASSOCIATION (Affiliated with the Society of Authors, Playwrights and Composers) ASSOCIATE MEMBERSHIP Associate Membership in the Screenwriters' Association is now open to all persons interested in motion picture writing, but who do not yet possess the screen credits or other professional qualifications necessary for full membership. Associate Membership is in all cases subject to the decision of the Election committee. The work of the Association is devoted to the interests of all screen writers — feature, short and documentary. Associate Members have the benefit of the principal services and advantages provided for full members. Subscription for Associate Members is one guinea per annum. Entry Forms and full information may be obtained from : — THE SCREENWRITERS9 ASSOCIATION (ASSOCIATE MEMBERSHIP) BRIARLEA HOUSE, MORTIMER, BERKS.