Documentary News Letter (1944-1945)

96 DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER OUR COUNTRY Excerpts from the commentary, written by Dylan Thomas, and reproduced by courtesy of the Ministry of Information Glasgow To begin with a city a fair grey day a day as lively and noisy as a close gossip of sparrows as terribly impersonal as a sea cavern full of machines when morning is driving down from the roofs of buildings into stone labyrinths and traffic webs when each man is alone forever in the midst of the masses of men and all the separate movements of the morning crowds London are lost together in the heartbeat of the clocks a day when the long noise of the sea is forgotten street-drowned in another memory of the sound itself of smoke and sailing dust trumpets of traffic signs and hoardings and posters rasp of the red and green signal lights the scraped string voices of overhead wires and the owl sound of the dry wind in the tube tunnels the blare and ragged drumroll of the armies of pavements and chimneys and crossings and street walls the riding choirs of the wheels the always to be remembered even through continual sea music music of the towers and bridges and spires and domes of the island city. St. Paul's There is peace under one roof. And then birds flying suddenly easily as though from another country. And all the stones remember and sing the cathedral of each blitzed dead body that lay or lies in the bomber-and-dove-flown-over cemeteries of the dumb heroic streets. And the eyes of St. Paul's move over London : To the crowds of the shunting flagged and whistling cluttered cave-hollow other world under glass and steam the loudspeaking terminus. Going out out over the racing rails in a grumble of Londonleaving thunder over the maze track of metal through a wink and a spin of towns and signals and fields out to the edges of the explosive the moon-moved manindifferent capsizing sea. * * * Felling Here near at one island end, the north fringe, Trees walk deep through the forbidding timber temples count the Samson pillars fall the thwacks of the wood-and-wind-splintering axe crack of the trunk-shorn boughs shuffle of leaves the suddenly homeless birds' tree-call. Forget for a second the beckoning sea that lies at the end of the journey, commanding your coming back behind each fated tree. Aberdeen To end with a quayside a fair grey day with the long noise of the sea flowing back as though never in factory or harvestfield market or timber temple street or hill it could have been forgotten for a moment of the tidal movement of man's time with the call of ships the monotonous sea voice of the beautiful scavenging gul the salt smell strong as sunlight grease on the deck the facing of the sea. To end with the faces of fishermen. D STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF FILMS PRODUCED BY THE M.O.I. IN 1944. 1940(a) FOOTAGE OF FILMS 1941 1942 1943 1944 Total 13,791 25,113 20,141 — 16,673 23,545 4,109 3,100 1,600 9,228 7,890 10,280 11,093 3,000(b) 1,316 22,506 41.457 30,522 16,383 22,944 4,250 15,216 33,833 24,010 38,568 15,081 43,155 5.750(c) 59,045 32,573 99.764 1 36,474 102,192 37,372 97,599 16,041 17,524 39,572 18,713 5,908 17,307 5,500(c)(f)20,100 5-Minute 15-Minute General T. Distribution General N.T. Distribution Instructional and Training Mainly Overseas Wholly Overseas Trailers Total Colonial Film Unit Productions Acquired 5-Minute and 15-Minute films (a) Includes 3,130 ft. of T. releases delivered in 1939. (b) Average length — 200 ft. (c) Average length — 125 ft. (d) 16 mm. productions are calculated at equivalent 35 mm. footage. (e) 15-minute film. (f) Excludes three re-issues. Includes 3 issues in Scotland only, and 3 issues in England and Wales only. 62,818 66,604 159,519 175,613 120,565 585,119 11,919 7,836 13.600(d) 30.198(d) 17.844(d) 81,397 1,135 6,657 11,353 1.312(e) — 20,457 NUMBERS OF FILMS 1940(a) 1941 1942 1943 1944 20 14 23 6 3 8 37 5 7 12 10 15 29 1 7 35 24 12 18 34 12 8 21 27 7 39 46 12 5 28 13 6 15 51(b) Total 86 25 39 114 82 25 85 154 5-Minute 15-Minute General T. Distribution General N.T. Distribution Instructional and Training Mainly Overseas Wholly Overseas Trailers Total Colonial Film Unit Productions Acquired 5-minute and 15-minute films (a) Includes two films for T. release delivered in 1939. (b) Excludes three re-issues, includes three issues in Scotland only, and three issues in England and Wales only. (c) 15-minute film. 74 86 160 160 130 610 8 10 16 30 36 100 2 10 17 1(c) — 30 V