Documentary News Letter (1944-1945)

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER confidence of the film trade as a whole; and he has shown a special genius for permitting his staff to act on their own initiative, and, more importantly, has backed their actions. It has been announced that his post is not to be filled during the interim period between now and the evolution of the new C.I.O. The gap he leaves poses, in fact, the problem, and we can perhaps pay him no greater compliment than in emphasising that fact. Meantime Basil Wright has resigned from the post of producer in charge of the Crown Film Unit, which he had held since January, 1945. No reason for this move has been published, but it is thought that his resignation arose specifically from a desire to emphasise the liaison problem to which we have referred. However that may be, it is significant that he has now been appointed consultant to Films Division during the coming period. This in itself is a sign that the higher levels of the Civil Service, represented more particularly in this instance by Sir Eric Bamford, Director-General of the M.O.I., are anxious to find means of ensuring the proper establishment of the liaison role. It is also said — though no statement has been made as we go tc press — that a committee has been set up at the M.O.I, to report and make recommendations on the procedure and organisation of the visual information service under the C.I.O. It appears that this committee will be representative of creators and administrators on equal terms — numerically as well as otherwise. If this is so, we congratulate the Director-General in double measure for a further step towards ensuring that every opportunity be given to all parties concerned in the creation of an information service worthy of the tasks before it. It is to be hoped that the committee will be empowered to co-opt, or to seek evidence from various bodies such as A.C.T. and the Federation of Documentary Film Units, as well as from individuals at present not inside the Civil Service but with special knowledge of informational techniques and needs. The moment is ripe for constructive and far-sighted measures. NOTES OF THE MONTH that the Government should have invited John Grierson to Britain to advise them on film problems is a fact of considerable significance. Grierson's presence in this country at the period when the setting up of the nev Central Information Office is under urgent consideration has been welcomed by all sensible people in the fields of film and of education. Looking further forward, we note with satisfaction that Grierson's main preoccupation is now to be in the international field — a logical and essential extension of the purpose and practice of Documentary. The triumphant success, and electrifyingly rapid development of the National Film Board of Canada were due to Grierson's far-sighted planning and administration based on all that was possible in the earlier experience of documentary in this country. /There are now many active centres of documentary in Europe arid in the New World. The co-ordination of their work to international purposes is a job in which no one is better fitted than Grierson. It is already known that a major part of his plans involves the creation of a regular output of films on international events and affairs; and it is obvious that such an output will establish on world screens a clear exposition of the purposes and activities of the United Nations. In these activities Grierson will have the fullest backing from everyone in this country',) Two-way Traffic Wanted if our European colleagues and allies are to support our films on the Continent, it is obvious that we must reciprocate by helping Continental films to circulate in Britain and to reach the kind of audience for which they are intended. So far as we know neither the M.O.I, nor the British Council has done anything to encourage this two-way traffic and has afforded no one the opportunity of seeing the best work from France, Denmark, Holland or Czechoslovakia. A centre must be set up, either by the British Council or the Ministry of Information or by both, to which our film colleagues overseas can look for help and encouragement. It is not only reciprocity that is needed ; our system of overseas film representation needs overhauling. The M.O.I, officers are mainly legacies of the SHAEF film fiasco. Of the original appointments, some proved to be collaborators and had to be got rid of in a hurry; others have crawled back into one hole or another; most of the remainder seem ignorant of, or even hostile to, the film as a medium of culture. British Council film officers seem to regard themselves less as cultural film ambassadors than as salesmen of British Council films. The scientific film conference in Paris provides a case in point. According to the printed programme the Ministry of Information officers had supplied the excellent Surgery in Chest Diseases, but had not attempted to put a representative British programme on the screen. Almost by accident The Scientific Film Association was able, with the help of the Ministry of Information's London offices, to send a representative to Paris, who was able to screen World of Plenty and Potato Blight. From French press reports and other information from French sources it would seem that the former film captured the conference, though neither government agency on the spot had the wit to realise its potential importance. It is time that both the M.O.I, and the British Council developed a sense of responsibility in these matters. M.O.I. Please Note the British council writes : "Under Notes of the Month in the last issue of D.N.L., you chide the M.O.I. for not recording films in Afrikaans. It is perhaps worth while letting you know that all Council films that go to South Africa are recorded in Afrikaans as well as in English." If the British Council finds it worth while to put their films into Afrikaans, the M.O.I, behaviour in not doing so seems more inexplicable than ever. Comings and Goings Geoffrey bell has left the Shell Film Unit and joined Film Centre, moving from documentary direction to production. He was at Shell from 1937-1945. Bell is Hon. Secretary of the London Scientific Film Society and Council Member of the Scientific Film Association. Another new recruit to Film Centre is George Bennell, M.A., B.Sc, M.R.S.T., who is to develop an Education Section. Bennell comes from University College School with a wide experience of the use of visual aids. In 1928 he began making films for athletics and O.T.C. training; during the last few years he has greatly extended the use of audio-visual material in the teaching of General Science. The documentary world generally is conscious of the need for expert advice from the teaching profession in developing classroom film techniques, and Realist Film Unit are to be congratulated on the arrival of Miss Dorothy Grayson, B.Sc, who has joined them as Educational Film Producer in collaboration with John Taylor. Her work at the British Film Institute was one of the more distinguished of that organisation's activities. We wish Miss Grayson and Mr. Bennell every success in the very important and difficult jobs which they have undertaken. !