Documentary News Letter (1944-1945)

12 DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER DATA wishes its friends A HAPPY NEW YEAR Bonalil Alexander im a Anderton Mary Beales Pamela Brown •Jack Chambers Aida Cohen Budge Cooper -Jack EUitt Lionel Griffiths Francis Gysin •James Hill •tack Bowells Teddy 3Mason Leslie Shepard Charles Smith Wolfyany Suschitzky Tony Thomson o DOCUMENTARY TECHNICIANS ALLIANCE LTD 21 SOHO SQUARE LONDON Wl GERRARD 2826 A FILM HISTORIAN By Jean Benoit-Levy at long last, the government of the United States has recognised the cinema as an art as well as an industry, and has created a department of him preservation in the Library of Congress. Miss Iris Barry, who is to head the staff which will recommend films for permanent deposit in the library, represents a fitting choice. Probably no other person in this country has done more than she to awaken the public to the importance of the cinema, and to attain for it the respect habitually given to literature and the fine arts. Miss Barry began her film career as a foundermember of The Film Society in London, and as motion picture editor of the Daily Mail. In 1932, the New York Museum of Modern Art chose her to be curator of its newly formed Film Library. In that capacity she has built up one of the richest collections of films in the world — the only truly comprehensive one, including as it does pictures dating from the earliest products of Edison and Lumiere to current features, documentaries, and shorts, of all types. Thanks to her intelligent action, at a time when governments were only mildly concerned or were even frankly indifferent, hundreds of early films have been saved for future generations. These films are the result of Miss Barry's earnest delving into the film vaults of most of the capitals of Europe, as well as research in the United States. Under Miss Barry's direction, the Film Library of the Museum of Modern Art serves the public in a variety of ways. There are daily screenings of films at the Museum, presented in such interesting series as: The Basis of Modern Technique; Great Actresses of the Past; Ace Directors; The Social Film; The Comedy Tradition; The Documentary Film, etc. To accompany these films, Miss Barry has prepared explanatory and critical notes. These are available at the Museum, but are perhaps even more valuable in the many schools throughout the United States who regularly borrow from the Library films of particular educational interest. Miss Barry heads another department of the Museum of Modern Art, in which United States Films are re-edited for distribution in South America. This work was undertaken at the request of the Co-ordinator of Inter-American affairs. In spite of the busy programme outlined thus far, Miss Barry finds time for writing about her beloved movies. Her books include : Let's go to the Movies (1925); D. W. Griffith, American Film Master (1940) ; and a translation of History of the Motion Picture by Bardeche and Brasillach (1936). She is a regular contributor to the book review columns of the New York Herald Tribune, and articles of hers have also appeared in La Nacion, Ars, Tricolor, the Hollywood Quarterly and the publications of the Writers' War Board. To this brief sketch of her public career, I should have liked to add a real description of her personality, but I know she does not like to be put in the limelight. I can, however, say that under an appearance of airiness and behind paradoxical sayings, she hides a wealth of kindness and intelligence that works for the benefit of the many who come to her for help each year. Her modesty masks rich knowledge of the motion picture and enthusiastic understanding of this art. For Iris Barry is in fact both the cinema's historian and its critic. More than anyone else, she will have served to establish a system for the classification of films and for their evaluation, thus making possible the recognition of certain films or classics in their different schools. By preserving for now and the future the classic films, she furnishes us and our successors with the means of studying the past and through it to continue the evolution of an art no longer a child, but whose growth (in my opinion) was retarded by its having to learn to talk. Naturally enough, Iris Barry as a successful and thoroughly likeable film historian, is an influential member of the International Federation of Film Libraries, an association composed of Museums that have taken on the responsibility of preserving examples of the great ages in the art whose short history is already so rich and so promising. BOOK REVIEWS Invitation to the Film. Liam O'Laoghaire. With a foreword by Frank Launder. (The Kerryman, Tralee. 1945. Is. 6d.) Invitation to the Film has four themes— the history of the cinema, the technique of the cinema, the use of the cinema by amateurs and for teaching, and the place of the film in the national life of Eire. Most people will find one of these themes interesting, and some people will be interested in them all. The history of the film is well done within the limits of some 30 pages. Though most of it is a summary of material already fairly well known, the story of the early history of the film in Ireland has not been told before. There is a good selection of stills from films of many countries. The study of the technique of the film occupies about 60 pages. It perhaps takes too much for granted on the part of the reader. To be of real value to the novice, the descriptions of the processes of film making should have been more detailed. The study of the amateur film and the film in teaching is excellent, particularly the analysis of the costs and methods of making a sub-standard film. Mr. O'Laoghaire here speaks from a long and successful experience, and every amateur film maker will be interested to read what he says. His chapters on "The Film in the Classroom", "Film Appreciation" and "The Child and the Film" do not break new ground but sum up briefly the opinions of most progressive teachers and social workers. Of particular interest to those studying the national use of the film are the later chapters in the book, in which Mr. O'Laoghaire makes a case for the development of a film industry in Eire. He points out that, though many countries have flourishing film industries, few countries devote much attention to training film workers. Eire is exceptional because, though she has a flourishing film school, she has no film industry. It is encouraging, too, to learn that Eire has not only an intelligent National Film Institute, but a flourishing film society with branches all over the country. (continued on next page) ■■