Documentary News Letter (1944-1945)

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER 39 NEW NON-THEATRICAL FILMS Children on Trial. Production: Crown. Producer: Basil Wright. Director: Jack Lee. Camera: Chick Fowle. 65 mins. This film is a sequel to Children of the City and it tells the story of a boy and girl who are sent to approved schools. Technically the film is well made, capably directed and photographed, but not so capably produced. It is much too long, which is usually considered to be the producers affair; it is also slow and badly timed, which might be said to be the editor's. Children on Trial is very similar to Children of the City. It approaches approved schools uncritically and presents them at their best : sympathetic masters, relatively good conditions, interesting work and the successful rehabilitation of children. The film will be as successful as its predecessor, but both of them suffer because they do not present the whole story. Juvenile delinquency (that unimaginative J.P.'s phrase) is a big and real problem, and it is a problem — which means no answer has yet been found. But these films imply that it has been solved byavoidingthe difficulties of the full-story. True they present the children as human beings and not gorillas — which is valuable, but the real film of the problem of juvenile delinquency is still waiting to be made. Science Joins an Industry. Production: Data for the Cotton Board. Producer: Donald Alexander. Director: James Hill. 20 mins. This film shows the evolution of cotton spinning from the hand loom operated in humble cottages to the almost human machinery and massive industry represented by the giant mills of Lancashire today. We are shown the birth of Shirley House where the laboratories of the cotton industry were established in the face of a certain amount of apathy and scepticism in the industry itself, and the film succeeds admirably in demonstrating the intricate process of cotton production with its many fields of scientific research. Technically it achieves a high standard but its purpose seems a little vague — science is >o firmly entrenched today in every branch of luman life that it requires little advocacy, and he film's attempt to deal with the industry's Dasic economic problems is apparent rather than eal. However, it is presumed that the general purpose will become clearer when the remainder if the series is shown. Nevertheless, the film eaves a final impression that, however much ve may have been supplanted by competitors n other industries, we can at least maintain our >re-eminent position as a supplier of cotton goods o the world, and from this point of view the ilm will serve an admirable purpose for overseas listribution. The Education of the Deaf. Production: Data -ilms for the British Council. Director: Jack jillitt. Camera: Wolfgang Suschitzky. Distributor: C.F.L. 45 mins. 'ubject: Lip reading and speech training for the eaf and partially deaf in special schools. yeatment: Deafness brings a physical isolation, yhich is difficult for those with hearing to underitand. A family group, in which the mother is !>artially deaf, listening to the ninth symphony of Beethoven establishes an analogy with the composer, and by implication the moral that the handicaps of deafness can be overcome. Rather less surely various types of deafness in children and adults are illustrated, and some of the methods used to determine the degree of hearing loss are shown. This is the weakest part of the film; the viewer tends to get confused by being shown a number of children, without it being very clear what they are being used to illustrate, and some cases, during their tests, appeared to be able to hear more than one had been led to expect. The consequences of deafness from birth without special training could well have been more strongly emphasised. When the film moves on to show how lip reading and speech training are carried out in schools for the deaf and partially deaf, all traces of uncertainty disappear. The sequences showing the gradual education of deaf children first to form the correct sounds. then to associate those sounds with objects, and finally how to interpret new and complicated meanings from lip movements and in turn translate them into the right words are some of the most absorbing scenes of this type that have been shown on the screen. The camera work here has a visual beauty, which in many places is profoundly moving, and the direction a sympathy and sureness of touch, resulting in a unity of sound and picture which is all too rare. The film ends with a dialogue in which a woman who has been deaf from birth takes part. Her speech and understanding, as well as the story of her life, are conclusive evidence of the value of the training shown in the film. If the film has any defect, it is that it tries to cover too much ground. The length could with advantage have been reduced by pruning the earlier parts, and it is to be hoped that the use of well-known symphonies as background music, though here very effective, will not become a common practice. Audience value: The film is surprisingly directed to specialised audiences, but it is difficult to understand what specialised audience the producers had in mind. Most specialised audiences would hardly need to be sold on the value of special training, and would want more precise factual information on points where the film is vague, for example on the relative value of hearing aids for the partially deaf. It appears to the reviewer that this film is of first-rate instructional and informational value to all types of general adult audiences, and it is to be hoped that it will get a wide showing on this basis. As a medium for enlisting sympathy and understanding for the problems of the deaf, and for showing the methods available today for their training, it has a universal appeal. The Sunny Tribe. Production: Voentekhfilm Studios. 1945. Distributor: S.C.R. 38 mins. This film presents the life-cycle and habits of the honey-bee in considerable detail. Queen, larva, drones, stages of worker development, and swarming are all described and shown in a model hive which closely simulates natural conditions. This film is remarkable on two counts; firstly, the bees and their queen show no cameraconsciousness (and anyone who has tried to photograph a queen-bee knows how fast she moves when exposed to light); and secondly, the large-scale close-ups are superb. The sequence showing one cell in longitudinal section being filled by a worker is a beautiful demonstration of surface-tension effects, and another memorable shot shows the screen filled by a single cell in top view, with the newly hatched worker biting its way out. The Island of White Birds. Production: Mosfilm Studios. 1939. Distributor: S.C.R. 28 mins. This film presents the nesting habits of a large colony of gulls. The responsibilities of the male and female during nesting and fledgling stages are shown, and the reaction of the birds to experimental interferences, such as moving the nest, substitution of eggs for fledglings, and of dummy eggs for real ones is studied. This film and The Sunny Tribe carry one stage further the trend discernible in those Russian popular science films that have recently been brought to Britain — a move towards more factual presentation of life cycles and life habits, a move away from broad ecology on a superficial plane towards more detailed study of one organism. At the same time the approach is becoming more experimental : we are shown what scientists do to investigate the behaviour of animals, and how the animals respond — the gulls' eggs were deliberately tampered with — and yet in such a way that it does not seem a complete answer. We are left wondering what would happen if some other experiment had been tried : suppose the gull fledgling had been replaced not by an egg of that species, but by a fledgling of another species? A scientific curiosity is aroused by these films. Moreover these films are designed also to evoke patriotism in the Russian audiences and respect for the progress the Russians are making. The Russian animal-life films all present another message as well. Each film has contained one or more fights, not put in for their spectacular value or even to satisfy the sadists in the audience. The bees eject marauders by stinging, and two queen-bees are seen battling to a death; the gulls fight off another gull invading their territory. So the audiences learn not only to admire their country and their scientists, but also that if they are to keep what they have they must fight for it, and be prepared to fight to the death. CORRESPONDENCE Sir, Some of your resiewer's comments on the work of the Exeter Visual Education Centre are such as to imply a lack of wisdom and of knowledge let alone charity. To deride for failure "to get results" in research is surely unwise in any case and especially here, for Meredith's work as Lecturer in Visual Education was (until this year) all done in addition to a full-time teaching job in the College. The initiation of a Regional Library at Dartington, the courses for teachers, the information distributed, the research done in schools, the films shown and what is more imponderable but very' useful, the interest widely aroused, represent an amount of spare-time work which deserves commendation from your reviewer and especially as it has been done awaj from the stimulating contacts of London. RONALD MACKl I I II