Documentary News Letter (1947-1949)

118 DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER NEW DOCUMENTARY FILMS There has in the past been some criticism of the DNL policy of publishing reviews unsigned. To compromise with the divergent views on the subject, therefore, a new system has been devised. In the future all films will be viewed by a permanent panel selected from members of the editorial board, who will take collective responsibility for the views expressed. Each review will continue as before to be individually written but, unless expressly stated to the contrary, this will have been contributed by one or other of the members of this panel. In the exceptional case where specialist audiences are involved, the source of review will be stated below. May we again remind film units and sponsors that we cannot publish reviews unless they provide us with adequate information on films completed. The names of the members of the reviewing panel are as follows: Stephen Ackroyd, Donald Alexander, Max Anderson, Paul Fletcher, Grahame Tharp, Sinclair Road. SUMMING UP No. 3 Pathe are to be congratulated on their initiative in bringing to the light of day some of the invaluable film records of world events which the newsreel companies amass over the years, but generally keep hidden away and unused in their vaults. This series was described in the last issue of dnl — History on Film by Peter Bay I is. It attempts to give a pictorial record of the main news events of each quarter and is designed primarily for school use. No. 3 deals with events of the first quarter of 1947. One can appreciate the difficulty of collecting material giving adequate coverage of world affairs, but one's first reaction is to challenge the statement in Issue No. 3 that the principal events of the quarter took place in the British Empire! The temptation to look at world affairs from a domestic viewpoint is considerable. But particularly in a series designed for schools one expects wider perspectives. This issue also has certain technical weaknesses, the sound track is bad, and the commentary rather ineffectual and badly spoken. Better quality library material, too, should have been available. Summing Up could do a much more valuable job if it had a stronger sense of what all this motley of events is about. What is happening in India is part of a whole pattern of development in South-East Asia. Food crisis in Germany, the coal crisis in Britain cannot be understood in isolation. The problems of one world, trying to adjust itself to new situations and to find new relationships, are indivisible. But, despite its shortcomings, Summing Up has made a brave start. One should watch us future development with interest. Brush Stripping of Cards. DATA Films for the Cotton Board. Producer: Donald Alexander. Written and directed: Peter Bradford. Camera: Stanley Rodwell. Distribution: Non-T. through Cotton Board. 12 mins. DATA films for the Cotton Board are making an interesting series: here is one on industrial training, which will do much to justify documentary talk on the subject. It does not matter that few people outside the industry will have any idea of what a card is or what it does that it has to be stripped. What does matter is that after seeing this film most people could go straight to the machine with a very good idea in their minds of how the job has to be done, and that is what the film was intended to teach the workers for whom it was designed. Taking a single machine it first shows the whole process of brush stripping carried out at normal speed by the two men required. Next the movements are tabulated and the same operation is repeated in slow motion. Then in turn the movements of each man are analysed in detail and finally, to sum up the whole sequence of movement, repeated again. The relationship of this one machine to the others is, with one exception, shown by diagram in preference to actuality. This is one of the few questionable points, for the diagrams do not seem very clear. To the audience familiar with shop layout this may not be valid. One feels, too, that a more flexible use of the camera might have heightened the interest. Still, given the machine and the method, one could ask little more. Experience of the use of industrial training films of this type is small, so that the information it will provide on audience reactions will be of considerable importance. One general comment should, however, be added. This is such a serious film. Instructional films must be coldly factual, but surely just a touch of humour or human interest would have helped to put the film over. And, between ourselves Data, try reading that opening title again — slowly! Waterworks: Films of Fact. Producers: Paul Rotha and John Wales. Script: Miles Tomalin. Director: George Collins. Camera: Cyril Arapoff. * This film explains and describes the complex organization behind the production of a glass of water. It does this with considerable success and it is also exciting to find such an example of imaginative public relationship. It is therefore tragic that the film does not quite click, for it has a lifeless atmosphere of simplified technicalities and carefully arranged facts. This is due in the first place to the choice of facts emphasized. The explanation of filtration is clear but does not get very far. whereas more emphasis on chlorination could have led us to appreciate the relationship between the ratepayer and the technician, between the man who gets indignant if perfectly good water tastes of chlorine and the man who wants to hold his job. In the second place, the method of explaining is not always happy. An Isotype diagram which shows clouds clanking their way out of the sea may describe the Water Cycle but it can also lead to a healthy childish exasperation; for it is an example of a teaching approach which seems to say 'This may not look convincing but you jolly well ought to believe it anyway'. For, unfortunately, such a method could be equally well used to show how Father Christmas gets down chimneys. A livelier method could have avoided this by using simple demonstrations, and a brighter approach would have lessened the need to decorate this packet of facts with romantic clouds and accompanying music. THIS MODERN AGE No. 8. Sudan Dispute. No. 9. Development Areas. Distribution: GFD. 20 minutes each film. It is probably part of the policy of the producers of This Modern Age to allow to their directors as much variety of approach as is consistent with uniformity of presentation, and perhaps for this reason the series shows as yet no sign of becoming a monotonous succession of die-stamped articles so similar in design that the audience knows what to expect as soon as the main title appears on the screen. Or perhaps the overall editorial policy of the series is being allowed to form itself as issue follows issue. Whichever may be the case, there is a very marked difference in the way the two latest issues approach their subjects. Sudan Dispute undoubtedly fulfils the function of giving us a picture of part of the world of which most of us know little but for which we are all to some extent responsible. But whether the picture we are given is an accurate one is, perhaps, more questionable. Is the Sudan really the strapping, bnght-futured youngster that the film describes? Is its Government actually such an exemplar of enlightened, beneficial rule? Is the possibility of Egyptian sovereignty in fact quite as unpleasant as the vox ex machina would have us believe? The answer to these questions may indeed and in truth be ves. but the fact that they are uppermost in the mind after one has seen the film indicates something wrong with the way the subject has been treated. Thii Modem Age sets out to be an independent screen review. At all costs it should avoid arousing the suspicion that it is temporarily and honorarily serving as the smooth-tongued spokesman of officialdom — or indeed o\' any other section of the community. Happily, an unbiased approach is the outstanding characteristic of Development Areas;