Documentary News Letter (1947-1949)

DCM I Ml N I W<\ I II M NKNNS •STAR DOCUMENTARY The World is Itielt made by Films of Fact produced by Paul Rotha why is a film reviewer like a Commissioner for Inland Revenue? Because the> both spend a lot of time making allowances, and because the same glow of satisfaction warms the hearts of both collector and critic when the) find that no allowances need be made. The World is Rich asks no quarter and no charity. Here, for once, there is no necessity to assume excuses, lack of technical means, inexperience, sponsorial spinelessness or lack of funds. Mr Rotha was probably faced with most of these difficulties at one time or another in the coarse of production: but he has overcome them, and overcome them so completely that not a rack of them is left to mar his finished film. It can be judged as the major work it is, by the most exacting standards of criticism. The theme is the world food situation, how it arose, and what the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations plans to do — and asks the constituent nations to do — to increase the production of staple foods and ensure an equitable distribution of them to the undernourished millions of the world. It is a measure of Mr Rotha's skill of presentation that he manages to get a subject of this magnitude into a film of five reels without apparent overcrowding, without resorting to winds generalizations, and without allowing his audience for a moment to forget the hungry eyes and aching bellies that he behind the official figures. Its success in this last respect is perhaps the film's greatest achievement. The power of the cinema to translate facts and figures into flesh and blood — and all too visible bone — has seldom been fully exploited: but it has never been more fully exploited than in The World is Rich. Equally remarkable, in these days when to be candid about ugly facts in an official film is hardly less ill-bred than sniggering at the duchess's toupet, is the uncompromising 'plenty of food everywhere, old man' way in which this film faces the full implications||jdeserves to be, it will help bring agreement of the issues which it raises. Responsibly, reason-J Iconsiderably nearer. ably, with the help of such prominent personali f The film is not onlv impressive because of i ties as Sir John Orr and the late Mr La Guardia, the case is made for the abandonment of the present economic system in so far as it affects the production and distribution of food. It is not an impartial film. It favours the defenceless, hungry, ordinary man, and is strongly opposed to all those who arc permitted by a system of free enterprise to gamble with, speculate in, corner and restrict the food he needs. Controversial? Yes, but the controversy is one in which we are all involved as surely as we are involved in mankind. As Sir John Orr says in the film, if the nations cannot agree about such a fundamental subject as the abolition of hunger and want, there's nothing on God's earth they will agree about. And if The World is Rich is shown as widely as it or is there.' subject matter. Again and again one is struck b\ the skill and meticulous care with which shots from innumerable sources have been collected and compiled. The commentary and the musK too, are on the whole admirably composed to bring out the full implications of the visuals Yet there is something about the structure of the film which is untidy and confused. The broad thread of the argument, although never broken, is sometimes entangled in a knot of irrelevances. and sometimes doubles back on itself so that considerable concentration is required to follow it. This lack of claritv in development is not entirely due to the complexity, of the subject, and has the unfortunate effect of making the audience work harder for its information than it should properly be asked to in a public cinema. The criticism might be hardly worth mentioning were it not for the fact that the Isotvpe diagrams on which the film relies for illustration of some oi its principal points are quite inadequate to the task. They have been made without ingenuity and without much thought: and their effect is to complicate still further the already rather tortuous unfolding of the theme In spue of these defects, The World la R documentarv film in the verv highest class In courage, sincerity, and importance of subjectmatter u is in a different category from the ordinary run of propaganda and public relations productions, and it merits the widest possible exhibition throughout the world Yet it is understood at the time of going to press that it will onlv get a veiv meagre theatrical distribution in this country \\ nether this is due to the opposition of the renters 01 to some othei cause, it is gie.ul> to be deplored A change is long overdue in a distribution system which permits second features of the most disreputable kind to exclude from the screen RlmS of real public interest and importance Ultimately, the remedy is in the hands of audiences, who too seldom express their preferences to the cinema managers; but it u to be hoped that the new t inematograph I ilms \ aiII do something to improve the situ. i'