Documentary News Letter (1947-1949)

DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS I 'nless otherwise indicated, 'DFN' Reviews are the work of 'DFN' Reviewing Panel, consisting of Stephen Ackroyd, Donald Alexander, Max Anderson, Ken Cameron, Paid Fletcher, Sinclair Road and Grahame Tharp. Opinions expressed are the collective opinions of the Panel. Tale in a Teacup. Greenpark for International Tea Market Expansion Board. Directors: Ralph Keene and Terry Bishop. Script: Laurie Lee. Photography: George Still. Music composed by Lambert Williamson, and conducted by John Hollingsworth. Editor: John Trumper. Distribution: T. and non-T from ITMEB. 17 mins. A String of Beads. Greenpark for ITMEB. Producer and Director: Ralph Keene. Script: Laurie Lee. Photography: George Still. Musical Director: John Hollingsworth. Original Music: Elizabeth Lutyens. Editor: John Trumper. Distribution: T and non-T from ITMEB. 25 mins. T' for Teacher. W. M. Larkins Studio for the Tea Bureau under the Supervision of Voice and Vision Ltd. Verse: Roger MacDougall. Music: Francis Chagrin. Animation: Peter Sachs. This series sponsored by the Tea Bureau comprises three films of very different type. The first sets out to tell the story of tea, its origin in China, the starting of the first plantations in Assam in 1823, its introduction into this country and growing popularity until it became a national institution. The approach is simple and direct. There is a certain amount of historical reconstruction at the beginning, which is not wholly successful. The film then proceeds to describe clearly and well the work involved from plantation to factory before the finished packet of tea is ready. '7" for Teacher takes over at this point and adds some useful hints about how to make a good cup of tea. It is a cartoon in the Lotte Reiningerr tradition, the figures being in silhouette form. A String of Beads, a story documentary set in the plantations of Assam, is the centre piece of the series. It is a moving and imaginative film which successfully avoids the almost inevitable comparison with Song of Ceylon. It tells of the marriage of Ramdas and Mangri who work in the tea gardens, of their home and the child that is born. The film is lyrical before all else, it catches the mood of the young couple against the natural beauty of the plantations. It does not pretend to do more than this. The rhythm of the film is consistent throughout. Yet no theatrical distribution can be obtained, which confirms one's suspicions that the exhibitors and renters do not know their business. Downlands. Greenpark for COI in association with Film Centre. Direction: Charles de Lautour and Humphrey Swingler. Photography: George Still. Distribution: CFL. 18 mins. This is the last of The 'Pattern of Britain* series which has ranged up and down these isles and caught the many moods of the changing countryside. Downlands adds its impressions of rolling farmlands which have been cultivated intensively by succeeding generations. The film tends, however, to be rather flat, due probably to the series of accidents which upset and delayed production. While it has none of the memorable shots which make other of the films in this scries stick in one's mind, it obviously belongs to the pattern and adds its piece to the picture o\ Britain. NEW DOCUMENTARY FILMS Park Here. Greenpark for COI. Producer: Ralph Keene. Director: John Eldridge. Camera: Martin Curtis. Distribution: CFL. 17 mins. Theme. The difficulties encountered by the townsman when he visits the country and the solution which would be afforded by the creation of National Parks. Comment. This film falls into two parts, which bear little relationship to each other. In the first an actor disguised as a railwayman deserts his engine for a bicycle and gets into difficulties on an expedition into the country. This, since he does not know that hay burns, cows stray and his attractive girl friend has forgotten to pack a sandwich, is hardly surprising. The second part shows some of the beautiful unspoiled tracts of country which could be declared National Parks and provided with proper facilities for visitors. The idea of National Parks is a good one, as the experience of Canada and the United States has shown; this film, however, will do nothing to convince you of their value in Britain, or even to explain what the idea really means. The Centuries Between. Merlin Films for British Gas Council. Producer: M. Hankinson. Director: G. Gunn. Camera: J. Flack. Distribution: BGC non-T. 18 mins. This is a film about a rural community whose small, privately owned gas works goes into liquidation, throwing the inhabitants back on more primitive methods of heating and cooking. A petition is organized and addressed to the large gas undertaking in the nearest town, and when enough potential consumers have agreed to take the supply the pipes are laid. So gas returns to the village and everybody, it is to be presumed, lives happily ever after. It is competently, but by no means brilliantly, made and carries out its not very inspiring task with fair success. But one looks in vain for a real touch of imagination in the direction or a true spark of humanity in the acting. In short, it is a film without feeling, and that is a cardinal sin. Scrap Book for 1922, Pathe. Produced by Peter Baylis, in association with Leslie Baily. The pages turned by Patric Curwen. Narration: John Snagge. Film Editor: A. Milner-Gardner. Musical Director: Hal Evans. The Year is 1922. Here is a film following closely the pattern set by the BBC in its popular series. Perhaps the thought of sitting for over half an hour through vintage library material, with all its speeded-up projection and grotesque fashions, might seem a little terrifying. But somehow the film is always interesting and sometimes verj funny. Peter Baylis has selected his twenty-fivev car-old celluloid with discretion and has assembled it with skill, and while his desire for artistic perfection might have inclined him to make rather more ruthless use of the scissors it is obvious that he has allowed one eve occasionall) to wander over to the box-office, For surely Scrapbook, with its three thousand and something feet, is the right length for the trade -just as far as any documentary film can be. And anyway a mighty lot appears to have happened in what at the time seemed a pretty ordinary year as years go. In between a rather cliche start and a flowery ending Mr Patric Curwen turns the pages with scarcely a rustle. Dover '47. Data through COI for Ministry of Health. Producer: D. Alexander. Director: Mary Beales. Photography: W. Suschitzky. Distribution: T and non-T COI. 10 mins. Theme. Dover rebuilding. Comment. Here, at last, seemed to be a documentary which had managed by the lively approach of its makers to scramble out of the general rut. Starting off in parody of the typical travelogue's style in dealing with such an historic setting as the English Channel coast, and with Alice Duer Miller's 'White Cliffs of Dover' in our minds, it halted us abruptly, by a nicely -conceived gag, as it appeared about to pursue a sedate course through the tangible history of a long-established town. Switching then to a gentle probe, under the leadership of its American commentator, into Dover's immediate and future rebuilding plans, it takes us through the town to meet some of the ordinary inhabitants: and then concentrates on a new, and somewhat isolated, estate where massproduced temporary' houses are being erected. Here we discover, to the surprise of the American commentator as well (he appears in the film), that not only do the roads bear American names, and so perpetuate Dover's link with wartime v isitors, but that the English commentator (who has also appeared in the film — he tried to convince us he was an ordinary Dover chap by being discovered lolling over a monument) is liv ing in one of the temporary houses. The film ends with a 'wisecrack', which so embarrassed the American commentator that his feeble delivery of it makes one reel at any moment an all too tamiliar voice will roll out over the last shot of the castle ruins to say, 'And now we leave this ancient town Why doesn't this film come up to the expectation of its more imaginative handling of its subject than is found in the common run of films? Partly because it leaves a lot of questions unanswered about the subject itself— and there is the time to answer them. Also, it misses opportunities of broadening its interest by not taking us. for instance, into the finished temporary houses to meet those people lucky enough to have one: and to learn how they got them, how they like them and how they enjoy going what appear to be some miles into the town when the buses aren't running. But more. I think, it falls down on technicalities; for, in spite of competent and often pleasant photography, uncertain direction (watch particularly the scenes of the castle gatekeeper shutting the door, the city engineer's office and the group at the end of the film) and weak casting irritate where there should be no irritation. The English commentator is far too colourless a personality beside his American colleague to give a balanced effect, especially for overseas audiences