Documentary News Letter (1947-1949)

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18 DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS NEW DOCUMENTARY FILMS Apologies and Corrections In our last issue we published some reviews of films made by the National Film Board of Canada. We would like to apologize for one 'printer's error'. In the review of Tomorrow's Citizens 'unclean' should have read 'nuclear'. Also, we have been corrected on several points. Montreal by Night was made on 35 mm. and not on 16 mm. as implied; it was made for the theatrical market and is never shown on 16 mm. Bronco Busters has never been shown in black and white before — the COI cannot afford colour and so the National Film Board had a black and white print specially made. We hope that the National Film Board will accept the apologies of the Editor and we thank them for sending in corrections so promptly. Here is the Gold Coast, made for COI. Camera and Direction: John Page. Commentary: D. M. Williams. Music: Guy Warrack. Editor: and Producer: Jim Mellor. Theme. West Africa looks West. Comment. There is in this film a wealth of good and interesting material — well shot, pleasantly photographed, often revealing — yet the film itself fails to get the best out of it. In a story as vital as the development of a backward people, there should be no feeling in the audience that it is too long; but, more than once, Here is the Gold Coast produces the reaction of a glance at the clock. There are two main reasons why the film lags: it meanders not a little inconclusively through its subject and it is cursed by a singularly inappropriate and entirely supplementary musical score. More attention to its story construction and to the sound track (so weak in homely natural sounds) would have turned this film, with the same material, into an outstanding job. As it is, it shows us much in the lives of the people of West Africa that will be new to English audiences: it helps us to understand and to regard sympathetically many of their problems — and it reminds us, too, that some of the biggest problems (malnutrition, for instance) are only too international. Atomic Physics made by GB Instructional. Producer: Frank Wells. Written and Directed by: Derek Mayne, MA. Photography: J. Parker, I. Barnett, K. Talbot. Assistant Director: S. G. Fergusson. Technical Advisor: D. H. Wilkinson, PhD. Animation sequences by: GB Animation Limited. GB Instructional have produced a detailed technical account of the subject in the five parts of the film Atomic Physics, and upon it they are to be congratulated. The film makes no attempt to be other than a clear technical exposition, on something like fifth or sixth science form level, and is therefore pretty advanced for general use. But provided its five parts (about fifteen minutes each) are screened separately, there is no doubt that most adults at all interested in the progress of science, would get much from it. The forethought of whoever ensured the recording on sound film of Lord Rutherford and Professor J. J. Thompson is to be greatly commended. Excerpts in the film of these two scientists, describing some of their contributions to science, are used directly as part of the commentary. At the end is a short sequence of Professor Cockroft putting into words once again the condition of our survival — that atomic energy be used sensibly. (This sequence, incidentally, is a good piece of direction as is, indeed, most of the film.) Two things must be said: in a subject of such international significance it would have been a great gesture to give perhaps a little more than full credit to foreign scientists. Where the only speakers are British, and where so much of the work has been done by British science, the result is bound to seem, to some foreign eyes, insular in conception. The film would have gained in stature if we had heard but a fragment of, say, Niels Bohr or Joliot Curie speaking in their own languages. The other criticism is a simple technical one, that the commentary was sometimes a little over full and, hence, hurried. (Did the scientists run away with the film makers?) One looks forward to hearing that this film will reach its proper audience in schools, universities, scientific film societies, and libraries New Town throughout the world. In that setting it can be a great landmark in British film making. The parts are named as follows: 1. The Atomic Theory. 2. Ra\s from Atoms. 3. The Nuclear Structure of the Atom. 4. Atom Smashing: The Discovery of the Neutron. 5. Uranium Fission: Atomic Energy. For scientific film societies this film is readymade. But they will have to screen it in parts so that their less learned members will not be left behind. a scientist New Town. Halas-Batchelor for COI. Direct ion and Story: Joy Batchelor and John Halas. Music: Matyas Seib:r. Voices: Jack Train, Harold Berens, Dorothy Summers. Distribution: CFL. T and Non-T. 10 mins. Theme. The theory of town-planning — without tears. Comment. There comes a time when all reviewers hanker after a film meriting nothing but praise. And so, after the spate of dull and dowdy documentaries of 1947, this slight but engaging cartoon is indeed welcome. Here are more honest laughs than in all the other films put together — and, at the same time, a clear and simple statement of the principles of townplanning. Introducing a new character, a shock-headed optimist called Charlie, this colour cartoon is one of a promised series of popular discussions of present-day developments. If the others come up to the standard of New Town, it will be a most successful and useful venture. Lively, imaginative, and having a very real sense of fun, the film manages in its short length to pack in as well quite a number of the best reasons for a new attitude to the building of our towns and cities — even finding time for a brief but delightful interlude with Colonel Chinstrap whose particular approach to re-housing takes the lico out of pro bono publico. As an introduction to the still controversial subject of town-planning, it is excellent; but needs to be followed up by more factual fare. The pity of it is that it comes so late: both kinds of films were wanted even more urgently three years ago. However, no doubt the Colonel himself would be the first to join in the sentiment 'better late than never'. Children of the Ruins, made bv Crown Film Unit for COI. Distribution: T and non-T CFL. 10 mins. Theme. Children of the Ruins deals with the sufferings of the world's children. Today, millions are undernourished and diseased, though this was true of many before the war. But minds suffer as well as bodies. During the war children lost their parents, homes, they learnt to steal, even to kill. In pre-war Germany and Italy they were taught to honour and obey the power of a military State. Yet in main countries today the barest essentials for teaching. e\en pencils, are lacking. To repair some of the harm done to children's minds is one of the jobs UNESCO is trying to undertake. Comment. Designed as a monthl) release for the cinemas, Children oj the Ruins sets out to gi\e a general picture only, ll relies mainK on library material and its appeal is direct!) emotional. But that is no excuse for a rather untid) script which lends to blunt the course of the argument. Nevertheless it is good to see a COI film on a world theme made for theatrical showing.