Documentary News Letter (1947-1949)

50 !)()( I MINI \RV FILM NEWS NOTES OF THE MONTH The British Film Institute the Report of the Government Committee of Inquiry into the British Film Institute has been issued after four months of evidence-taking (HM Stationery Office. Ad.). It redefines the Institute's objects as follows: (a) to encourage the development of the art of the film, to promote its use as a record of contemporary life and manners and to foster public appreciation and study of it from these points of view; (b) to explore and promote new or extended uses of the film; (c) to encourage, support and serve other bodies working in the same field. Its recommendations, in brief, are that the Institute should concentrate on building up the National Film Library and establishing its own cinema, providing a first-class information service and setting up a regional organization to develop local film appreciation and activity. A rough estimate of the finance necessary is given as £100,000 to cover annual expenditure which is over three times the present grant, and £30,000 to meet capital expenditure. Clarification of the Institute's purposes and some expansion of its work are therefore the main upshot of the inquiry. The proposal that the Institute should act as a central servicing agency for other organizations (giving grants, providing meeting places, projection facilities, secretarial help, etc.) is also valuable. Important, too, is the recommendation that the Governors should in future be appointed by the Government as individuals. The great omission is a really inspiring lead to the Institute. The main proposals do little to break new ground. The initiative still remains with the other organizations which have grown up — film societies, specialist film users and film makers — to see that the Institute becomes the real centre and focus of all film interests and activities which it ought always to have been. Education Foundation for Visual Aids the governors of the Educational Foundation for Visual Aids have now appointed the new Director of the Foundation. Dr Harrison is at present an Assistant Education Officer of Surrey County Council, in whose employ he has been since 1945, when he was appointed as Assistant Education Officer for Further Education. We are told that Dr Harrison has had considerable experience of the use of visual aids to education both in the Services and in civilian teaching. From 1931-45 he used visual aids almost continuously in all types of education. In 1938, while on a Carnegie Institute research scholarship in science, he visited many American schools, taking a particular interest in the use they made of visual aids. He has produced, and assisted in the production of, slides, film-strips and 16 mm films, and since 1945 he has been responsible for advising the Surrey Education Committee on the purchase of all types of visual aid equipment. Documentary in Parliament .'charley', the new Halas-Batchelor creation, to whom our readers have already been introduced, has already got himself into Parliament. On May 13th there was a debate in the House of Commons about Government publicity services, with special reference to the Central Office of Information. COI films were mentioned when Mr Marlowe (MP for Brighton) questioned the 'vast sums' spent by COI and complained that feu of the films were ever seen by the people. Mr Marlowe seemed perturbed that £30,000 was being allocated for six cartoons featuring 'Charley', to be made with the direct object of explaining to the people the workings and advantages of the new Government Acts — Housing, Health Bill, National Insurance, etc. The artist who created 'Charley" has described him as 'a middleaged bloke, going bald, with a streak of optimism'. Mr Marlowe wished to know which of the gentlemen on the Treasury Bench was the model for this caricature! We would respectfully advise Mr Marlowe and other honourable members to see one or two of the 'Charley' cartoons before making such sweeping criticisms — they might find them instructive, and they will certainly find them amusing. As for the general public not viewing them — well, they will be theatrically distributed and available very shortly from the Central Film Library. Let us see more and not less of this type of film. The parable is still the easiest method of explanation — and 'Charley' can tell the story of our social changes better than any number of White Papers or pronouncements in the Press. (Editorial contd.) fortunately so far only been seen privately in this country, shows what tremendous forces may be released by this fresh approach. Sr Rossellini's method is to put aside all the pretentious paraphernalia of conventional film-making. With the most limited technical means, and using for the most part real people in their real surroundings, he builds a picture of Berlin which shows, not how a stricken city is governed, fed, clothed and decontaminated, but how the people who remain there live and feel. He achieves, so to speak, a deeper reality towards which it is time our own realist film-makers turned their thoughts. There, are, of course, many ways in which film-making can be approached, and it would be unreasonable to suggest that the style which has carried British documentary so far towards the goal originally set for it should be abandoned, but it would be equally unreasonable to insist on dogmatic uniformity. There has recently been much criticism of the predicant dullness of many documentary films. Surely one of the surest methods of bringing our screens back to life is to turn our minds to the study of the ordinary man. Wot! No Money we sent our bright young man along to the British Council to attend the meeting which was arranged between Roberto Rossellini and the Press, when the Italian film director arrived in this country at the beginning of May. Unfortunately, however. Signor Rossellini was indisposed, and a member of the British Council staff undertook to answer questions. Our representative, not daring to return entirely empty-handed to the editorial staff, and noticing that in the hand-out issued beforehand by the British Council special reference was made to Signor Rossellini's interest in documentary films in Britain, inquired whether this might be taken to indicate a possibility of his making a similar type of film in Italy. The young lady behind the desk replied without hesitation: 'Oh. he always uses the documentar\ technique. Why. he hardly spends a penny.' The young man was later found wandering down Regent Street with a dazed expression on his face.