Documentary News Letter (1947-1949)

DOCFMIN1ARY I II M \ I W s 65 thing from American LST's to sampans), donkeys and foot power. Once it was necessary to travel with my gear from the flooded section of the Yellow River to Chengchow by wheelbarrow. A jeep, given to me by a Chinese general at the Yellow River project, was one of my most valuable possessions. Carrying 525 gallons of gasoline about, I could travel about six hundred miles before refueling. The time allotted to travel, as related to shooting time, was of quite a different order than even, say, in Canada, where distances are at least as great, but where modern transportation facilities exist. 1 leading the problems of communication came the difficulty of getting raw stock, shipping rushes to Canada, sending off reports and getting reports on rushes from Ottawa, and the difficulties of keeping in todch with the office in Shanghai while away in the interior. So far as camera reportswereconcerned.it really amounted to shooting blind, for it took about five weeks for rushes to ■get from Shanghai to Ottawa. As some of these shots had been taken five weeks earlier, it was nearly three months before any word could come through on them. There was no regular way in which rushes could be shipped, On each return to Shanghai, 1 would have to spend days finding someone going back to America who would take the exposed stock in his care. A wire ahead to the nearest Canadian consul or commercial attache to have him meet the boat or plane proved the best way to expedite the film to Ottawa. Every batch of rushes had its own story, but true to the American fable of life, they all ended happily and no footage went astray. Health Difficulties Health was certainly a problem. About fifteen injections, taken before going to China, promised to save me from all sorts of hideous diseases. Refresher shots had to be taken continually in order to get exit visas from Shanghai before each trip into the interior. Though I travelled through plague, malaria and cholera zones a great deal, only a few days were lost in hospital with a slight attack of malaria. Every conceivable form of dysentery plagued me, but I kept a large supply of sulpha-guannadine on hand and thus managed to keep ahead of the game. The heat was troublesome, but more of a personal bother than a technical problem. I suffered a good bit from prickly heat; it was not an uncommon sight for the Chinese farmers, staring at my manouevres, to watch me leap into the air when a wave of prickly heat hit me — it was like being engulfed in a blanket of needles. Dust and Language T grew to hale the Yellow River dust. Ft was extremeh line and hard. The cameras, a Newman Sinclair (4 lens turret) and a turret Eyemo, had to be dismantled evcrv night on the Yellow River project story, the parts and cases cleaned and reassembled. The Eyemo was easy to maintain as T had a complete set of spare parts for it. The Newman was more of a problem, though it did hold up remarkably well. On several occasions f had to machine parts lor it to keep it in operation. Not trained in this field, f was fortunate that the parts which failed were easily made. (Jut of the 25,000 feet shot, about 1,000 feet was lost because of camera troubles. The language problem was ever with me y Grant McLean I learned about a hundred words on the thirtynine day voyage to China, and these certainly were useful. A good interpreter, however, was still essential to my work. My first interpreter was good on languages and dialects, but whenever a particularly arduous trip appeared in the offing, he took to bed with malaria. For this reason, I had to make one trip to Kaifeng in Honan province by myself. The problems m China were more complicated than they were, for example, among the Eskimos, where the needs of the interloper are simple and more easily expressed in sign language. On my third return to Shanghai. I'NRRA assigned one of their translation-pool interpreters to me. He was fluent in English and French as well as m Mandarin, Shanghai and Cantonese dialects lie staved with me for the rest of my time in China and proved invaluable. While the language problem never made it impossible to get i shot, n did slow everything up. It was vital when dealing with the curious ( hinese peasant to learn the various dialects of Chinese which gave meaning to the phrase winch combines the prayer ami curse of a document.u v cameraman 'Don't look at the camera!" The footage sent back from China was edited into eight newsreel stories which were shown throughout the theatrical circuits of America. A one-reel film, called China's Seal, was produced by the National Film Board ft was widely distributed non-theatrically in conjunction with a drive for China relief funds. The need for such films becomes more vital every day, so that the mass of people in each country may feel the problems facing the citizens of other countries and be able to relate their own problems with the rest o\ the world. The basis ol our democratic freedom and progress is based on a high level o\ mass awareness. Documentary films can and must be the greatest factoi in giving the impetus necessary lor this development I believe that the United Nations should have 01 sponsor such responsible documentary units m the interests of peace National organizations, such as the National Film Board ol Canada and the t rown film units in f rigland, COUld work Close!) with such a programme. It is through this held, I believe, that the I N must move lo achieve its objectives.