Documentary News Letter (1947-1949)

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DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS 99 An Exhibition About Documentary Films? by PETER BRADFORD documentary films have been made in Britain for almost twenty years, yet it is probable that less than one per cent of cinema-goers even now know what a documentarj film is. The makes of documentary films may like to think that documentary is the conscience of the cinema' but as yet it certainly is not the conscience of the super cinema. The documentary kingdom remains the grim hall with its wooden benches and croak y Id mm projector"; it preaches mainl) to the converted and the would-be converted. Until they can obtain wider showing in the ordinary cinema, these films must speak mainly to teachers or probation officers or tomato growers — in fact are bound to be for the most part 'specialized films'. While these specialized films will probably always be a major part of documentary production, there are also a number of films of general interest made, which deserve to be seen by the public as a whole, and there could be many more if the public knew enough about them to realize their potential value. As long as there is no demand for this kind of film, producers will only rarely and under special circumstances be able to make them. This problem is years old, and no one has made much pi ogress towards a solution, but one way to create a greater interest in and knowledge of documentary films is to organize an exhibition about them, designed to explain in the simplest possible terms to anyone who may be coaxed inside the exhibition hall, what documentary films are doing, what they have done, what they hope to do, and how they are made. In May of this year representatives of the British Film Institute, the British Council, COI, the British Film Academy, the Film Societies and British Documentary met to discuss a suggestion to produce an exhibition about documentary films. At the request of the meeting a sub-committee was formed of British Documentary and Film Society members to draw up a scheme of practical proposals. Incidentally, this sub-committee discovered that although Britain had pioneered the making of documentary films, there had never been an exhibition of this kind organized on the subject. The sub-committee proposed that after explaining the wide field covered by documentary, the exhibition should give a brief history of the development of the documentary film. its purpose, and the technical methods it employed, and finally, after explaining the problems of distribution, show how the public themselves can get more documentary films shown. The story of the exhibition would be told in a series of flat wall boards comprising brief text, stills and diagrams, to be grouped in four main sections. A. What is a documentary film? J B. The history of documentary film-malting. C. How a documentary film is made today. D. Who sees documentary films 7 In between sections H and C would be technic.il apparatus in the middle of the room shown by a demonstrator. But the wall I would be complete in themselves, and suitable lor exhibition in other parts of the country. To design an exhibition for London alone would be to miss the point of having such an exhibition. It should be made available to schools, colleges, institutes, public libraries, museums and art galleries all over Britain. It was also proposed that a film should be made, lasting ten to twenty minutes, which should be part of the exhibition if funds allowed. It would explain various points of technique. Among these points would be: appropriate and inappropriate camera angles, types of lighting, methods of directing, and methods of cutting both picture and sound. Here are details of part of the exhibition taken from the original report. SECTION A. WHAT IS A DOCUMENTARY FILM? Board 1. Are all these films documentaries? A collection of stills of some films made by feature companies and some by documentary companies, designed to get the viewer asking himself about the meaning of documentary. Stills (with a brief caption below each) from : Millions Like Us, Song of Ceylon, Target for Tonight. Atomic Physics. Paisa. World of Plenty. Scarface, Your Children's Eyes. Board 2. Yes. they are ALL documentaries — Because they have a truthful approach. This Board would consist only of text and would emphasize the documentary method in the choice and the approach to the subject. Boards 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. A set of stills contrasting documentary and feature subjects and approach, e.g. Reconstruction in a big studio against location. Use of people — for example, housewife in a feature film and housewife in a documentary. SECTION C. HOW A DOCUMENTARY FILM IS MADE TODAY Board 18. How a subject is chosen. The film-maker finds a sponsor or the sponsor finds a film-maker. How it is investigated. Examples of part of an actual treatment and shooting script. Board 19. The Budget. Showing a percentage breakdown of costs with possible contrast with feature costs. Board 20. How the subject is made. Introducing the producer and technicians by stills in order to establish them as poisons and what they do. Board 21. Stills of shooting on location and in a small studio. Board 22. Cutting (sound and picture): laying i^i tracks, dubbing. Possibly demonstration panel showing principles of cutting using. say. Night Mail as an example, show nig stills and Auden's verses, side by side with cutting positions marked. Board 23. The work of the laboratories. Possibly a demonstration glass panel showing a mix, fade, dissolve, etc. Board 24 Output. Showing the number of documentary films produced in 1947. "X' per cent suitable for general distribution, and "V" per cent designed specially for instructional or educational use. Of the total number suitable for general distribution only Z' per cent actually shown. SECTION D. WHO SEES DOCUMENTARY FILMS? Board 25. Difficulties in way of getting theatrical distribution in few brief captions, possibly with chart of distribution machinery. Board 26. What gets into: The ordinary cinema. The specialist cinema. Board 27. The development of non-theatrical distribution and in particular the work of the Film Society Movement. Boards 28, 29. Specialized non-theatrical distribution. Use of films by schools, doctors, farmers, etc. Board 30. The whole of this section to be in cartoon form -with a little cartoon figure giving these different suggestions. If you want to see more of these films — You can join a film society. You can start a film society. You can encourage your local authority to make use of its powers to show films under the new Local Government Act. You can write to your local cinema manager. If you have any other ideas let us have them. The exhibition would end with a blank pad of paper and a suggestion box beside it. An exhibition of the sort proposed by the sub-committee outlined in this article would cost about a thousand pounds to design and assemble, and about another thousand to show in London, where an exhibition hall in a central position costs over a hundred pounds a week to hire. Last \la\ a number of organizations were approached for money to make the exhibition possible, but as yet there have been no promises oi help, except tor the Ml I. who suggested it might be suitable for the 1951 Exhibition. In the meantime a much more immediate request for an exhibition about documentary came to British Documentary from the I dinburgh 1 esl nitiee. British Documentarj and the British film Acadcim agreed to Share COStS, and on £20 a small exhibition was produced for Edinburgh, based on the ideas ol the full-scale exhibition I he Edinburgh exhibition contained the ideas o( boards 4. 5, (>. 7, 21 28 19 mhI part o( 2(> dealing with ti narj Cinema, and was shown in film House for three weeks Subsequently, it was shown privately in I ondon for a couple ol days. \s a result a Dumber of I ilm 9ociet) secretaries have (Continued on page 108)