Documentary News Letter (1947-1949)

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102 DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS Edinburgh in Retrospect by BASIL WRIGHT ii MIGHT] be worth inquiring first what purpose is intended to be served by holding an international festival of documentary. It is presumably something more than — to paraphrase the late Miss Stein — "a festival is a festival is a festival'. The Edinburgh affair lasted three weeks, on every day of which there was a minimum of two shows: and all but a few shows were packed out, people being turned away even at the 2,000-seater Caley cinema. What did they expect and want, and what did they get, these 20,000 odd folk who came trooping to Film House, to the Caley, the Rutland (children's films), and the Central Hall (educational films)? Incidentally the competition was pretty fierce, what with such plums as The Three Estates, the Glyndebourne Opera, Barrault in Hamlet, the Ballet, the Huddersfield Choir, Menuhin, Cortot, Boyd Neel, the Halle. Concertgebouw, the Augusteo, and the boozing. In any case it didn't seem a particularly specialized audience. There were, of course, distinguished documentary practitioners from overseas, and a regular trickle of celebrities from other walks of life. There were even a few — a very few — documentary people from the British Isles. But the great majority seemed to be ordinary folk interested in documentary, a fact which perhaps we shouldn't be as surprised at as we sometimes are. Norman Wilson, Forsyth Hardy and their Edinburgh Film C > li i Id colleagues certainly took a risk, on money and on prestige, in running the Festival, and I think they, too. were surprised at its success; but they shouldn't be, because the interest shown in documentary is due, amongst other things, to the vigorous and voluntary propaganda carried out over some twenty years by progressive bodies like the Guild. Apart from people who came because they couldn't get in anywhere else, or out of idle curiosity, the great majority of the audiences sought, I imagine, a survey of the use of film for social purpose in countries all over the world, a comparison with what is being done here, and, not least, the stimulus on creative and aesthetic levels which can and should arise from this particular sort of film-making. To provide these things and especially to provide sources of stimulation and emulation to both makers and users, was the purpose of the I estival. It is fair to say that the purpose was well fulfilled. The films came from many countries, and showed great variety of technique. On some levels they were as interesting for their similarities as for their contrasts; for instance, the Yugoslavian film on Child Welfare differed hardly at all from the films on the same subject from other countries — this more particularly as regards the techniques of child care shown. Here you had a reminder of the internationale of special interests which the documentary movement sets out to serve. More importantly, the festival revealed an enormous variety as well. Apart from the steady flow of competent, reasonably interesting films on the bread and butter level there were, thank goodness, a really encouraging number of creative and exciting jobs, and not a few technical experiments. I would say that the proportion of films which left vivid and lasting impressions of a high order was remarkably high. Here, at any rate, is one observer's list. There were eleven films of the highest order. Of these I put William Levitt's The Quiet One right at the top. This 16 mm production, obviously made on something less than a shoestring, deals with problems of juvenile delinquency in the New York area, and centres on the case of one particular negro boy. It shows causes, effects, and the problems not only of cure but also of those social conditions which provide every opportunity for recurrence. I'm not competent to judge the psychological techniques concerned, though they are clearly not altogether the same as those in this country, any more than the emotional attitude to the question has much similarity with that revealed in such films as Children of the City or Children on Trial; but it is quite certain that The Quiet One is on all counts one of the most brilliant efforts at presenting a case history ever to be put on the screen. It has a splendid script, brilliant and disturbing use of sound, and intimate shooting of life in the raw of a sort seldom if ever achieved. It is to be hoped that DFN will find space for a full review of this film. Next on the list I would put Henri Storck's seven-reel film on Rubens. Not only is this a tour de force of film-making (with some interesting technical innovations) but also it opens up completely new vistas in the use of film for the study and analysis of the visual arts. Then, of course, Flaherty's Louisiana Story, a piece of sustained poetry which should surely give enormous satisfaction to everyone other than those who still want Flaherty to be something other than what he is. Add Rossellini's Germany Year Zero — a wavering cry of despair, uneven in technique but finally redeemed by the searing intensity of the last three reels; Eldridge's two imaginative and often brilliant films Three Dawns to Sydney and Waveriey Steps: Vedres' astonishing compilation Paris 1900, which re-creates the atmosphere and mystique of a period in a way which reveals new possibilities in adding a more intimate reality to history teaching; Yannik Bellon's extraordinary study Goemons, reminiscent at times of Vigo; Crawley's strangely moving Indian legend in colour, The Loon's Necklace, told entirely by means of British Columbian Indian masks; Nettezza Urbana, an Italian documentary which brings to the prosaic subject of street-cleaning qualities of visuals and sound which remind one of some of the earlier GPO experiments like Coalface; and Sucksdorff's Divided World, an amazing tour de force about the kill-or-bekilled life of a northern forest at night. If space allowed I could add another list of runners-up — another dozen at least; I could refer to the impact of the Canadian films. which came in such variety of subject matter and style (as well as numbers) that they had special shows; and 1 could mention three films which tied for the booby prize — and one alas! was British. It seems likely that next year the Festival will be repeated. In that case the committee ought to consider one or two points. Firstly. Film House only seats 60, and despite repeat programmes this is quite inadequate to deal with the potential audiences. If a larger hall could be found, the small Film House theatre could be used for more specialized shows: this is something the Festival has hitherto lacked. Secondly, some thought should be given to trying to build more of the programmes round specific purposes, and not confine this, as at present, to the special shows of educational and children's films. Thirdly, if lectures are to bo given, as the) were this year, time and place must be geared to attract an audience. I hese are minor criticisms however. The I estiva] provides a unique chance to observe the achievements of documentary on a global level. Is it too much to hope that next year something will be done to encourage British Documentary workers to attend.'