The educational screen (c1922-c1956])

November. 1923 Visual Instruction Association of America 44J circle complete. We are beginning to work out the question of production. The next essential step is better organized distribution. I believe the answer in both cases is the same — cooperation. No one producer has made all the films a school can use and should use to teach a given school subject or even one term's work in that subject. He must therefore cooperate with other producers to put his product at the disposal of the school authorities or do without the business. Similarly no one producer has a sufficient non-theatrical output today to warrant the expense of national distribution. Some years hence that may not be true. Today it is one of the facts which we visual instructionists must face if we expect motion picture people to take us seriously. "They are not in business for their health," they tell us. It costs thousands of dollars to make each reel of film. The only way this money can earn a return is by a na tional circulation. No single school system can support a non-theatrical distributor. And no one producer can afiford this national distribution. Every now and then wc hear rumors that one or another local exchange is opening branches in all the large cities. Each time I pray sounder councils may prevail. Thus far they have, for no one has actually ventured on this difficult road. But that is negative comfort. What the cause of Visual Instruction needs today is positive action. The first step out, as I see it, is the establishment of non-theatrical exchanges throughout the country, not under the dominance of one concern, but open to all producers, the expense proportionately borne by all. This will, on the one hand, render more film material available for the schools and, on the other hand, will so definitely crystallize the school demand that the producers will see what we want and how much we want it. Approved List of Educational Films Rcviezved by the Film Committee of the Chairman, Rita Hocheimer, Assistant Director of Visual Instruction, New York City. A. G. Balcom, Assistant Superintendent of Schools, Newark, N. J. Ina Clement, Librarian, Bureau of Municipal Research, New York City. Alice B. Evans, National Committee for Better Films, New York City. Kathryn Greywacz, Nezv Jersey State Museum, Trenton, N. J. THIS Committee was organized for the purpose of assisting schools and school people to find films suited to their needs. Recommendations are made with these needs in mind, not from the point of view of the entertainment value of films, nor as in any sense adding one more to the many agencies already active in the "better pictures' .movement. School people throughout the country are more and more seeking films for teaching purposes, and are at a loss to know where to find them. It is the function of this department to assist them. Many of the films listed here will not be new productions. It is safe to assume that most of them will not be, especially at first. Most films are still made primarily for the theater, and are not available for schools until some considerable time after production. There is no point in calling teachers' attention to them Visual Instruction Association of America Ruth Overton Grimwood, Executive Secretary, V. I. A. A., New York City. Dr. Clarence E. Meleney, Associate Superintendent of Schools, New York City. Mrs. Dudley Van Holland, General Federation of Women's Clubs, New York City. Mrs. Adele F. Woodard, National Motion Picture League, New York City. George J. Zehrung, International Committee of the Y. M. C. A., New York City. until they may obtain them. However, we shall try to keep in touch with new productions, as they appear and as they may prove valuable and accessible to schools. The list of approved films published in any given issue of the Educational Screen will cover several school subjects. File your copies of the magazine, and the index to films published at the close of the school year will help you locate material suited for any one subject in the curriculum. If you have questions with regard to films, write enclosing a self-addressed, stamped envelope and the Committee will answer them. Twentieth Century Pilgrims. (2 reels.) Producer, F. S. Wythe Pictures Corp. Distributor, The Screen Companion, 71 West 23rd St., N. Y. First lesson in film series, "Citizens in the Making," planned for thirty lessons of which (Concluded on page 468)