The educational screen (c1922-c1956])

June, 194} Page 209 The Film and Internationdl Understanding JUST six months ago, in December, 1942, this de- jiartment was launched. It was an experiment in which Mr. Greene had confidence. In the relatively few months which have intervened it has assumed a position of leadership and has served as a focal point for evolving ideas and practices in this most rapidly de- veloping field of visual education. In this month of June, as we close one academic year and look forward to another, some review of the de- partment during the.se months may he profitable and give us more indication of the breadth and rapidity of development in this field, as well as an idea of its present status. The potentialities of the film in the field of inter- national understanding, which can be a problem of war as well as of ])eace, were discussed in the opening issue. Mention was made of ways in which the Axis had used the film as a weajKjn of war, as well as ways in which we might meet this challenge and u.se the film for our iiwn purposes of war and peace. This discussion was continued the following month, with more attention paid to specific methods and types of pictures which might be used; and Dr. Paul Monroe contributed a brief article on the power of the cinema in world education. But could we get from these theories to actual prac- tice? In the next issue the relationships between theory and practice were discussed, and attention was called to films which now actually were carrying out some of the theories propounded. Walt Disney's Saliidos Amigos was discussed at length and consideration given to the possibilities of the animated cartoon in the realm of international understanding. Representing the jniblic schools. Frank M. Rice of A scene from Disney's "Saludos Amigos" Edited by DR. JOHN E. DUGAN Haddon Heights, New Jersey, Schools. Omaha contributed an article on a project in this field which he had carried out at Omaha Central High School. This issue also carried a report of RKO's This Is America series, which was made to boost morale at home and better understanding of America abroad. The field was broadening, and practice was crys- tallizing theory. In April Prof. C. L. V. Meeks of Yale contributed his fine article on Yale's ])ioneer work in visual edu- cation in its graduate program of Foreign Area Studies. The intense practicality of this work is indicated by the following quotation from his article: "Visual education was especially important to this program. These students had to have an understanding of the area they were studying as a whole; furthermore, they were not preparing to write a thesis in a library, they were going out to the area in question in a few months. The men should know what they were going to find; they should be made as familiar as possible in advance with what they would see as soon as they walked oflf the plane." In May Dr. Herbert S. Houston presented his "Educational Film Plan for the United Nations," the most comprehensive plan yet proposed for the use of the educational motion picture as a world-wide instru- ment of international understanding. Said Dr. Hous- ton : "It is clearly manifest that the very moment has come to develop a I)road educational motion picture plan for mass education throughout the United Nations." Surely we have come a long way within a relatively short time. Mr. Greene's confidence was justified! Turning from the educational to the theatrical film, Mr. Will H. Hays, President of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America, Inc., entitled his recently issued twenty-first annual report "The Motion Picture and a World-Wide Audience." Al- most two pages in it are devoted to consideration of "The Outlook for Education" and "Future of the Screen in World-Wide Understanding." Some per- tinent passages from this report are quoted below: "It is in our lifetime that men have first discussed peace in world terms. It is also in our lifetime that an art has achieved world dimensions as a medium of expression and as a source of entertainment to all men everywhere. "These two facts are not unconnected. An inter- national community in the art of motion pictures al- ready exists. In it men of every race, creed, and nationality have found a common denominator." "Over barriers of suspicion, unavvareness and tradition, the motion picture offers the language of pictures which is the common language of man- kind." "Through promoting mutual understanding and (Concluded on page 217)