The educational screen (c1922-c1956])

Page 288 The Educational Screen the films to all the primary school children of the city. All municipal and private night schools were invited to attend these showings and suhsequently local religious schools asked to be invited. The Olmado Theater with a capacity of 1800 and the Nuevo de Octubre Theater with a capacity of 1500 booked showings in the morn- ings, so that there would be no interference with their commercial programs. The theater owners were so pleased with our gesture of interest in the health of Ecuadoran children that they refused to charge a fee for use of the theaters. Within two weeks the health films were seen by 16,533 students. The films elicited highly favorable comment in the local newspapers. Our records reveal that in addition to forming the program basis for tuberculosis, cancer, syphilis and child health clinics and conferences, the films have been most useful in stimulating local groups to undertake programs of a more lasting nature. In Santiago, Chile, it was found that clinic attendance increased immedi- ately after our screenings and the increase was main- tained—an important consideration in all clinic treat- ment. Prior to this war European medical schools were predominating influences over Latin American surgery. As a result of the surgical and dental film programs undertaken in collaboration with the American College of Surgeons and the American Dental Association, we are dissipating the highly inaccurate, A.xis-fostered notion that our medical and dental schools are inferior, and we are helping to establish United States schools in their rightful place of world pre-eminence. Health films are excellent spokesman for democracy because good health is sound democracy; if we stimu- late the former, we strengthen the latter. Personal health cannot be given to others. We can only induce in others the desire for it and the knowledge of how to achieve it. This is true of democracy also. A gov- ernment for the i)eople which is not a government by the people is no democracy. Health cannot be bought by the sudden incursion of financially well-heeled would-be benefactors seeking to pay so many millions for hookworm in order to eradi- cate it overnight. Democracy caniiot be bought by offering cash or subsidies. Neither health nor democ- racy can be imposed in any way on people. Democracy is founded on the welfare of the in- dividual, as opposed to Fascism, which dedicates the individual to the welfare of the State. By giving fac- tual health films to the people of South America, we demonstrate our faith in the wisdom of the individual to choose freely those objectives most advantageous to him—his health and his freedom. That is whv the gesture of health films are democratic ])ropaganda—and like any superior product, democracy is winning cus- tomers from inferior brands. Typical Films in Distribution by Health and Medical Film Unit. Office of C.I.A.A. Choose To Live —Produced by the United States Public Health Service and the American .Society for the Control of Cancer. Spanish and Portuguese versions prepared by CIAA. Body Defenses Against Disease —Produced by Electrical Re- search Products Inc. Spanish and Portuguese versions. Heart and Circulation —Produced by P^lectrical Research Prod- ucts Inc., Spanish and Portuguese versions. Cloud In The Sky —Produced by the National Tuberculosis Association. Spanish version prepared by CIAA. With These Weapons —Spanish version produced by the .Ameri- can Social Hygiene Association. About Faces —(Dental Care) Presented by the United States Public Health Service—Spanish and Portuguese versions prepared by CIAA. Diaynostic Procedures In Pulmonary Tuberculosis —Produced by the National Tuberculosis Association. Basic techniciues for doctors presented by international authorities. Spanish and Portuguese versions CIAA. Syphilis —Three part teaching film in sound and color for pro- fession only, produced by the U. S. Public Health Service with the aid of a board composed of the leading syphil- ologists of the United States. Spanish and Portuguese versions CIAA. Fight Syphilis —Community control of venereal disease. Joint project with the U. S. Public Health Service, Spanish and Portuguese versions CIAA. Know For Sure —Produced through the Motion Picture -Acad- emy of Arts and Sciences, under the supervision of Darryl Zanuck and Lewis Milestone for the U. S. Public Health Service and the Motion Picture Division of the Coordina- tor's Office for restricted showing. Spanish and Portu- guese versions CIAA. Another To Conquer —A two-reel film on control of tubercu- losis, produced by the National Tuberculosis Association. Spanish and Portuguese versions CIA.A. (.About two dozen other film subjects not included in our regular program have been shown on request before medical and dental conventions and for special occasions such as Pan- .Anierican Health Day.) Films In Production American College of Surgeons Project —6 medical and surgical teaching films being collected and reviewed for approval by the Reviewing Committee of the .American College of Surgeons, under supervision of Miss Eleanor K. Grimm, Secretary, Board of Regents. Three Disney Health Films —Three films produced by C.I.A..A. of instructional nature combining both live action and ani- mation in color. The films are on the subjects of malaria control, water supply and immunization against disease. Spanish and Portuguese versions of Winged Scourge are being prepared by the Disney Studios. ■Eyes For Tomorrow —Film produced by C.I.A.-A. for the general public on prevention of blindness and conservation of sight, undertaken with the assistance of the National Society for the Prevention of Blindness. Nursing the Americans —Film produced by C.I..A.A. for the general public and designed primarily to show the medical profession the scope of training received by competent nurses, including nurses' ability to accept responsibilities in aiding the profession and the public. Film undertaken in cooperation with Joint Committee on Inter-American Nursing. Camera work completed—film is being titled and edited. Letters To Clara Maass—¥\\m produced by C.I.A.A. for the general public designed to recruit nurses. Also undertaken with the assistance of the Joint Committee on Inter- .American Nursing, composed of representatives of National Association for Nursing Education, Rockefeller Foundation, International Health Board. .American Red Cross and Women's Bureau of the Department of Labor. Help JVantcd—First aid film produced by Johnson & Johnson being adapted in Spanish and Portuguese. Child Health Conference —.Adaptation of this film is in work, showing how the County Health Clinic is conducted.