The Educational screen (c1922-c1956])

.earning about Love Reviewed by GERALD I NE GREGG Chairman, Audio-Visual Committee Kansas Council of Churches, Topeka The church has made all too little effort to influence oung people in a most important area, love and marriage, iducational film companies have produced several excellent ;ries of filmstrips and motion pictures dealing with boy and irl relationships, courtship and marriage. Church Screen reductions (Nashville 6, Tennessee) now presents the xond in a new series of four color filmstrips. The series icludes: Learning about Love from the Comics, Learning bout Love from the Movies, Learning about Love from the {ews&tands (ready November 1), Learning about Love rom the Bible (ready February 1, 1954). The titles arouse interest and the approach to the prob' :m is unique. Some young people may feel certain of the itroductory frames in Learning about Love from the iovies a bit overdrawn and therefore unfair. There can no doubt, however, that this 44'frame filmstrip, with :s companion'piece, Learning about Love from the Comics, All encourage a more discriminating attitude on the part f teen-agers when comics and motion pictures present omance in unrealistic, superficial terms. Leaders of church youth groups will welcome this series f filmstrips, which will best be used as a springboard into thoughtful, frank discussion of ideas originating from omic-reading and movie-going as compared with Christian tandards in love and marriage. A printed Leader's Guide accompanies the filmstrip. The ript writer is Paul R. Kidd, the artist. Bill Jackson. 3ther Recent Church Materials MOTION PiaURES ► That They Might Hear tells the story of a college boy vho, after a long struggle with himself and his family, iecides to be a missionary to Japan. A secondary theme is he story of the acceptance of this decision by a father mbittered by death of a soldier son in the far Pacific. How ill this comes about is convincingly shown in a film :haracterized by excellent casting, good acting, and a •easonable amount of plot and suspense. Young people vill like this film and it ought to be used widely. It gets I lot said in 27 minutes. It gets hold of reality and keeps :he audience in its grasp. Adults, too, should see this film n order to see themselves and their influence on the basic lecisions of their children. » Two Brothers Have I was produced by Missions Visuilized. Inc. (6912 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood 28, CaHfornia) For the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. It tells the story of a college student in Pakistan finding his way intellectually and spiritually amid the conflicting claims of Nationalism, Mohammedism, Communism, and Christianity. The film is very well cast, and the story continuity is good except that it gets off to a slow start. The part of the film which was shot in India contains some exceptionally fine photography. While college young people constitute the target audience for this film, it will be eff'ective if used carefully with high school young people. All adults seeking a deeper understanding of some of the great forces at work in our word will find this film both interesting and instructive. October, 1953 • It will be good news to most dealers and churches that three new units are to be added to Cathedral's "The Living Christ Series" this winter. Number I of the series. Holy Might, was released two years ago and has been widely used and praised. Number II, Escape to £gypt, is new and will be released in January, 1954. Number III, Boyhood and Baptism, will be released in February, and Number IV will come along in March. I Beheld His Glory, released last year, is Number V of the series. A great Christmas-toEaster program can be built with these five fine films. The new releases (II, III, IV) have a running time of approximately 30 minutes. Wise leaders will make early bookings with their dealers. • The Greatest Gift is a new and useful Christmas film. It is one of the Lutheran TV series, produced for them by Family Films, Inc. In this film the Biblical narrative is carefully and literally dramatized and inserted in a modem story. This present-day story shows the activity of a typical church-minded family on Christmas Eve. It will bring to all who see it a deepened appreciation for the spiritual blessings we should all seek, find, and share at Christmas. It is especially suitable for public worship services, youth groups and TV. It has a running time of 29 minutes. • Lift Up Thine Eyes is a 20-minute film on personal evangelism. Made for the Southern Baptists by Family Films, Inc., it is distributed by Broadman Films. After stating the need for every Christian to win others, it gets down to a specific family and shows how its members were won for Christ by some people who were willing to share their faith. While made for one denomination, it will have acceptance by many others who hold like views on sin, salvation, and personal evangelism. • In the church field we need biographical films. We are rich in subject matter for these films but up to now we have not been very successful in getting it filmed. It is for this reason that Coronet's film on Robert E. Lee should be studied by those who would produce for the church field. In their Robert £. Lee, A Bac\ground Study they have achieved a fine format and produced a film with excellent technical qualities. Fewer still pictures than one would expect have been used, and each one is skillfully interwoven with the past and the present to give a compact and even flow of subject matter. This is no plodding and prosaic job. The soul and mind of this great American shine through. This same technique should be explored further in film biographies and "background studies" of some of the great leaders of the church. • Coronet has produced a very acceptable film in The Mohammedan World. Because of the scarcity of good films on this subject, church leaders should know about this 1 1 -minute film, which deals mainly with the beginnings and growth of Moslem culture. It was filmed in the great centers of this culture and stresses the contributions of Islam to world culture. It is recommended for use with Junior Hi and up. • The Jordan Valley of Jesus' day cannot be presented on screen. The next best thing is to film the valley as it is today and at the same time tell how it probably was then. It is this job that the 20-minute black and white film Jordan Valley, by British Instructional Films, undertakes to do. It follows the Valley from the Springs of Dan, near Mt. Herman, to the Dead Sea below Jericho. While the pictorial sequences lack art and imagination and the nar' 353