Educational screen & audio-visual guide (c1956-1971])

the film as a medium of communication. Since its beginning in 1943, EFLA has stressed two particular parts of its program: the critical appraisal and evaluation of films ( all films ) and the problems and techniques of administering a film library (any film library). Selecting materials must, of course, be done by people who know the area in which they are to be used— but the principles of selection and evaluation remain the same for all groups. Getting materials to the users, whether locally, regionally or nationally presents similar problems, whether the films deal with elementary arithmetic or advanced international afi^airs. It is in service to all film users, in appraising all kinds of films and in encouraging high quality work by all film-makers that EFLA's future lies. What about the immediate future of 1960? Well, EFLA is now gathering its strength and preparing to plunge into the Second American Film Festival to be held at the Barbizon Plaza Hotel in New York on April 23-27, 1960. The same general pattern will be followed, but there will be a number of changes— we trust for the better— in the rating and scheduhng. Most of these are based on suggestions from those who attended the 1959 festival and took the trouble to tell us what they thought. There will be more opportunity to meet informally with other filmmakers and film-users, more coffee hours and more discussion sections. Pre-screening committees will be urged to maintain higher standards so that only really qualified films will be selected for festival screening. There will be fewer conflicts in scheduling films in the same general area. The filmstrip rating system is being revised. But even the most optimistic member of the festival committee does not really expect that all problems will be solved and all objections overcomein 1960 or any other year. All festival and no program would make a thin audiovisual year, so any members who may have feared that EFLA would get so involved in Jurors and Awards that it had no time for anything else are hereby reassured. Immediate plans call for more evaluations, more Bulletins, more Film Review Digests, plus two or three special service supplements during the coming year. The new Index to EFLA Evaluations, just off the press, lists by subject and title the nearly four thousand films which EFLA has evaluated so far. There are two areas to which EFLA plans to give special attention in the coming year. One is a major revision of its whole schedule of meetings and conferences. With the festival taking the the spotlight as the major event of the year, the EFLA board is planning a series of regional and specialized conferences. The Southern regional meeting in Florida, which was so successful in 1958, will be repeated in 1960. Other areas suggested for regional meetings are Midwest, North Central and Pacific Coast. Special workshops and conferences with groups using films in the public library, church, industry and other fields are being considered. The other major project is to apply EFLA's long-standing information and evaluation services to the complete and detailed study of audiovisual materials in one particular area at a time. First on the hst at present, of course, is Science, and plans have been formulated for this project. The experience and cooperation of the approxiat work on the regular evaluation project will be invaluable in making special studies of this kind, but additional oflBce staff will also be required, as well as funds for printing and distributing the information if it is to be of maximum usefulness. So 1960 will be another busy year for EFLA, as well as for the audiovisual world at large. But if it fulfills its promise, it will be also a year in which the horizons of that world are expanded as more groups and more individuals discover the tremendous variety of 16mm films and the ways they can be used. What EFLA can do in the immediate future is only a small part of what is needed, but with 1959 behind us, we feel that we can look forward to a busy, useful, and probably— again— a breathless 1960. Kducatiopxal Screen and Audiovisual Guide— December, 1959 631