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

and decayed where they lay. The only utilization of the timber by the natives had been for dug-out canoes and in the construction of their village huts. In recent years, however, the United Africa Company has started forestry operations on a vast scale. In many countries timber lands have been devastated by malpractices in harvesting which have resulted in the wholesale slaughter of the forests. This film empha.sizes the utilization of better conservation procedures. Twilight Forest systematicidly describes how an idea was worked out and carried through whereby the patriarchs of the rain forest could be located, cut, and harvested. The point is stressed that as these large 100-yearold trees are located and cut it will be the axeman's great, great grandson who will cut in those same forest areas again. The statement is made that forests should be for the use of all generations of man and not just one; thus, these forest areas will be cut only on the 100-year cycle. A tree in the forest is worth nothing for it has monetary value only when it can be marketed. Many hundreds of miles of trails and roads have had to be made in order to facilitate the movement of the logs to collection yards and then on to the rivers. Many workers are constantly employed in the construction and maintenance of these roads and bridges. In the rivers the ten-ton logs are tied together into a 200-ton raft section, then five of these sections are bound together into a huge raft a half mile long. It now takes a tug less than a week to pull the thousand tons of logs down-river to the large, modem saw mill. Here the logs are cut into millions of feet of top-grade hardwood. After curing, the lumber is loadetl into ships and sent to waiting, world markets. In summation the film emphasizes how yesterday this project was a risk, but today it is a reality providing the Ivory Coast-Nigeriix area with education, experience, new skills, tools, machinery, trucks, ships, and roads. The undertaking means money for these African tribes and governments and needed lumber for tlie world. Appraisal Twilight Forest is a wide audience film and can be utilized by elementary through adult grou^js. It can be effectively correlated with study units in the areas of forestry lumbering, conservation, African area studies, economics, and world geography. The dynamic editing of the initial sequences seems to transport the viewer to Africa. Dress, color, and rhythmic chanting blend together to set an eflFective tone for the film. The syn A Scene from "TwiligJu Forettt" by Contemporary Films, Inc. chronized sound is outstanding, especially in the scenes showing the cutting down of the enormous mahogany. The blows of the multiple axemen and the quavering and falling of tlie old tree are very impressive. The narration seems especially fitting throughout the film, for example, "so died the old tree so that a new seed might grow in its place." The evaluators were impressed with the timely message, organization, vocabulary and terms used, the detailed animation, and the close-up shots. The film stimulates the viewer to want to learn, see, and know more about emerging nations. —Thomas Keith Midgley The Dropout (Sid Davis Productions, 1418 North Highland Avenue, Hollywood 28, California) 10 minutes, 16mm, sound, color or black and white, no date, $120 or $60. Description The Dropout follows the experiences of one high school senior who leaves school prior to graduation by dramatizing the problems he faces in finding employment and adjusting to his new social jjosition. The film centers around a confident dropout who feels his escape from educational control to new found freedoms will justify his leaving school. As time passes he discovers that the jobs hoped for are imavaHable. The contact which he had with the high school is lost, he becomes an outsider, and he has less in common with his girl friend. The pressure from his girl friend, her parents, and his own parents makes finding a job a necessity. Results of a battery of tests given by the employment bureau classify him as a common laborer, further damaging his self-image. Following harrassment by his parents for an apparent lack of interest in finding employment he lowers himself to take a job as a bus boy. The relationship with his girl friend seems to improve temporarily but visions of the future are lost. Following bickering and quarreling, an inconsequential disagreement leads to a breakup. The job becomes hard work and a feeling of inferiority results from waiting on friends. He quits his job the evening his former girl friend comes in wth another fellow. 724 Educatioival Screen and Audiovisual Guide— December, 1962