The film daily year book of motion pictures (1948)

16 mm. Film Serves Many Community Uses PUBLIC library interest in film distribution is at once a symptom and a cause of wider community interest in specialized uses of the 16 mm. film. Partly outgrowth of wartime activities, the film "forum" idea has attained the dignified status of a "movement," with Foundation support and a college-published quarterly magazine of its own. One or more films serve as a springboard for discussion of current events at such forums, usually as an integral part of the regular activities of existing organizations, clubs, schools, etc. Such community film activities are often promoted by college or university extension workers as part of their informal education programs. The 1947 meeting of the National University Extension Association occupied itself in the main with two items— the 16 mm. film— and labor education. More and more trade unions are going into the use of 16 mm. motion pictures. The Detroit CIO had one of the most successful of all war-time 16 mm. film circuits; since then the UEW-CIO film "Deadline for Action" has marked a high point in militant labor use of film for its own propaganda purposes. The strong impact of this film stimulated film production interests among more moderate labor circles as well as among employer organizations. The 1948 Presidential campaign will be marked with much more than the hesitant approach to 16 mm. films that prevailed in 1944 or 1946. The Democratic National Committee has already announced a plan for at least a once-a-month series of documentary films to be shown on 4,000 sound projectors in as many local Democratic Party clubs, plus the vast number of "extension" showings that are expected to be put on with these machines in other organizations. The Progressive Citizens of America have published a most impressive catalog of films suitable for discussion purposes in labor and liberal organizations, and have made extensive sound hlms of the speeches of Henry Wallace. COMMERCE will push the sale of commodities at least as vigorously as politics will try to "sell" its candidates, especially as the seller's market changes over into a buyer's in more and more lines. During the war the production of advertising and sales training films virtually stopped. As fast as the better producers of commercial sponsored films got clear of war jobs they were swamped with industrial work. Numerous larger manufacturers have established their own film units, service laboratories are improving their capacity for "professionalizing" such productions, and free-lance producers are creating new film users among smaller concerns. One of the by-products of the advent of television is the chance it promises little fellows with big ideas and a way with a 16 mm. camera. This is, however, offset by the trend toward bigger dramatic films, calculated more to influence public attitudes than to sell soap or soup. Film Users Organize IT is not news that film producers and distributors are organized (ANFA), or visual education dealers (NAVED), or retailers (MPDFA). But the past year has witnessed growth of a quite new organization— of film users. This is the Film Council of America, its original two war-time local groups grown to 46 today, spread over 25 states, and with a minimum goal of 350 for 1948. Organized primarily on the local level, its aim is to combine everybody in town who is interested in any and every kind of motion picture. It exists solely to pass the word along on good films, and what they are thought to be good for, and for whom, and to tell how they have been successfully used. The Film Councils meet once or twice a month, in churches, synagogues, labor temples, schools, libraries or public halls, look at films and talk about them. Local autonomy is the rule, advisory administration on the national level resides in a "senate" of representatives of seven trade and professional organizations, and in a board of trustees which includes a former U. S. Commissioner of Education, a college president, extension heads, librarians, school administrators, research specialists, and noted citizens generally. Local individual membership is open to all. At least in Chicago, Milwaukee and Cleveland well known film exhibitors have extended liberal co-operation. Thus far the new Film Councils tend largely to leave matters involving theatrical films to existing Better Films Councils, affiliates of the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures. Where both bodies exist in a given town unity of effort is achieved by overlapping individual membership. Where either exists alone it tends to take on the more essential functions of both. The 1947 meeting of the National Board of Review took steps to strengthen its ties with some 29 of the country's leading social groups, including womens' clubs, scouts, service clubs, veterans' organizations, and the like. 16 mm. Entertainment Film THERE is virtually no known user of any form of 16 mm. film that does not on occasion use his projector also for the showing of entertainment film. He may buy such films outright from his local camera store, borrow them from his public library, or rent them through regular 16 mm. channels. One library alone offers over 5,000 titles for rent, about half of them entertainment films. The ANFA Yearbook lists 425 film libraries; there are more than 4,000 retail establishments where motion picture film may be obtained. Although none of these films coincide with current theater fare, some exhibitors look upon any non-theatrical showing of entertainment film as a box office threat. The contrary view holds that if 16 mm. release