The film daily year book of motion pictures (1935)

ballot. A number of members, following the usual probationary period of study, have been added to this Committee during 1934. COMMITTEE ON EXCEPTIONAL PHOTOPLAYS This Committee, composed of critics and students of the art of the motion picture, is particularly interested in whatever esthetic values can be found in films, as distinguished from mere popular entertainment. It looks at all the better films and publishes criticisms of those thought worthy of discussion. It selects, annually, the ten films considered to be, artistically, the best of the year, and through the agency of Little Theaters and Better Films groups seeks to encourage the showing of films that will create a more general appreciation of the motion picture as an important medium of artistic expression. Their selection of the ten best films for 1934 appears in another section of this publication. Additions to the Committee in 1934 numbered five. JUNIOR REVIEW COMMITTEE— THE YOUNG REVIEWERS CLUB The year 1934 has been an especially auspicious one for the Young Reviewers of the National Board both in interest and attendance. This group of young people ranging in age from eight to sixteen was organized in 1931. It now has representatives from over a hundred public, private and parochial schools in the metropolitan and suburban areas. The boys and girls meet for review, fill out a ballot on the pictures seen and then hold a general discussion with one of their members as leader. At times questionnaires are distributed and filled out which reveal telling facts regarding their likes and dislikes and their ideas in general on the subject of motion pictures. During the three years that this group has been functioning under the auspices of the National Board of Review, a great deal of very valuable data has been collected, and the whole activity amounts to an impartial survey of the responses of children to the films. Since the National Board of Review believes that no intelligent word can be said about motion pictures without consulting that part of the audience composed of young people, the reactions of the children and young people of the Young Reviewers Club has served as an excellent check — and often a guide — in classifying and recommending films. NATIONAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE Early in 1915 when the Board had passed through its experimental stages and had become established as a nation-wide influence in regard to the motion picture with resultant connections throughout the entire country, there was proposed a committee national in scope and personnel to be known as the National Advisory Committee. The committee formed was an enlargement of the already existing local Advisory Committee. The personnel has changed from time to time in the period of nearly twenty years but it has remained country-wide in representation and opinion and at present numbers fifty-nine members from forty cities. BETTER FILMS NATIONALCOUNCIL The community of field work of the National Board is conducted under its Better Films National Council through affiliated memberships, service contact groups and correspondents throughout the country. The National Council assists in the organization and program of work of these local groups, usually known as Better Films Councils. These councils follow the plan initiated by the National Board in 1916 of having a membership composed of representatives from many organizations, cultural, educational, recreational and civic, so that they typify the original movement for organized community participation in the best use of the motion picture and the support of the best pictures in the community. They provide a means of unifying and making articulate the wishes of the discriminating public in regard to the motion picture. A cooperative, constructive program in this way takes the place of destructive or negative criticism. The objectives of such organizations are as follows: to encourage the study of the motion picture as a medium of entertainment, instruction and artistic expression. To emphasize the fact that the only effective way of bringing public opinion to aid in the development of the motion picture and its best uses is through the constructive methods embodying the theory of selection and classification, and of seeking support for the better pictures through the community organization plan and not through censorship. To bring public attention to the better pictures through the local publication of advance information concerning films coming to the local theaters, based on information supplied by the National Board of Review in its Weekly Guide to Selected Pictures. To sponsor junior matinees showing pictures particularly suited to children, and to cooperate with local exhibitors in arranging family night or week-end programs. To encourage interest in the cultural film through special showings. To endose and develop the use of the motion picture in visual education in the schools and universities and for adult education in the community. Advance information from the National Board of Review on the classified and selected pictures and on the exceptional pictures is made available to these groups so they can organize community support for such pictures. During 1934 organized Council activity has been extended into many new communities in ansvyer to an increasing interest in this method as the fairest and most effective way to encourage better pictures. Representatives from field groups in Tallahassee, Fla., Knoxville, Tenn., Miami, Fla., Wilmington, Del., Pittsburgh, Pa., and several New York communities have become members of the Better Films National Council in the past year.