Year book of motion pictures (1937)

General Committee The General Committee is the group developed out of the original group organized in 1909. Matters of general policy may be referred to it and it acts regularly in an advisory capacity. A few new members are added to this Committee each year. Executive Committee The Executive Committee is composed of members of the General Committee and is charged with the formation of policies, election of members, expenditure of funds and supervision of all administrative affairs. The Chairman of the National Board of Review is elected from among the membership of the Executive Committee, and ratified by the General Committee. The present Chairman is Dr. George W. Kirchwey, Director of the Department of Criminology. New York School of Social Work, former Dean of the Law School of Columbia University and former Warden of Sing Sing Prison. Two new members well known in New York City public life, Langdon Post and Joseph M. Price were added to this Committee during the year. Mr. Post is Tenement House Commissioner of New York City, Chairman of the Nsw York City Housing Authority, and a member of the Board of Directors of the National Association of Housing Officials. Mr. Price is Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the City Club of New York and was Chairman of the Independent Fusion Committee which took pari in the nomination and election of Mayor LaGuardia. Two former Executive Committee members are continuing their membership on other committees. Dr. Raymond L. Ditmars. on the General Committee and Frederic C. Howe on the National Advisory Committee. The personnel of the entire Executive Committee is listed elsewhere in this bock. Membership Committee The Membership Committee is the supervising group of the Review Committee personnel. It meets regularly to act upon applications and qualifications of prospective members, continues or terminates the service terms of regular members, and makes recommendations to the Executive Committee for the election of new review members. Review Committee The review work is conducted in New York City and performed by trained review groups of men and women, who combine to constitute the membership of the Review Committee, numbering over 300 persons and representing a great variety of professions, activities and interests. Through this Committee personnel, in its work of film review, selection, classifica tion and recommendation, a constant endeavor is made to reflect the intelligent public opinion of the country. These members, like all other members of the National Board of Review, serve entirely without pay. The decisions of the committees regarding pictures under review rest upon a majority ballot A number of members, following the usual probationary period of study, have been added to this Committee during 1936. Outstanding in the new membership is a large representation from the Schools Motion Picture Committee. Through a number of the members qualifying as Review Committee members the Schools Committee is enabled to cover all forthcoming films and select those which they believe suitable for their recommended Young People's Week End programs. 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 Theatres and Motion Picture Councils and Forums seeks to encourage the showing cf 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 1938 appears in another section of this publication. This is a rotating Committee and new members are added each year. The Young Reviewers and the 4-Star Clubs Six years ago the National Board organized a group of boys and girls ranging in age from 8 to 17 years, to review and discuss motion pictures and thus to learn from them directly what the young people themselves think about this art form. The opinions of the Young Reviewers, as this group is called, have been of great educational value in making larger and larger numbers of young people critically conscious of what they see in motion pictures and creating a larger future discerning audience, as well as being an invaluable check for adults to apply to their own ideas of juvenile reactions. From the Young Reviewers has evolved a more recent motion picture project concerned with boys and girls, known as the 4-Star Clubs. These motion picture clubs are functioning in various parts of the country and the number is constantly growing. Their program of activities is divided into four parts — appreciation, projection, production and community 846