Film and Radio Guide (Oct 1945-Jun 1946)

28 FILM AND RADIO GUIDE Volume XII, No. 2 wasted on personnel and equipment that do not carry out the wishes of the community in the training of youth. Educators, in turn, strive to lead the way progressively in a vital social activity which they, as professionals, feel they understand better than the public. Thus we have a balance of three forces, exercising healthy restraint on each other. Motion pictures are generally regarded as an expensive commodity as compared with other educational paraphernalia. The expense, however, refers only to initial cost. By standards of durability and by what we might call lesson-per-student measure, films are just as cheap as textbooks and infinitely cheaper than laboratories. Our grandfathers looked askance at the cost of free books and materials, public school buildings, sports fields, libraries, and laboratories, but we accept these things as essential expense. During the past century the cost of education per pupil per year has multiplied in the majority of our school systems. Educators have demanded greater facilities, school boards have recognized the need, and taxpayers in turn have paid the bills. When the public becomes better aware of the advantages in learning that the motion picture has proved able to give, the cost not only of films but also of projectors and suitable housing for their use will be accepted as a matter of course. At such a time, no school will be considered efficient unless it is properly equipped for showing films. A recent survey shows that budgets of school systems have continued this upward trend and that funds allocated to audiovisual aids, mainly for motion pictures, have increased at a still sharper rate. One county in Central California, which contains a small city and a number of small agricultural centers, reported an expenditure of $34,000 a year on visual aids. Previous allotments in this county were only in hundreds of dollars. This is an extraordinary case, but it emphasizes the rising curve. Our state universities conduct film-lending libraries, and private film exchanges supply individual schools with rented films. There is a noticeable trend in school systems to establish film libraries of their own. One might say that this is a general but not yet coordinated movement, led by educational enthusiasts. It awaits only the solution of economic problems to become as much an accepted facility as book libraries are today. The Disney Studios have watched and pondered the factors outlined here, with sympathetic interest and with the desire to participate in developments. The problems are natural ones for the talents and techniques which raised the animated picture from a peep-show curiosity to a major art-form. It is natural also that the educational world should be anxious to make use of a powerful facility. Gradually, through trial and error, the teacher, the producer, and the administrator are converging on ground where practical cooperation is possible. At the same time, the public is showing an amazing interest in new educational techniques. The generation that used the motion picture to help train its fighters and industrial workers into the mightiest force in history is not apt to ignore the motion picture as an essential tool in the labor of enlightenment, civilization, and peace. Donald Nelson Foresees Film Industry Expansion Donald M. Nelson, president of the newly organized SIMPP (Society of Independent MotionPicture Producers) , is an expansionist. He believes this country must expand at home and abroad. He says : “I see in the motion picture the best medium of carrying to the people of all nations the story of the American way of life. . . By educating other peoples to a better living standard, we are creating better customers for the output of American industry.” Study Guide to "North West Mounted Police," Paramount Film, Re-issued Paramount has re-issued Cecil B. cleMille’s Technicolor feature, North West Mounted Police. A complete, illustrated guide to the discussion of this picture is available from ERGI, 172 Renner Ave., Newark 8, at 15c for single copies, or 5c a copy in sets of 30. 33 ACOE Filmstrips The American Council on Education, 744 Jackson Place, Washington 6, D. C., is offering for free preview filmstrips of about 50 frames each on aspects of Life in the U. S., purchasable at $1.50 a strip, or any 7 for $10. The complete set of 33 sells for $45. A limited number of accompanying scripts, useful in language classes, are available at 10c a copy, in addition to the English descriptive scripts. Teachers of the social studies and Spanish teachers are invited to examine these materials as examples of the work of the Office of Inter-American Affairs in cooperation with the Council.