Focus: A Film Review (1952-1953)

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14S MOTION PICTURES AND THE MISSION APOSTOLATE By the Rev. Albert J. Nevins, M.M., Director, World Horizon Films A Paper read at the O.C.i.C. Malta Conference (I) Getting One’s Foot On The Ground We have all heard about the three blind men who tried to describe an elephant. One who felt the beast’s leg said that an elephant was like a tree. The second fingering the tail remarked that an elephant was very much like a piece of rope. The third caught hold of the trunk and declared that an elephant was the very image of a giant snake. In talking to missioners about motion pictures I often feel that the descriptions and arguments I hear are given much in the same manner as tiie blind men and their elephant. Too many of us see only our little corner of work and interpret the cinema as an answer only to our own problems. For some films are to be used to educate native peoples. Others desire to produce them to draw people away from immoral secular productions. More simply want to provide entertainment. Still more see them only as a promotional medium. Actually the him is a tool, and not an end in itself. Our motto should not be “Art for the sake of art” but ‘‘Art for the sake of God”. We are primarily men of the apostolate of Christ, not film producers or movie photographers. We use films as a tool in our apostolate, to bring men to Christ. Only when films serve this end are they worthwhile. When Dr. Ruskowski asked me to prepare this paper, his instructions were that it should be confined to the experience of Maryknoll. And that ±s exactly what I intend to do, and you can compare this with your own experience. Why We use Films Psychologists have demonstrated that approximately 90 per cent of learning come through the eyes, 5 per cent through the ears, and 5 per cent through the remaining senses. Recently, under the sponsorship of the National Association of Manufacturers, a survey was made to learn the answer to the question: What makes people buy ? When the survey was completed the following facts were brought into focus: 87 per cent of the people bought after seeing: 7 per cent bought after hearing about the product: 6 per cent bought after smelling, touching or tasting. Add to this information the fact that in a darkened room a motion picture has 100 per cent eye and ear attraction, with no competition, and you have the reason for the growth of the commercial motion picture industry during the past decade. The United States Department of Agriculture in explaining why it has use films consistently, summarized the advantages of the motion picture this way: A most difficult undertaking is to recreate, in the mind of another, the idea that seems to be clear and complete in your mind. The spoken word is impermanent and inexact. The printed word is more permanent but inexact. A photograph is clear, detailed, but static. But with the motion picture the audience can be shown motion, the whole, the part, the before, the now, the later on — all in a moment on the screen, in their most enlightening juxtaposition. Add the opportunity to reproduce speech, and then combine with it the recreation of mood through music, fighting and sound effects, and we