International Review of Educational Cinematography (Jan-Dec 1930)

— 34 — filled. It is therefore necessary to deal first with the question of the demand. In this connection a distinction should be made between the general demand and the demand for educational purposes. The second part of the above inference is no doubt correct in respect of the general demand, since although the inventor of the cinematograph had chiefly scientific or cultural purposes in view, and although the exceptional value of the moving picture as a teaching and educational medium was soon realized, yet the pioneer work cf those who wish to introduce the film into popular education work and into schools is still a wearisome struggle against opposing opinions and forces, against the superficiality and thoughtlessness of those to whom the nobler kind of film appeals, and against the lack of means. It is only since Dr. Ludwig Koessler, president of the Vienna Urania Institute for Popular Education, the Deutscher Bildspielband (German Central Association for Recreational Pictures), and similar public spirited institutions demonstrated that not only sensational films, but also the film with an educational and ethical value can, if properly produced and exhibited, attract and interest the general public, that producers and dealers have begun to bestow more attention to the matter. However, the trend of the film market and other well-known circumstances have hitherto hampered any more favourable development. Hard educational work will have to be carried on for many years before the present untrained taste with regard to films be superseded by a bettsr and more refined taste. This applies even more forcibly to the real educational and teaching film. After Dr. R. Meister, a university professor of Vienna, other eminent educationists have emphasized in Germany and Switzerland the difference between the educational film, in the broader sense in which it was formerly understood, and the teaching film in the narrower sense corresponding to the views of modern pedagogics (i). While formerly all films which were not merely recreational were considered educational, an exact discrimination of special films is now made. These have one thing in common, namely, that their production is relatively costly and that, comparatively speaking, they have not a ready sale. The people who are most anxious that such films should be circulated and who themselves wish to see them are yet too limited in number, and they are generally not of the wealthiest. Neither schools nor voluntary institutions for popular education in any country, America perhaps excepted, are in a position to spend large amounts of money on the exhibition of such films. There is indeed a large potential demand, which is voiced by educational pioneers in publications and at congresses, but the capacity of absorption is in fact limited. Nevertheless, taken altogether, the demand is considerable, and it would be desirable to have precise figures as to its actual extent. The International Educational Cinematographic Institute in Rome will perhaps undertake this statistical (i) See Witt, « Lichtbild in Lehrfilm und Oesterreich », Oesterr. Beitrdge zur Padagogik, published by the Pedagogical Section of the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Austrian Federal Press, Vienna, p. 129 ff. « Die Wiener Bildwoche », 1926, Austrian Federal Press, pag. 59 ff. Meister, « Der Unterrichtsfilm », « Film und Schule », same Press. Mfister, « Das Sch.ulk.inoy>.