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choice of instructional films rests with the censorship and their projection is tax free. With the consent of the Ministry, the representatives of the Masaryk Institute examine all censored films and a list of these is published by the Institute with short notices in the review Ceskd osvcta (Czech culture), with the result that cinema proprietors can obtain information of the films they intend showing. A list is kept of all instructional films in Czechoslovakia, whether of foreign or of native manufacture.
The importance of instructional films finds further recognition in the obligation upon cinema theatres to give at least once a month a performance for children of which the programme is fixed by agreement with the teachers of the schools concerned. The price of admission is just enough to cover the actual cost of the performance. The programmes, which differ according to schools, are arranged by School Film Committees, made up of teachers and representatives of the Schools Department. These committees examine instructional films and classify them according to their quality and the age of the children for whom they are intended. Thus arranged, the programmes are chosen by schools with a view to supplementing the curriculum. For this purpose the Masaryk Institute has created a service for the loan of instruc tional films. Each year it organises 200400 performances attended by 50,0001 50,000 Prague schoolchildren. The performances, which are given in the provinces as well as in the capital, take place in school-hours and are reckoned as part of the teaching. These performances represent a transitional stage, for the Ministry of Education is taking steps to recommend the cinema as a compulsory aid to school teaching.
With this end in view the Ministry, in collaboration with the Masaryk Institute, is trying to develop the Institute's instructional film centre and is encouraging the manufacture of educational and instructional films. With the assistance of scientific institutions, especially at the universities, a number of scientific films are now being made; the Exhibition of Contemporary
Culture held atBrurin in 1928 manufactured and projected several excellent scientific films, including, more particularly, "Demanova," a film on the formation of stalactite caves.
The Masaryk Institute has itself made a fine biological film on rhythmic movement. On ebig film has as its subject the Prague school system. All these films and many others are at the disposal of any foreign film associations pursuing the same ends.
The Masaryk Institute has done excellent service by its encouragement of the use of instructional films as an educational instrument. Numerous instructional shows are organised for grown-ups, with lectures.
At least once a year the Masaryk Institute publishes a list of instructional films obtainable in Czechoslovakia, divided into groups of subjects.
In order to promote educational and instructional cinematography, the Masaryk Institute, assisted by teachers' associations arranges numerous enquiries among and courses for teachers and organisers of instructional performances. It has several times organised competitions with prizes for the best scenarios of instructional films. Scenarios judged worthy of a prize have been filmed.
Instructional films are also used by humanitarian and cultural associations like the Y.M.C.A. and the Czechoslovak Red Cross, the latter possessing cinemalorries for use in remote country districts. The Ministry of Agriculture employs agricultural films for vocational training, while the Ministry of Health uses instructional films as propaganda in the interests of physical training and public health. In this work the Masaryk Institute gives strong support. University scientific institutions, polytechnics, etc., also reinforce their teaching with instructional films.
Nor should we underrate the importance of the amateur to instructional cinem; tography, since an enthusiastic amateur can succeed in making very valuable films on animal life, etc. The Masaryk Institute therefore encourages the amateur and steers him towards educational ends.
Dr. Thomas Trnka.