International Review of Educational Cinematography (Jan-Dec 1931)

— 355 — Those entrusted with the delicate task of educating and teaching are, more than ever before, convinced of the need of officially and practically organising cinematography in schools, imposing its use upon all schools, beginning with teachers' training colleges. In Paris and Berlin, at Dresden, Brussels and Berne, everywhere in fact, annual conferences and frequent meetings are held to study the best way of introducing filmteaching and of adapting it to modern pedagogic technique. In nearly every country cinema committees have been formed under one of the ministries — • Education, the Fine Arts, Commerce, Agriculture, etc. Local offices, too, are springing up on all sides: Lyons, Zurich, Basle, Nancy; in 1929 school cinema weeks were organised in Paris and at Dresden. From time to time bills are submitted to the chambers and senates of most countries, seeking to enlist the interest and aid of Parliaments in the cause of the educational cinema. The influence of films is universally acknowledged and they are now in demand by all grades of schools. " In elementary schools," said M. Painleve, " where the syllabus is a full one and allows of no time being wasted, the cinema has already won its spurs, thanks to ever-closer collaboration between technicians and teachers". "The French industry" he continued, "has made heavy sacrifices to produce films strictly adapted to our official curricula and we are only awaiting a sign to increase their number". Last year the International Child Welfare Committee carried out an international enquiry on the admission of children to cinema shows. Answers were received from 47 countries, thus proving that the question had a very live bearing. At the present time more or less strict regulations obtain in 31 countries. But, asked M. Carton de Wiart, the Belgian minister and celebrated Catholic orator, is it enough to make regulations and keep the child from the cinema or the cinema from the child? M. de Wiart dealt in masterly fashion with the influence of the cinema — for good or ill — on the training of character and on the minds of young people. These are some of his conclusions: " In the mysterious sub-conscious of the child's soul, decisions and notions take shape, of which we cannot guess the consequences. Thus films can become dangerous to his moral and physical health. This danger is far greater to him than the perusal of literature and the contemplation of pictures not adapted to his childish mind... In spite of the measures taken by most legislations, ...educators and judges are unanimous in declaring that the cinema is one of the most active factors in juvenile delinquency. Certain groups... demand that access to public cinemas should be absolutely prohibited to children." In M. Carton de Wiart's opinion, the remedy lies elsewhere. " The success of the cinema", he says, "is a fact against which it is vain to react. Moreover, is it not precisely children and young people who derive most pleasure from it?" For children the cinema has a special fascination. Everything on the screen interests a child. First the figures catch his eager eye. Then, a figure moves and it is movement which delights him. At last the insatiable curiosity of youth has something on which to feed. Further, children feel no fatigue so long as they are interested, everything is novel, and their critical sense is rarely alive to purely psychological improbabilities. The screen acts as a spell. The screen, in fact, would seem to have been made for children, and we may even say that men and women enjoy the cinema to the extent that they have remained young. Children find in it their greatest joy, their supreme reward. They tremble with excitement before the photographs outside the theatre. No man of sense has ever denied the importance of the intellectual, moral and religious training of children. Why therefore should we omit what is perhaps the most valuable aid in this threefold process? In view of the difficulties of framing satisfactory and effective regulations in regard to the educational cinema, we take up our stand with M. Carton de Wiart, who says: " It would be a grave mistake to deprive ingl. 4