International Review of Educational Cinematography (Jan-Dec 1932)

— 810 — At the Embassy Theatre of New York there has been lately a regular projection of political films. Roosevelt, Hoover and Curtis are the three personalities that have figured oftenest of late on the screen. (The New York Times, New York, 29-VIII1932). Both the Republican and the Democratic party are preparing numerous propaganda films m view of the forthcoming Presidential election in the United States. (VARIETY, New York, 2-VI 1 1-1932). Allied Exhibitors of Chicago have decided to forbid in their cinemas the projection of any film having a political propaganda character. (Variety, New York, 30-VIII-1932). In an article entitled " Hollywood films and the Working Classes , Mr Somerset Logan deplores the excessively bourgeois character of the American films, with which he contrasts the Soviet cultural production made for the benefit of the proletariat. (Experimental Cinema, Hollywood, No. 4 of 1932). Religion. In the closing speech at the International Catholic Congress of Brussels, Cardinal Van Hooey, Primate of Belgium exhorted the catholics to unite their efforts to exercise an effective control on the morality of cinema productions. (The Universe, London, 5-VIII-1932). The Pope, in a letter addressed to Monsignor Janssen, Archbishop of Utrecht urges catholics to make a wider use of the cinema, which he considers a new and marvellous means for apostolizing ". (The Universe, London, 19-VII 1-1932). To the list of films made by missionaries for purposes of religious propaganda men tioned in our review may now be added the following : " the film of the missionaries of Don Bosco dealing with the work of Italian missionaries in India and America, that on China by the Parma missionaries, and the more recent " Christian civilization in the Dark Continent ", showing the lives of the Servants of Mary and the Mantellate sisters made by Father Alexander Ferraris, now exhibited with success in some of the Italian cinemas. (OsSERVATORE Romano, Vatican City, 22-23-VIII-1932). Richard Muckermann states in an article entitled " Katholisches Volk in Kina ", that the moment has come for German Catholics to take an active part in the development of the national cinema industry in view of the convincing influence of the cinema as a means of propaganda. (DEUTSCHE FlLMZEITUNG, Munich, 2-IX-1932). Father Muckermann, speaking at the Catholic Conference of Essen on the subject of " the Cinema and the philosophic concept of life ", stated that it was in no way the desire or intention of Catholic Action to give the cinema a pronouncedly clerical character, or to load it down with pedagogic ideas, because, after all, a film is really a theatrical thing, meant to entertain the masses. (Film Kurier, Berlin, 5-IX-1932). Through the initiative of Monsignor Wienken, the " Katholische Filmarbeits-gemeinschaft Berlin " was formed in Berlin on August 30 last. This is the Catholic Association of Cinematographic Action. Numerous personalities of the artistic, political, cultural and educational world took part at the initial meeting. This new association will concern itself chiefly with censorship matters and the utilization of the cinema from the Catholic point of view. The suggestion made by several members of the association to create a film-producing organization was rejected for reasons of economy. (Licht-Bild-Buhne, Berlin, 3-IX-1932).