International Review of Educational Cinematography (Jan-Dec 1934)

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THE CINEMA AND THE CAMPAIGN AGAINST THE DANGER OF VENEREAL DISEASES BY Dr. Andre Cavaillon CHIEF OF THE CENTRAL SERVICE OF PROPHYLACTICS OF THE MINISTRY OF PUBLIC HYGIENE DELEGATE OF THE FRENCH NATIONAL LEAGUE AGAINST THE DANGER OF VENEREAL DISEASES. It is no longer necessary to point out the importance of the cinematograph in educational propaganda, nor do we intend to dwell on this point. But is it possible to make use of the cinema in the educational propaganda against the danger of venereal diseases? This it a problem of quite another order, because in this field many are of the opinion that it is a very delicate task to deal publicity with questions which are only too frequently both unpleasing and equivocal. Yes, these excellent advisers say, you can carry on public education by means of the cinema in all the other branches of social hygiene, but you cannot when it is a question of syphilis. The public, they assert, is not prepared for such thing; you will arouse suspicion, attract attention, cause scandal or at the very least you will certainly talk in vain. It is undoubtedly a very delicate affair to speak of syphilis, and everything depends on the way we do it. We have often had to suffer from the effects of certain lectures in the course of which some zealous propagandists had spoken of venereal diseases in terms that were ill suited to the audience present. But as a matter of fact, we soon realize that when these excellent counsellors declare that the public is not yet prepared to see syphilis treated by the cinema, it is they themselves who are not ready to hear it spoken of, only they fear to confess the fact. They generously attribute to the general public an opinion which it does not hold and which they themselves blush to acknowledge. In any case, in this as in every other question, it is experience alone that can guide us. Any opinion is permissible until experiment has shown, definitively and without possibility of mistake that the opinion is wrong; in which case there is nothing to do but accept the fact, whatever it may be. At one time, in France, it was forbidden to speak of venereal diseases through the cinema and the censor was against any presentation of documentary or dramatic films which treated of syphilis, no matter how this was done. To overcome this conspiracy of silence, it was necessary to have recourse to extreme measures. One day, the President of the Republic having inaugurated the new premises of the Prophylactic Institute, the ceremony was shot for the news-reel and was afterwards projected without arousing the slightest protest, the sub-titles having been prepared with great care. Later on, for months and months, the propaganda service arranged for the filming of news-reels of the numerous inaugurations of anti-venereal prophylactic institutions which began to be formed in all parts of France. Not a single protest was raised; the public was quite willing to be kept informed of the prophylactic effort that was being made, in the same way that it was kept informed about any other form of social activity. Let us return, however, to the beginning of the anti-venereal education propaganda by means of the cinema. It is obvious that the main reason why we were at last able to succeed in this was the fact that the ban of