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DOCUMENTARY FILM STUDY -A SUPPLEMENTARY AID TO PUBLIC RELATIONS*
A. A. MERCEY**
Summary. — The success of two U. S. documentary films, "The Plow That Broke the Plains" and "The River," written and directed by Pare Lorentz, has focused new attention upon this type of film. The school of Public Affairs of American University conducts a film course of eight weeks, with screenings, film analyses, and discussions conducted by visiting experts in film-making and film use. The subjects covered are: the newsreel as contemporary historian; the "March of Time" as a document; federal, educational, and scientific films; U. S. Government documentary films; documentary aspects of Hollywood films; foreign documentaries; industrial, sales, and domestic propaganda films. Technical aspects with reference to advances in film production were discussed.
In addition to regular discussion and study, a number of reports were made on documentary film activities. Among the most important was a complete survey of all U. S. government films.
The emergence of the documentary film as a medium of social expression is a significant development in the evolution of the modern motion picture. Without seeking a definition of this new film form, producers have gone forward and made films of extraordinary social value. The documentary form has developed with amazing speed and success. While film experts indulge in "streamlined" scholasticism trying to define the word "documentary," films have evolved in many parts of the world that transcend the temporary values of the entertainment film, and are making their own definition of the term.
This new form has had a surprising growth abroad both on the Continent and in Great Britain. Its most representative exponent in this country is Pare Lorentz, who made The Plow That Broke the Plains and The River for the United States Government. The attention attracted to the new form, particularly to the Lorentz films, has given impetus to the study and production of the documentary form.
Definitions of varying refinement, charges, and countercharges
* Presented at the Spring, 1938, Meeting at Washington, D. C. ; received April 15, 1938.
** School of Public Affairs, American University, Washington, D. C.
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