The Exhibitor (1965)

WHO IS DOING WHAT TO WHO? RosenfieU Credits Catholic Church With Spurring Film Education Drive NEW YORK — The Catholic Church was credited with spearheading the film educa¬ tion movement in the United States by Jonas Rosenfield, vice-president of 20th-Fox, dur¬ ing a panel on “Motion Pictures — Language of the Twentieth Century” at the National Catholic Education Association Convention. “In the entire United States, there is no group that is as aware in a really deep philosophical, theoretical, and pedagogical sense of the importance of education in mo¬ tion pictures as is the Catholic Church to¬ day,” Rosenfield told an audience of more than 500 Catholic teachers and secondary school principals. “The advance thinking that is going on, the literature that is being compiled within the church I think is something that will be useful and important to all groups in the United States, and most particularly the mo¬ tion picture industry which I represent,” Rosenfield added. The film company executive was one of seven panelists who discussed the pressing need for film education in secondary schools throughout the nation today. The panel was sponsored by the Motion Picture Association of America. Rosenfield said it is currently estimated that the average student by the time he grad¬ uates from high school has seen 500 feature films and watched 15,000 hours of television. “Things have changed a great deal not only within the world of education but within the world of motion pictures,” Rosenfield said. “The times when executives of major motion picture companies were supposed to be con¬ cerned only with box office and commerce are over.” Other panelists who urged widespread film study in schools were the Rev. John M. Culkin, S.J., director of Communications at Fordham University; Mrs. Margaret Twyman, community relations director of the Motion Picture Association; Henry Herx, executive secretary of the National Center for Film Study; actor Ben Gazzara; and Hollywood director George Stevens, Father Culkin, one of the pioneers in film study in the U.S., said’, “Seeing movies is like having kids read great books. It’s worth doing all by itself. There is probably not a teenager in the United States who has had a sustained encounter with excellence within the visual media in his life. “If we can put the student in contact with eight great films, well-made films which are relevant to his kind of universe, his taste will be improved through the simple process of tasting good things.” Stevens, director of such films as “Shane” and “The Greatest Story Ever Told',” told the audience of priests and nuns, “The fu¬ ture of films does not have to do with the film maker; it has to do with the people who are in your hands — the people you are edu¬ cating — the audience for film.” Mrs. Twyman reported on five film educa¬ tion projects which MPAA has undertaken within the past year including a Young People’s Film Festival in New York attended by representatives of all the high schools in the city and' a film education program in¬ volving underprivileged teenagers in New York’s Harlem. Gazzara, who traced his early interest in acting to seeing films at neighborhood thea¬ tres, said, “We’re living in the age of the count-down and the computer, the age where the word ‘cool’ means uninvolved. For this reason, it is so very important to encourage study of an art form where the audience must respond to sound and visual images.” Herx, editor of the Catholic Film News¬ letter, a recent publication of the National Legion of Decency’s educational affiliate, described the work of the National Center for Film Study and materials available to educators interested in teaching on the sub¬ ject of film. Lappen To Columbia Board NEW YORK — Abe Schneider, president of Columbia Pictures, following a meeting of the company’s board of directors, announced that Mendel B. Silberberg has been named a director emeritus of the company. Silberberg, Los Angeles attorney, has been a member of the Columbia board for many years. At the same time, Schneider an¬ nounced the election of Chester I. Lappen, general partner of the law firm of Mitchell, Silberberg, and Knupp of Los Angeles, to suc¬ ceed Silberberg as a director of the company. Two Calif. Bills Prove Irksome To Theatremen SACRAMENTO, CALIF.— Two Assembly bills tossed into the Legislature hopper re¬ cently are aimed at California movie theatres, and one of them has stirred apprehension in more than a few exhibitor quarters. The Deukmejian measure introduced in the lower house prohibits juvenile attendance at “adults only” movies dealing with “adultery, prosti¬ tution, fornication, sexual perversion, or ob¬ scenity.” Although theatre owners in California have been generally scrupulous in banning juv¬ eniles from viewing “adult” programs, many feel that it is a step in the direction long sought by the State lawmakers to impose government film censorship. Also, if the bill is enacted into the statutes, exhibitors feel they will have to set up a rigid and expen¬ sive police system at the box office to avoid breaking the law. The Barnes bill also would add economic burdens on both distributors and exhibitors. It requires that “sellers or advertisers of motion pictures made in a Communist coun¬ try must . . . obtain a license (and) . . . display signs stating that they are Com¬ munist products.” Movie men figure the advertising phase is superfluous because all foreign pictures almost of a necessity proclaim the country of origin, both in screen credits and usually in the advertising. But it’s the red tape and expense involved for a special license that irks the exhibitors. WHO IS DOING WHAT TO WHO? 6 MOTION PICTURE EXHIBITOR May 5, 1965