Reel and Slide (Jan-Sep 1919)

Record Details:

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REEL and SLIDE are composed of a conglomeration of people ranging from three to eighty years of age and representing social traditions and educational influences, some modern and some antiquated, some native and some foreign. Because of the present methods of exhibiting motion pictures, however, the National Board has to pass moral judgment upon pictures destined for just such a diversified public. It is manifestly fallacious to criticize pictures at the same time both for children and adults. There is a vast range of subjects entirely suitable for the mature, which are unsatisfactory for children. It has been demonstrated again and again that it is equally fallacious to reduce all pictures to the plane of the intelligence of the child. The National Board refuses to attempt to do this. It judges pictures primarily from the standpoint of the adult. The solution of this dilemma is in the selection of pictures suited to young people under sixteen and their increasing use in entertainments or theaters expressly for children on selected days. This phase of the problem will be solved when parents assume their responsibility and allow boys and girls to attend only those motion pictures which are suitable to their intelligence. The members of the National Board are making such selections of pictures daily and have arranged to furnish them to the public through monthly lists. Pictures Should Accentuate the Good The National Board has also sought the judgments of those in the United States most skilled in adolescent psychology for a definition of the influence of the motion picture on young people under sixteen. These judgments have been framed into principles and all pictures are selected with these principles in mind. It has also been foremost in placing this conviction about children before the public and has formed the National Committee on Films for Young People. The National Board is also keenly interested in the influence of the motion picture on boys and girls of working age. It recognizes that the motion picture is a powerful influence with this group. In the social life of towns and villages as well as cities, its influence is positive and helpful. It presents facts and truths in a dramatic and appealing way so that young people are forewarned and forearmed. The evil characters in the pictures should come to harm as a direct result of their evil doings and the net effect of the picture should be convincingly in favor of the good. In order to assist in the movement for better films for this group and for the family circle, the National Board has maintained a department for the selection of especially fine films. Lists of such pictures are available and can be used in all parts of the country for the entertainment of young people in the motion picture theaters. The National Board uses its influence with manufacturers and importers of films to produce only films as in some way have -real social value. It offers suggestions to the manufacturers which has resulted in a steady improvement of the character of the motion pictures produced. Such skilled advice from an impartial board of intelligent people is welcomed by the manufacturers. In addition to this constant stream of comments, suggestions and rulings sent to the manufacturers, the National Board attempts to follow a constructive policy by bearing in mind the purpose of the producer and the integrity of the art creation. Frequently the National Board in making eliminations adds something of material value to the dramatic qualities of the picture. It expects all members of the committees to have well-considered reasons for requesting any proposed elimination. In pursuing its constructive policy of formulating the convictions of the American public the National Board is not governed by the standards of the metropolitan stage or its highly colored life. Though located in New York as the headquarters of the motion picture industry, it is alert to the well-defined convictions of the people living in the cities and towns of the whole country. It invites correspondence and suggestions. Board Follows Same Lines Since the National Board is in constant touch with the producers of motion pictures, since it is working for photoplay improvement, since it is interested in films for the various groups of the adult public, the family, the young person and the child ; since its whole effort is constructive, it is convinced that the word "censorship" is outgrown, misleading, legalized and actually destructive. It has therefore discarded this word as inadequate and opposed to its principles and has adopted the name. The principle of government based upon the "consent of the governed" has gloriously won its cause in the Great War. No longer will autocracies seeking selfish ends be permitted to control the channels of public expression. It has often been said that the remedy for the ills of democracy was more democracy. Paraphrasing it, Dr. Thomas G. Masaryk, the great democratic statesman of Central Europe, to whom more than to any other man is credited the transformation of autocratic Austria-Hungary into a group of nationalities seeking democratic government "with the consent of the governed, said recently : "I suspect we shall remedy the mistakes of freedom with more freedom." The underlying principle of the work of the National Board of Review has been that of the "consent of the governed." Recognizing in the screen a popular means of expression reaching more persons than any other single medium, it has long supported the principle of the "freedom of the screen" in opposition to legal censorship. It believes that the regulation of the motion picture should be in the hands of the people themselves and not in those of small groups of politically appointed agents. Its function is that of making it possible for localities to do this through their constitutional police powers. It does this through the distribution of information regarding the character and contents of pictures based upon reviews, in advance of release, by unbiased men and women whose interest is that of citizens seeking the public welfare. It welcomes the co-operation and sympathetic advice of all who believe in the vital importance of the hardly won principle of freedom of expression. The insignia of the National Board has been adopted as the official stamp of the films passed. It is copyrighted and registered in the U. S. Patent Office. Its unauthorized use is an infringement of the copyright law and will be prosecuted as such. It should be borne in mind that the absence of this design on certain pictures does not indicate that such pictures have not been reviewed by the National Board, for films are used repeatedly and their constant exhibition results in tearing off sections of the pictures at the end, so that the design soon disappears from old pictures. Again, in many theaters, the operators do not run the films completely through their projection machines and while the design may appear on the film it does not show on the screen. All producing companies are giving increased care to putting the insignia on their films. There is a constantly growing demand for this "guarantee" on the part of both public and exhibitors. The National Board passes upon all pictures produced by the leading American film producers and the product of foreign filmmakers regularly represented in America. Careful investigation shows that 99 per cent of the dramatic pictures produced are reviewed by the National Board. The attention of the National Board's correspondents is directed to non-reviewed pictures which are listed on the official bulletin as they may come to our notice from time to time. Such pictures can well command the attention of local officials or committees. The National Board's standards are, of course, progressive and will change with the lapse of time; but they will develop along the lines above indicated, becoming more ideal as the motion picture art emerges in America from its present condition as a new art. Moreover, the increased experience of the producers, the development of motion picture artists, the classification of the theaters, the influence of more cultured audiences and the popular adoption of motion pictures into education, all of which are even now in process, will, in time, bring about conditions so different from the present that regulation may perhaps not be necessary. {To be continued in February number) Liberty Loan Films Offer Chance to Study "Stars" of Screen at Close Range By Jonas Howard THE motion picture actors, of course, were asked to do their bit in connection with the raising of the great loan of six billions. The forms which their contributions to the campaign took were various and intensely interesting. There was a series of short pictures made by thirty-seven of the best known men and women top-liners to promote the loan. These were of interest, not only because they stimulated buying, but also because of the sidelight which they threw upon the characteristics of the actors themselves. Here was an opportunity to exhibit personal qualities in an appeal for a great cause. The actor was not bound to conventions of the screen drama. The emphasis was not upon the portrayal of a studied part, but upon the personal appeal of the actor himself. He could be as much himself as he chose. The result was a series of studies of movie actors at play. They were men .and women expressing themselves, rather than fulfilling the behests of a director. They threw sidelights upon their own habits of thought and methods of expression. Those who are in a position to obtain the use of several of these reels for an evening will find at the close that they have made a very interesting comparative study of a group of persons who are developing the art of the motion picture. It would be worth while for some such organization as the Cinema Club of Cleveland to arrange to devote an evening to a series of these studies of movie personality. Comparison is an excellent method of gaining knowledge. It is a short cut.