Visual Education (Jan-Nov 1920)

FILMS VIEWED AND REVIEWED THROUGHOUT the country, educators of all ranks are demanding films suitable for correlation with classroom work. "The Microscopical View of the Blood Circulation" is a film to make teachers of science rejoice, for it should be of the greatest value when properly handled in connection with such subjects as physiology, biology and anatomy. Notwithstanding the fact that this is a highly specialized film, it should prove of general interest because of the type of subject matter presented and the skilful treatment of the material. Its three reels comprise a careful and comprehensive explanation of the functions of the heart and lungs, and of the blood, its ingredients and scheme of circulation. There is also an elaborate analysis of the living muscle and of bone tissue. All possible devices, such as lucid diagrams and animations, in addition to thoughtfully worded subtitles, have been used to render the processes easy to grasp. The heart of a chick embryo, of a horse and of a turtle serve as illustrations for much of the exposition. (It should be said in passing, that the film is distinctly clinical. However, the only views which could possibly make the audience a bit squeamish are those of the beating heart of the live turtle. The fact that this illustration is most apt for the purpose in hand, thoroughly justifies its frankness.) The film serves also as a splendid example of the efficiency of modern laboratory methods. To the Scientific Film Corporation belongs the distinction of making this film. It is a scholarly and significant achievement in the scientific field. This film is handled in the central west by The New Era Films, Chicago, 111. * • • THE Pathe Reviews (not to be confused with the Pathe Weeklies) are thoroughly worth including in serious programs for schools and communities. They are artistic and definitely educational. They offer the well balanced variety of subject matter always desirable in weeklies, and in addition possess two features which are distinctive. One is the Pathecolor, an elementary color method which renders an artistic approximation to the natural colors. The tones are delicate and suggest most satisfactorily the color values of landscape. The second feature is the Novagraph, which analyzes motions too quick to be accurately comprehended by the eye by means of the Ultra Rapid Camera, which takes the successive pictures eight times faster than the ordinary machine. When these are projected at normal speed we learn that many things we have often seen were not really seen at all. The titling is good and the photography of the best. The Pathe Reviews are released through the Pathe Exchange, Inc. • • • FILM producers recognizing the growing tendency of the American public to demand something instructive in connection with its motion picture diet, are continually on the alert for something to supply the demand. "Shipwrecked Among Cannibals," a recent Universal release, is a picture that can well be classed as educational. The picture, made by Edward Laemmle and Wm. F. Alder, is a celluloid diary of their travels through the South Seas. These views of unfamiliar lands and of strange unfamiliar peoples can not fail to have an educational value, enlarging the spectator's horizon and making him alive to the fact that the world reaches far and that there are many things in it not comformable to his small Main Street code. The camera men, after making some interesting reels of the first half of their journey through Siam, turned their attention to the Guineas, and, acting on their own risk against the advice of the Dutch authorities, secured a sailing ship, which was wrecked upon Frederick Henry Island. This island was the home of the Kia Kias, famed head hunters, whose disregard for human life was nothing short of magnificent. The pic u