World Film News and Television Progress (Apr 1936-Mar 1937)

PEOPLE WITH PURPOSES Church and Fihii THE MOST IMPORTANT event of the month is the remarkable decision of the Scottish churches reported by the Rev. George Carstairs, Editor of Life ami Work. The traditions of religion in Scotland seemed altogether against acceptance of the film as an instrument in church work. As it has turned out these traditions have given a character and precision to the church's film approach which Sassenach churches should envy. No film in church services — a hard drive for films which will promote the social services : that is the policy outlined. Public relations officers of Government departments and the big national organisations will welcome this decision. Sooner or later it means two or three thousand church halls in Scotland open to films which promote one or other of the public interests. The movement grows. In a few years" time there will be many thousands of halls open in this way. There will be the halls of the churches, of the educational groups, of the business clubs, the social organisations. This represents a vast opportunity for educational film services which have something to say and something to give to the community. Gas Sponsors Diet Film MOST INTERESTTNG of the production announcements is from the Gas people. They have begun production on a film dealing with the national diet, based on the investigations recently reported by Sir John Orr in Diet and the National Income. This is great going. Orr's Diet and the National Income and M'Gonigle's Poverty and Public Health cover one of the most important themes in the national life to-day. Widespread ill-health and iin-health derive from malnutrition — from the choice of wrong food and from incomes too low to purchase the necessary protective vitamins and minerals which are contained in milk, dairy produce, vegetables, fruit, etc. When Orr's report appeared, the newspapers made a front page sensation of it. Daily Worker headlines announced that half the population of Britain was starving; the Morning Post announced that half the population, on the other hand, was overeating. Between these two extremes, science and the medical profession are agreed, after long years of research, that a new and revolutionary light has been shed on the maintenance of health and the prevention of disease. It is very brilliant of the Gas people to collar this subject. Who more interested in food, cookery and the preservation of food than they? They will, incidentally, be doing a great service in publicising the question and the public must quickly recognise it. S. C. Leslie, Publicity Officer of the Gas, Light and Coke Co., is responsible. He recently succeeded A. P. Ryan, who associated gas and the public service for the first time in film, with last year's Housing Problems and Dinner Hour. Diet is a more dramatic step in a great public relations policy. Strand Makes Book Subject THE BOOK COUNCIL has retained the TaylorRotha outfit (Strand Films) for a film which will encourage reading. This book film will be called Preface to Life, and the film will be of great interest to literary societies. The theme is that books are 'the way of experience.' Somerset Maugham, John Masefield, Louis Golding, Julian Huxley, Rebecca West and Virginia Woolf, among others, contribute to the film. They will describe the many traditions of English literature and indicate what part books are playing and may yet play in the modem life. Strand Films are strong in directors. D. F. Taylor, managing director, was responsible for So this is Lancashire, Spring Comes to England, and Citizens of the Future. Rotha, chief of production, has directed with Bruce Woolfe some of the most outstanding documentary successes, including Shipyard and The Face of Britain. His recent transport film. Death on the Road, is now breaking circulation records for documentary films and has gone to over a thousand theatres. Shaw, who is directing the book film, made some fine travel films last year for the Orient Line and has recently completed a film on labour camps for the Ministry of Labour. A new director for Strand is J. B. Holmes, one of the best of the Bruce Woolfe graduates. Scottish Church Founds Fihn Guild ON THE 21st of May there was instituted in Edinburgh a Scottish Churches Film Guild. It is an inter-denominational body, and its object is described in the constitution in terms so general as to indicate that its first task will be the shaping of a policy. "The purpose of the Guild," we read, "shall be to encourage the use of the film in the service of the Church, to advise as to the use of the film for religious purposes, and to assist congregations and religious bodies by means of the production and supply of suitable films." The wording shows considerable caution, and caution is likely to characterise the Guild's first tentative efforts. Any rash attempt to "put the Gospel on the screen" would most probably result in the vulgarising of things sacred. The possibilities of the film in relation to religion have yet to be explored. But at least there is ample scope — through films on urgent social questions of the hour, films illustrative of the Church's own work, and, it may be. films showing the results of Christian principles in human life — of presenting in a new and telling way many of the things which the Church has at heart. Of course, everything will depend on what may be regarded as "suitable films." There is no sphere in which there is greater danger of dropping into sentimentality than that of religion, and a sentimental religious film would be a horror and a desecration. The Guild aims at securing films, not only of high technical merit, but worthy in subject and of educative value. Meantime there is much to be done in creating a demand throughout the country. There are thousands of church halls which could be used for purposes of exhibition. If the use of the film should become a normal part of Church activity there will be no lack of circulation, and consequently the problem of production should not prove insuperable. Incidentally, one hopes that, if through the efforts of the Guild the film becomes an asset to the Church, at the same time the Church may be lending its aid to those in the film industry who are striving, especially through the production of good documentary films, to raise the cinema from a mere form of entertainment to what it ought to be — one of the most powerful educative forces of our day. Rev. George Carstairs w\A/'\A/'\/\rf'WV/\/'\A/'\/W\/'WW\A^'lA/A/VWW\A* ■'•■'■ It 'you CLVQ iniGfCStGCL in '^|F'-^n/-uv^n/'^n/'vA/AA^^n/-«v-vv«vvv^rt/-vn/vv^A/'vn/^^ MANAGING DIRECTORS' DAUGHTERS AS FILM STARS. FILMS THAT MADE A QUOTA QUICKIE LOOK LIKE AN 'EPIC SUPER-SUSPICIOUS EXHIBITORS. AN HONEST JOB OF FILM-MAKING. ,(V^' e t^ y\v \o 37