MOVEIS: PUBLIC SERVICE OR HOLLYWOOD MONOPOLY?
Delson, Robert & Hemsing, Albert
Movies: Public Service or Monopoly? By Robert Delson and Albert Hemsing WHEN PRESIDENT WILLIAM GREEN of the AFL announced recently that Labor's League for Political Education plans to...
...These generally buy prints, but also obtain prints on extended loan from various sources such as industrial sponsors...
...Chiefly, their problem is to organize the unorganized movie-goers anxious for adult screen fare...
...Every year dozens of films are made by public and private agencies, both here and abroad, which touch on labor's interests and, in some way, advance its aims...
...Normally, the miracle of the movies is obscured by shoddy films like "Getting Grable's Garter...
...There are over 200 educational (nonprofit) film libraries, most important of which are the university and college libraries...
...He conducts a law practice specialising in motion picture problems and is film consultant to many organisations...
...By taking the leadership in local film councils, labor groups can stimulate an intensive use of labor films in communities throughout the country...
...Presented by labor in its own film catalog, accompanied by its own handbooks and discussion guides, distributed from its own cooperative film office, such films can be made to tell labor's story...
...All these obtain their prints either from national distributors or directly from the producers or'sponsors of the films...
...THE LARGEST USERS OF FILMS in this country are the public schools...
...These millions can be serviced most economically with films directly from co-op libraries located in nearby cities...
...Finally, the Cooperative would seek to place-films in the public school film libraries...
...The New Leader will welcome comment—pro and con—from movie expbrta (amateur and professional), from community workers, and of course from its readers In general...
...Naturally, a major film designed to carry an important labor message to a large non-labor public, may be, if it is a production of THE favorable hullabaloo over "Homo of the Bravo"—a newly released film showing how Jim Crow reared ita ugly snout even on the firing lino of the last war—offers a tragic commentary not only on Hollywood but on all of us...
...Business and industry, government, religious and educational groups have exploited well the possibilities of the film for educational, informational and organizational purposes...
...This can best be accomplished by the organization of a film cooperative to poof the activities and resources of nil public affairs organizations, to establish a system of regular and frequent showings of films for local units of all affiliated organizations...
...The basis of it would be the common interest of all these organizations in public affairs...
...Ironically,, many of the makers of fine wartime films are now idle for want of sponsors to underwrite films in the public interest...
...The Cooperative would also obtain the cooperation of the Film Council of America and the affiliated local Film Councils, which now cover many cities, and are rapidly extending into many more...
...The Co-op's trained specialists can work effectively with education directors in developing film pro-, grams within the affiliated organizations—a service not provided by commercial distributors...
...The non-theatrical motion picture requires its own equivalent of this system of theatrical outlets...
...In the long run, successful cooperation in film distribution among labor and liberal groups woi^ld find its greatest benefits in greater unity among these groups...
...Why has it not become an accepted thing to have, and to see...
...With a ready-made audience of its own, numbering in the millions—for every holder of a union card is a potential patron of labor-made films—there is no earthly reason why trade unions should not make motion pictures in a big way...
...In the light of this vast potential, and of labor's own union audience of over 15,000,000, labor's efforts to use the "non-theatrical" film have been paltry...
...Only in this way can a market be created which will serve as a non-theatrical substitute for the Hollywood system of mass exhibition outlets...
...Not only is the middleman's 50% "take" too high, but experience proves that he usually gives little in return, in terms of advertising, publicity, and audience-building...
...Even so, they have not realized a small fraction of the real potentialities of the medium...
...These pictures can be profitably produced because of the intensive organization of audience which Hollywood continuously pursues...
...Its all-inclusive appeal to the eye, the ear, the heart, and the brain, gives it a power which surpasses that of all other media...
...There are also an increasing number of public libraries which make films available to their respective communities on a similar basis, following the pattern of the Cleveland public library...
...Their skills and techniques have been developed by filming real people—something quite outside Hollywood's scope...
...Besides, nearly (600 prints were sold to private film libraries and institutions...
...But if other progressive organizations joined in, a film cooperative could be operated with greater economy, and greater results...
...Some types of motion pictures-—e.g., on international relations—would obviously be of interest to everyone, of these groups...
...The next largest consumer group is the churches, of which there are 200,000...
...While others might interest one • group more than another, all groups would have sufficient interest in public , affairs films as a whole to warrant exhibiting them to their own members...
...Startling as it may seem, a successful non-Hollywood movie can reach and surpass that size audience...
...films which touch upon those aspects of our live* that are closest to us...
...Commercial film libraries number about a hundred...
...i * * * THE IMPORTANT DOCUMENTARY film makers, and all necessary production facilities, are located in New York City...
...In the United States it will have to be done by voluntary groups...
...In its role as national 16mm distributor (seller) of union-sponsored films, the Co-op can eliminate the middleman...
...and over 400 film libraries, visual education dealers and, national sixteen mm...
...The film Co-op's resources can turn even non-labor-produced films to labor's purposes...
...In proposing a National Film Cooperative to produce "public service films...
...By Robert Delson and Albert Hemsing WHEN PRESIDENT WILLIAM GREEN of the AFL announced recently that Labor's League for Political Education plans to sponsor a series of motion pictures, he marked the beginning of what may be revolutionary development in the AFL...
...But how few, and how inadequate, are the films so far produced by labor...
...It would do so by selling prints to local educational and commercial film libraries, and filmusers like schools and membership organizations...
...The wonder is that the AFL did not enter long ago into the field of film-making— a field which the CIO has not neglected, although its role has been limited...
...It is a wonder, too, that labor and progressive groups in general have not made concerted use of the film...
...prints -have been rented 19,000 times and seen by 3,200,000 Americans...
...Non-theatrical" films are distributed and exhibited to audiences throughout the country in a variety of ways...
...in stimulating increased activity in their educational and public relations work...
...The motion picture is the one tool that is equal to the enormous task of winning a great audience for the goals of democracy, and of training and educating that audience to become alert and responsive...
...Albert Hemsing, formerly with the State Department's International Film Division, la film director for the Amalgamated Clothing Workers and Textile Workers unions...
...LABOR COULD SUCCEED even if it organized onlyits own^ membership...
...Robert Delaon is founder and acting chairman of the Committee for a National Film Cooperative...
...The Co-op, handling only a specialized set of films, can do a better job of audience-building than the imspeeialized commercial dealer who handles all variety of films...
...Leadership in the field of public affairs film education, as historically in the field of public school education, should be taken by labor unions...
...distributors...
...The Co-op can become a recognized, steady source for all labor-related films, obviously filling, a great need for today's bewildered film-using public...
...Particularly since they would receive 'assurance that pet films of their own Would be distributed by the other affiliates of the cooperative...
...Altogether, •22,500,000 have probably seen the film outside the theaters, and additional millions will see it in years to come...
...How can this be created...
...Delson and Hemsing are advancing a novel idea which we hope will arouse widespread attention...
...TWELVE-MILLION PEOPLE normally view the average feature film produced in Hollywood...
...Yet how great the need for movies on vital topics like Taft-Hartley, the need for political action, labor's role under the Marshall Plan, and on the manifold contributions of trade unionism to democracy...
...Many libraries are maintained by national membership organizations such as unions, veterans organizations, women's^ clubs, social action groups (the NAACP, American Legion, Anti-Defamation League, Cooperatives, farm organizations, NAM, etc...
...Those which have not yet ventured into this activity need expend only a relatively small amount to create a far more effective film department than they could afford on their own...
...A little film on parliamentary rules of order, or a union's leisure-time facilities for its members, might be shot in 16mm in a few days, at a cost of a few thousand dollars...
...and it will prove as valuable as a more expensive project...
...Today these libraries do not give sufficient place in their curricula -to films of social content...
...In wartime, the government turned to the documentary...
...Thus, the proposed film cooperative could be the central film arm of the liberal-labor movement...
...strength and dignity, relatively expensive...
...To labor, this schoolteacher then becomes an active community outlet for its messages...
...Occasionally, a "Grapes of Wrath" or a "Gentleman's Agreement" comes along to stir the imagination with visions of what Hollywood could become...
...The Cooperative would be in a position to rdlly wide support, and therefore obtain extensive utilization of films through groups such as the National Board of Review, which recommend and arouse public interest in films of importance...
...sound projectors in use today in the U.S...
...2) The Cooperative's more important distribution task would be to make prints available to depositories throughout the country...
...and in building up cooperative or, at the least, coordinated film production...
...More and better public affairs films are not produced, and those produced are not more widely distributed, because there is no mechanism to assure recovery of the cost of production and some profit...
...Repeated showings of training, information, and indoctrination films to the largest "non-theatrical" audience in history—the armed forces—attested to the success of the documentary technique...
...An example is "The River...
...In countries less wedded to laissez-faire, this equivalent has been created by governmental aid, as in the case of the Canadian National Film Board...
...THE DISTRIBUTION SETUP for a National Film Cooperative would be somewhat as follows: (1) The Cooperative would act as rental library by maintaining a central film depository in one or several cities...
...For, to every schoolteacher who now may be a "one-time borrower of the UAW race relations films," the Co-op's catalog can provide an array of films on cooperatives, housing, unionism, and so forth...
...But even this amounted to less than two-fifths of a cent for each member of the huge audience which enjoyed the moving story of democracy "The River" depicted...
...There are now some 270 documentary, educational, and advertising film production organizations...
...Finally, come the 20,000 community service organizations—adult education councils, union locals, cooperatives, and farm organizations — which are more or less regular users of film, depending upon the extent to which they are conscious of its possibilities...
...It may be the principal or sole source of rental for unusual motion pictures— those produced abroad or those which are difficult to obtain, are expensive, or are not in great demand...
...Following successful showings to an audience of several millions in 1938-39, this film is still the Department of Agriculture's "best-seller...
...Cost depends on many factors, including the purpose of the production...
...They concentrate on entertainment rather than information films...
...A carefully worked out campaign for educators could repair this neglect...
...Labor in the United States should take the leadership in forming a film cooperative dedicated to the use of this tremendous weapon or organization, education and propaganda...
...Authors Delaon and Hemsing do not provide all the answers to these questions in their fine article below, but they do offer a few Interesting clues...
...Usually, producers are small, independent companies, and free-lance documentarians...
...the Protestant Film Commission, for example, has fulfilled that function for the Protestant denomination...
...There are in circulation creditable movies which somehow were made for very little money...
...These have approximately 20,000 projectors, about one-half of which are in consant, planned use...
...If this distribution pattern is compared with that of Hollywood, it will become obvious why there are so few good labor films, and the available films have not received wider circulation...
...Their charges are ordinarily somewhat smaller than those of commercial film libraries...
...Incomplete reports reveal that, since 1940, the Department's hundred 16 mm...
...Why is tt the rule, instead, that our movie* generally deal In emotions which are phoney, in sentiment that is cheap, in amusement which is not amusing, in theme* which are neither good "escapism" nor honest "realism...
...But labor knows better than to look to Hollywood for a consistent program in the public interest...
...Organizations already active in the field could produce vastly greater results without spending any more on film-making than they now are...
...LIBERAL AND LABOR GROUPS contain within themselves audiences of . many millions...
...As a means of reaching this "nontheatrical" audience, there are well over 100,000 sixteen mm...
...Messrs...
...Why is It necessary to present an accolade to a film-maker whenever he produces a "Gentlemen's Agreement" or a "Home of the Brave...
...In the case of Hollywood films, several billions of dollars have been invested in motion picture theaters, besides hundreds of millions in the socalled exchanges or distribution system...
...The River," for instance, cost the government $90,000...
Vol. 32 • May 1949 • No. 22
