BRITISH DOCUMENTARIES AND THE WAR EFFORT.

As a method of disseminating information the cinema must be compared for efficacy with the radio, the press and the poster. The advantages which cinema can claim over radio are, of course, the completion of aural impressions with visual ones. Against this, it must be conceded that radio reaches its audiences in their own homes, and in their own country, which the sender may well be unable to enter. The main point where the movie falls behind its three rivals is in the length of time required for film-production. The article discusses war efforts of Britishers and significance of their documentaries in these efforts for the second World War. The British documentary film, as a consciously-planned type of production, dates back to 1929, when John Grierson produced for Atlas Film Co. an anglicized version of a Russian film and, for the Empire Marketing Board, the film "Drifters." Grierson has always been the first to acknowledge his debt to the Russians. The article also presents guidelines for construction of documentaries related to wartime.