ON EDUCATIONAL AND DOCUMENTARY FILMS. 325 
Educational and Documentary Films.—Report of Committee (Sir 
Ricuarp GreGorY, Chairman; Mr. J. L. Hottann, Secretary; Mr. 
L. Brooks, Miss E. R. Conway, Mr. J.8. Dow, Mr. G. D. DuNKERLEY, 
Dr. B. A. Kren, Dr. C. W. Kimmins, Mr. R. 8. Lampert, Mr. A. E. 
Monsey, Prof. J. L. Myrss, Mr. G. W. Ottve, Mr. G. N. Pocock, 
Dr. T. StateR Price, Prof. C. Spearman, Dr. H. HAamsHaw THomas) 
appointed with the following reference: Educational and Documentary 
Films: To enquire into the production and distribution thereof, to 
consider the use and effects of films on pupils of school age and older 
students, and to co-operate with other bodies which are studying those 
problems. 
Stncz the first Report of the Committee was presented at the Bristol meeting of the 
Association, there has been a considerable quickening of those activities which aim 
at the promotion of the use of cinematography as an aid to education. The Com- 
mission on Educational and Cultural Films have, amongst other things, been testing 
the various projectors now on the market through a special Sub-Committee on which 
the Committee now reporting is represented. The Report of this Sub-Committee, 
which may be expected shortly, should be of service to Authorities and Teachers who 
have to select projectors for School and Institutional use. Another of the Com- 
mission’s Sub-Committees has been examining, in association with certain educational 
societies, such as the Geographical Association, the available films of standard size 
with a view to the compilation of a catalogue of those which can be considered 
suitable for educational purposes. 
Various experiments have also been set on foot for the testing of films under 
school conditions of which the most important is that organised jointly by the 
Middlesex County and Part III Authorities and the Teachers’ Associations of the 
area for an extended trial of sound films. 
Mention should also be made of the Report of Investigations by the Birmingham 
Cinema Enquiry Committee under the Presidency of Sir Charles Grant Robertson, the 
President of the Educational Science Section of the Association for this Centenary 
meeting. In this Report a large amount of first-hand evidence of the effect of 
ordinary films upon children and adolescents has been sifted and collated. It throws 
vivid side lights upon the relations of education and cinematography. 
The Committee believe that their first Report on certain technical questions con- 
nected with films and apparatus and their use under school conditions has also con- 
tributed to the general quickening of interest. Copies of the Report have been sent 
to the Local Education Authorities and, through the agency of the Educational and 
Cultural Films Commission, to all schools in which it is known that the cinematograph 
is used. Some 600 copies of the Report have been distributed in this way. A wider 
audience has also been reached through the re-publication of considerable extracts 
from the Report in educational periodicals. 
Progress can also be recorded in technical matters, among which the manufacture 
of film is, perhaps, the most important. The ordinary film of commerce is made on a 
nitrate base and is unsuitable for educational use, owing to its dangerous inflammability. 
Sub-standard film, in this country at least, is practically always of the non-flam 
acetate type. In those sizes the film material lends itself to amateur handling, but 
in the full standard 35 mm. size it is liable to certain disadvantages in use, mainly 
mechanical. 
For the purpose of the new Spicer-Dufay process of colour-cum-sound cinema- 
_ tography a film base of the acetate tyre is being manufactured which is claimed to be 
absolutely non-inflammable and to retain its suppleness and whiteness indefinitely. 
The Spicer-Dufay process itself as exhibited at the two conversaziones of the Royal 
Society this year, and described in Nature of May 30th, is full of educational interest 
and promise. 
The Committee have taken as their special province the use of the film for classroom 
purposes. There is a growing demand for standard films and apparatus which can 
used with comparatively large audiences. But the Committee believe that the 
educational value of cinematography will not be fully realised until sub-standard 
oie 
