N.Z. Film On Cerebral Palsy Praised Overseas

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28259, 23 April 1957, Page 3

N.Z. Film On Cerebral Palsy Praised Overseas

A New Zealand film, "The Treatment of Cerebral Palsy,” which has been acclaimed in many parts of . the world, has been included in the curriculum of the University of Columbia, New York, and several teaching hospitals in Britain. Produced by the New Zealand National Film Unit it is one of the longest and most comprehensive documentary films ever made in New Zealand. Recently it became the third New Zealand film to receive the Edinburgh Film Festival’s diploma of merit—an international award made last year to about 20 films from various parts of the world. “The Treatment of Cerebral Palsy” was featured at the world physical therapy conference in New York last year and has also been exhibited to special audiences in Canada, Australia, India and many Continental countries. Christchurch Scenes In the making of the film scenes were shot in many parts of the country, including the Health Department’s Cerebral Palsy Unit at Rotorua, the Cerebral Palsy Day School in Wellington, and in Christchurch. There is a 10minute sequence filmed in Christchurch showing visits to homes of cerebral palsied children by a physiotherapist, Miss M. Hartridge. These visits are a unique service in the treatment, and Miss Hartridge has since shown the film to several interested organisations in the district. During a study tour overseas. Miss Hartridge exhibited the film to audiences in the United States and Britain and found that there was a great deal of interest in New' Zealand methods of treatment and the New Zealand health services in general. Dr. G. A. Q. Lennane, director of child hygiene, acted as technical adviser for the unit apd the film was produced jointly by the manager of the National Film Unit (Mr A. G. Scott) and Mr Cyril Morton. The director of the unit in the South Island, Mr Frank Chilton, directed the film. Sponsored by the Department of Health, the film is intended mainly for screening to special groups such as Health and Education Department and Crippled Children Society audiences, medical and nursing students, parent teacher associations and similar organisations. The film has also been recommended for showing to adult general audiences as a means of stimulating public interest in the nature and extent of ceiebraJ palsy in New’ Zealand. The film demonstrates the methods of treatment which have been developed along British lines in this country, and it is hoped that it will be of value to all who

take part in the training, treatment or social life of the cerebral palsied. Condition Explained The film explains the condition, shows how it is treated by a team of specialists in New Zealand, and illustrates the value of co-opera-tion between all persons—the general public and special groups i alike—in helping the cerebral palsied towards a fuller and happier life in the communityCarton technique is used in a three-minute sequence in the film to explain and simplify the working of the brain. The carton sequence was produced by Messrs I Robert Morrow (who was formerly with the J. Arthur Rank' Organisation), Michael Walker, and Christopher Small. “The more the film is shown the mor6 cerebral palsied children can be helped towards a fuller and happier life,” said Mr Chilton. The Edinburgh Festival award would help to get the film more widely shown, but it was not so much a tribute to the film as to its subject—a small token of recognition of New Zealand’s progressive outlook and achievement in the fields of public health education and preventive medicine.