“LE CINEMA”

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 52, Issue 3292, 26 July 1943, Page 7

“LE CINEMA”

FILMS FOR THE TROOPS SHOW AT NEW CALEDONIA REPORT OF WELFARE OFFICER “Sometimes 1 take a stroll around while the show is on, and from near the screen one sees against the black backcloth of the tropical night the pin points of light from hundreds of cigarettes shining like so many glow-worms.” This is a sentence from a word picture given by an officer of the Army Education Welfare Service, when on a short visit to the Dominion recently, of one of the number of cinema shows given regularly in the open air for the benefit of New Zealand troops in New Caledonia. Regular Supply of Films He said there were three 16-milli-metre picture plants and a mobile 35millimetre machine. The 35-milli-metre projector, which was taken to various parts of the island in turn, was mounted on a truck and behind was a trailer fitted with a generator

to supply the power for the plant. The A.E.W.S. organised and ran the picture programmes on behalf of the National Patriotic Fund Board, which, in addition to the provision of projection equipment, had arranged witii the Film Exchanges Association of New Zealand for supplies of film to be sent regularly. Through the cooperation of the American service authorities, the New Zealanders also had the use of IG-millimetre films specially provided in the reduced size for the American services. Such features as “The Glass Key” and “The Commandos Strike at Dawn,” have been shown recently, so it will be gathered that these films are really up-to-date. The A.E.W.S. officer was enthusiastic about the service given by the National Patriotic Fund Board in this and in other directions, especially in view of the shipying difficulties. He also placed a high value on the screenings as a means of entertaining troops. Apart from these shows and the performances l?y the Kiwi Concert Party, another enterprise.financed by the Patriotic Board, he said, there was little else offering in the entertainment line. No Reserved Seats A portable .screen is part of the equipment which accompanies the mobile cinema. Sometimes this is erected on iron pipes, sometimes it . is strung up between trees, but in one spot it is dispensed with entirely, for a white-washed wall of a bakery serves equally as well. As for the audiences, they range in size from 250 in some parts of the island to 2000 in others. Troops are brought in for distances of up to 30 m’les in trucks and are taken back to camp again after the show. The men bring boxes, ground sheets and blankets; officers have their folding stools. But there is no ceremony, and there are no re-

served seats. The open air is the theatre and the audience sits back from the screen in a semi-circle. The Programmes

The programmes usually consist of a couple of shorts and a feature film, the show lasting about two hours. The French native population look forward to the different shows as much as the troops. “Le cinema,” they cal] it. and they are always represented in the audiences.

Although the luxury of the city theatre, supper in a snack liar and a taxi after the show, are hut memories to the men at New Caledonia just now. there will probably he many who in after years will look back with a great deal of pleasure to the shows held in the open when they were on service in the Pacific. As for the natives. well, they will probably find life less interesting when the free ~“Le Cinema’’ is no more.