FILM PROGRESS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 July 1938, Page 7

FILM PROGRESS

EDUCATIONAL AND OTHER FEATURES. MR TANO FAMA INTERVIEWED. Once famous throughout New Zealand and Australia as a stage comedian and well known for his connection with the “Diggers,” Mr Tano Fama is now concerned with the commercial aspect of entertainment. As publicity, agent for the Fuller-Hayward Theatre circuit, Mr Fama was yesterday in Masterton making arrangements for next week’s presentation of “Cloistered.” In an interesting interview yesterday, Mr Fama told the “Times-Age” how films were being increasingly used for educational purposes. Scarcely a University in U.S.A, had not a cinema attached and at the Dental School, of Otago University in Dunedin full use was today made of this modern method of visual education. Apart from schools, the education of the masses was advancing per medium of what has been called the “gilded pill”—education in the form of entertainment. Scenics, for instance, now in natural colour, were drawn from all corners of the world. Newsreels not only contained records of great events, but also brought into play an editorial aspect adding to the informative' and educational side of the future. World events were displayed in picture form, justifying the adage that “one picture is worth 10,000 words.”

Recently, said Mr Fama, he had seen in New Zealand surgical pictures in amazing detail. They had been shown to University students and were received with great approval by professors and students alike.

Discussing the rise of animated cartoons, Mr Fama said that even though they were now featured as full-length attractions, he did not think they would ever win the highest approbation of the public. Only the personal element could do that.