CELLULOID CIRCUS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 April 1942, Page 4

CELLULOID CIRCUS

3,000,000 AUDIENCE LAST YEAR. Crofters in the windswept islands of the Hebrides and market gardeners in the flower land of the Scillies were among the 3.000,000 people in the British Isles who last year saw films by flying squads of mobile' film units. Sponsored by the British Ministry of Information, these 70 units, which will soon be 100, are known up and down the British Isles as the “Celluloid Circus.” They travel thousands of miles through rural and urban Britain, making stands for the night and moving on next day. Morning, noon or night, there is always an audience waiting for them. First come the school children to special films about the Empire and its Allies. In the afternoon films about food and war time house wifery are Shown to Women’s Institutes in the countryside and to townswomen’s guilds in the towns. In the evening there may be a fit-up in a farm for agricultural workers, and the day is rounded off with a “midnight matinee” between shifts at an armament factory. These free shows, which usually last about 80 minutes, let people see how their own activities fit into the general, picture of the nation at war. The new orator-film, moreover, has brought the public forum into the village and leads lively discussions of the country’s problems. Apart from these mobile units. Ministry of Information and other films are available from the Central Film Library free of charge to any organisation which has facilities for showing them. Between 5,000 and 6,000 films are dispatched each month.