Children and Films

Radio Record, Volume II, Issue 29, 1 February 1929, Page 13

Children and Films

CHILDREN’S Kinema Council has been formed by Lady Cowan, president of the British Women’s Patriotic League, with the admirable aim B of showing interesting and amusing films suited to children in England. Everyone agrees that the influence of the film on the child mind is in need of study, and that many films at present shown must have a most unfortunate effect on the young. Yet, though all are agreed that the work needs doing, the task of enlisting the co-operation of producers, exhibitors, and the general public is immense. Lady Cowan’s committee has got to work at once, and a model show is to be given early next month at the Excelsior Picture Palace at Bethnal Green, London. This it is hoped will be followed by children’s performances all over the country. Nobody who has watched a group of children responding to an exciting American film full of crude "sex appeal" and violent hand-to-hand fighting can doubt the importance of the matter. But we must remember that the question is a difficult one. The films given

must have an entertainment value, and they must interest, as well as improve and inspire the children.