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Peace or war

J. HAMILTON, Vancouver,
B.C.: “Three-fourths of the mis-
eries and misunderstandings of
the world will disappear if we
step into the shoes of our ad-
versaries and understand their
viewpoint,” said Ghandi.

What we need today is inter-
national understanding. The
visit of Premier Khrushchev to
President Eisenhower may
open the door to better under-
standing between the capitalist
and socialist sectors of the
world.

I was pleased to see two
fine peace exhibits at the
Pacific National Exhibition
this year, sponsored by two
peace groups in Vancouver.
To the volunteers manning
these booths I say, ‘“‘God bless
your efforts for world peace.”

Jobless lines

UNEMPLOYED, Vancouver,
B.C.: I am 47 years of age and
have worked since I was 15.
As I never had much formal
education, I had no skilled
trade, but worked on pick and
shovel jobs, in shipyards, road
gangs and what have you. .

Three months ago I was laid
off and now wherever I go I
hear the same story, “You’re
too old.”

Too old at 47? What’s this
country coming to?

But when, a month ago, I
was forced to join a soupline,
T noticed that many of the men

_ are younger than I am. Some

were Italian immigrants under
30 years of age, in the prime
of life. There were young
Canadian-born workers, too.
The government says the
Canadian working force has in-
ereased. That may be so, but
from my observations I would
guess that the number of per-

‘manent unemployed has also
‘increased. :

What is a man to do? I don’t

feel old. I’m still able to put

‘

in a fair day’s work. But there

seemingly is no work for me.

Unemployment insurance
acts as a ‘‘cushion” and while
it is a good thing in many
ways (I didn’t have enough
stamps this time, but in pre-
vious periods of unemployment
I have managed to live on job-

less benefits) it also has a
negative side, in that it seems
to destroy the workers spirit
to fight back, as we did in the
Hungry Thirties.

I remember that in those by-
gone, days we had a fine organ-
ization of unemployed, and we
carried out big demonstrations
for work and wages. Today
there is none of that.

Isn’t it time the trade union
movement set up a permanent
organization of some _ kind,
along trade union lines, which
all the unemployed from every
union — or none — could join?
I know the labor movement
has often talked of such an
organization, and even held a
few meetings on the jobless
crisis, but nothing of a concrete
nature has come out of it.

Dr. Russell, chief geneticist
the AEC’s Oak Ridge National
Laboratory in a report to the
U.S. National Academy of
Sciences declared that ‘“moder-
ate doses” from a nuclear ex-
plosion resulted in “shortening
of life in offsprings of mice
by six-tenths of a day for each
unit of radiation.” If the same
ratio were to hold true for
humans, he said, it would give
a shortening of 20 days in a
child's life for each roenigen of
radiation received by a father.

Festival financial flop:

fine films a bright spot

HE second Vancouver Fes-
a tival Of The Arts ended
on August 15 after marked
public apathy at the box of-
fice. The reason is plain en-
ough—even to puzzled Festi-
val officials, if they would
only: come down. from their
rarified heights long enough
to look for it.

Like the local Community
Arts Council, from which the
Vancouver Festival Society
stemmec originally, official
policy has been to legislate
“culture”. down on we “un-
lettered slobs,’’ actively dis-
couraging any involvement of
the lay public in- artistic or
promotional matters. Thus, the
methods and private tastes of
Nicholas Goldschmitt and the
brass have dominated the Fes-
tival Of The Arts.

Inevitably, even though
some superb presentations
were included (and completely
phony ones too, like the Tak-
arazuke Dancers), the whole
was neither sufficiently varied
nor well enough chosen and
promoted to capture popular
fancy; while exorbitant admis-
sion prices kept many other-
wise willing patrons away.

The Festival. Society’s auto-
cratic orientation has led the
second Vancouver Festival Of
The Arts downhill; it was not
even as good as the first one.
Without implying for a mom:
ent that the Festival be “com-
mercialized,” it is clear that
if officials don’t go to the
people there won’t be many
more festivals. And that will
not help the tourist industry—
business’ chief reason, after all,
for supporting it financially.

* * *

Fortunately, the Vancouver
Film Festival was largely (not
entirely) free of these weak-
nesses. It, was by far the most
satisfactory part of the Festi-
val Of The Arts, both artistic-
ally and at the box office.

The Film Festival’s magni-
tude and competitive charact-
er operate strongly against
bureaucratic procedures. Def-
inite knowledge is essential in
preparatory stages, in pre-sel-
ection committees (where 70
to 80 knowledgeable people
are needed to wade through
perhaps 250 entries to select
films of festival calibre) and
in final programming. The of-
ficialese tendency to view this
modern art form as a sort of
poor relation less deserving of
their money and attention has
also, probably, helped to cre-
ate a freer atmosphere.

Fortunately, there has been
a body of film enthusiasts
(mostly film society members)
willing to give many hours of
their leisure time to buiiding

a mature film festival in Van-
couver. Their success, combin-
ed with public response, give
the Vancouver Film Festival
(at least) an assured future.

With no less than 111 films
exhibited, including 26_ feat-
ures (four of them children’s);
and as a competitive festival,
Vancouver has the largest and
most ambitious film festival in
the Western Hemisphere. (Its
only near competitors are
Stratford and San Francisco).
This year the Festival also ex-
panded into retrospective pro-
grams, showing the first part
of Eisenstein’s Ivan The Ter-
rible and three silent features
on the two Saturdays. In addi-
tion, a handsome booklet with
credits and synopses of all
films was prepared. But the
absence of film seminars and
discussions remained a serious
omission.

Compared with last year,
more films were submitted and
exhibited—even though feat-
ures were not in competition
this year. (The Paris-based In-
ternational Federation of Film
Producers’ Associations auth-
orized competition only in
documentary, children‘s, ex-
perimental and animated short

films; although this may be
changed again before next
year.)

Twenty-one countries plus
the U.N.O. were represented,
a gain of two over last year.
In general, the short subjects
were of higher quality and
more varied while even with
last year’s stiff competition
(Pather Panchali, Don Quixote,
etc.) features managed to hold
their own on the average.

Three undisputed master-
pieces were shown this year:
Satyajit Roy’s Aparajito (In-
dia), Keisuke Kinoshita’s Bal-
lad of The Narayama (Japan).
and Sergei Eisenstein’s long-
delayed Ivan The _ Terrible,
Part II (USSR). In addition,
there were Muhom¥tsu The
Rickshaw Man (Inegaki, Jap-
an), House Under. The Rocks
(Makk, Hungry), Kite From
The End Of The World (Pigaut,
France-China), the remarkable
Come Back Africa made sec-
retly in a Negro community
in South Africa by the Am-
erican. Licnel Rogosin, and
other exceptional features.

es Sk

Festival judges included:
James Card (curator of East-
man House in Rochester, N.Y.),
George Tebori (Hungarian-Am-
erican screen writer and nov-
elist) and Osmond Borradaile
(an. internationally known
photographer who now lives
near Vancouver). | Borradaile

was also a member of last
year’s panel of judges.

Their votes went to the fol-
lowing films:

Documentary: A Soho Story
(Denis Mitchell, Britain).

Children’s: The Story Of
Small And Big Kids (Mitsuo
Wagasugi, Japan).

Experimental: Two Men And
A Wardrobe (Roman Polanski,
Poland).

Animated: No Award.
Honorable Mention: The Liv-

ing Wild (I L. Dassenaike,
Ceylon; Antarctic Crossing
(James Carr, Britain); The

Little Island (Richard Wil-
liams, Britain); It’s A Grand
Life (Tadeusz Makarczynski,
Poland); 1958 Alpine Rally
(Britain-Canada); Glass (Bert
Haanstra, Netherlands).

A Soho Story is a warm and
thoughtful half-hour portrait
of a sidewalk performer in
London’s Soho district. The
quality of the nonconformist
milieu is tractfully developed,
although some obvious studio
set-ups detract from real-life
intimacy.

The children’s feature—The
Story Of Small And Big Kids
—is a sympathetic and well-
photographed story about an
11 or 12-year-old fat boy who
is helped by a small but ag-
gressive friend to overcome his
feeling of rejection. Yasuko
Kikuchi’s perceptive and ap-
pealing script combined with
outstanding direction of juv-
enile actors make this equally
satisfying as “adult” fare.

The 17-minute Polish experi-
mental film, Two Men And A
Wardrobe, had already excited
wide critical acclaim in Eur-
ope before its appearance in
Vancouver. It is a _ parable
(told with simple, if not the
most concise, imagery) about
the “cost of private values in
the modern world.’”’ Two men
emerge from the sea carrying
a big old-fashioned wardrobe;
move through various evils of
violence, intolerance and re-
jection; and return to the sea.

* * *

Come Back Africa had the
distinction of being the first
film to receive the newly in-
stituted CFFS Award. This
is to be an annual presenta-
tion granted to films in the
Vancouver and Stratford Film
Festivals by the Canadian Fed-
eration Of Film Societies, the
leading organ of film apprecia-
tion in Canada. It is given to
the film which best embodies
‘a significant advance in con-
tent, means of expression, and
technique” rather than for ex-
cellence of a more convention-
al nature.

N. E. STORY

September 4, 1959—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 5

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