The Daily Worker Newspaper, October 10, 1925, Page 14

a a a ARTICLE V. N the field of film propag&nda the I, W. A. has been a trail blazer. On the one hand it sought thru spe- cial I. W. A. films that showed its work, activity and undertakings, to build up its own organization; and on the other to further the ideas of the revolutionary international working class movement, and particularly of Soviet Russia, thru the medium of gen- eral proletarian motion pictures. The first two films produced by the I. W..A., “Down the Volga” and “Fam- ine in Soyiet Russia,” were taken in Russia in the fall of 1921 and shown the following year before millions of workers all thru Europe and North America and Argentina. These films showed that as the result of the drought of 1921, a terrible crop failure caused widespread famine along the Volga and in other Russian districts; it showed the relief measures takea by the Soviet government and by for- eign relief organizations. Our experi- ences and successes determined us to continue in this field of work. In 1922, 1923 and 1924 the I. W. A. showed a whole series of additional films of rev- olutionary-proletarian content thruout the various countries. Since 1923 the I. W. .A.. has gone into production itself, and made connections with the highly artistic production group “Russ” in Moscow, from whose studio came the world-famous “Polikushka,” starring Ivan Moskvin. P Acscste from the I. W. 4. the prin- cipal effort at proletarian film pro- duetion in Russia is made by “Prolet- kino.” But unfortunately its products have thus far found little way to the other countries: (Note: “Kombrig Ivanow,” shown in America as “The Beauty and the Bolshevik,” was mado by Proletkino.) Since 1922 the I. W. A. headquarters in Berlin, thru the estab- . lishment of a special film division, has sought to systematically supply the entire world with proletarian films. We have met with partial success. Thru, the, efforts of the I. W. A. we have. succeeded to show films in Ger- many, Holland. Belgium, France, Czecho-Slovakia, Spain, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, Den- mark, Bulgaria, United States, Canada, Argentine, Australia, South Africa, Japan and Russia. Of the films brought to the screen by the I. W. A. we can list the following: 1, Famine in Russia, taken in 1921, and used mainly in winning support for the relief campaign against the Russian famine. 2. Down the Volga, taken for the same purpose, but which already showed the alleviation of the needs as a result of relief activity, and the re- sumption of economic improvement among the peasants and workers. 3. The Congress of the Eastern Peo- ples, a short film showing the thrilling demonstration of eastern peoples in Baku in 1921. 4. The Third Congress of the Comin- tetrn, containing the best photos of Lenin speaking. 5. Five Years of Soviet Russia, a cross-cut of the political, economic, military and cultural life of Russia in 1922. 6. Russia Through the Shadows, 2 feature film concerning the life of Rus- sia during 1923, which secured a tre- mendous reception particularly in the United States and awakened a spirited sympathy for Russia. 7. Mother and Child in Soviet Rus- sia, a gripping film which shows the care given children aud young moth- ers. 8. The Red Army. Pictures of the creation and development of the Red Army of Soviet Russia and its various subdivisions, cavalry, artillery, infan- try; the political teaching in its clubs, the struggle against illiteracy, 9. Children’s Homes and Care in Sn- viet Russia, a film showing the care given by the Soviet state to the war and famine orphans of fallen workers and peasants, 10, First of May in Moscow, 1922. Magnificent pictures of this pcople’s day, in which half a million workers and peasants ‘participated, 11. A Soviet Diplomat’s Last Jour- ney, showing the transport of the body ‘of Vorovsky, the Soviet representative’ at Lausanne, Switzerland, from Berlin to Moscow. Tens of thousands of Ger- man workers take part in a torchlight procession as his body is taken thru the streets. Its arrival in Moscow and its interment uhder the Kremlin wall. 12. The Death of Lenin, containing the most mighty scenes of any topical film ever made, bearing the body to Moscow, borne to the Trade Union headquarters by Kalenin, Kameneff, Zinoviev and others of his old com- rades, a million workers and peasants file past during two days. This film has made the mightiest impression and has enjoyed the greatest success among the broad working masses. 13. In the Heart of Red Russia, a film showing the development and life of.Soviet Russia during ‘the year 1924. Soon to be distributed commercially in Germany and England. 14. The Fifth Cofgress of the Com- intern. 15. Soldier Ivan’s Miracte. A light comedy sinatra: Teligious superstt- tion. 16, People’s May. Showing May Day demonstrations of the international proletariat in the principal cities thru- out the world, 1923, including Berlin, New York, London, Paris, Stockholm, Zurich, Christiania, Prague, Leningrad and Moscow. 17. Famine in Germany, dealing with the results of inflation and the conse- quent struggles of the workers, the Trade Union Congress in Chemnitz, ete. 18. The |. W. A. and Its Activities in Russia, showing activity thruout the world, relief in Germany, and eco nomic support in Soviet Russia. Takes in fisheries. in Astrachan, farms in the Urals, and reveals the.great improve ment in Russian agriculture. 19. Recruiting Film of the 4. W. A,, a short, directly agitational film. 20. An entire series of short news reels on the Russian and International labor movement, TH but “minor exceptions these films were shown thruout the countries already listed. Altogether about 25 million, people have seen these pictures. There can be no doubt as to the assistance rendered by these films in giving the I. W. A. the popu- larity it enjoys today among the broad masses of workers and farmers. What has been done thus far is considered only the beginning of our film activity. The international headquarters of the I. W. A. has decided to give special attention to the film division and to the film production center in Moscow, and to build up especially this branch of its activity. After years of effort we have succeeded, at first in conjuric- tion with a film concern, now entirely in our own production unit, the pro- duction of new and technically and ideologically faultless films, and to vlace them at the disposal of the work- ‘ng class organizations. As a charac- cristie creation of this new period of our film activity we need only cite “Lenin's Warning.” This picture shows in the experi- ences of a young working girl the struggles and evolution of the Soviet Republic and the decline of its ene- mies, the white guardist emigres skulking in foreign capitals, particu- larly in Paris. The film depicts in sripping manner the civil strife in Leningrad in the fall of 1917, in which the 13-year-old girl, Katya, loses her father in the defense of the workers’ barricades. The girl goes to her grand- mother in the country and goes to work in a big textile factory. This gives the director a chance to con- trast the factory conditions during the decline of czarism with the steady improvement from year to year of Soviet industrial development. As, in the beginning, the terrible aftermath of famine and ‘civil wat is truthfully shown, thé optienee fis shown the or- gies of the emigres in Paris, Rut after a few years the picture is other wise, Russian industry is getting to its feet, the lot of the worker is bet- ier, Communal kitchens, reading clubs, educational circles are organized in the factory, the currency igs stabilized, but the emigres pawn their last smug- gled jewels and stand face to face with work or want. HAT makes the film especially val- uable is the exact execution of decisive direction, with gripping tragic moments, and a uniform high artistry on the part of the cast. Particularly striking is the wonderful feeling brought in by the child actors who take part. One sees a picture—Paris, the white guard emigres are studying the progress of invading intervention- ists on a map before them and dream of regaining their lost paradise—there is a dissolve into the ‘battle scenes as the Red Army defends its home and its revolution—another cross dissolve, one sees five sturdy Russian children, also studying a map, and discussing strategical problems in the defense of their land. Another picture—the meeting room of the factory, a worker proudly shows the first silver Soviet rouble, everybody crowds around, with Joyful face—dissolve—the Soviet coin changes into the last czarist rouble, in the hands of a fugitive aristocrat, his last rouble. Added value is given by the ex- tremely clever way in which the in- finence of Lenin on the development of Seviet Russia is visualized. First in the years 1920 to 1922 where he is shown as a speaker at the Second Congress, then symbolically as the helmsman of a ship under the Soviet star weathering thru a severe storm. The heights are reached in the last ceel when a workers’ meeting, gath- ered to commemorate the anniversary of the 1905 revolution, received the re- port that Lenin is dead. Just then telephone connection is destroyed by the blizzard. None will credit the re- port. A young comrade jumps on a horse and in> a thrilling ride thru the storm goes to check up on the report. The meeting waits an hour, two, three, four. The horse founders, another is borrowed from a peasant who asks the reason for the haste. The verification of the report stamps heartrending grief upon the faces of the entire fam- ily, even down to the youngest child. And what sorrow and mourning by the same report given to the waiting meet- ing! Fees then the great, wholehearted, inspiring response when, after his burial, there comes his warning from the grave, an appeal to class conscious workers and peasants to fill his place by mass affiliation with his party. Old peasants, scarcely able to write their names, hasten to join; women, and among them Katya, accepted amid the cheers of the great meeting. And as a symbolic finale, Lenin directing ar- mies of thousands: of workers with their banners on the road to freedom. In short, in treatment as in ideology- the strictest unity, living pictures, rap- id continuity of scenes that grip the watcher in constantly mounting sus- pense, relieved only in the conclusion with its all-embracing agreement and desire to co-operate and help achieve the great aims set for itself by the proletarian movement, Amaloamated NSE ~ oF a Food Workers GENERAL HEADQUARTERS 81 East 10th Street, New York, N. Y. THIS IS OUR EMBLEM An industrial Organization For All Workers in the Food inaeesy “nna |! THE FILM ACTIVITY OF THE L W. A. This film, if it can be shown, will help millions of workers to find their way into the labor movement. (There follows comment from the Russian press on the excellence of this film, and a long list of proposed feat- — ure and educational productions of the I. W. A. studio in Moscow.) T is the task of the workers’ organi- zations and of the Communist Par- ties and of all who fight the trash and jazz and nationalist monarchist prejudice of the bourgeois film, to see to it that not only the Russian work- ers and peasants but also the workers of the entire world profit by those films now available and to be pro- duced. We must wage a systematic struggle, similar to that fought against the reptilian bourgeois préss, so today against the bourgeois lying film. We must wage a struggle to place the film in the service of the labor movement, in order that by means of the film we may carry the thought of the class struggle into broadest masses of the world proletariat. Properly used, the film can become, along with the-press, one of the mast Important and most effective methods of enlightenment for’ the Communist movenient, for the fev-.. Ae or olutionary labor movement, Sayed FAMOUS RUSSIAN POET RETURNS TO GHIGAGO OCT, 20 Mayakovsky Will Give Last Lecture Here Altho he was supposed to leave this week for Soviet Russia, the famous . Russian poet Vladimir Mayakovsky yielded to the request of his Chicago admirers to give another lecture in Chicago. He will speak here on Tues- day, Oct. 20, at Schoenhofen Hall, corner Ashland and Milwaukee Aves. Fear is expressed that the hall may be too small, but this was the only hall that was available for this date. There is room for over a thousand people. The enthusiastic crowd that wildly cheered Vladimir Mayakovsky at his last lecture is expected to pack this hall also. An attempt will be made to arrange also a banquet with the famous guest. Tickets for the lecture are for sale at the office of the DAILY WORKER, 1113 W, Washington Blvd., at the Workers’ Home, 1902 W. Division St., at the Russian cooperative restaurant, Freiheit Office, 3118 W. Roosevelt Rd., and by worker correspondents Se” the Novy Mir. a Wrap your lunch in a ‘copy ot: the DAILY WORKER and give it (the DAILY WORKER, not the lunch) to your shop-mate. re a ont ~%