Show FILMS FILM'S VALUE IN RECORD OF LIFE IS BEYOND PRICE Wh When n n It recd race or tribe dies dl's out the record of or Its Us habits often orten dies diu with It There may be left lert buildings or pottery lUel or drawings If it not writings from which con can piece to together ther some picture of or what these thello lost peoples were like tike In their dally daily ute life But nut the picture Is Incomplete perhaps fragmentary The lost races remain remote and unreaL The I archeologist Is now no noto to find a new ally In tn the film film or or rather arche- arche In days to come come will nn find themselves served nerved by films film made In our time of peoples who are now disappearing die dis appearing al and who will w soon loon be be beyond be be- yond rond record The congress of an anthropologists an- an which has just been meeting In London has bas decided to set lIet setup tip up a R permanent committee to supervise super surer vise the film tum do documentation of or races which are In danger of ot dying out The Tho committee will w have two main duties l First It will tn try to bring together what materials of or the kind already often exist often as lIS they say In tn Inthe Inthe the most unlikely places news reels tropical films etc as n a sort of or cen cn central central film reference library The Tho second duty Is to send out expeditions ti to places where the native tants lire are tn In danger of ot disappearing lI r I or of ot being absorbed In other groups or t to o advise o travelers visiting such luch places on the way to make a lira film record of scientific c value One must not expect too much from the tho Idea Iden attractive as ns It Is ii Is of ot sending Fending out special epe- epe cial rial expeditions In tn search earch of suitable material The Tho committees committee's resources will no doubt be small small and and It might vitiate the scientific nU c value of the Uie tile plc tures tur's taken It If they had to Io pay for them themselves by tale sate for popular exhibition But nut there Is sound work to bo be done on less exacting lines One might add the tho suggestion that It Is le lenot not only the manners of or vanishing t i Copies which should bo ho recorded but I Ithe the many vanishing customs of peoples pee peo Ales ples whose survival depends on their adapting themselves cs to new ways of or I life Manchester Eng Guardian I II I |