blurb onthe independents SRAEL IS PREPARING ANOTHER JUNE WAR Is the last few days we have received whet we rogard Sicating that Israel is plan ind posnibly Jordan :tign Minister Eber volived discumións of Sinks to wha pild-up in Egvot. The truction of Sam 3 the israel lation, this time at the Lvt that theo dess is preparing for s of the prosesses at work in June war. (For its pert. the British Left have shown then f the nature of the оте сптиная апо етинол от teliowing Taet LT LDOO LUM CAI neeks and months we shouid bear in OOTS OF THE CRISIS: the anis of the conflicts ared is no lo that between terset and the sont has frankformed thereatoship of torce cal level-and is doing so incressingly on ry one it wall — between the progre ionary forces in the area: (al it The Other Cin nto its first week at The Place is a four-weel seison of independent British films brought together bry the Other Cinerma. The programme is comprehensive, and indicative of üst how la roalty the trik pu anE DY UN Other Cinema of what theif altemative distribution policy amounts to-till now they have been almost entirely dependent on such props of the Establishment as Contomporary and Connoisseur. But they came into existence specifically to promote a third circuit for independent films, one completely bypisting the industry stranglehold on all aspocts of production, distribution and echibition.
This broak is not really as radical as it sounds -for a start it involves the basic contradiction that nearly all their capital has to come from the industry anyway, which is in effect promoting its own alternative with a view to taking it over when necessary. A far more radical deporture is being practised by Cinema Action. They ignore the very concept of a circuit, and concentrate on mobile distribution showing a collection of films and discussing them to sudiences assembied in schools, universities, factories and community contres.
But in terms of effectiveness, Cinema Action is small and alone in its field, while the Other Cinema is committed to reaching a nation-wide audience regularly, through its regional outletshence despite its exclusively bourgeois orientation it is a progrussive front, one that couid possibly unufy the anarchic and dangerously competitive growth of independent distribution in England.
When Mobile Distribution Becomes Important Of course on a longer perspective, all distribution will be superseded in only a tew years by cassettes, or at least will become more a library system than one of public readings, and hence a lilkely candidate for government control. Which is where mobile distribution becomes important-because it is semi-underground, it escapes this government control (censorship, etc.). And because it brings groups of people together in familiar sutroundings, it is an effective medium for political propagenda The films then, Five colour features the first week, two of them celebrating theit premieres. Praise Marx and Pass the Ammunition, by Maurice Hatton, was the most expensive, and the least successtul in terms of innovation imag nation, or visual intelligence. That's not to put the film down-in its old-fashioned way it is an honest look at a popular conception of "revolutionary activity", but it's outclassed by the youthful vigour of the films shown with it.
They were all made for 5,000 or lest-at $12,000, still exponsive by U.S. standards. Incredibly hard work goes into these independent productions-it usually involves one person acting as produogr and director, end by the force of his personality attracting a group sround him willing to wark for nothing.
exposs the colonising exp settier state of lirael regimes in the Arab worid which mperatem, (el ie thrown up tremaie tasks of the Aral are linked with vanguerd posing the decisive 38 BarEN -the forging of a revolut nary party ab able to centralise tha it whole in the fight for a united focialist iodie Enit: "
mww ex posing the petip pourg ably: on the one hand they have attempted to crush the militant soctions of the Palestiniens by direct assults from liree and the Jordenian and the other, they have tried to ul settlement" on the arsa the che main Arab satesand ok, probably with some new he return of Sinial, and some Led together: such a Pu nent ore threatening situation for itinian resistence remaloid while the crushing of the Palestinian vanguard wen greatar convuisions in the anco in wy with to offer her, The Iraeli ruling clams, in spite of its overall commitmen to the imperialist rystam Hic inta which may not umoathly dominant imperialiv moreover her own preferre achieve those intereits.
the fai and more to teke the strategic decitions into their own Kandi: if mobody + ver to be prepared to do the ecemary job on the Palestinians, the 1 wil reish the chence-of doing it the or a percentage out. 11 involves hustling stock. equipment, processing und editing facilifiesand when the film is finished, there's the long grind of hawicing it round to distributors.
"The Fall"
Peter Whitehead's The Fall is the closest to an analyss of the subjective and objective sides of fiim making, but the experiment fails and all that we're left with is a dismally narcissistic justification for the word "artist". A man and his movie camera set off to discover Americathey become increasingly involved in the protest movement, taking part in the Colombia strike, till it emerges that the film is no longer as important as the events it is recording. In fact the man's contribution as an artist is to thread his documentary matorial together with a literary device-that of the novel-as-journal, To this extent The Fafl is a vory honest film-to the same extent it is dishonest in that Whitehead's self effacement is belied by his na cissisi. "Events"
John Llewellan's Events is concerned with much the same sort of problems, but removed one step from Llewellan to a group of poople who share his life-style. He then follows them through various situations with a cinema-verite camera-sitting around in kitchens, bathrooms, petting busted, chatting in bed after a fuck-till he blows it all up in a fantasy junk yand final scone. Events is important because it's not trying to be the greatest film ever made-it's just people, the way we know them to be from our own experience.
"Trouble in Molopolis"
Philippe Mora's Trouble in Molopolis operates through a diametrically opposed method, Here the people come trom an exclusivoly mediated experience-the hoods and molls of a thirties gengsters movis, set to music, The film opens as a period faroe, becomes an Eastmanco our comic strip, a melodrama, end simost ends as a Brechtian tragedy. But via mediation, it is revebled as an exercise in people discovering themselves through playing roles. The product of a consuming cinephilia. Trouble in Molopolis can perhaps claim to be the first real massBudienos undorground movie in England. Makin' lt"
Being premiered too is Simon Hartog's Makin' It. a series of screen tests shat one Sunday night with a stationary camora, The idoa is interesting -to set up a panel of faceless "directors" who Then manipulate, exploit and cradely dominate. a scries of girts who have applied for paris in a. hyocthetical movie. A documentary situasion where the camera s as faceless an the penel, Und at the samo timo the focus of ail the action it who, and how real is an unreal situstion? But the spectator is so outraged at beirg foruad into this voyeurist role, that it seems the TAm shouldr't be relessod until an enuivelent serics 0f screen tests is shot w ti male nool sasteand war. As the political rituation in the ares evolees with no solution in sight and the resulting contradictios withie laranti society sharperi, the argumente of the Tiey tor wary beorne inereanal ciree become increaiingly attractive count global interests of the various powers at an ne time. But for a rough guide we could grada t gimes on the other in the foilowing order: USA, GF ance, the priority of the Soviet Union in tha ares:
5. THE CRISIS DEEPENS: time it not on the side of Revolution ündern prea to te bordent end te badea eie ae hroughour the Arab Intelligentsia, these processes ПЬ TINUEL CEO ave Deen acce/frated by avery twist and turn of the Areb regimes, etterrots by thu Lebanosa and Jordanign states to rid themselves of the Palestinlan menace heve resulted only in diapening thair own crives, while the e temale panel. Then the two can be shown simultaneously, and indignation will be balanced by discomfort. It goes without saying that all these films have little in com mon with the neo Hollywood hack jobs like Midnighr Gowboy.
In the coming three weeks an enormous number of acreenings have been planned-as well as repeats of the first woek, programmes by Steve Owosk in, Peter Gidal, Mireille Canserean, the Tattooists, Peter Wthitehead, Fellk Groone, David Larcher's Mare's Tail, Philip Trevellyon's The Ship, Joel Tuber's Great Wall of China, Kevin Brownlow's /t Happened Here, The Hornscy Film, Alan Power's The Secret Life of Herando Cortez and possibly at the and of the season, Steve Dwoskin's 10mm colour feature Times Four, And this selection ignores films made for television, which could rwake up a ater collection.
Daniel S. Greenberg: The Politics of American Sclence, London, Penguin Books, 2969, 10/-. *Hilary Rose and Steven Rose: Science and Society, London, Allen Lane the Penguin Poess, 1969, 50/-, Che ortbodox view of bourpeois scionce, and its relation to technology, is roughly the following: Science has a unitary structure. Pure selence compriles the expansion of man's understanding of and control over nature, and this, at an acoelerating pace, entraias developments in applied science and technology, which employ the tew fundamental knowledge for transformation of the productive prcoess. Thus whatever pure science makes possible bocomes in due course inevitable in production, and therefore the contradictions of science and technology under capitalise can be resolved if oniy scientists are men of good will working at good things, that is at the polution of socially urgent problems. These problems can and should be identified by the community, to whose demands both scientists and tbose who allocate reseurces between them should be responsive.
revoluti ionary current and of a luftward-mo political trend among university and secondary students and in the ingressingly hrysterical respe the Isracti governracnt so any sign of opoosition Tie Les Tha THE PES O NTE OENCTUT ET HRST.
asell ruling class in a series of blows: the schi It is essential to rocognise that this view of science is wrong, and that problems cannot be correctly posed in these terens. Any serious discussion of science, its subcessos and failuzes, its distortions under capitalism and prospects under socialism, must start from a ralisation of the qualitative differences betwoen "pure"
science, "applied" acienoe, and "technology".
or, in Greenberg's terms, between "basic rescairch", "applied resentch", and "development . Of courte the damarcations are tune dependent, and ate not always sharp;
moreover they have been formulated in the context of bourgeois capitalism and need re examination, but at least tbese terons describe activities which stand in distinguishable relation to the capitalist productive process, and they will servo for the time being.
Greenberg, who is careful to make these distinctions, confines himsolf almost enticely to pure science, withib which he makes the further important distinction between "Jittle science"
and "big science"; la a book tracing the institutional development of pure acience in the United States, mainly during the period of rapid expansion snoe 1940, he is naturally more concerned with big ecience (which is characterised by large capital investment and large research teams).
The Roses, in a shorter book, attempt i imilar study for sclence in che United Kingdon but devote several chapters to otber countries;
their wider scope bardly justifies some careless ness over detail (who is Wilhelm Heisenbeng?) and leaves a strong impresion of superficiality. Much more serious is their fallure to preserve he distinctions between pure scence, appller cienice and technology Tbus in the questio quoted above, big sclenoe (high energy physics), little science (moloculaz biology), applied research (computers) and development (Concorde), activicies which involve immensely different scales of investinent, some of them with no foreseeable application, depending for resources on different clements of the capitalist structure, are all jumbled up together, "contending" for the same funds. This confusion of disparate formations persists throughout the book and detracts very much STOCO SES VOle.
The nature of bourgeois science demands a Tresh Marxist analysis. A major problem, in effeet raised but not solved by Greenberg, in to understand the specific relations between basic tesearch and the processes of production, through ail the intermediate stages. These relations ate mediated by competition and the demand for profit, not by the good will of scientists. The resulting contradictions cannot be resolved within a capitalist fomowork.
Engels understood these problems better:: *This regulation [of the social effects of production| reguires sorething more than mere koowledge. It requires a compléte revolution in our hitherto existing mode of production, and. simultaneously a revolution in our whole contemporary sociat order." (F. Engels, Diaiectios of Nature, Progress Publisbers, Мовсаш 1066. в.
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