C.E.M.A.

Was there ever a more stilted introduction than that given by RAB Butler.Continually looking down at his notes and fiddling with a pencil.The actual documentary is quite interesting.

CEMA is a Ministry of Information documentary that deserves to be treasured as an invaluable record of Britain's enlightened cultural policy that began during World War II and continued in the years immediately afterwards.

Introduced somewhat haltingly by R. A. ("Rab") Butler, then the President of the Board of Education, CEMA looks at the creation of the Council for the Encouragement of Music and Arts, that specifically took culture - in the form of music, dance, theater, and other fine arts - to venues countrywide, not only in the hope of sustaining morale, but as part of a desire to improve people's levels of general cultural awareness. Sometimes the experiment proved more trouble than it was worth, but documentary evidence from the period suggests that many communities who otherwise would not have enjoyed the experience really benefited from some of London's most famous artistes visiting their local areas and giving concerts, performing plays, or indulging in other cultural activities.

What gives this documentary an edge is the archive footage of actual performances. We see Dame Myra Hess performing Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 in a crowded canteen, with audiences listening raptly to the music before continuing their daily grind of assembling munitions. The Old Vic Company rehearse and perform THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR in a small provincial theater, making light of the cramped conditions to produce an extremely funny piece, giving us fascinating insight into the performance conditions of that time. And we see art exhibitions being taken round to local venues, with some of the best examples of contemporary British painters. Some of their work might look archaic now, but the level of debate generated among viewers at that time proved that there was a genuine market for this kind of public performance.

Viewers should be grateful that such pieces still survive in the archives as windows into lost worlds.