The Academy Award® Documentary
Categories did not begin until the 14th Awards in 1941. But the Academy did
recognize non-fiction films (many by notable filmmakers) prior to that, in the
Short Subject categories. A 1935 winner, Ivor Montagu’s WINGS OVER MT. EVEREST,
showed the first airplane flight over the world’s tallest peak. Fred Zinnemann’s
THAT MOTHERS MIGHT LIVE, a winner in 1938, dramatized the medical advances made
by a noted Hungarian physician. But these films were not deemed by many to be “documentaries,”
a term which then connoted more serious accounts of contemporary issues and
events. For the first time in 1940, the Academy considered easing the entry
rules for Shorts, to include such “true” documentary films, but only if they
had had commercial runs in regular theaters.
Though some filmmakers were happy
to have their films accepted due to this decision, many were not so thrilled,
and confusion and controversy ensued. Many fine films, including Willard Van
Dyke’s VILLAGE TOWN and CHILDREN MUST LEARN; and John Ferno’s SO THEY LIVE,
were not eligible under these rules, as they had not been exhibited in
commercial houses, and U.S. government productions played for no charge. But
two fine documentaries, Julien Bryan’s SIEGE, which captured on film Germany’s
invasion of Poland, and LONDON CAN TAKE IT, by Harry Watt and Humphrey
Jennings, that showed British resilience during the Blitz, received nominations
in the One-Reel category. Both films are now considered classics.
It became clear to the Shorts
Committee, and to the Academy at large, that documentaries could no longer be
shoehorned into this category, and that these films had become significant
enough to merit their own awards. The Committee considered the topic in their
meeting of January 20th, 1941. Discussion on the issue continued throughout the
year.
For most of 1941, the United States
was still officially neutral in World War II, but being drawn closer into the
conflict every day. Certainly the Academy’s recognition of SIEGE and LONDON CAN
TAKE IT - films made the previous year about the war in Europe - demonstrated a
keen interest in films depicting the foreign war that a majority of Americans
still thought should remain foreign. The documentary had been gaining stature
during the 1930’s, but the advent of the war signaled the real turning point
for non-fiction filmmaking.
So, three days before the attack on
Pearl Harbor, the Academy Board of Governors adopted a resolution to consider
the possibility of granting Special Awards to documentary productions. The general Awards Committee met two weeks
later on the 17th of December. This Committee consisted of six
members from the Screen Actors Guild, four from the Screen Directors Guild,
nine producer members from various studios, five Science Branch members, and
seven Academy officers ex officio. It noted that,
“United States, British, Canadian,
and Russian Government films, [the]‘March of Time,’ a number of other
newsreel releases of documentary type, and some other films
privately sponsored but shown in regular theatres have been a significant
development in the motion picture medium, particularly during the
past year, and should achieve Awards® recognition.”
The Awards Committee voted a recommendation that Special
Awards be given for the Best Documentary Feature and the Best Documentary Short
Subject. At a subsequent meeting of the Board of Governors, this recommendation
was approved. Thus, by early January 1942, the Documentary Awards were born!
In a letter to Academy Librarian
Margaret Gledhill [Herrick] and Academy Executive Secretary Donald Gledhill
dated January 18, 1942, the Dutch born documentarian Joris Ivens wrote, “I am
so very glad that at last we are recognized by the Academy and that the
documentary film has become one of the ‘decent’ branches of the Motion Picture
Arts and Sciences.” Unfortunately for Ivens, his landmark film about
electrification of rural areas in the United States, POWER AND THE LAND, was declared
ineligible two years in a row. In 1940, it could not compete in the Shorts
category because it was a few hundred feet longer than the stipulated length.
And since it had been exhibited during 1940, it was not accepted for the 14th
Awards, for which only films released in calendar year 1941 were eligible.
It is worth noting that some other worthy
films submitted in 1941 were declared ineligible, as they had not played
theatrically during. Among them were A CHILD WENT FORTH, by Joseph Losey,
concerning a haven for children evacuated from London during the Blitz; and THE
FORGOTTEN VILLAGE, directed by Herbert Kline and Alexander Hammid, and written
by John Steinbeck, examining the conflicts between modernization and
traditional culture in a small Mexican village.
Next, the Academy formed a
Documentary Awards Committee, consisting of Richard Macaulay (the chair), Henry
Fonda, David O. Selznick, Joseph Valentine and Henry Hathaway. Macaulay had recently written THEY DRIVE BY
NIGHT and would soon pen ACROSS THE PACIFIC [a side note – I have not been able
to find an photo of Macaulay anywhere. Very strange]. Fonda had been nominated
in 1940 for THE GRAPES OF WRATH, and would narrate several wartime
documentaries, including the Oscar® nominated IT’S EVERYBODY’S WAR, and the winner THE BATTLE OF MIDWAY. He also narrated
the 1951 doc short winner BENJY, and the doc nominees THE REALLY BIG FAMILY (1966), A SPACE
TO GROW (1968) and AN IMPRESSION OF JOHN STEINBECK: WRITER (1969). SPRING PARADE, WINGS OVER HONOLULU and MAD ABOUT
MUSIC were all recent nominations for cinematographer Valentine. Hathaway had
been nominated for directing LIVES OF A BENGAL LANCER.
Selznick was coming off his twin
triumphs of GONE WITH THE WIND and REBECCA, which won consecutive Best Picture
awards. For the 15th Awards, Academy President Walter Wanger asked him to chair
the Documentary Committee, and Selznick initially refused, as he wanted to
devote all his energies to his next production. A flurry of correspondence from
Wanger and his fellow Committee members eventually persuaded Selznick to
reluctantly accept the post.
The Documentary Committee first met
on February 4th, at 7PM in the Academy Board Room (in the offices in the Taft
Building in Hollywood), with Donald Gledhill and Academy Publicity Counsel Hal
Hall in attendance (Hathaway couldn’t make the first meeting). They reviewed
the list of films to be screened for consideration; Fonda and Hall conducted a drawing
by lot to determine the order of presentation. In the early years, the Academy
actively sought out documentary entries, with members of the Committee and the
Academy at large suggesting appropriate films. In subsequent years, the Academy
sent invitation letters to studios, individuals, and the film commissions of
many countries. The new category proved to be somewhat ill defined, so the
Committee stated,
“It was agreed that the definition
of documentary and the eligibility rules were far from clear and
comprehensive, and that definite action should be taken during the year to
remedy the situation and propose improvements for next year’s Awards
Committee.”
And in a move designed to showcase documentaries and
increase general awareness of non-fiction films, the Committee
“strongly endorsed a proposal to
recommend to the Academy Board that monthly showings whenever feasible
be held for the Academy Membership at which outstanding documentary
films be featured. It was also recommended that in connection with
such showings that the Academy Library should prepare and
distribute to the Academy membership small pamphlets describing the new
releases and serving to keep the membership up-to-date with
developments in the ‘documentary,’‘actuality’ and ‘war reporting’
fields of film use.”
In the feature category, two films
stood out: TARGET FOR TO-NIGHT and KUKAN.
Harry Watt’s TARGET FOR TO-NIGHT, the story of a British bomber raid on
Germany, had an incalculable morale boosting effect in the United Kingdom, and
was eventually shown to an estimated 50 million people in 12,000 theaters in
the Western Hemisphere. KUKAN (subtitled THE UNCONQUERABLE SPIRIT OF CHINA) detailed St. Louis
journalist Rey Scott’s epic travels through China, documenting both the wide
range of cultures as well as the horrific events of the Japanese invasion and
the staunch Chinese defense. Both were
then currently in release, but the Committee suggested holding a double bill
screening for members who hadn’t yet seen them. The Committee then made an
interesting decision:
“We find that during the past year
two particularly outstanding documentary features have been shown, KUKAN and
TARGET FOR TO-NIGHT. These are each of high quality and production origin as to
make competitive voting difficult inasmuch as the field is still too new for
standards of comparison to be generally agreed upon, without a competitive
vote, a recommendation be made by the Awards Committee that an Awards
Certificate of Merit be given to the producers of KUKAN and a similar
certificate to the producers of TARGET FOR TO-NIGHT in recognition of their
production of these films.”
Thus, there was no official Documentary Feature winner that
year. At an Academy Board meeting at the Brown Derby on February 20th,
Selznick, Howard Estabrook, John Aalberg, and James Hilton formed a committee
to write the text of the citations for KUKAN and TARGET FOR TONIGHT.
The first voting screening for
documentaries was held at the Filmarte Theatre at 1228 Vine Street (a block
from the current location of the Academy’s Pickford Center and Film Archive), on Tuesday,
February 10th. Some of those in attendance (in addition to the Documentary
Committee) were Olivia DeHavilland, Farciot Edouart, Howard Estabrook, John
Garfield, Norman Reilly Raine, Frank Partos, Sol Lesser, Lesley Selander, Pete
Smith, Dorothy Tree and Walter Wanger. The ballots were collected by Price,
Waterhouse & Company.
A look at the films in competition
for the first Documentary Short Subject award:
ADVENTURES IN THE BRONX, produced by Film Associates, with
commentary by John Kiernan. This was the first in a series of shorts sponsored
by the New York Zoological Society. It shows the experiences of a boy who
sneaks into the Bronx Zoo with his toy elephant before the gates are opened.
BOMBER, produced by the Office of Emergency Management, was
written and narrated by poet Carl Sandburg. It shows the construction of the
B-26 Martin bomber at the Glenn L. Martin plant in Baltimore, from the first
production of its 25,000 parts to its first test flight.
CHRISTMAS UNDER FIRE, produced by the British Ministry of
Information, and directed by Harry Watt. American journalist Quentin Reynolds
narrates this look at the tenacity of British during the bombing by the German
Luftwaffe.
CHURCHILL’S ISLAND, produced by the National Film Board of
Canada, directed by Stuart Legg, and narrated by Lorne Greene. It describes the
Battle of Britain, and shows that Britain could win the war because of the
moral strength of its people.
LETTER FROM HOME, produced by the British Ministry of
Information, and directed by Carol Reed. Another film salute to the courage of
Londoners under the Nazi Blitz juxtaposes a letter from an English mother
(Celia Johnson, in her first screen appearance) to her children, who have been
evacuated to the US, with the details of her life. Reed later co-directed, with
Garson Kanin, the 1945 Documentary Feature Winner THE TRUE GLORY.
LIFE OF A THOROUGHBRED, produced by Truman Talley. Shows how
a champion horse is trained, and how he finally becomes a winner. The Calumet
Farm in Lexington, Kentucky is depicted, as well as a real champion, Whirlaway.
One of the two nominees not examining events of the war.
NORWAY IN REVOLT, produced by the March of Time. A
dramatization of the formation of a Norwegian military force in exile, and of
Norwegian resistance activities.
A PLACE TO LIVE, produced by the Philadelphia Housing
Authority. In the tradition of the great progressive films of the late 1930’s
and early 1940’s such as THE RIVER, VALLEY TOWN and THE LAND, director Irving
Lerner shows the deleterious effects of slum housing. This lyrical work
features a rousing, Coplandesque score.
RUSSIAN SOIL, produced by Amkino. This film, concerning the
Russians’ defense of their homeland against the invading Germans, was a last
minute replacement for another short subject from the Soviet Union.
SOLDIERS OF THE SKY, produced by Truman Talley. The second
nominee produced by Talley, it depicts paratrooper training in Fort Benning,
Georgia.
WAR CLOUDS IN THE PACIFIC, produced by the National Film
Board of Canada, produced by Stuart Legg and narrated by Lorne Greene. The
second NFBC/Legg/Greene film nominated this year, it examines the new and
dangerous Japan, and the reaction of the democracies, which erected a vast
defense system across the Pacific.
At the 14th Academy Awards ceremony
at the Biltmore Hotel on February 26th, CHURCHILL’S ISLAND became the first
film to win an Academy Award® in a Documentary category. John Grierson, Film
Commissioner of Canada’s National Film Board and the man who coined the term “documentary,”
presented the Award to CHURCHILL’S ISLAND, as well as the two Special Awards to
TARGET FOR TO-NIGHT and KUKAN. Since all three were considered “special” awards
(and because this was an “experimental” category), Grierson handed out
Certificate of Merit scrolls, not Oscar statuettes. He began his presentation
with a funny and trenchant speech, which brilliantly captured the state of the
documentary film at that time:
“Long ago the documentary film set
itself the not very popular task of talking about the facts when people were
more interested in illusions; of describing social problems which were
embarrassing to some and ugly to many; of keeping men’s consciences just a
little closer to the dreadful grindstone of actuality. We are all tied today to
the grindstone of actuality, and I am glad to be here if only as a symbol that
all of us - whatever branch of film making we pursue - are all for one and one
for all in a common effort.”
