The Cinema

The Cinema: Its Present Position and Future Possibilities (1917) is a report and summary of evidence taken by the Cinema Commission instituted by the National Council of Public Morals in UK. The NCPM was “deeply concerned with the influence of the cinematograph, especially upon young people, with the possibilities of its development and with its adaptation to national educational purposes” and the report includes several passages taken from interviews with children where commission members asked them questions about their cinema-going habits. This document is a thorough investigation into the cinema in 1910’s Britain and what its effects might be on the viewing public. The report was favourable towards the film industry, which was delighted to receive such vindication of its work, and recommended the implementation of a system of official censorship, superseding that of local authorities. This rare document is a reprint of the original artifact and is strongly recommend it to anyone interested in early British film or the social history of film (The Bioscope, 2007).

The National Council of Public Morals (NCPM) was established in UK in 1904 under the headship of Sir James Marchant with the aim to constructing an alliance linking purity advocates, eugenicists and doctors. From 1904 to 1914, NPCM absorbed many of existing purity organizations in UK. The NPCM Cinema Commission Inquiry was led by the Lord Bishop of Birmingham, and comprised assorted religious; educational and political figures; representatives from the film trade; the British Board of Film Censors; and the Incorporated Society of Authors, Playwrights and Composers among others. NPCM published in 1911 the ‘Manifesto on Public Morals’ and in 1917 ‘ The Cinema: Its Present Position and Future Possibilities ‘, a report and summary of evidence including several passages taken from interviews with children where commission members asked them questions about their cinema-going habits.