15 DECEMBER 1944, Page 4

As I fancy Mr. Edgar Anstey mentioned in broadcasting on

the week's films the other day, there seems to be a great need for some- thing like a Film Information Centre, where cinema-goers can find out about the exhibition of those secondary, or short, films, which, admirable though so many of them are, never get into the advertise- ments, since these are monopolised by "the big picture." The difficulty, of course, would be the dissemination of the information ; to acquire it should be easy enough. In the same connexion a suggestion reaches me emphasising the need for a repertory cinema for non-fictional films—documentaries, educational and scientific films (nearly all of them shorts), particularly those shown in the first instance only to specialised audiences. Many of the Ministry of Information films would clearly have a place. It may be that this need is already met ; if so I have not heard of it. Such a theatre would, I believe, attract a large public, in the greater pro- vincial towns as well as in London. What we really want is a kind of Radio Times for films.