"When the movie goes up the mountain, everyone laughs for days; if it weren't for the Communist Party, we wouldn't have dreamed of it."
The people of the mountains sang the praises of their film screening teams with such enthusiasm, and thanked the Party for sending them such heartfelt thanks.
In the vast land of the motherland, we have many film screening teams that are loved by the masses, active in remote villages, forest areas, pastoral areas, and distant frontiers and fraternal ethnic areas. Two or three people, the members of the film screening team, carrying heavy machines, films and screens for many years, braved the cold and heat, climbed mountains and waded through mountains and mountains, walked through town after village, and delivered movies to the farmers' doors. A film screening team in The Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region's West Uzumuqin Banner once went to the Khan Ula Commune, two hundred and seventy miles away, to screen a film, and heard that there were some yurts more than ninety miles away, because it was separated by a mountain beam that was extremely difficult to walk, and the members there had never had the opportunity to see the movie. The projection team immediately rode up the carriage, covered the projector with raincoats, crossed many rushing rivers, and came to the "Yama King's Nose Dam", only to see that the mountain beams were high and straight, looking up at the top of the mountain, and the hats on their heads had fallen off. They mustered up enough courage to step on steep and slippery stones, carrying the film on their backs, dragging the car, and finally climbed to the top of the mountain. When I climbed the hill and downhill, I struggled to pull the car down slowly with a rope. When they arrived at their destination, the herders greeted the projectionists with lamb and milk tofu. When the herders saw Chairman Mao appear on the screen, they all cheered and applauded enthusiastically. They said excitedly: "We have only seen the picture of Chairman Mao, and now we can see from the movie how his old man walks and talks." "The vast majority of our film screening teams, like this film team active in the West Uzumuqin grassland, have used their hard work to enliven the cultural and recreational life in the countryside, so that farmers can be inspired and educated from many films, and help rural production and other work." The peasants affectionately regarded the members of the film screening team as their families, and the party and the government trusted them to call them propaganda pioneers.
Just as we are concentrating the strength of the whole Party and the whole country to support agriculture and build a new socialist countryside, it is only natural that the Party and the people place more and more ardent expectations on this group of propaganda elites who are active in the rural areas. This is how to do everything possible to let the peasants see the film and better understand and appreciate the film, so that the peasants can get a deeper revolutionary education, more knowledge of agricultural science, and better agricultural production.
In terms of the number of screening teams, although there is a dozen times more increase than before liberation, it is indeed still not enough compared with the vast rural areas and half a billion peasants in our country. Therefore, how to popularize and deepen screening activities under the existing conditions is a topic worth studying. For several years, in order to let the scattered people living in remote areas see the film, tens of millions of screening crew members have indeed paid extremely hard labor. The screening team of shidu people's commune in Fangshan County, Beijing, once carried a machine up the mountain and screened a movie for more than two dozen members of the Yihe First Production Squad. The members were touched to say that when they saw the movie, they could not forget the kindness of the Communist Party and Chairman Mao. Mrs. Zheng, a member of the Shidu Commune, said: "We used to tell the children how hard the Eighth Route Army was in its struggle against the reactionaries, and the children still didn't believe it. Now that everyone has watched more movies, we have confirmed what is played in the movie and what we say, and we are more and more convinced that what our older generation says is not false. We should make a lot of things on the movie so that children understand that today's good days are not easy to come! ”
Since the recent national release of "Li Shuangshuang" and "Locust Tree Village", it has been warmly praised by urban and rural audiences. We have read many enthusiastic letters from the audience. Some recounted how a "Li Shuangshuang" in their village adhered to principles and safeguarded the collective interests of the commune; some excitedly talked about how the recorders in their team had progressed like Xiwang. Others talk about how they received a class education from "Locust Tree Village" and strengthened their determination to take the road of collectivization. On the fourth day after the screening of "Li Shuangshuang" in Xuhe Commune, Dongtai County, Jiangsu Province, a new thing appeared that people praised: On this day, The clerk Wan Weidu went to work a little late because of a family affair, and picked up two less tons of dung than others. In the evening, when evaluating work, he underrated himself by six percent of his work according to the standard of work for each load of dung. The members said, "Such a little bit of work, forget it, as much as we remember." Wan Wei Du said: "Even if it is half a centimeter, I only want what I need, and I don't take what I shouldn't take." "Originally, Wan Wei Du always thought that the work of the clerk was not easy to do, and the work score was inevitably not personal, as long as the seven was not separated from the eight, almost on the line. Because of this selfishness, the arm is always outstretched. After reading "Li Shuangshuang", Wan Weidu said: "The work points record the size of each member's contribution to the collective, from now on, I will be as serious as Li Shuangshuang, do not sell people's feelings, the members will be energetic and energetic, and work together to do a good job in production." ”
More similar examples can be given, but this is enough to illustrate why the masses love good movies so much. And this enthusiasm of theirs, in turn, inspired the projectionists of the film team. The members of the Shidu Commune screening team proudly referred to the arduous travels they worked on as "marches." People earnestly hope that this unit will continue to carry forward the revolutionary fighting spirit, overcome all kinds of difficulties, and send the film to the remote countryside!
To let the peasants see and watch more movies, it is not only necessary for the screening team members not to be afraid of the difficulties in the march, but also to make proper arrangements for the relevant units leading the screening team. Of course, the number of screenings can indicate the work performance of a certain screening team from one aspect, but the distance of the screening team's march is directly related to the number of scenes. Is it possible to ask our screening team to reach or even exceed a certain number of screenings and increase the number of screening points?
It is precisely because rural film screening teams have only been established in recent years that peasant audiences are not yet very familiar with the appreciation of films and the mastery of the work of projectionists. In order to allow the peasants to better appreciate the film, the screening team members need to solve the following three problems: Is the film screened popular with the peasant masses, or is it really helpful to the peasants ideologically and in production? Did the farmer understand the content of the film? How can I improve the quality of my screening work?
In the work of selecting the appropriate films to screen, the second film screening team of Shuangcheng County, Heilongjiang has done a very good job. They often pay attention to what the members are doing, and they think about what films they should put on. Once, when they knew that the Yanjun Production Brigade of Qingling Commune was building a reservoir, they quickly brought "Young People in Our Village" to the screening. The boys who built the reservoir looked at it and said, "They can divert the water up the mountain, and we can dig the reservoir on the flat ground!" "The progress of the excavation day is getting faster and faster day by day. The members therefore praised the projection team members and said, "These girls (female projectionists) really understand our bottom." This sentence is really very good, we must find out the "bottom" in order to do a good job in film selection. Of course, this cannot be simply understood as what the peasants are doing, and what must be reflected. Peasant audiences have a wide range of hobbies: they welcome both films on the theme of revolutionary historical struggle and films that quickly reflect the actual struggle and life; they love both vivid and touching feature films and colorful opera films; and they also love scientific and educational films that are simple and expound scientific principles that can directly serve agricultural production. Therefore, mapping is an extremely complex and meticulous task.
Helping farmers understand and better appreciate the content of the film is the unshirkable task of the screening team. In this work, many screening teams set a good example, some using slides to introduce the main plot and characters of the film before the screening, and some explaining difficult shots in local language. Li Rihong, a young yi projectionist in Mubian County, Guangxi Autonomous Region, also learned several fraternal ethnic languages in order to meet the needs of his work, and explained the contents of the film to the audience before the screening. This spirit of actively serving the audience is touching.
The quality of the screening work is mainly manifested in the sound and light of the film reflected, whether there is a phenomenon of fragmentation and other issues. These problems are related to the custody and maintenance of film copies. The work of the projection team is highly mobile, and the number of machine and film copies is handled, which is easy to cause damage. This requires the projection team members to protect themselves well during the march
"Weapons". If our projection team really cares for the copy, repairs the machine well, and masters the use of the machine well, it will be able to improve the quality of the screening work very well. Moreover, the result of this will also play a great role in the saving of films and machines for the entire film industry.
Socialist construction in the rural areas is advancing in great strides. Half a billion peasants demanded to see more movies, more plays, and enrich their cultural and artistic lives. The burden on the shoulders of the comrades of the film screening team is even heavier. We wish the comrades a smooth work and believe that our film screening team will be able to let farmers watch more movies and enjoy movies better!
Let farmers enjoy the film more and better (1963) Original author / Yang Mei