Reel Trouble

Movies at Harvard may not be better than ever, but there are certainly more of them. Five undergraduate groups are glutting the University with over sixty films, almost two per week throughout the college year. In addition, Cine, known last year as the Boston Film Society, has encamped in Fogg, increasing the celluloid profusion by approximately twelve films.

Undergraduates regard Cine as unfair competition and have petitioned the Corporation for its removal. They fear strangulation of movie entertainment by College organizations. The Ivy Films group is particularly indignant; and as the only organization devoted to the cinema for cinema's sake, they have the clearest right to complain.

The question at this point is one of precedent: does the University do well to import outside operators at the risk of putting local ones out of business?

There is nothing wrong with competition, and its benefits are the same for undergraduate audiences whether imported or developed locally. While competition may be imperfect in the American economy, it generally works well within University walls, enriching Harvard's intellectual flavor. Furthermore, the University has no control over most of the students' competitors and cannot force Brattle Theatre, say, or the University Theatre to close down, even if it wished to.

But still, there is no point in the University threatening undergraduate organizations with destruction simply for competition's sake, especially when there is ample competition already. While Cine may be no such trumpet of doom, it is likely that importation of a theatre group or a full time, two-pictures-a-week movie producer would cut down student organizations in the field.

The best compromise between competition and the risk of annihilating undergraduate groups is the one presently followed by the University. The Administration has no set policy toward applications from outside groups, but it has propensities. If the improtee-prospective promises to fill an intellectual need at College, one not filled by local groups, the University "looks with favor on its application." This is precisely what happened last year when the Boston Film Society (now Cine), received its permit to operate on University property. No student group had the series of films BFS was providing, and no group had approached the University with any such idea.

This year, the University has made an ill-advised exception to that rule, for Ivy is presenting the same sort of series BFS showed last year. We must excuse the Administration for this breach however, for it made its commitment last spring, before Ivy Films broached its closed series plan, and cannot reverse itself now. We hope however that Cine's current contract will be its last. And we hope that the University will continue its policy of "looking with disfavor" on applications to import those who merely add to undergraduate competition without supplying any new or different services.