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his love. 11 He worried deeply about the war in Vietnam, and in 1968 told Hepworth of a short anti-war feature he had just finished, entitled Offspring. 12 He was committed to his family. Having taken his wife Belle and young daughter Suzie on work visits to England, he regularly updated Hepworth on his children's progress, delightedly reporting that his daughter-in-law, a sculptor, had applied to the Slade, where Butler taught. 13 e dedication to 5 British Sculptors might thus be seen as Forma's credo: 'To my wife Belle – who believes with me that great art transcends national borders and paves the way to world peace through love and understanding.' 14 A DOCUMENTARY ART? e 'artist documentary' gained currency in the United States from the early 1950s, particularly in the wake of Hans Namuth and Paul Falkenberg's short feature, Jackson Pollock 51 (1951). Made on 16mm film, with a single camera, no outside narrator, and no synchronous sound, it included footage of Pollock painting on glass, filmed from beneath, to a commentary by the artist explaining his approach in clear, simple terms. e film's power lay equally in its demystification of the creative process and in its influence upon younger performance artists. 15 Premiered at MoMA in June 1951, it was distributed widely to educational institutions. In the UK, the first International Festival of Documentary Films was held in Edinburgh in 1947. 16 By 1950, the Arts Council and British Film Institute (BFI) had established the Art Film Tour specifically to disseminate art documentaries. Each year, during winter months, a projectionist with a bus containing curtains, 16mm equipment and a repertoire of 20–25 films visited art colleges, schools, museums and art societies for a fee covering 'only the cost of hiring the projection unit'. 17 e most frequently requested films in the 1950s included Henry Moore (1951) and L.S. Lowry (1957), both directed for the BBC by John Read. 18 Summarising the recent development of the art documentary, Read's father, the art critic Herbert Read, described how the camera itself can reveal qualities in painting or sculpture which do not necessarily arrest the casual eye. e camera … is an analytical instrument, and used judiciously … can awaken interest and enhance enjoyment far more easily than the written or spoken word. Most instructive and inspiring of all are those films that show the artist at work: a demonstration such as Picasso makes in a recent film creates excitement and wonder, and these are the beginning of understanding and action. 19 Sculpture seemed particularly suited to representation on film, argued the critic J.P. Hodin, reviewing two English films that captivated him in 1950: Shapes and Forms (George Hoellering, 1949), documenting the ICA's groundbreaking exhibition '40,000 Years of Modern Art', and Looking at Sculpture (Alexander Shaw, 1950), a guided tour of the V&A's sculpture rooms. In these visual 'essays', the mobile film 11. Warren Forma, letter to Barbara Hepworth, 14 March 1966, Tate Archive, TGA 20132/1/61/3. Forma's mother credited Christian Science with saving Forma when he was seriously ill as a child. 12. Forma, letter to Hepworth, undated (envelope postmarked 12 January 1968), Tate Archive, TGA 20132/1/61/10. 13. Forma, letter to Hepworth, 11 January 1973, Tate Archive, TGA 965/2/18/17/19. 14. 5 British Sculptors (work and talk), p. 4. Belle Forma (1925–1986) also worked in film, later setting up her own location agency for clients including Woody Allen. 15. Caroline Jones, Machine in the Studio, University of Chicago Press, 1996, p. 72. 16. Organised by the Edinburgh Film Guild, this festival expanded to become the Edinburgh International Film Festival. 17. e Arts Council of Great Britain: Twenty-third annual report and accounts, year ended 31 March 1968, p. 28. See also Katerina Loukopoulou, '"Films bring art to the people": the art film tour in Britain (1950-1980)', Film History, vol. 19, 2007, pp. 414- 422. 18. Jackson Pollock 51 was first shown on the Art Film Tour in 1959. 19. Herbert Read, 'Art and Film', Athene, vol. 7, no. 4, June 1956, p. 7. Read referred to Henri-Georges Clouzot's film Le mystère Picasso (1956). 9

