last week However, i thinke However, and views of Lenin anc basic point that he needed made Daniculary Told ideal course line reviews of very serIOUs errori Angola) we I would like to reply to some of the criticisms of the arts coverage in Red Weekiy made by Martin O'Lear inese raise some imponant points wnici deserve a thorough airing, not just in these columns it is a great pity O'Leary marred his contribution by an over-persondisco ousessive duck on me ds an oraudi, Tamer than on certain prevalent ideas which he believes are I also object to the way that he invoked the name:
Trosky, not to clarity the debate but as a orm or menactual moanor Norinodoxy opponents. What is important about the ideas their content. On this comade o any had i to except the rather banal observation that you can't 'judge a book. film. play or whatever wholly o Lenin and Trotsky to justify it?
I am unable to comment directiv on his criticisms of the theatre group CAST, not having seen them However, his points sound suspiciously like some I previous reviews of theatre productions. For example in reviewing Fifth column ov koaccane neate arous theo week. simply a big Hoorah for already ce milled somanists... Perhaps it is the very form of these plays, rathe than bad writing, that is inadequate..
What comrade O'Leary has tried to do is to infer my all non-socialist works' from my aditorop productions in the theatre, plus one martincion and wide ancie town or over duezer films. The latter was in no sense intended to be an analysis of the genres of the various films involved, curren cinema, which nave centudoie social org The point about left agitprop theatre is that it is a form of art which sets itself a specific political task as an intervention in the labour movement, consciousness in a specimic ouecon Most or talis not because of the fallinos or his oollica ne -a , reductionist position, I would agree -but because, as O'Leary comments most of it is too politically impeccable and overt, allowing no contraNeither also - and here I disagree to some extent between ZANU and with justifiOr ANG enalist Does Hec Weekly consider that ZANU's inadequate programme is any better than that The willing participation of the adoress ourselves. critical exchange. ceoate and oroduction with a Comrade O'Leary says:
to beat nis comparatie resources and recanicue film industry will be in revolutionary hands wnicn die noting to clarity ine cabare only to cover those films of reviewed of even reached London!
• One caroner Ine to affect selection of reviews. thanks to the efforts of comrade Gardner tions of the leaderships. Serious anti-impnon-partisar UnIT amongst Zimbabwean exIes are Britain with the for Students (NUZIS); already Nuzio nas been slandered ov sections or zaNu as beine a ISIS with him - does it fail because of the performers This is generally of a very high standard, comparable with the so-callec -straiont orotessional meatre. ine ma or alines o such productions lie at the level of an inadequate dramatic form. They lack a revolutionary, innovativ content. That is the central question to which we car as pan or a process or wurud When it comes to the commercial cinema, we are different Of course, films like Th cxorcist peddle a reachonary message ana naver m general, a reactionary erect. bur war enrect canno be combatted except by work of at least comparable technical excellence. This is somewhat wide of the mark. We are not yet in a position to make films of and Will DrOw aov not de unt aner a socials revolton when nE Films cost money, a great deal of money , which we have not got. The best we can do now is to analyse ana comment, principany ortue reachonary nature orm ano sociar oreins orsuch hims. we must surer separate the few grains of wheat from the chalf and those grains are in no sense simply those with an It political counter-line.
However, unlike comrade O'Leary, I did not think nat a orier surev or the tim inoust over me las year was the place to go into what film analysts call the semiology of film or its historic development. My I by his own cryptic, garblec comments on the origins of Gothic in romanticism Finally, his point about the unavailability of much I in the pages is and theatre which wowe be seen outside condon. wet. ger.cem matenal Tunned criteron example, the Roadgang show referred to earlier never Martin O'Leary concerned what he felt was our over-reliance on Car exclusion balanced We would point out that this not of our own choosing We would be be able to draw on a wide range onner redders to ConDure boin to inis debate ano to our reoular ars coveraot As the situation stands at present, however, the faci that we have any regular arts coverage at all is largely ships, we have to make it clear ir we do nor enteren tale between me movements 53 ПІ publisning Chigwendere interview in Red Weekly actually provide a left cover for the seclanan policies or ine nanonal Moreover. •11 can seriously
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coverage lack of expertise or technique. form
overt and correct position was validated