Contemporary Films had a global impact and influenced my career as a director

‘Through Contemporary Films’ distribution systems, [Johannesburg Film Society] was able to show Satyajit Ray’s film Pather Panchali, a film that has lived on in my mind while so many others have been forgotten.’ Subir Banerjee, left, and Uma Dasgupta in Pather Panchali. Photograph: Everett Collection Inc/Alamy

With regard to the article about 75 years of Contemporary Films by Andrew Pulver (‘Not just Hollywood crap’: Mike Leigh on the East End communist who brought world cinema to the UK, 1 September), it was not only in Britain that Charles Cooper’s impact was felt: it spread to many other parts of the world.

Contemporary Films made a major impact on me in South Africa before I even went to London to study film-making in 1959. In Johannesburg, as an 18-year-old, I discovered the Johannesburg Film Society. Through Contemporary Films’ distribution systems, the society was able to show Satyajit Ray’s film Pather Panchali, a film that has lived on in my mind while so many others have been forgotten.