Chapter Four
MOVING OVERSEAS: “FILMS FOR AFRICANS, WITH AFRICANS, BY AFRICANS”
In January 1948, the British Film Institute (BFI) hosted a conference entitled “The Film in Colonial Development” in which its European participants outlined the need to “teach the people of the colonies to run the show themselves.” At this same moment, the Colonial Film Unit set up its first training school in Accra (there would be subsequent schools in Jamaica and Cyprus), training a (first) generation of local filmmakers. These schools, closely examined here, would provide the personnel and equipment for the local units that began to emerge from the end of the decade and are crucial, but largely unknown, moments in the establishment of post-colonial cinema cultures.This chapter examines this broader post-war movement – of film equipment and personnel – from London to the colonies and revealsthe seismic social, political and economic changes, which are played out both on, and through, film after the war.
KEY MATERIALS AND FILMS
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P. 149 READ: “Camera Unit in Africa,” Colonial Cinema, June 1946, 24-27 |
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P. 150 READ: W. Sellers, “Address to the British Kinematograph Society,” Colonial Cinema, March 1948, 9-13. |
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P. 153 READ: “Practical Hints to the Film Director,” Colonial Cinema, March 1949, 3-5. |
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p. 153 READ: The Gambia, Colonial Cinema, March 1948, 5-8. |
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P. 158 WATCH: Here is the Gold Coast (John Page, COI, 1947) |
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P. 160 READ: “The Film Story of Malaya’s Recovery,” The Straits Times, 4 August 1946, 4. |
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P. 163 READ: George Pearson, “Health Education by Film in Africa,” Health Education Journal, 7:1, March 1949, 39-42. |
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P. 165 READ: “Films to Educate Populations,” Colonial Cinema, September 1947, 65-67. |
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P. 166 READ: Norman F. Spurr, “Pamba,” Empire Cotton Growing Review, June 1950, 172-176 |
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P. 169 READ: Walt Disney, “Animated Cartoon,” Health Education Journal, 13:1, March 1955, 70-77. |
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P. 169 WATCH: The Winged Scourge (Disney, 1943) |
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P. 170 READ: Norman Spurr, “A Report on the Use of Disney’s Hookworm Film with an African Audience in the Western Province, Uganda,” Colonial Cinema, June 1951, 28-33 |
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P. 170 READ: K. Pickering, “Another Walt Disney Experiment,” Colonial Cinema, September 1954, 50-53. |
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P. 171 READ: Graham Stanford, “Talkies Rival Tom-Toms,” Daily Mail, 16 March 1949, 4.
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P. 171 READ: “They Made 35 Films: Colonial Office Unit Leaves Soon,” East African Standard, 7 March 1950. |
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P. 172 WATCH: Nairobi (Colonial Film Unit, 1950) |
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P. 174 READ: John Grierson, “The Film and Primitive Peoples,” in The Film in Colonial Development: A Report of a Conference (London: British Film Institute, 1948), 9-15.
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P. 178 WATCH: African Conference in London,1948 (Colonial Film Unit, 1948) |
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P. 178 WATCH: Colonial Month (Colonial Film Unit, 1949) |
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P. 179 WATCH: Spotlight on the Colonies (Diana Pine, Crown Film Unit, 1950) |
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P. 180 WATCH: Colonial Cinemagazine 9 (Colonial Film Unit, 1949) |
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P. 180 WATCH: Nigerian Footballers in England (Colonial Film Unit, 1949) READ: “Nigerian Footballers in England,” Colonial Cinema, December 1949, 68-69. |
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P. 182 WATCH: A Journey by a London Bus (Colonial Film Unit, 1950) |
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P. 184 READ: “The School of Instruction, Accra, Gold Coast,” Colonial Cinema, December 1948, 78-80 READ: “School of Instruction, Accra, Gold Coast,” September 1949, 43-45.
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P. 188 READ: “Colonial Film Unit Man from London on a Survey,”Daily Gleaner, 4 November 1949, 12. READ: Duncan Keith Corinaldi, ‘Local Films – A Reality 11 Years Ago’, Daily Gleaner, 5 December 1949, 8 |
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P. 189 READ: “The West Indies Film Training School, 1950,” Colonial Cinema, September 1950, 66-69. READ: “Colonial Film Unit Training School in the West Indies,” Colonial Cinema, June 1951, 43. |
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P. 192 READ: “The Cyprus Film Training School, 1951,” Colonial Cinema, December 1951, 87-90.
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