The Cine Technician (1953-1956)

IS THE CINE-TECHNICIAN Jan. -Feb., 1953 RETURN FROM TANGANYIKA In his previous article, DON WYNNE discussed technical and administrative problems of filming in Africa. Here he describes the lighter side of film life A LTHOUGH we had lots of fun in the Continent ■£*■ of Africa, the possibilities of making a name for oneself were rather remote. Let us frankly admit, our world of feature film production is absorbing, interesting, and having once been in it, it is very hard to keep away from. Horizons and ambitions in the film business are extremely limited in Africa at the present time and until the day it offers more scope, and in turn personal achievement, I shall stay put here in England. We were fortunate enough, during our year's stay in Tanganyika, to be able to visit a large part of the territory. Our frequent safaris were necessitated by reason of the ever-changing weather conditions. During the rainy season in Dar Es Salaam and the Eastern Coast belt it became necessary for us to plan a production in the Bukoba district of Lake Victoria. Incidentially, the word " safari " causes great amusement to we brief visitors to the East African colonies, for it covers almost any journey, from a six or seven-minute ride into the town to the tobacconist to a thirty-month journey into the interior. Before we left Tanganyika we were fortunate enough to see the success of the first all-African Swahili programme. The first production was called " Mohogomchungu " and was shown in the Odeon cinema, Dar Es Salaam in mid-May of this year and received first-class notices from the Press and from Government-inspired publications. One of the instigators of the scheme, Mr. Barclay Leechman, C.M.G., O.B.E., member for Social Services, Tanganyika Government, expressed his great satisfaction in the first fruits of twelve months' really hard work. The feature film of six reels concerned briefly the story of an African boy's adventures in the big city, Dar Es Salaam, after he has escaped the vigilant eye of his father and cadged a lift into town from his village. It shows his adventures with card sharpers, being mixed up with askaris in a military ceremony, falling asleep and being carried on a fire engine to a fire, etc., etc. This film went down well with our native audiences. The short supporting film of two reels was a pure slapstick custard-pie comedy, there was a No a news magazine of African subjects. The net result Of our week's showing and other observations, listened to and reported upon by the Government Film Research Officer. Mr. Norman Spur, showed, I think, we had rather tended to expert extraordinary reactions to what we would call an everyday incident, when really there was little difference between African and British reactions, apart from those of really uncouth, uncivilised, illiterate villagers. Unfortunately I was not able to see the reaction of a 100 per cent illiterate audience, but merely that from the mixed educated and illiterate audiences in Dar Es Salaam. A boy who played a thief in one of the pictures is now serving time, yes, you're quite right, for theft! I was much relieved when I heard this was his second offence, for I should have been most perturbed if we had unwittingly been the cause of putting wrong ideas into any of their heads, although in the film we had clearly snown the moral, which was that " justice will out." We filmed our last production, which was an African drama involving a love affair between a man and woman, in the Bukoba district of Lake Victoria and it really is most beautiful there. The lake, which looks like a sea, is blue and tranquil and it is most amusing to see the hippopotami with just their heads poking out of the water for the most part of every day. My cameraman returned one night from a party and woke me up to tell me that a band of hippos were tramping around the hotel where we were staying. I got out our brake and together with my wife we went out to see what they looked like on dry land. We found about six adults and four calves. My cameraman, no doubt endowed with a certain spiritual courage, got out of the car and chased them into the bushes with hilarious shouts waving his torch at them. Strangely enough, the next morning when I picked up the Territory's newspaper, which is flown in weekly, I read that in the view of one of the most famous game scouts in East Africa, the hippo is the most dangerous of all animals. When I showed this item to my cameraman he blanched visibly and pronounced a single and unprintable adjective. We filmed one of the largest Ngomas (African dances) ever staged for a film company. The District Commissioner, Tim Harris, knowing we were working on the Government's behalf, had issued orders to the chiefs, and in particular Chief Gabriel of the Buhaya, to stage a really first-class Ngoma. The day arrived and thousands of people assembled in Chief Gabriel's compound and we witnessed one of the finest Ngomas ever staged. We started them and stopped them, we made them do it over dozens of times and worked like Trojans to complete in one day what a major production company would require a week to do. Following instructions given to me by Tim Harris,