FEDERAL SPOTLIGHT NO. 167
This film is held by the BFI (ID: 59227).
Synopsis
Central African Film Unit Newsreel. Artists In Stamps - P. Jaffa makes portraits from old stamps and is also a yoga guru. Once Upon a Rhino - orphan rhino Rupert saved from the Kariba Dam is brought up on a farm. Spotlight on Fort Jameson - scenes of the tobacco industry.
Context
The 35mm newsreel Federal Spotlight was produced by the Central African Film Unit and played predominantly to white audiences in the cinemas of the Federation. From 1957 until the end of the Federation in 1963, CAFU also produced a monthly 16mm newsreel, entitled Rhodesia and Nyasaland News, which played primarily on the mobile cinema circuit to local African audiences. However, this was afforded far less prominence, time and financial investment than Federal Spotlight…
Analysis
Released at a time of extreme social and political unrest within the Federation, Federal Spotlight No. 167 contains items on creating artwork out of stamps and on a pet rhino. As a government cinemagazine, subject to censorship, the items often veered towards the mundane or at least the non-political, yet these subjects still served to promote an idealised image of the Federation for both domestic and overseas audiences.
In many respects the reel offers a nostalgic…
Works Cited
Burns, J. M., Flickering Shadows: Cinema and Identity in Colonial Zimbabwe (Ohio: Ohio University Research in International Studies, 2002).
‘The Extraordinary Story of Rupert the Rhino’, Daily Mail, 17 November 2006.
‘Pinta for the Orphan Rhino’, Daily Mirror, 28 May 1962, 3.
‘There’s a Rhino at the bottom of our Garden’, Daily Mirror, 19 July 1962, 12.
Smyth, Rosaleen,…
Titles
- FEDERAL SPOTLIGHT NO. 167
- Series Title:
- FEDERAL SPOTLIGHT
Technical Data
- Year:
- 1962
- Film Gauge (Format):
- 16mm Film
- Colour:
- Black/White
- Sound:
- Sound
- Footage:
- 228 ft
Production Credits
- Production Countries:
- Central African Federation