The Gleaner of 10 February 1913 contained a letter from Harold A. C. Sintzenich in which he explained that he was currently in Jamaica, with his colleague Chas. Weddup, ‘filming pictures by the Kinemacolor process (on behalf of the Natural Color Kinematograph Co. of London) of scenic and industrial subjects for production all over the world’ (Gleaner, 10 February 1913, 13). The Natural Color Kinematograph Company was formed in March 1909 by Charles Urban, but the completed pictures were released in monochrome through Kineto, another Urban company, which since its formation in 1907 had specialised in the production of travel, scientific and other broadly ‘educational’ films (McKernan, 2009, 122).

Sintzenich stated that he had just returned to Kingston ‘after a week’s photographing of the country on the sugar plantations’ (Gleaner, 10 February 1913, 13). This material seemingly featured not only in Montego Bay to Williamsfield, Jamaica but also in Sugar Industry of Jamaica, the first of Kineto’s West Indian films, which was released in Britain on 7 June. Over the summer, Kineto released further pictures from the trip. These included Port Royal and Newcastle, Jamaica (released 19 June), an ‘attractive and beautifully photographed subject, showing some of the principal spots in the island of Jamaica’ and emphasising ‘the historical interests of Britain’s largest possessions in the West Indies’ (Bioscope, 12 June 1913, xxxvii); Industries of Jamaica (released 14 July), which Bioscope described as ‘an excellent example of education without tears’ (Bioscope, 3 July 1913, 66); On the Rio Cobre, Jamaica (released 21 July), which contained familiar ethnographic sequences (‘a native scales the trunk of a coconut palm without any aid whatever and drops the fruit to the ground’) (Bioscope, 10 July 1913, vi); and The Islands of Trinidad and Barbados (released 11 September). Montego Bay to Williamsfield, Jamaica was released on 30 June and described by Bioscope as a ‘charming picture [which] affords a very complete idea of the scenic attractions of Jamaica’. The review noted that the film shows oysters in the trees on the Bogue islands as the ‘branches of the trees dip into the water’, and travels through ‘Hurricane country’, before finally showing a railway ride ‘of great beauty and interest’ (Bioscope, 19 June 1913, xxxiii).

Further footage was released in May 1914 in A Trip to the West Indies, and then in September 1916 in Native Life in West Indies. The Gleaner published a report from the West India Committee circular from July 1916, which stated that Kineto ‘are just releasing a further series of films descriptive of West Indian life and scenery. They were taken – and admirably taken, too – by Mr C. Weddup on behalf of the company, and will no doubt prove a great attraction in these days when Englishmen have special reason to be interested in everything Colonial, and are tired of the unpatriotic “Charlie Chaplin”’. The report described the scenes as ‘quite the best we have ever seen’ and urged ‘cinegoers – as we believe patrons of the cinema are called – to ask for these West Indian films at their local halls’.

Kineto produced short films throughout the British Empire during the 1910s, culminating in the release, in 1917, of a ten-reel film entitled The Building of the British Empire. The film was praised as one of the most ‘instructive’ films for children, and the Canadian section of the film, which is held by the BFI National Archive, was re-released during 1918.