WILLIAM BUTLIN PERSONAL FILM: HOLIDAY IN AFRICA I
This film is held by the BFI (ID: 671248).
Synopsis
Amateur film of William Butlin on holiday in Africa.
Shot of William Butlin plus a European man and woman (possibly Nora, Butlin's mistress/second wife) wearing ponchos and straw hats. Shot of an African village; villagers dressed in ochre shawls; and women with blue/ochre bead necklaces painting one another's faces with orange dye. Shot of African women husking and grinding corn. General shots of villagers crowded in front of houses. The European woman walks around the village (wonky camera shots) (110ft.). Village women form a line, clapping. Young women with bead necklaces do a dance, performed to the group (160 ft.). Line-up of elder African tribesmen (179 ft.). Small children and toddlers perform the same dance (210 ft.). Blank wobbly shots (228 ft.). A hyena and antelope/gazelles grazing amongst woodlands/bush and on dirt track (filmed from a jeep) (385 ft.). Buffalo and warthogs. Cut (419 ft.). Brief shots underwater of sharks, including Hammerhead sharks (434 ft.). Shot of what may be Cape Town. African men in very ornate tribal dress dancing for the (tourist) camera (455 ft.). Jeep in highland area amongst very green hillsides. African men on horseback with pack horses on the trail. General shots of scenery: hillside with the stone thatched huts of the horsemen and the trail stretching out into a valley and the far distance. View from the jeep driving along a very bumpy road/dirt track. The jeep meets more men with packhorses on the trail (630 ft.). More footage of small children and toddlers dancing (as above). A European man with a cane (possibly a teacher ?) hands out something (possibly bread) to small children. The man also hands out something to women dancers. Cut (730 ft.). Ostrich farm. WB holding an ostrich egg stands on one to test its strength. Visitors, including WB, are given ostrich rides. An employee of the farm attempts to race one. Cut (811 ft.). A European woman at a rocky beach with waves crashing. Cut (833 ft.). More wildlife in the bush. Cut (860 ft.). Underwater shots of a turtle and large tropical fish. Cut (936 ft.). More waves and a beach and distant shots of seals on a beach (1040 ft.). End.
Titles
- HOLIDAY IN AFRICA I (Alternative)
- WILLIAM BUTLIN PERSONAL FILM: HOLIDAY IN AFRICA ONE (Alternative)
- WILLIAM BUTLIN PERSONAL FILM: HOLIDAY IN AFRICA I (Archive)
Technical Data
- Year:
- 1960
- Running Time:
- 29 minutes
- Film Gauge (Format):
- 16mm Film
- Colour:
- Colour
- Sound:
- Silent
- Footage:
- 1060 ft
Production Credits
- Production Countries:
- Great Britain
- on-screen participant
- BUTLIN, Billy