An article in the Daily Gleaner in January 1949 explained that ‘The Crown Film Unit is sending a camera crew to the West Indies in January. It will operate there for six months during which time it budgets to make eight pictures’. The article further noted that the ‘main film will be a three-reeler, which will picture the present social and economic problems of the West Indies. Seven films will be produced specially for schoolchildren. Subjects are Sugar Island, Banana Island, Spice Island, a West Indian school child, life on a small island, jungle life in British Guiana and a two-reel travelogue’ (Daily Gleaner, 11 January 1949, 4).

A subsequent report in the Daily Gleaner in June 1949 explained the work completed by the unit – which included ‘filming the industries, occupations and way of life of the inhabitants’ of British Guiana, the ‘sugar operations in Barbados’ and footage in Trinidad ‘from carnival time onward’ – and the areas still to visit, which included trips to Jamaica and British Honduras. The article also noted that although the unit had lost some of its equipment in a fire in Trinidad, its films were unaffected, with the filmed footage ‘now being processed in London’ (The Daily Gleaner, 17 June 1949, 8).

While the Crown Film Unit were filming in the West Indies, the Central Office of Information also sent Hugh Newham and Peter Anderson on an ‘extensive tour’ of the islands, which would last from April until July (Daily Gleaner, 15 June 1949, 12). The official government report for Trinidad and Tobago confirmed that ‘during the year the colony was fortunate in being visited by the Crown Film Unit and a photographer and feature writer attached to the Central Office of Information’ (‘Annual Report on Trinidad’, 1949, 156). The report for British Guiana added that ‘the Central Office of Information during the year sent two units to British Guiana as part of their Caribbean coverage’, with the Crown Unit said to make ‘documentary films on educational and general topics’, referred to elsewhere as ‘valuable film-making material depicting socio-economic conditions’ (‘Annual Report on British Guiana’, 1949, 7). Later in the year William Sellers, the head of the Colonial Film Unit, would also visit the islands to discuss the establishment of local film units.

Major C. E. Wakeham, the Regional Information Officer in the West Indies, explained that the completed Crown films should ensure that ‘the public of Britain, the Empire, and I hope other countries, will see on the screen life as it is lived in the British Caribbean – the light and the shade, the good and the bad, the problems and the measures being taken to tackle them’. Wakeham also hoped that ‘British school children’ would see how their West Indian counterparts live (The Daily Gleaner, 17 June 1949, 8). Caribbean was exhibited at the Edinburgh festival in 1951, but for the most part was exhibited non-theatrically and distributed throughout England by the Central Film Library. It also played in Nigeria in 1952 as part of research into rural audiences there, with the report analysing audience reactions for five screenings, shown with additional local commentary in Hausa, Ibo or Birom (Morton-Williams, 1952, 145-150).

Another film shown to the Nigerian audiences was El Dorado, a film of British Guiana produced through independent financing by John Alderson and Reg Hughes. Basil Wright compared El Doradowith Caribbeanin a 1952 Sight and Sound article. Wright praised the filmmakers’ work on El Dorado – ‘they had a sense of adventure; they felt, rather than merely observed; and they really wanted to put that extraordinary country on the screen’ – while strongly criticising the ‘inadequate results’ within Caribbean. Dismissing Caribbean as ‘a perfect example of using a clever sound-track to cover (partially) a great deal of unsympathetic shooting’, Wright suggested that its failings reveal broader problems within contemporary British documentary (Sight and Sound, Jan-March 1952, 129). It is worth noting, though, that many years later the film’s editor reported that John Grierson, executive producer for Crown, ‘encouraged us in the editing to avoid the didactic where possible and be more impressionist – to catch the flavour of the islands…’ (Russell, 2007, 244).

Today’s Cinema praised the ‘imaginative use of authentic calypso rhythms, expressive camera-work and sensitive editing’ that it suggested would appeal to ‘better-class audiences’ (Today’s Cinema, 14 March 1951, 13), while Monthly Film Bulletin acknowledged and praised the traditional elements within the film’s form; ‘the film’s approach is orthodox, but the material – excellently photographed – has been well put together’ (MFB, 1952, 83). However, Basil Wright emphasised a need for ‘new and livelier eyes and ideas’. ‘We must look outwards’, he urged, ‘to the vast territories of the colonial empire … surely we can find – in Africa and elsewhere – that sense of mission (I use the word advisedly) which has in the past underlain the best documentaries’. Wright concluded that ‘we need, therefore, more divine discontent amongst the youngsters; enough at any rate to ensure that the sponsorship bastions are stormed and the self-complacency of the technician put where it belongs’ (Sight and Sound, Jan-March 1952, 129).