Information
- BFI identifier20149
- Date1898 (Release)
- Production countryUnited Kingdom
- SynopsisINTEREST. Footage shot by A.C. Haddon during the 1898 Cambridge expedition to the Torres Strait, showing a series of native dances. No credits. (MALU-BOMAI CEREMONY AT KIAM) Three men, each wearing a skirt made of leaves, perform a dance in a forest. They are in a line formation, the first man wears a mask headress made of leaves and the last man holds a tailpiece (51). Blank (58). (MURRAY ISLAND: ISLANDERS DANCING IN DARI HEADDRESS) Beach scene. Three men, each wearing a cloth skirt and a (feather?) headdress perform a dance (103) they go off (109) and reappear from right-hand side in procession (127). Blank (138). Same three dancers perform (158). Blank (167). (MURRAY ISLAND: FIRE MAKING) MCU of three men sitting cross-legged on the ground twirling a stick between their palms (195). Blank (203). (MURRAY ISLAND: AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINALS DANCING 'SHAKE-A-LEG' ON BEACH) Four young men wearing cloth skirts and with body paint perform a dance facing the camera. A fifth man keeps the rhythm by beating a long pole with a branch (224). Cut (245). The four men stand in a line clapping and stepping from one foot to the other (268). They stop and one turns his back to the camera (272). Note: The films were taken 5-6 September 1898 by Alfred Haddon (or expedition photographer Anthony Wilkin) during the Cambridge ethnographic expedition to the Torres Strait. The final sequence features a dance by some visiting Australian Aborigines. The supplied titles for the individual sequences come from the Cinema Papers article cited below, which divides the second sequence into two. The films are known to have been exhibited in 1906, with accompanying phonograph sound recordings. Refs: Chris Long/Pat Laughren, 'Surprising Survivals from Colonial Queensland', Cinema Papers no. 96 (December 1993) pp 33-36. 'The Cinematograph and the Phonograph', Optical Lantern and Cinematograph Journal, Jan 1906, p 64. (NFA Catalogue)
- Subject
- Credits
Title
Torres Strait (Archive)
Category
Non FictionThis work is available from BFI Archive Sales
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LTO5 - Video - MP4 - Viewing
LTO5 - Video - MP4 - Viewing
35mm BW Positive - Polyester - Silent - Viewing
35mm BW Positive - CTA - Silent - Viewing
35mm BW Positive - Polyester - Silent - Viewing
DVD - Video - Viewing
Digital Betacam - Video - Viewing
Digital Betacam - Video - Viewing
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- +Torres Strait
Work - 20149 - 1898 (Release)
United Kingdom - Film - Non Fiction
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