Harvest from the Wilderness

Series

Series Name

This Modern Age

Issue

Issue No.

24

Date Released

Dec 1948

Length of issue (in feet)

1877

Stories in this Issue:

1. 1Harvest from the Wilderness

Story

Story No. within this Issue

1 / 1

Summary

BFI synopsis: Opening shots of British people whilst commentary points out that for each sufficiently-fed person, there are seven in the world near starvation. Various crowd scenes are shown whilst commentary gives birth rates in different parts of the world. A world map shows areas where the people have enough to eat. Tanganikan scenery and wasteland the site for a British scheme to produce groundnuts to help combat poverty. Dar es Salaam is used as a port for the scheme but as there are no deep water docks, equipment has to be unloaded from the steamers into landing craft. Tents are pitched on the edge of the bush and engineers arrive on the site. Army tractors and rolling stock are brought to the site but are in bad condition and without spare-parts. Africans are taken on and given technical training. English classes are started for them whilst the engineers learn Swahili. The Africans are soon expert in using machine tools and tractors. A water supply is laid on and poisonous fumes are sprayed onto the bush to kill the mosquito and tsetse fly. Roads are cut through the bush and a branch railway line is constructed. Aircraft already take off and land on the site. Trees are cleared by bulldozers. Tractors level the site and tree roots are extracted. Rotation of crops is planned to safeguard the fertility of the soil. The ground is tilled and the crops planted. Facilities for European engineers are shown - the bar, the canteen, tennis courts, badminton, English newspapers, nurseries, bungalows, shops and a post office. For the Africans, huts are built, welfare and medical services set up, African newspapers provided, football matches and traditional games on stilts played. The first harvest is gathered in, partly by machine, partly by hand. Shots of sacks of groundnuts passing along a conveyor and being loaded onto a steamer. More new roads and railways are built. Plans are made to extend the scheme. Final scenic shots.

Researcher Comments

Trade shown on 8 December 1948.

Keywords

Entertainment and leisure; Food and cooking; Agriculture; Railways; Social conditions; Industry and manufacture

Written sources

British Film Institute Databases   Used for synopsis
Monthly Film Bulletin   Vol.16 No.181 January 1949, p12.
Enticknap, Leo. The Non-Fiction Film in Britain, 1945-1951 unpublished PhD thesis   p256.

Credits:

Production Co.

This Modern Age, Ltd.

This series is held by:

Film Archive

Name

British Film Institute (BFI)

Email

For BFI National Archive enquiries:
nonfictioncurators@bfi.org.uk
For commercial/footage reuse enquiries:
footage.films@bfi.org.uk

Web

http://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web

Phone

020 7255 1444

Fax

020 7580 7503

Address

21 Stephen Street
London W1T 1LN

Notes

The BFI National Archive also preserves the original nitrate film copies of British Movietone News, British Paramount News, Empire News Bulletin, Gaumont British News, Gaumont Graphic, Gaumont Sound News and Universal News (the World War II years are covered by the Imperial War Museum).

Series held

View all series held by British Film Institute (BFI)