Operation Air-Drop

Series

Series Name

Rhodesian Spotlight

Issue

Issue No.

53

Length of issue (in feet)

956

Stories in this Issue:

1. 1Farming on the Mkushi Block
2. 2Operation Air-Drop
3. 3Parishioners Build Own Church
4. 4The Circus Comes to Town
5. 5Search for Radio-ACtive Minerals

Story

Story No. within this Issue

2 / 5

Summary

Rhodesian Spotlight synopsis: This is the story of an intrepid group of Surveyors operating in the dense bush of the Zambezi Valley. Supplies to these men are dropped by air from a light plane.
Rhodesian Spotlight Commentary - This is a story that may outmode the old safari-motif that Hollywood has tended to glamorise. The story of an intrepid group of surveyors operating. In the dense bush of the Zambezi Valley, in the heart of Central Africa, at an Air Base heavily cushioned parcels are made up containing food, water and even bottled beer ... and cement. These are loaded in a light plane, destined to fly-off into the heat-hazed distance where a land unit of a map-making group is preparing a fire so that the spiral of smoke from green brush may attract the attention of the supply-carrying plane. Well-mapped areas are clearly marked so that bearings can be taken, and parcels dropped at the first sign of a signal. The Zambezi Valley is not only unmapped but virtually untouched, so that the ground unit has to work in the middle of thick bush where even a surveyor has difficulty in pin-pointing his position. Hence supplies of cement for the building of map markers. A tough job not simplified but facilitated by the idea of an air-drop.

Keywords

Exploration and explorers

Written sources

Movietone boxfile no.1   Used for synopsis

Credits:

Production Co.

Central African Film Unit

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)