African Rhythms
Film Identifier: F.2004-02-0036
Part Of: Jack Behrend Collection, 1932-2001
Run Time
0h 19m 17s
0h 19m 17s
Format
16mm
16mm
Color
Color
Color
Sound
Optical
Optical
Date Produced
1961
1961
Abstract
Educational film showing the culture of Africa through music, dance, costume, religion, work, and education. The films shows traditional African villages explaining their way of life. Later scenes show the effect of Western culture as tribes adopt the trends, education, and modern business building modern cities of their own. Narrator explains no matter what changes, the roots are always of Africa. Monrovia, the capital city of Liberia, and President of Liberia William V. S. Tubman are featured.
Educational film showing the culture of Africa through music, dance, costume, religion, work, and education. The films shows traditional African villages explaining their way of life. Later scenes show the effect of Western culture as tribes adopt the trends, education, and modern business building modern cities of their own. Narrator explains no matter what changes, the roots are always of Africa. Monrovia, the capital city of Liberia, and President of Liberia William V. S. Tubman are featured.
Log
00:00 - title, MS ZOOM IN African man playing drum 00:14 - aerial TS plane POV jungle of Africa below, fly lower over a village of straw huts 01:08 - Var MS, CU African villagers having a night dance, playing drums and dancing in circles indoors, narrator explains their reasons for dancing are similar to ours, for celebration 01:54 - RA LS plane landing on strip clearing of trees in forest 02:11 - ZOOM IN on globe, Africa, narrator talks about the different dances, dress, designs, music, culture that can be found here 02:25 - Liberian man dances on stilts, people circle around him dancing, huts in background 02:48 - MS woman tying baby to her back 03:08 - CU hand carved bowls, MS man dancing with bowls as people gather behind, some playing stringed instruments with bows, people wearing polo shirts and vests, trousers, modern hats 03:27 - CU books on African peoples, there are many differences between areas of the continent 03:35 - people dancing in grass costume, shots of tribes rising from grass field, narrator says we once thought them barbaric, now we got to know them, they fight to protect their land 04:09 - LS, FA, SA man crossing rope bridge, MS shoots arrow 04:32 - Var shots people collecting food from forest, carrying buckets on heads, woman with baby on back 04:53 - MLS boat POV four small fishing boats filled with standing fisherman, dark silhouettes, light behind them, TS 05:11 - ocean waves coming in to shore, fade in group of well dressed people, former slaves who had been freed and returned to Liberia to set up a colony 05:24 - LS exterior Republic of Liberia building, Var shots busy streets in modern capital city of Monrovia, cars, port and business center, people eating on balcony PAN RIGHT overlooking forested cityscape, narrator says city serves as bridge between new world and tribal peoples 05:58 - CU drums being played, MLS grass huts 06:12 - CU writing on paper, African alphabet, Var MS children writing 06:24 - tribes acting out a battle in traditional dress, narrator says tribes used storytelling rather than writing to keep history and people informed 06:34 - women beating grain and chopping wood 06:50 - Montage of men playing drums, performers dancing, men are living newspapers, must be skilled at their profession, performance reflects their lives 07:55 - Montage of people working in forest to the beat of a professional drummer to set the tempo, men chop down large trees with axes, trees falling 09:03 - narrator says the people believe the devil, who is their god, lives in the forests, called the bush devil, rather than being evil, their devil drives away curses that cause bad luck, illness, broken friendships, devil is acted out with a large puppet-like prop while man plays horn, draws devil into center of village, begins African dance 11:26 - Montage different village with their devil on stilts, village of men preparing for manhood, shots of girls dancing preparing for womanhood 13:02 - Montage costumed dancer in monkey mask, narrator discusses some dances are rituals, battling dancers, seasons moving in 14:39 - Montage of tribe dancing for marriage, narrator discussed courting and rituals 15:37 - exterior large white building in Liberia, montage of industrial workers, TS forest of rubber trees, CU Var rubber dripping from spouts, Montage of interiors, aerials of rubber processing factories 16:44 - Var shots children in modern public schools 17:04 - Var shots garden party, ambassadors from around the world honoring the inauguration of the president of Liberia, William V. S. Tubman, CU of President Tubman, MS shots traditional dress and formal London attire sit by side 17:36-19:17 - Montage African people dancing the fox trot in to live band in ballroom, formal dress, they adapt new music and blend it with their own, cut to people tribal dancing, the roots of their dance will always be African
00:00 - title, MS ZOOM IN African man playing drum 00:14 - aerial TS plane POV jungle of Africa below, fly lower over a village of straw huts 01:08 - Var MS, CU African villagers having a night dance, playing drums and dancing in circles indoors, narrator explains their reasons for dancing are similar to ours, for celebration 01:54 - RA LS plane landing on strip clearing of trees in forest 02:11 - ZOOM IN on globe, Africa, narrator talks about the different dances, dress, designs, music, culture that can be found here 02:25 - Liberian man dances on stilts, people circle around him dancing, huts in background 02:48 - MS woman tying baby to her back 03:08 - CU hand carved bowls, MS man dancing with bowls as people gather behind, some playing stringed instruments with bows, people wearing polo shirts and vests, trousers, modern hats 03:27 - CU books on African peoples, there are many differences between areas of the continent 03:35 - people dancing in grass costume, shots of tribes rising from grass field, narrator says we once thought them barbaric, now we got to know them, they fight to protect their land 04:09 - LS, FA, SA man crossing rope bridge, MS shoots arrow 04:32 - Var shots people collecting food from forest, carrying buckets on heads, woman with baby on back 04:53 - MLS boat POV four small fishing boats filled with standing fisherman, dark silhouettes, light behind them, TS 05:11 - ocean waves coming in to shore, fade in group of well dressed people, former slaves who had been freed and returned to Liberia to set up a colony 05:24 - LS exterior Republic of Liberia building, Var shots busy streets in modern capital city of Monrovia, cars, port and business center, people eating on balcony PAN RIGHT overlooking forested cityscape, narrator says city serves as bridge between new world and tribal peoples 05:58 - CU drums being played, MLS grass huts 06:12 - CU writing on paper, African alphabet, Var MS children writing 06:24 - tribes acting out a battle in traditional dress, narrator says tribes used storytelling rather than writing to keep history and people informed 06:34 - women beating grain and chopping wood 06:50 - Montage of men playing drums, performers dancing, men are living newspapers, must be skilled at their profession, performance reflects their lives 07:55 - Montage of people working in forest to the beat of a professional drummer to set the tempo, men chop down large trees with axes, trees falling 09:03 - narrator says the people believe the devil, who is their god, lives in the forests, called the bush devil, rather than being evil, their devil drives away curses that cause bad luck, illness, broken friendships, devil is acted out with a large puppet-like prop while man plays horn, draws devil into center of village, begins African dance 11:26 - Montage different village with their devil on stilts, village of men preparing for manhood, shots of girls dancing preparing for womanhood 13:02 - Montage costumed dancer in monkey mask, narrator discusses some dances are rituals, battling dancers, seasons moving in 14:39 - Montage of tribe dancing for marriage, narrator discussed courting and rituals 15:37 - exterior large white building in Liberia, montage of industrial workers, TS forest of rubber trees, CU Var rubber dripping from spouts, Montage of interiors, aerials of rubber processing factories 16:44 - Var shots children in modern public schools 17:04 - Var shots garden party, ambassadors from around the world honoring the inauguration of the president of Liberia, William V. S. Tubman, CU of President Tubman, MS shots traditional dress and formal London attire sit by side 17:36-19:17 - Montage African people dancing the fox trot in to live band in ballroom, formal dress, they adapt new music and blend it with their own, cut to people tribal dancing, the roots of their dance will always be African
Distributors
Main Credit
Firestone Plantation Company (corporate name)
Association Films Sponsor (corporate name)
Weisenborn, Gordon (is director)
Vogue Wright (is production company)
Form
Related Place
Africa (production location of)