Colonial Film:
Moving Images of the British Empire
Collection Overview
The completed Colonial Film catalogue will bring together over 6,000 films from the collections of the British Film Institute (BFI), the Imperial War Museum (IWM) and the British Empire and Commonwealth Museum (BECM).
The catalogue will include all of the films within these three collections, produced before independence, that relate to the British Empire, and the countries within the Empire. There are approximately seventy-five countries within the Empire represented within this collection. In addition, the catalogue will include a selection of approximately seventy films – predominantly fiction – that were produced after independence, but which offer insights into the colonial experience.
The BFI collection contains approximately 1,200 films relating to Colonial Africa. There are over 1,100 titles covering India, South East Asia and the Middle East, with approximately 500 of these titles relating to India. The earliest titles within this collection include 70 from the turn of the century concerning the Boer War, as well as footage from India – for example Panorama of Calcutta – from 1899. There are films from local production units - for example, the Malayan Film Unit, the Jamaican Film Unit, and the Gold Coast Film Unit – and from established British producers, such as the Colonial Film Unit, and British Instructional Film. These films were exhibited and distributed in a variety of contexts. There are instructional films made for African audiences (for example, Anti-Plague Operations in Lagos and three Bantu Educational Kinema Experiment films made in the 1930s); films intended for prospective British immigrants (for example Southern Rhodesia: is this Your Country? (1948)); sponsored films for British schools (for example From Cane to Cube (1950)); fundraising films for missionary work (for example Salvation Army Work in India, Burma and Ceylon (1925)); films for children’s cinema clubs (for example Basuto Boy (1947) and Trek to Mashomba (1950)); as well a large number intended for cinemas and non-theatrical sites at home and abroad. The collection includes documentary films, amateur footage, newsreels, actualities, travelogues, and missionary films, as well as over 200 fiction films.
The Imperial War Museum collection contains footage relating to pivotal moments in colonial history, including: the Malayan Emergency (Proudly presenting Yong Peng (1955); Voices of Malaya (1948); The Knife (1955)); the British mandate in Palestine (Jewish Colonies in Palestine (1917); Allenby meets Weizmann (1918); Palestine Police (1946)); and most notably the experiences of colonial troops in two World Wars. This footage includes extensive material filmed by Army and RAF photographic units during the Second World War, particularly in India, Burma and the Far East, much of which is still to be catalogued. The collection also includes newsreels from the War – most notably 138 editions of Indian News Parade, which ran weekly from 1943 to 1946 – as well as fiction titles, documentaries and unique amateur collections.
The British Empire and Commonwealth's Film Archive contains over 400 hours of footage dating from the 1920s onwards. Specialising in amateur film collections shot mainly by British people living and working within the Empire, the films portray family and army life, people at work and at leisure, holidays and travel, and social, sporting and ceremonial occasions. Major political events and figures are also recorded, including Independence celebrations in a number of countries. The largest collections cover India, although Africa is also well represented. In addition, the archive contains government produced information and travel films, commercial documentary and news films, and television material.
