Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures
- List of Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part I Issues of Colonialism, Late Colonialism and Independence
- Part II Missionary Films and Christian Evangelism
- Part III Documentary Representations: Projections, Idealised and Imaginary Images
- 8 Screening the Revolution in Rural Vietnam: Guerrilla Cinema Across the Mekong Delta
- 9 Ho Chi Minh in France: An Early Independence Newsreel
- 10 Archives of the Planet: French Elitist Representations of Colonial India
- 11 ‘Sufficient Dramatic or Adventure Interest’: Authenticity, Reality and Violence in Pre-War Animal Documentaries from South-East Asia
- Notes on the Contributors
- Index
11 - ‘Sufficient Dramatic or Adventure Interest’: Authenticity, Reality and Violence in Pre-War Animal Documentaries from South-East Asia
from Part III - Documentary Representations: Projections, Idealised and Imaginary Images
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 April 2017
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures
- List of Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part I Issues of Colonialism, Late Colonialism and Independence
- Part II Missionary Films and Christian Evangelism
- Part III Documentary Representations: Projections, Idealised and Imaginary Images
- 8 Screening the Revolution in Rural Vietnam: Guerrilla Cinema Across the Mekong Delta
- 9 Ho Chi Minh in France: An Early Independence Newsreel
- 10 Archives of the Planet: French Elitist Representations of Colonial India
- 11 ‘Sufficient Dramatic or Adventure Interest’: Authenticity, Reality and Violence in Pre-War Animal Documentaries from South-East Asia
- Notes on the Contributors
- Index
Summary
In late 1926 William Douglas Burden, an American explorer, returned from South-East Asia with two of the rarest animals in the world. They were Komodo dragons, and their presence in the Bronx Zoo created a sensation throughout New York City, meriting coverage in the leading newspapers of the day. However, the stir they created only lasted a few months. The two animals died – one in October, the other in November of that year – as the zoological park did not have the proper facilities to house large reptiles in a climate that was transitioning from autumn into winter. The two lizards were quickly presented to the American Museum of Natural History, where they were stuffed and put on display in a glass case that created a facsimile of their original environment (Barnard 2011: 2, 97–8). Visitors could now view them up close, and can still do so today: static reminders of an earlier era. Alongside the display the museum ran never-released film footage taken on the expedition that led to the capture of the dragons to provide a vivid depiction of their original environment. The film provided a more active viewing experience, taking the viewer into the exotic world of South-East Asian fauna.
The footage is twelve minutes in length and focuses on Burden and his wife Katherine and their time on the remote Indonesian island of Komodo. Following a series of establishing shots – of the museum, the Komodo display, a variety of animals on the actual island and the construction of the expedition camp – in the first five minutes of the film, three scenes make up the rest of the footage. The first depicts the shooting of a water buffalo, which will serve as food for the camp as well as bait for lizards. The second extended scene features a series of quick clips that begins with Katherine shooting a Komodo dragon that was feasting on the water buffalo carcass. This quickly transitions into the construction of a trap, the shooting and placement of a deer in the trap, and then the capture of a lizard lured into it. The final scene focuses on two dragons ripping and tearing apart the carcass of an animal.
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- Information
- The Colonial Documentary Film in South and South-East Asia , pp. 223 - 235Publisher: Edinburgh University PressPrint publication year: 2017