58 mins., b&w, silent with German titles and intertitles.
Production: Reichsanstalt für Film und Bild in Wissenschaft und Unterricht (RWU)
Source: IWF/TIB (German National Library), viewable here.
Background:
This film was shot by the German ethnologist and ornithologist Emil Heinrich Snethlage (1897-1939) during various research trips carried out in the years 1933-1935.
Although this film has evidently been professionally produced with formal titles, Snethlage had clearly had no cinematography training as the quality of material is technically very poor, with many shots poorly exposed and framed, with scenes often shot from so far away that it is not possible to see clearly what is happening. For this reason, even from the most straightforwardly descriptive perspective, the ethnographic value of this footage is very limited.
Film Content
According to the TIB catalogue, the film offers “insights” into the lives of the following groups of the Brazil-Bolivia border region: More, Itoreauhip, Kumaná, Amniapë, Pauserna and the europeanised Tshikitanos (material culture; festivals; dances etc.).
This is a stub: more information to follow