Karl Weule shot 38 short films during the course of a research trip in 1906 to the region around Lindi in southern Tanganyika, German East Africa (today Tanzania). A particular focus of this material was dance, though this was not spontaneous, but rather performed for the camera at Weule’s request.
This material was not viewed for The Silent Time Machine project, but from the account given by Wolfgang Fuhrmann, it is clear that its technical quality was very limited. Weule had no previous experience, nor training as a film-maker, and it appears that he had difficulty in framing the subjects and exposing the film correctly. The images were often unstable.
Although Weule himself thought the results were ‘superb’, this view was apparently not shared by the Ernemann company that had supplied him with the equipment, since they concluded that only 12 out of the 38 films were worth developing. In Weule’s view, however, around 2/3 of the films were of acceptable quality and according to his account, these were all much appreciated by non-specialist audiences.
Text : Fuhrmann 2015, pp. 133-148.
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