6:22 mins., b&w (tinted yellow) silent, intertitles in Dutch.
Production : Koloniaal Institut, Amsterdam
Source : this film is viewable via the EYE website here. It can also been seen via a private YouTube playlist, with added music and commentary, here.
This film was shot by J.C. Lamster, a soldier in the Dutch colonial army and the first person to shoot moving images in the Dutch East Indies. Although he had trained briefly with Pathé Frères in Paris, he would still have been a relative beginner. In the circumstances then, it is a creditable effort and the film holds a certain historical significance, though from an ethnographic point of view, it is difficult to construe.
The film begins by showing a highly decorated archway and a long line of women carrying neatly stacked piles of fruit on their heads. These will seemingly constitute part of the offering. One shot frames a young girl in a circle, a device reminiscent of studio photography (see above) and perhaps a sign that Lamster is still a relative newcomer to film-making.
This is then followed by a sequence showing a pig being prepared as an offering. This cuts effectively from a mid-shot of the pig having its belly sewn up to a wider shot of it being stuck onto a pole. However, neither the reason for these offerings, nor the deity to which they will be offered, is made clear.
There is then a sequence of a cute group of children taking tea in a courtyard, but the link with the remainder of the film remains obscure.
This is followed in turn by a sequence showing a line of people carrying banners, and eventually the pig hanging from its pole, apparently entering a temple (though this doorway is quite different to the archway shown at the beginning of the film). They are then shown coming out again, but the camera never enters the temple itself to observe the making of the offerings.
After a brief shot of a gamelan orchestra, the final minute of the film, somewhat underexposed, shows two “temple girls”, elaborately addressed, with headdresses and waving fans, performing a dance in front of a seated group of onlookers, both male and female. But again, the connection with the making of the offerings remains unexplained.
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