Congorilla
Something of Value
Africa becomes a subject of exotic spectacle in these two rarely-screened films. Trained as a photographer, Martin Johnson learned filmmaking while on expedition with Jack London in the Solomon Islands. He and his wife Osa traveled around the world chronicling their experiences in Asia and Africa. Congorilla documents their journey to the Belgian Congo, a dramatic trek which culminates in the capture of two young apes. A response to the Mau Mau uprising against British Colonial rule in 1950s Kenya, Something of Value follows the lives of two friends (Hudson and Poitier), raised as brothers despite racial difference. As they come of age, they are forced to take opposing sides in their nation’s struggle for independence. Shot on location in Africa, production was complicated by “whites only” policies which did not allow Poitier to dine with the cast and crew.
PROGRAM
-
Congorilla
Directed by Martin Johnson.
US, 1932, 35mm, black & white, 74 min.
Something of Value (AKA Africa Ablaze!)
Directed by Richard Brooks.
With Rock Hudson, Sidney Poitier, Wendy Hiller.
US, 1957, 35mm, black & white, 113 min.
Part of film series
Screenings from this program
Tol’able David / To the Last Man
Buffalo Bill and the Indians... / The Ballad of Cable Hogue
Daydreams / Drifters
The Silent World / In The Pink: Faded Films
