Winning a Continent
About Winning a Continent
Dutch-speaking pioneers leave the Cape in the Great Trek of the 1830s. The film follows them inland and ends with the Battle of Blood River on 16 December 1838, staged as a fight in which a few hundred armed Afrikaners defeat several thousand Zulu fighters. Dick Cruikshanks plays Piet Retief.
Cast & crew
More about Winning a Continent
Harold M. Shaw directed and co-wrote the screenplay with Gustav Preller. Henry Howse was the cinematographer. The premiere was at Krugersdorp on 14 December 1916, two days before the 78th anniversary of the battle. Outside Africa the shortened film was titled Winning a Continent.
Themes
Background
The battle it stages, 16 December 1838, became a date Afrikaner organizations marked for decades, often with this film.
In film history
English Wikipedia calls it the first epic in South African film and the country's oldest surviving feature. Descendants of the voortrekkers used prints to commemorate Blood River.
Making
African Film Productions mounted the trek and the river battle as a full silent epic, then cut it down for export.
Look
Henry Howse photographed the trek and the staged battle.
Preservation
It is described as South Africa's oldest surviving feature. Foreign prints run about 54 minutes, against an original cut of about two hours. A copy is on Wikimedia Commons.
Notes
- Percy Marmont and Edna Flugrath are in the cast. Shaw himself also appears. A performer billed as Goba is credited.
- Cinematerial also lists Caroline Frances Cooke as Lenie Retief and Stephen Ewart as General Pretorius.
- Afrikaner groups later showed the film in classrooms and at gatherings on the battle's anniversary.
- A circulating copy runs 53 minutes and 5 seconds.
Scenes
- The trek moves inland.
- The film closes on the staged Battle of Blood River.
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (De Voortrekkers (Winning a Continent, 1916).webm)
