Australian
Screen

Clip description

Members of the cast and crew from The Jungle Woman (1926) stroll through a small village in Merauke with some of the locals cast as extras in the film. A man hands an object to a villager and then Frank Hurley speaks to another local. A Papuan man with long braided hair turns for the camera. An intertitle, 'types of natives’, precedes individual Papuan villagers filmed from the shoulders up. Actress Grace Savieri (who plays the title role in The Jungle Woman) tries to apply make-up to one of the local extras, with little success. Savieri is then shown in full make-up and costume alone, and then with co-star Bransby Williams, between filming takes. A final panning shot captures the filming of one of the village scenes for The Jungle Woman (1926).

Curator’s notes

The villagers who appear in this clip after the intertitle 'types of natives’ are displayed for the camera as ethnographic subjects. They are filmed from the shoulders up, showing their features either front on or in profile. The intertitle itself categorises the villagers into different 'types’ and, by editing them in sequence, becomes a catalogue of the variations in each person’s physical appearance. Ethnographic photography and filmmaking flourished in the late 19th and early 20th centuries when Europeans utilised visual media to document and research people from Indigenous cultures. Hurley had himself embarked on ethnographic tours of New Guinea, the Torres Strait and Papua, making the films The Lost Tribe (1924) and Pearls and Savages (1921) as well as producing photographic publications.

In the shot where actress Grace Savieri attempts to put make-up on one of the village extras with a powder puff, the power dynamics between the two is evident. Savieri is confident and aware of the camera and her position in the village and finds her 'act’ amusing. The villager seems uncomfortable and possibly slightly irritated, but nonetheless remains calm.