[Orwell Michaelis Home Movies: Reel 2]

This collection of home movies, originally filmed on 8mm and 16mm film, was taken between 1938 and 1956 by Orwell Michaelis. The collection was donated to ACMI by Michaelis’s daughter, Sally Cohen, and her husband Sheldon Cohen. The films show life in Melbourne including the 1956 Olympic Games, a fishing trip to Bermagui in NSW, and holidays in Indonesia.

This film is titled’ Eastern Tour 1939’ and begins with footage of a passenger liner departing from Sydney Harbour farewelled by waving onlookers and streamers. We see Sydney Harbour and images of the Whitsundays along the way. The highlight of this film is the footage of Bali in 1939. We see Balinese people in a traditional canoe, juking or cadik, paddle alongside the ship as it arrives in Bali. Once on land, there are images of temples, rice terraces, farmers, and a Balinese market with traders plying their trade. There are local people buying food from the stallholders and busying themselves around the market and socialising. We witness a Balinese wedding ceremony and a Gamelan orchestra accompanying a performance of the Legong Dance. The film also shows dancers preparing and dressing for a Djanger Dance Performance, and a Kris dance is performed by men and children on a dirt road in Bali.

Selected Highlights List (time codes from Access Overscan)

00:00:10:00 passenger liner leaving Port of Sydney Harbour; onlookers farewelling passengers with streamers; Dalgety and Co Ltd sheds along the wharf
00:01:57:00 view from the deck of the liner of Balinese people in traditional canoe, juking, cadik  
00:02:47:00 Balinese market stalls
00:02:55:00 Balinese market crowded with local people
00:03:13:00 Balinese market stall holders trading
00:03:29:00 Balinese temple
00:03:44:00 Balinese farmer ploughs rice field with oxen
00:03:52:00 Balinese rice terrace with workers
00:04:15:00 old Balinese man stands in front of temple shrine
00:04:20:00 Balinese children and women crowd the steps of a temple
00:04:46:00 Balinese tourist guide interacts with Western tourists at a temple
00:05:01:00 two Balinese men stand overlooking a rice terrace
00:05:34:00 a Balinese wedding with wedding guests arriving on foot along a dirt road
00:05:42:00 wedding guests enter through a gate
00:05:50:00 the groom walks down the road towards the wedding
00:06:03:00 groom sits with the priest and receives blessings accompanied by various rituals and incense
00:06:32:00 Balinese man carrying a child on his hip
00:06:51:00 learning the Kris dance with Balinese men and children in the street
00:07:02:00 dirt road crowded with children and women
00:07:17:00 Gamelan Gong orchestra playing for the Legong Dance
00:07:43:00 Legong Dance Performance
00:08:52:00 women dressing and preparing for the Djanger Dance
00:09:00:00 Balinese children playing in the dirt
00:09:08:00 women preparing a dance performance – rubbing oil into their skin, putting on sarongs, wrapping fabric around their midriff
00:09:38:00 women dressing for the dance
00:09:59:00 musicians accompanying seated women dancers
00:10:07:00 seated men and women perform dance
00:10:29:00 a solo dancer enters the seated circle
00:10:46:00 dancers perform for Western tourists
00:10:54:00 masked dancer performs for Western tourists
00:11:26:00 dancer points bow and arrow at masked dancer