[Orwell Michaelis Home Movies: Reel 3]

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 Sheldon and Sally 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 depicts scenes of Bali and Java taken while on a holiday in 1939. The film is divided into sections indicated by titles: ‘Native Law Court –The Ceiling is Decorated with Pictures of Punishments’; ‘A Balinese Beauty’; ‘A Temple Birthday Festival – The Procession’; ‘A Temple Birthday Festival – at the Temple’; ‘Polishing Rice’; ‘Cockfighting is a Popular Past time’; ‘Java’; ‘Java – Selecta-A Hill station above Soerabaja’; ‘Java Semarang’; ‘The Borobudur’; ‘A Mohammedan Funeral at Djockjakarta’; ‘Buitenzorg – Government House and the Botanical Gardens’.

This film is interesting for the Balinese and Javanese street, local transport and people scenes. Images of the architecture, temples, cultural traditions and ceremonies are also a highlight. The film shows pottery techniques and a pottery ware market. There is footage of a funeral procession and a traditional Balinese temple festival or Odalan. The film shows elaborate offerings of fruit and food which is brought with great ceremony by the locals to the temple. We see Borobudur and surrounds, including details of the temple walls and structure. Dutch spelling and place names, as well as images of the hill station resort Selecta, reflect Indonesia’s colonial history and provide context for the time in which the film was made.

Selected Highlights List (timecodes from Access Overscan)

00:00:01:00 title: “Bali-Native Law Court– the Ceiling is Decorated with Pictures of Punishments”
00:00:16:00 images of the ceiling of what appears to be an outdoor law court depicting painted representations of Balinese punishments
00:00:40:00 women carrying baskets on their head walk down a palm-fringed dirt road
00:01:23:00 local woman works at a potter wheel making a bowl
00:01:46:00 local men walking down a road carrying a multitude of basket ware across their shoulders on their heads
00:01:54:00 pottery market
00:02:06:00 local woman tending to lotus flowers and garden; this is posed footage for the photographer and is titled “A Balinese Beauty”
00:02:32:00 title: “A temple birthday Festival – the procession” (or Odalan)
00:02:37:00 local people prepare for an Odalan procession
00:03:13:00 the procession of local women carry food and baskets and offerings on their head to the temple
00:03:55:00 tall elaborate offerings of fruit and food are carried in to temple
00:04:05:00 tall elaborate food offerings are carried on the heads of women descending the steps to the temple
00:04:14:00 black-and-white footage of elaborate food offerings being carried on the heads of women to the temple
00:05:29:00 colour footage of women carrying enormous baskets of produce on their heads
00:05:38:00 people polishing rice
00:06:27:00 a family and a dog walk down a rural road beside a rice paddy carrying baskets on their head
00:06:45:00 title: “Cockfighting is a popular past time”
00:06:46:00 cockfighting roosters in their baskets
00:07:00:00 cock owner shows off his rooster
00:07:09:00 old man and child with their cock
00:07:29:00 title: “Java Selecta – a Hill Station above Soerabaja” (Dutch spelling of Surabaya)
00:07:35:00 views from the Hill station look-out point
00:07:45:00 the manicured lawns of the Selecta resort with Dutch/Netherlands flag flying
00:07:57:00 scenes of the resort swimming pool and bathers
00:08:33:00 street scenes of Semarang showing bicycles, pedestrians, motor scooters, horses and carts, buildings and houses
00:08:50:00 buildings/houses with Chinese writing and balconies adorned with washing lines
00:09:01:00 school children on foot and bicycles travel along the road in front of what could be a school
00:09:17:00 colonial house perched on a hill in lush surroundings
00:09:23:00 Borobudur temple and surrounds, showing close-ups of temple details and statues
00:10:10:00 a group of children gather on the verandah of what could be a school
00:10:18:00 local women wash clothes in a river while children swim in the surrounding water
00:10:28:00 title: “A Mohammedan Funeral Procession at Djockjakarta” (Yogyakarta)
00:10:32:00 mourners attend a Muslin/Islamic funeral procession accompanying the coffin as it is carried along the street
00:10:48:00 bullocks and cart travel down a dirt road
00:10:53:00 title: “Buitenzorg – Government House and the Botanical Gardens”
00:10:59:00 Government House with pond and flamingos in the foreground