The 1948 episode “Nomads Of The Jungle (Malaya),” part of the educational film series The Earth and Its Peoples, directed by Victor Jurgens and produced by Louis de Rochemont Associates, follows a nomadic tribe in the jungle of the Malay Peninsula and captures nomadic life through the eyes of the chief’s son Alune. The film begins with a description of the peninsula and the jungle, then introduces the nomadic people (01:14) that the story is based on. Alune narrates the story, and explains aspects of nomadic life to viewers. The tribe is on the move, looking for a new camp—crossing rivers (02:15) and bushwhacking their way through dense foliage. Once they find a suitable place for camp, they use bamboo (02:45) and palm leaves (03:17) to create shelters. They unpack their belongings, and then the women go collect wild vegetables (04:22), including wild yam. Bamboo is used to transport water from the river, as well as to make water storage tanks (05:05). Children drive fish upriver to be netted for dinner (05:45). Like bamboo, banana tree leaves have many uses, including “refrigerating” the newly caught fish (07:00). Women make bread from palm trees (07:12), wrapping dough with banana leaves and placing them into bamboo tubes to be put onto the fire to bake. After sunset, after everyone has finished eating, the men make blowguns and darts (10:29) tipped with poison from the sap of the Epo tree. While men make weapons, women weave baskets to haul goods for trading. The next day, the blowguns are cleaned and polished, and the they are tested. The hunting party goes into the jungle (12:38), building bridges over rivers that they cannot wade across (13:00), and kill an adult monkey for food while taking the baby monkey to trade. Alune makes a simple bamboo cage to house the baby monkey (15:25). The tribe also collects wood to trade. Once enough goods are collected, men make rafts (16:41) to float down to the trading post. Rafts are only used to float downstream; the trading party will return to camp by foot. Once all the goods are loaded, the party pushes off and floats downriver to the trading post (19:15). The trader pays the tribe in imported goods like knives and cloth. The trading party spends two days returning to their camp, where the rest of the tribe is excited to see what the men brought back, including Alune’s/Loon’s grandmother, who quickly grabs cigarettes the chief brings her (20:50). The tribe must work together to make the most of the jungle and what it has to offer in order to survive the life of a nomadic people.

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