This black and white documentary film about Ceylon (today called Sri Lanka) is a John Grierson Production and directed by documentary filmmaker Basil Wright. Lionel Wendt, the narrator, died in December of 1934, helping to date this as to when Ceylon was a British Crown Colony. It is shown in four segments. The Buddha (:53). It opens with masked natives dancing at night (:55-2:40), which was replaced by Buddhism. The people walk single file to the mountain top to worship (2:42-8:50). Bells are rung, statues of Buddha shown, and single birds fly (8:51-10:00). The Virgin Island (10:05). A bucket is lifted from a well by people walking on a type of see-saw device and then used to bathe in (10:07-10:35). Women fill water jugs and take them to a house (10:37-11:07). A mother and baby elephant stand in the water (11:09). The monks are fed by going from house to house (11:11-11:56). An elephant lifts one foot and lifts a man to its back before walking (11:57-12:14). Men in catamarans zip by (12:15-12:40). A man hand fishes with a net (12:42-13:30). An individual pounds clothing on a rock and clean clothes are hung to dry (13:35-13:53). Pottery is made on a wheel (14:00-14:28). A two-man saw is used (14:30-14:49). Mud is made to lump into balls and use as the fill on the sides of a thatched structure (15:09-15:55). Fishing nets are mended (15:57-16:15). People till a rice field by hand. The rice is beat out of the husk with a pestle and mortar (16:20-17:57). Children run to a house and gird themselves to take dance lessons at a long log used as a barre (18:00-20:28). The Voices of Commerce (21:36). A steam locomotive is heard as it passes through the mountains (21:50-22:03). An elephant with a rider on its back pushes over a tree, carries brush, and lifts cement blocks as part of a building process (22:04-22:59). A boy climbs a tree using a foot strap to knock coconuts out of trees, where they are loaded into a goat cart, split on an upright blade, and sold (23:10-24:50). Men in an office listen to headphones and record on a board the names of steamliners arriving to pick up goods (24:52-25:38). Crops are hand-picked and placed into back baskets (25:40-26:25). Scenes are interspersed with pickers, machinery, workers shoveling, loading crates, and ships (26:26-27:30). A city with items being brought to sell is shown (27:35-28:00). The Apparel of a god (28:07). Men ride on elephants, boats race past, and people walk in a single file line with baskets on their backs (28:20-29:30). A man carrying two baskets brings them to a giant Buddha and other stone statues as an offering (29:45-33:00). A man dresses in a fanciful native costume and a dance begins as other men drum (33:02-37:30).
The Song of Ceylon is a 1934 British documentary film directed by Basil Wright and produced by John Grierson for the Ceylon Tea Propaganda Board.
The film was shot on location in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) at the start of 1934 and completed at the GPO film studios in Blackheath, London.
Ambitious documentary chronicling the cultural life and religious customs of the Sinhalese and the effects of advanced industrialism on such customs.
The first part of the film depicts the religious life of the Sinhalese, interlinking the Buddhist rituals with the natural beauty of Ceylon. Opening with a series of pans over palm leaves, we then gradually see people journey to Adam’s Peak, a center of Buddhist pilgrimage for over two hundred years. This is continually inter-cut with images of surrounding natural beauty and a series of pans of a Buddhist statue.
Part two focuses on the working life of the Sinhalese, again continually stressing their intimate connection to the surrounding environment. We see people engaging in pottery, woodcarving and the building of houses, whilst children play.
The third part of the film introduces the arrival of modern communications systems into the fabric of this ‘natural’ lifestyle, heralded by experimental sounds and shots of industrial working practices.
Finally, in the last part of the film, we return to the religious life of the Sinhalese, where people dress extravagantly to perform a ritual dance. The film ends as it began, panning over palm trees.
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