G-B Instructional Limited presents Olive Growing in the Middle East, a short film by the J. Arthur Bank Organization Limited and supervised by G I Cons, M.A. The film concentrates on showing the multiple processes used to make olive oil versus the actual olive growing process.
The opening shot is a panoramic view of limestone hills dotted by olive trees. A map showing the heaviest concentrations of olive trees (:40 – 1:12) highlights the areas around Spain, the south of France, and Italy. The map pans along to show similar concentrations around Cyprus, Greece, and Palestine.
The map now centers on Jerusalem and Damascus (1:14) where traditional cultivation practices are still observed. A panoramic view of limestone houses is shown (1:27) and then centers on the village of Anjara, located in Jordan, in which the people primarily make a living from olive trees planted generations ago by the Romans. New growth is obtained by grafting shoots onto these vintage trunks.
A man uses a tall ladder to climb an olive tree as children sit and watch (1:32). Instead of picking the olives, this centuries-old harvesting method involves beating the olives out with a stick (1:49) and gathering them from the ground.
A woman climbs a ladder to the roof of a house (2:04), a basket of olives balanced on her head. Another woman meets her, takes the basket, and dumps them out (2:19) to dry in the sun. The woman returns down the ladder as the other further spreads the olives out.
A ten-year old girl (2:50) crushes olives with a large rock and then squeezes the olives (3:07) to create pulp. A seated woman (3:20) begins the process of turning the crushed pulp into oil by placing it into a boiling pan of water to cause the oil to rise to the top. To eliminate waste, she scoops the pulp out into a new pot (3:36) to cool and squeeze again (3:49). A petrol can is used to hold water (3:56) that is then poured over the pulp to make the oil rise. She skims it off again (4:22).
Some villagers choose to use a millwheel for creating the pulp (4:38). Two men walk a circular path to pull the large millstone around that grinds the olives into a paste. Others use oxen to turn the wheel (4:49).
A woman walks casually down the road, a basket of olives precisely balanced on her head (4:56), eventually bringing it to the millstone. A closeup of the two yoked oxen is shown (5:15).
Alternatively, instead of boiling and skimming, the pulp is layered into rush baskets (5:39) and taken to an olive press (5:51). A man uses his weight on the two poles to act as a lever (6:00 – 6:48) applying more and more pressure to the baskets to extract the oil.
The limestone hillside dotted with olive trees is again shown (7:25).
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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com
