The Travel Film Archive

January 7, 2009 11:09 AM

Enjoy the Travel Film Archive on YouTube. They have tons of videos from the 1900s through to the 1970s. For example, you can learn about that wonderful island South of India, Ceylon.
posted by chunking express (13 comments total)

I love this! Thanks.
posted by flipyourwig at 11:38 AM on January 7

Spiffing, thank you!
posted by Jody Tresidder at 11:40 AM on January 7

So there I am in Sri Lanka, formerly Ceylon, at about 3 o'clock in the morning, looking for one thousand brown M&Ms to fill a brandy glass, or Ozzy wouldn't go on stage that night...
posted by pziemba at 11:45 AM on January 7

Please keep in mind that the narration for some of these films was written over 75 years ago and reflects the colonial attitudes of the time, some of which may seem offensive today = keep an eye out for some fantastic comments, like the following:

"narrator of this clip is Irish man.Brits do not like Irish the same way they do not like us"

I often forget how international YouTube is, and the comments on Manila, Queen of the Pacific 1938 include the following:

we will never achieve the true democratic.. kung pagpapa- brainwash tayo sa mga americans. sabi nga ni rizal "kung hindi tayo marunong lumingon sa ating pinangalingan hindi tyo makakarating sa paroroonan!" proud na proud tayo pagnanalo si pacquio sa boxing pero wala naman tayong magawa para sa ating bansa na ekaka proud natin! guys we need to educate ourselves or else sayang lang pinaglaban ng ating mga ninunu!

Either this person is writing a mix of English and another language, or it's a really confusing spam bot.
posted by filthy light thief at 12:10 PM on January 7

THANK YOU. I mean it sincerely. I mean it from the bottom of my heart. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU. This post made my day!
posted by ford and the prefects at 12:19 PM on January 7

My cousin sent me the Ceylon video, and then I discovered it was part of a large series that had been collected. YouTube is amazing.
posted by chunking express at 12:22 PM on January 7

I was going to show my dad the Korean half of the Siam to Korea film but I think it might make his head explode. Fascinating stuff, though.
posted by Rora at 1:14 PM on January 7

This is great—thanks!
posted by languagehat at 1:58 PM on January 7

"The typical Sinhalese man is characteristically effeminate"
Hmmm.
posted by bunglin jones at 2:14 PM on January 7

And, thank you very much for this. Many family members are going to love the Ceylon clip.
posted by bunglin jones at 2:16 PM on January 7

"The typical Sinhalese man is characteristically effeminate"

They do like to hold hands with their male friends when walking down the street! I do like the youtube posters taking offense to the "It's difficult to distinguish the average Sinhalese man from the opposite sex" comment, though.

It's so strange to think that my grandmother was growing up in that Ceylon and she now lives in the vastly different Sri Lanka. In some ways they seem like completely different countries, but in some parts of the video you could believe that it was filmed today.
posted by liquorice at 4:30 PM on January 7

What a wonderful post! I was immediately inspired to search out all the China-related clips and write about them on my blog.

It's fascinating how the descriptions of those funny foreigners back in the day reveal how people perceived Far Away Places. The imperialist condescension just drips from some of these clips.

Either this person is writing a mix of English and another language, or it's a really confusing spam bot.

Yes, that person is writing in English and Tagalo, at least to my not so educated guess. A lot of my Filipino friends easily code-switch between the two in writing.
posted by so much modern time at 7:15 PM on January 7

I long for the full Alan Wicker archive.
posted by marvin at 9:22 PM on January 7