Title:BURMESE WATER FESTIVAL IN RANGOON [Allocated Title]
Film Number:JFU 578
Other titles:BRITISH ARMY OPERATIONS IN SOUTH EAST ASIA DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR [Allocated Series Title]
Summary: For the first time since the liberation of Rangoon, Burma, almost a year previously, the people of the city celebrate the Water Festival with lavish water fights in the vicinity of the Shwedagon Pagoda.
Description: Wide shot looking towards the entrance of the Shwedagon Pagoda with water spraying in all directions. Water spraying from an open water main with people playing in the water; people throw water from and at a parked lorry. People on top of a bus. A Chevrolet CMP lorry with a man on the cab speaking with a megaphone. Nearby a decorative banner is carried at the head of a long line of women carrying pots of water on their heads. Procession of women with the Shwedagon Pagoda rising in the background. Street scene with the Shwedagon behind; a vehicle approaches and passes camera, dripping wet, while in the midground someone wields a high-pressure hose near Bahan Bazaar. More scenes of vehicles and people being blasted with hoses. A jeep tries to pick its way through the crowd; a rear seat passenger gets hit in the head by the stream of water. Chevrolet CMP passes. A jeep gets a good dowsing as it passes a traffic podium. A Dodge 3-ton lorry near the Sule Pagoda. More vehicles being soaked; a jeep uses a civilian bus as cover. A British serviceman runs for cover after a drenching from a gang of Burmese children. A clapped-out civilian vehicle carries advertisements for the 'Central Electrical Service Electrical Engineers' and a 'Machines Repairing Depot' at 164 Shwegondaing Road (sp?). Medium wide shot of an RAF airman reacting badly to a soaking. A [camera?] man sitting in an Army Film and Photographic Unit jeep (with a tripod in the back) is drenched by a sheet of water thrown from out of frame; he gets out of the jeep carrying a Vinten Normandy cine camera.
Alternative Title:BRITISH ARMY OPERATIONS IN SOUTH EAST ASIA DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR [Allocated Series Title]
Production Details: War Office Directorate of Public Relations (Production sponsor)
SEAC Film Unit (Production company)
Wilson, A (Sergeant) (Production individual)
Personalities, Units and Organisations: British Army, No 9 Army Film and Photographic Unit (regiment/service)
Keywords: Rangoon, Burma (geography)
Thingyan, Celebrations (event)
India 1939-1945 (theme)
British Army 1939-1945 (theme)
