FEEDING A NATION [Main Title]

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Media files

  • Title: FEEDING A NATION [Main Title]
  • Film Number: IWM 548
  • Other titles: ALIMENTANDO A UNA NACION (on copy held) [Alternative Title]
  • Summary: Spanish language version of a British official film showing the export of meat and sugar from round the world to Britain, and production of fish and bread in the British Isles, early 1918.
  • Description: I. Cattle on the plains of Argentina, the principal meat exporter to Britain, being rounded up by gauchos with a ranch in the background. The cattle are put through a dip. Sheep in Australia are rounded into pens and also put through a dip. A cargo ship carrying meat arrives at a British port (Liverpool ?) and the sides of meat are transferred to launches. As the meat is landed it is put into refrigerated warehouses by crane and conveyor belt. The ship carries a light gun against German "pirates". II. Agricultural labourers, in Trinidad, West Indies, prepare ground for a sugar plantation by hoeing, and weed around the young cane as it grows. The cane is cut and loaded into bullock carts, then put into a crusher. One woman chews a length of cane. The pulp sugar is drained off as molasses into tanks, then barrels. A small cargo vessel takes it to Britain. At a British port sacks are unloaded. The conveyor belt has crystallised sugar running off it. (In a laboratory, sugar in two stages of crystallisation is shown on glass slides.) At the refinery the molasses is centrifuged and the resulting sugar poured from hoppers into Lyle sacks by women workers. The sacks are loaded onto lorries, taken by train to a railhead, and by ship to the Army in France. (First reel ends.) III. Fishermen at a Scottish port prepare to take their boats out. The camera stays on board the trawler through a storm, and the first trawl as the men pull in the nets. The fishing fleet is guarded by patrol boats, by a destroyer (see notes) and the Grand Fleet. The battleship HMS Monarch is shown in pre-war rig. Back in port, the catch is unloaded and men and Scottish women work together to sort it. The fish are crated or packed in barrels for transport. A display of various types of fish in ranks. IV. Wheat is harvested in the fields of Britain by horse-drawn reapers, and threshed by a threshing machine. The grain in sacks is loaded onto a ship through a chute. A horse-drawn wagon brings sacks of flour to a bakery for weighing. The automatic mixing vats make the dough, shape it into loaves, and these are baked in the oven. The men stack the loaves onto vans for the shops.
  • Access Conditions: IWM Attribution: © IWM
  • Featured Period: 1914-1918
  • Production Date: 1918-03
  • Production Country: GB
  • Production Details: Ministry of Information (Production sponsor)
  • Personalities, Units and Organisations: Royal Navy, Monarch (regiment/service) Royal Hellenic Navy (regiment/service)
  • Keywords: agriculture, Argentinian - animal (object name) animals, mammals: cow (object name) agriculture, Australian - animal (object name) animals, mammals: sheep (object name) supplies, British, movement [RA] - food: [+] (object name) agriculture, West Indian - tropical (object name) agriculture, British - fisheries: [+] (object name) ships, British naval - battleship: Monarch (object name) ships, Greek naval - destroyer: Aetos Class (object name) society, West Indian - ethnic (object name) society, West Indian - domestic (object name) ships, British civilian - fishing (object name) agriculture, British - arable (object name) industry, British - food: [+] (object name) 31/3(41) (event) Argentina (geography) Australia (geography) Liverpool, Merseyside, England, UK (geography) Trinidad, West Indies (geography) GB, Scotland (geography) GB, England (geography)
  • Physical Characteristics: Colour format: B&W Sound format: Silent Soundtrack language: None Title language: Spanish Subtitle language: Spanish
  • Technical Details: Format: 35mm Number of items/reels/tapes: 2 Footage: 1842 ft; Running time: 32 mins
  • HD Media:Yes
  • Notes: Summary: in its present form this is the export version of the film for Spanish-speaking countries. The destroyer shown is extremely rare, being a British-built destroyer undergoing trials in 1911 for the Greek Navy, to become one of their Aetos Class destroyers. Acknowledgement to Ben Bousquet for help in identification of Trinidad
  • Link to IWM Collections page:

    IWM 548

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