Title:CEREMONIAL, MILITARY AND TOURIST SCENES IN ETHIOPIA [Allocated Title]
Film Number:MGH 6687
Other titles:AMATEUR FILM BY UNIDENTIFIED CAMERAMAN [Alternative Title]
Summary: Amateur film records from a distance scenes of Emperor Haile Selassie in military uniform and tourist type views of the varied landscape and peoples of Ethiopia (Abyssinia) in the decade before the seizure of power by the communist military junta (Derg, Dergue).
Description: Emperor Haile Selassie emerges from a Douglas Dakota DC-3 of the Imperial Ethiopian Air Force (IEAF), watched by young Ethiopians in western dress who reverently bow before their ruler as he walks towards his large US sedan car. Older planes of the IEAF are visible in the background, presumably at Lideta Airport, Addis Ababa. Market views and rural scenes of donkey transport. White sheets laid out to dry and bleach on river bank. Panoramic views of varied landscape of Ethiopia. A European wearing a white suit looks at a memorial stone (unidentified) on rocky mountainside. Fasces symbol dating from the Italian occupation of Ethiopia (1936-1941) is visible on the entrance to a tunnel through the mountainside. Ethiopian outriders mounted on grey (white) horses precede car bearing the Emperor through a town. An ancient bridge. Ethiopians wait to cross swollen river with their mules. Three-tiered church or monastery building, presumably Coptic Christian (though unidentified). Haile Selassie attends ceremony of Trooping the Colour (based on British practice) by a unit of the Ethiopian Army, which is photographed and filmed by a European cameraman with a modern (1960 era) Arriflex camera. Exterior of grand house with stone wall fortified by slit turrets.
Alternative Title:AMATEUR FILM BY UNIDENTIFIED CAMERAMAN [Alternative Title]