POST-WAR RECONSTRUCTION IN KOREA [Allocated Title]

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  • Title: POST-WAR RECONSTRUCTION IN KOREA [Allocated Title]
  • Film Number: MGH 4834
  • Other titles: AMATEUR FILM BY MAJOR MASTERTON [Alternative Title]
  • Summary: Amateur film without titles shot by Colonel Masterton while working as an engineer repairing coal mines in South Korea after the Korean War for the United Nations Reconstruction Agency in Korea.
  • Description: 02:51:46:11 [colour] A street with small, low, thatched buildings, telegraph wires and a large mountain rising behind. Series of landscape shots. A Buddhist monk standing outside a temple (?). A Korean family (?) assembled for the camera; there is a pile of vegetables in front of them (their produce?). Children at play. A square in front of a large single-storey building (a headquarters of somekind?). Local men in smart civilian dress outside the building; they watch a workman on the building’s steps. The local men in apparently cheerful discussion with European (or American?) men (colleagues?). Two of the Korean men with Korean women. A group of Western men with baggage. A parked blue and white Douglas C-54 Skymaster marked ‘Civil Air Transport’ and with a Chinese nationalist flag on the tail. People board the aircraft. It taxis away. 02:55:47:03 A hillside; the entrance to a mine with rails leading into it. Looking down on an unfinished wooden hut and panning to view terrain. Mine entrance and local men. More views of terrain. Local men at the entrance to a mine, with a good view of the wooden structure supporting the tunnel. Tunnel entrance in the distance with wooden hut and a number of men foreground. Change of location, apparently an American military camp; American personnel in green fatigues wearing yellow armbands. A helicopter is seen landing in the distance. Landscape pan over desolate terrain. A number of Western civilians and American (?) military personnel in scrubby vegetation; servicemen and civilians alike wear the yellow armbands. Views in the camp; vehicles are also marked with yellow flags. 02:59:47:24 [B&W] Korean children play on a frozen pond or similar; they scoot about, squatting on small sledges. A train, bedecked with garlands and flying an American and Korean flag, approaches and passes camera. On the platform a crowd waits and a Korean in uniform hurries along towards camera. A group of civilian dignitaries, each with a spade, ceremonially shovelling earth. Pan along the train which is drawing away. Train stops and people get off. Some eminent civilian speaks into a microphone. Wreaths are presented to the civil dignitaries as others applaud. Group of young women or girls, evidently dressed for the occasion. More speeches and flowers. Another brief shot of ceremonial digging. 03:03:46:24 [colour] In a children’s playground two girls jump up and down on a simple seesaw as others watch. Other girls jumping on a seesaw; the action is amusing and the school uniform would appear to be a red jumper and long black skirt. 03:05:46:11 END
  • Alternative Title: AMATEUR FILM BY MAJOR MASTERTON [Alternative Title]
  • Colour: Colour
  • Digitised:
  • Object_Number: MGH 4834
  • Sound: Silent
  • Access Conditions: NON-IWM
  • Featured Period:
  • Production Date: 1955
  • Production Country: GB
  • Production Details: Masterton, W F (Production individual)
  • Personalities, Units and Organisations:
  • Keywords:
  • Physical Characteristics: Colour format: Colour Sound format: Silent Soundtrack language: None Title language: None Subtitle language: None
  • Technical Details: Format: 16mm Number of items/reels/tapes: 1 Footage: ca 350 ft; Running time: ca 12 mins (16 fps)
  • HD Media:
  • Link to IWM Collections page:

    MGH 4834

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