''Africa Speaks!'' is a 1930 American documentary film directed by
Walter Futter
Walter Futter (January 2, 1900 – March 3, 1958) was a film producer and director in the United States. After an initial career cutting and editing films, Futter began writing and producing his own shorts and movies, often using footage he acquir ...
and narrated by
Lowell Thomas. It is an
exploitation film
An exploitation film is a film that tries to succeed financially by exploiting current trends, niche genres, or lurid content. Exploitation films are generally low-quality "B movies", though some set trends, attract critical attention, become hi ...
.
Premise
Paul L. Hoefler heads a 1928 expedition to Africa capturing wildlife and tribes on film.
Production
Although the film was shot over the fourteen months of the expedition in the
Serengeti
The Serengeti ( ) ecosystem is a Geography of Africa, geographical region in Africa, spanning northern Tanzania. The protected area within the region includes approximately of land, including the Serengeti National Park and several game res ...
and in
Uganda
}), is a landlocked country in East Africa. The country is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the south by Tanzania. The sou ...
, a scene involving an attack by a lion on a native was apparently staged at the
Selig Zoo in Los Angeles and involved a toothless lion.
[
Hoefler wrote a book entitled ''Africa Speaks'' about the expedition that was published in 1931.
]
References in popular culture
The title of the film was parodied in the 1940 cartoon '' Africa Squeaks'' and the 1949 Abbott and Costello film ''Africa Screams
''Africa Screams'' is a 1949 American adventure comedy film directed by Charles Barton and starring Abbott and Costello that parodies the safari genre. The title is a play on the title of the 1930 documentary '' Africa Speaks!'' The supportin ...
''.
DVD release
''Africa Speaks'' was released on Region 0
DVD region codes are a digital rights management technique introduced in 1997. It is designed to allow rights holders to control the international distribution of a DVD release, including its content, release date, and price, all according to ...
DVD-R by Alpha Video on July 7, 2015.
See also
*Goona-goona epic
"Goona-goona epic" refers to a particular type of native-culture exploitation film set in remote parts of the Far East, Southeast Asia, Africa, South America, and the South Pacific. These include documentaries (often of questionable authenticity) ...
References
External links
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1930 documentary films
1930 films
American documentary films
Black-and-white documentary films
Films set in the 1920s
Films set in Africa
Films shot in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Ethnofiction films
American black-and-white films
Columbia Pictures films
Films shot in Uganda
1930s English-language films
1930s American films
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