''De Voortrekkers'' is a 1916 silent film recognized as the first

epic Epic commonly refers to: * Epic poetry, a long narrative poem celebrating heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation * Epic film, a genre of film with heroic elements Epic or EPIC may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and medi ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

's motion-picture history and also that nation's oldest surviving

feature film A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...

. Produced by African Film Productions and directed by

Harold M. Shaw Harold Marvin Shaw (also cited in some records as Henry Marvin Shaw; November 3, 1877January 30, 1926) was an American stage performer, film actor, screenwriter, and notable director of the silent era. A native of Tennessee, he worked professio ...

, it portrays the

Boers Boers ( ; af, Boere ()) are the descendants of the Dutch-speaking Free Burghers of the eastern Cape frontier in Southern Africa during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. From 1652 to 1795, the Dutch East India Company controlled this area ...

' "

Great Trek The Great Trek ( af, Die Groot Trek; nl, De Grote Trek) was a Northward migration of Dutch-speaking settlers who travelled by wagon trains from the Cape Colony into the interior of modern South Africa from 1836 onwards, seeking to live beyon ...

" of the 1830s, concluding with a hegemonic recreation of the

Battle of Blood River The Battle of Blood River (16 December 1838) was fought on the bank of the Ncome River, in what is today KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa between 464 Voortrekkers ("Pioneers"), led by Andries Pretorius, and an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 Zulu. Est ...

that occurred on 16 December 1838, when a few hundred armed

Afrikaners Afrikaners () are a South African ethnic group descended from Free Burghers, predominantly Dutch settlers first arriving at the Cape of Good Hope in the 17th and 18th centuries.Entry: Cape Colony. ''Encyclopædia Britannica Volume 4 Part 2: ...

defeated several thousand

Zulus Zulu people (; zu, amaZulu) are a Nguni ethnic group native to Southern Africa. The Zulu people are the largest ethnic group and nation in South Africa, with an estimated 10–12 million people, living mainly in the province of KwaZulu-Natal ...

. Descendants of the Dutch-speaking ''voortrekkers'' or "pioneers" who participated in the Great Trek revered the film and used it to commemorate the event, which forms part of a highly contentious period in South Africa's history. Afrikaners presented it in school classrooms for decades and screened it annually at social events marking the battle's anniversary. ''De Voortrekkers'' premiered in South Africa at

Krugersdorp Krugersdorp (Afrikaans for ''Kruger's Town'') is a mining city in the West Rand, Gauteng Province, South Africa founded in 1887 by Marthinus Pretorius. Following the discovery of gold on the Witwatersrand, a need arose for a major town in the west ...

on 14 December 1916, just two days before the battle's 78th anniversary. It was later distributed in an abbreviated form to cinemas in England, the United States, Canada, and elsewhere outside Africa under the title ''Winning a Continent''.

Intertitle In films, an intertitle, also known as a title card, is a piece of filmed, printed text edited into the midst of (i.e., ''inter-'') the photographed action at various points. Intertitles used to convey character dialogue are referred to as "dialo ...

s used in the original film and in later releases employ a split-screen format that presents texts in both English and

Afrikaans Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gra ...

."De Voortrekkers (1916) with new orchestral score"
19:52 segment of film with added music, uploaded by Chris Jeffrey on 23 February 2017 onto

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

(San Bruno, California, United States). Retrieved 12 August 2021.

References

External links

*
Short video from British Pathé (1917)
Crowds outside London West End cinema showing ''Winning a Continent'', the movie's title outside Africa 1916 films South African drama films Silent films {{SouthAfrica-film-stub Films set in the 1830s Films set in South Africa