''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 Lowell Jackson Thomas (April 6, 1892 – August 29, 1981) was an American writer, actor, broadcaster, and traveler, best remembered for publicising T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia). He was also involved in promoting the Cinerama widescree ...

. 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 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 reserves. The Serenget ...

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 ...

, a scene involving an attack by a lion on a native was apparently staged at the

Selig Zoo The Selig Polyscope Company was an American motion picture company that was founded in 1896 by William Selig in Chicago. The company produced hundreds of early, widely distributed commercial moving pictures, including the first films starring To ...

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 Abbott may refer to: People * Abbott (surname) *Abbott Handerson Thayer (1849–1921), American painter and naturalist * Abbott and Costello, famous American vaudeville act Places Argentina * Abbott, Buenos Aires United States * Abbott, Arkansas ...

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 supporting ...

''.

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 DVD recordable and DVD rewritable are optical disc recording technologies. Both terms describe DVD optical discs that can be written to by a DVD recorder, whereas only 'rewritable' discs are able to erase and rewrite data. Data is written ('bu ...

Alpha Video Alpha Video (also known as Alpha Home Entertainment) is an entertainment company, based near Philadelphia, that specializes in the manufacturing and marketing of public domain movies and TV shows on DVD. Alpha Video releases approximately 30 ...

on July 7, 2015.

References

External links