Colonial film: 150 films about colonial Africa [Nigeria: Giant in the sun - 1959]

Colonial Film presents “moving images of the British empire” for the viewing pleasure of anyone with internet access. On the website, you will find facts, figures and material on upwards of 6,000 films, more than 150 of which can be watched online.

You can search for films by country, topic, keyword or date. Some of the most important films are supplemented by critical notes from the website’s academic research team. All the films reveal what life was like in British colonies around the world and provide excellent history tools for those from countries formerly colonised by Great Britain. The Colonial Film Project, who are behind the website, brought together Birkbeck University, University College London and archives (British Film Institute, Imperial War Museum and the British Empire and Commonwealth Museum) to catalogue films relating to the British Empire in order to enable both the coloniser and the colonised to “understand better the truths of Empire”.

I, too, believe everyone from a country formerly colonized by the British should watch the documentaries available at Colonial Film, whether or not they have an interest in history and/or film. From discussions with folks and from reading comments on forums, it seems to me that there are a lot of people from countries with a history of European colonialism who do not understand exactly what colonialism and imperialism mean. From watching the films and documentaries available at Colonial Film, one is able to glimpse colonialism in action, and perhaps by going through the website’s archives and really paying attention to the kind of words and themes used in the documentaries, obtain a clearer understanding of colonialism.

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