Mathers exhibit celebrates once-lost film

"Silvia the Zulu" was once thought to be completely lost. But the historic film inspired filmmaker and historian Peter Davis, and he refurbished it for modern audiences. \nDavis gave a lecture accompanying the film showing, titled "The Image of the Zulu in Cinema," Thursday at Ballantine Hall. \nHe said the Zulu were represented in mythic proportions, as savage warriors, and had a generally negative representation in films. \n"Zulu were a daunting enemy but could never be a threat to the British," he said.\nAccording to the Mathers Museum Web site, www.indiana.edu/~mathers/, "Silvia the Zulu" was the first film made in South Africa to include an entirely black cast. \nThe film was produced in 1927 by Italian director Attillio Gatti and an anthropologist named Lidio Cipriani, Davis said. In 1925, Gatti set out to make a series of films around the world. However, having money only to travel to South Africa, he went there with two cameramen, Cipriani and a few white film stars.\n"'Silvia' was the result of a happy accident," he said. \nDavis said that when the filmmakers arrived in South Africa, they were going to travel to Eshowe, but a local directed them to Zululand instead, saying it would be more interesting. Gatti and Cipriani first made a film showing the white actors and the Zulus, the tribe inhabiting Zululand. After showing this film to the local authorities that were censoring films, they had to make a new film. \n"(The censors) were horrified," he said. \nDavis said the secret of the Zulu image in film was political. \n"Every image of the Zulu in cinema has had political undertones," he said.\nDavis said the typical ingredients in Zulu propaganda films included an evil witch doctor, threatened whites and black servants serving whites.\n"(In these films) the blacks establish their worthiness only by serving white men," Davis said. "The screen image of the Zulu obscures and overwhelms the reality." \nGatti and Cipriani instead decided to make a film about the Zulu people and featured all of the Zulus as actors in the film. Davis said Gatti's formula for directing the Zulu people was "a little English, a little Zulu and a lot of gesturing." When the film was completed, it first came out for free showings in Italy, just as films with sound were coming out. "Silvia" could not compete with these sound films so Davis said "it disappeared from the earth." \nDavis said he came across the film as he was doing research for another documentary he was making at the time. \n"I found the film almost by accident," he said. \nWhen he found the film, the accompanying score was lost, giving him the challenge to compose an original soundtrack of traditional Zulu music. \n"I suited the music to particular images on the film," Davis said. \nDuring the showing at IU, Davis' film score was accompanied by live music inspired by the movie by Themba Tana. According to his Web site, www.thembamusic.com, Tana, originally from South Africa, has traveled the entire world, collecting stories, instruments and music. \nAside from the film showing and lecture, there is also an exhibit. "Silvia," at the Mathers Museum, features more than 60 production stills from the film, according to the Mathers Museum Web site.\nJudy Kirk, assistant director of the Mathers Museum, said the museum had a lot of support from a number of departments and individuals on campus. The Office of the Vice President for Research, the African Studies departments, the Black Film Center/Archive and the Film and Media Studies Department of Communication and Culture were all helpful in coordinating the events. \n"I think the history of the film is just as interesting as the film itself, and the exhibit helps to explain the filmmaking process," Kirk said. "The exhibit gives people and opportunity to explore the film in a completely different way ... Some of the images are quite striking in and of themselves."\nThe exhibit will run through July 16.