With Roosevelt in Africa
(1910)
In the depths of East Africa, hunting enthusiast, keen naturalist and former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt embarks on a specimen collecting trip for the Smithsonian Institution and the American Museum of Natural History. Enlisting the talents of famous wildlife photographer Cherry Kearton, this silent film provides a unique insight into Roosevelt’s expedition and features a wealth of animal life.
Revealing the wild beauty of Africa, Kearton did not stage any scenes, capturing footage of giraffes, the courtship rituals of the Jackson dancing bird and the first ever record of Zulu tribeswomen in their native land.
An intriguing record of the diverse African landscape, With Roosevelt in Africa originally lost out in the popularity stakes to Hunting Big Game in Africa, in which the Selig company hired a Roosevelt lookalike, bought a lion to shoot and faked a far more dramatic ‘safari’ in a Californian game preserve (all existing copies are thought to have been destroyed).
Cherry Kearton
