Journal of Film Preservation - FIAF

magnified view detects the telltale worm-like strands of the disease,
trypansoma gambiense. Upon contact with the parasites, normal
circular-shaped blood cells mutate into octagonal-shaped cells,
recombining in a quilted pattern.
This startling microcinematographic demonstration in the final
segment of this film by Jean Comandon, later used to dramatise the
effects of a vampire bite in Jean Panlevé’s short surrealist film Le
Vampire [The Vampire] (1939), was excerpted in a number of other
circulating educational hygiene films of the period. Trypansoma
Gambiense: Agent de la maladie du sommeil itself was a composite of
sequences from other educational films of the period since, during
the interwar period, film sequences from a stock of educational
short-subject films were often edited together to create new
compilation films. Despite the frequent reappearance of the same
sequences in different educational films, they remained convincing
pedagogical demonstrations. The patchwork quality of these
educational demonstrations created the effect of authenticity in spite
of inconsistencies between disjointed visual sequences and the
intertitles.
Trypansoma Gambiense’s composite nature is revealed by such internal
inconsistencies. For example, one wonders why a sample of
trypansoma gambiense is shown infecting a sample of rat’s blood
rather than the African man who appears in the frame. And since
when is heavy breathing considered a symptom of sleeping sickness?
These discrepancies form part of a deeper web that points to
conditions of production and circulation, with each segment of the
film referring to a longer cycle of film subjects, and suggests some of
the ways in which these were combined and presented to the French
and African public.
The opening sequence, with the African man sitting outside of a hut,
was excerpted from Le Continent mystérieux [The Mysterious Continent]
(1924) that appeared in theatres in twelve brief instalments as a
popularised French colonial geography lesson. Filmed by the noted
geographer Paul Castelnau, Le Continent mystérieux was produced
from footage shot during the first film expedition sponsored by the
Citroën automobile company. Its release also served as advance
publicity for the most famous of the Citroën-sponsored expeditions:
La Crosière noire [The Black Journey], which premiered as a popular
feature documentary film and was also a centrepiece for an
important Parisian exhibition at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in
1925. Le Continent mystérieux presents various locations across the
Sahara desert in Algeria, Mali, and Guinea. The shot that appears in
Trypansoma Gambiense was used to illustrate the racial characteristics
of the Songhay, an ethnic group with historical roots in Timbuktu
and nearby villages along the Niger River – not the ravages of
sleeping sickness.
Le Continent mystérieux was composed of a series of short vignettes,
and was itself compiled from some of the same footage shot for the
19 Journal of Film Preservation / 63 / 2001
Se consideran aquí las reformas de higiene,
explotadas por la propaganda francesa en el
período de entre-guerras, como metáfora de
los efectos positivos de la colonia. Partiendo
de cortometrajes educativos de prevención
de las enfermedades venéreas y subrayando
las virtudes de la medicina moderna, el
autor analiza cómo se va modelando el
discurso colonialista. El discurso higienista
y la aventura colonial van a la par. Una
estrecha interrelación entre microbios
invisibles y geografía se va formando.