Sir Clarmont Skrine

Amateur film by British diplomat Clarmont Skrine recording the alpine foothills and Basque coastline of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department of south-western France bordering with Spain.

Kathakali performance featuring the great Indian dancer Guru Gopinath.

A trip to the spectacular city of Bundi and a Kathakali dance performance, filmed in vivid colour.

Amateur colour footage showing Israel and Jordan in 1953. The film opens in Jerusalem, showing the cityscape, walls, people and street scenes. Scenes in Jordan include landscapes, street scenes, crowds and dignitaries at a religious procession, mountain and valley views, architecture and ruined buildings, an encampment and ends with views of Petra.

This short unedited film largely documents travel, tourist attractions some of the people encountered during Sir Clarmont Skrine’s time in the region. Highlights within the footage are the spectacular mountainous scenery to be found in Iran, Tomb of Cyrus, Persepolis, the shrine of Imam Reza, Imam Square, Chehel Sotoun, Shah Mosque, Tehran Bazaar, Ctesiphon, the Tomb of Darius and the Blue Mosque.

This colour, silent 16mm film shows various commercial activities on the streets of Peshawar, Kabul and other towns, highlighting the importance of trade to the people living and travelling through the North West Frontier and Khyber Pass. Architecture and archaeological sites along this important trading route are also well documented, providing a snapshot of many locations since affected by war. Made by Sir Clarmont Skrine, a British diplomat active in the 1940s this is an important record of sites of archaeological interest that have since been damaged or lost.

The hunting party is filmed traversing across the edges of treacherous cliffs, one misstep away from certain death, but the height does not seem to bother these individuals who navigate the rock face with almost as much ease and grace as the markhor and bison they are tracking.