Congorilla

Congorilla

Tearing Through the Barriers of an Empire of Death

1932 · 67 min · ★ 6.0 · Documentary

The first sound movie made entirely in Africa, Congorilla premiered in 1932 and permitted audiences to hear what they had only been able to see during previous safari films. Martin and Osa Johnson began in Kenya and Tanzania before moving to Uganda and the Congo Basin (Zaire). Along the way they filmed Zebra in the Serengeti, charging Rhinos in the Northern Frontier District (Southern Somalia), and recorded exciting encounters with Crocodiles and Hippos as they went down the Nile. The latter part of the film is devoted to the 7 months the filmmakers spent in the Ituri Forest with the Mbuti people as they captured village life despite the humidity, which caused batteries to deteriorate, wires and connections to erode, and mildew to form on camera cases.

Directed by Martin E. Johnson

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Cast

Martin E. Johnson Himself
Osa Johnson Herself

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2h 34m together

Congorilla

Simba: The King of the Beasts

Both from Martin E. Johnson.

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I Married Adventure

I Married Adventure · 1940

I Married Adventure

MovieDocumentaryAdventure

A 1940 Columbia Picture feature film, "I Married Adventure" stars Osa Johnson and closely follows her 1940 best-selling book of the same name. Osa portrays herself in studio-produced scenes which bridge the transition between actual documentary footage segments as the film recounts the Johnson's nine world expeditions to Africa, Borneo, and the South Seas. Jim Bannon, a Hollywod stuntman who lent his voice to many western's including Red Ryder, Don Clark, and Albert Duffy narrate this adventure classic that compiles the very best images from the Johnsons' original feature films.

Simba: The King of the Beasts

Simba: The King of the Beasts · 1928

Simba: The King of the Beasts

MovieDocumentary

Simba: The King of the Beasts is an 1928 American black-and-white silent documentary film, directed by Martin and Osa Johnson, which features the couple's four-year expedition to track the lion across Kenyan veld to his lair.

Baboona

Baboona · 1935

MovieDocumentary

The 1935 Morro films, shot by Martin and Osa Johnson, recount the 60,000 mile "Flying Safari" undertaken by the filmmakers as they flew their two amphibious airlanes(the Zebra stripped 'Osa's Ark' and the Giraffe-spotted 'Spirit of Africa') from Capetown, South Africa to Cairo, Egypt. Famous shots from the movie include the first-ever aerial pictures of the tops of Africa's highest peaks, Mt. Kilimanjaro and Mt. Kenya. Along the journey, Martin filmed Osa surrounded by a pride of Lions and together they captured amazing scenes of a baboon colony, an event striking enough to give the movie its name.

Cannibals of the South Seas

Cannibals of the South Seas · 1918

Cannibals of the South Seas

MovieDocumentary

First of many films by the husband/wife team of Martin and Osa Johnson, originally backed by George Eastman.

Among the Cannibal Isles of the South Pacific

Among the Cannibal Isles of the South Pacific · 1918

Among the Cannibal Isles of the South Pacific

Documentary of an expedition by Martin E. Johnson and his wife into the native habitats of the Solomon and New Hebrides Islands in the South Pacific. The Johnsons travelled 18,000 miles by schooner, whaleboat, and native canoe to shoot footage of tribes previously unseen outside their native lands.

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