William Bowden

(b. **/**/**** - d. **/**/****) Cameraman and occasional co-director. William Weston Bowden worked as a cameraman for African Film Productions, but doesn’t seem to have been credited all that clearly. Secondary sources indicate that he worked on Zulutown Rink (1916) and possibly Zulutown Races (1916), both directed by Dick Cruikshanks, as well as being one of the contributing cameramen on De Voortrekkers (Harold M. Shaw/1916) and The Symbol of Sacrifice (Dick Cruikshanks/1918). It’s reasonably certain that he shot King Solomon’s Mines (1918) and Allan Quatermain (1919), both for H. Lisle Lucoque and there is, in fact, an earlier link to Lucoque in that he filmed Beau Brocade (1916) for Thomas Bentley, which was produced by Lucoque in England. In addition he seems to have co-directed (and possibly shot) The Madcap of the Veld (1920) and The Vulture’s Prey (1920), both with Cruikshanks and in all likelihood he filmed and directed the first film version of H. De Vere Stacpoole's The Blue Lagoon (1922). He also made at least one acting appearance. In The Vulture's Prey he plays a cryptologist who is strangled by a pet gorilla. (FO)

Sources

le Roux, André I. & Fourie, Lilla - Filmverlede: geskiedenis van die Suid-Afrikaanse speelfilm

Stage & Cinema, 5 May 1917

Stage & Cinema, 7 July 1917

S.A. Pictorial, 29 April 1922

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