C.P. de Leeuw Beyers

(b. **/**/1898 – d. **/**/****). Photographer, filmmaker and administrator. Cornelis Pieter de Leeuw Beyers was a Transvaal school teacher whose passion for wildlife filmmaking led him to combine his hobby with his profession. He first visited what was then the Sabi Game Reserve (today’s Kruger National Park) in 1921, travelling from waterhole to waterhole on foot, with pack-donkeys carrying his provisions and equipment. His film Die Kruger-Wildtuin (1933) was one of the first to receive a Medal of Honour for Film Art (Erepenning vir Rolprentkuns) from the Suid-Afrikaanse Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns. Upon his return from the United States, where he studied the use of films in the classroom, he addressed the 1934 Education Conference organised by the New Education Fellowship and his findings were widely reported. In October 1936 he was appointed head of the newly established Film Division of the National Bureau of Educational and Social Research within the Union Department of Education and enthusiastically promoted the use of films for educational purposes. Subsequently some of his own films were purchased for distribution by VOBI (Volksbioskope Maatskappy Beperk), which took them around the country. He wrote (and published) two books, namely Kruger Park adventures and Lurking danger in the Kruger Park. Though there was an insert listing his films with the first-mentioned publication, at times the titles seem more descriptive than factual and some of the films he is known to have made are not listed at all. These include Tooth and claw: wild life in the Kruger National Park of South Africa and Izolo. The published list also refers to a film on the Kalahari Bushmen and to one depicting a Zulu wedding dance. (FO)

Sources

Gutsche, Thelma - The history and social significance of motion pictures in South Africa, 1895-1940

Malherbe, E.G. - Never a dull moment

van Wijk, Stanley L. - Die film as opvoedkundige hulpmiddel

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