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The History of Cinema: 1949

Belarus - India

Bolivia

– Donde Nació un Imperio, the country’s first colour film, is released. [ADD]

Botswana

25/8 -

British Movietone Newsreels first relate the story of Ruth Williams, the white British girl who married African prince Seretse Khama.   Their story becomes the improbable basis for Stanley Kramer’s Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967). [ADD]

China

31/3 -

In Peking, the People's Liberation Army sets up a Cinema Board managed by Mu-jih Yuan, who has been head of the army's cinematographic section since 1938. [ADD]

– The Shanghai Film Studio and the Beijing Film Studio are both founded. [ADD]

Denmark

25/11 -

25% of entertainments tax revenue (60% of box office receipts) from the exhibition of Danish films is now paid to the films’ producers. [ADD]

Ecuador

– Alberto Sanatana’s Se Conocieron en Guayaquil is released by Ecuador Sono Films.   It is the first feature film produced in Ecuador. [ADD]

Germany

Spring -

Arthur Brauner’s CCC Production company is awarded the licence it requires to begin production. [ADD]

Apr -

Veit Harlan, the director of the notorious Nazi film Jud Süß, is found not guilty of crimes against humanity by the Hamburg district court. [ADD]

15/7 -

Allied control of German film production is replaced by a production code based on the American one. [ADD]

18/7 -

The Freiwillige Selbstkontrolle der Filmwirtschaft (FSK - Voluntary Censorship of the German Film Industry) starts operating in Wiesbaden. [ADD]

Sep -

The British and American military governments pass the Lex Ufi divestiture legislation which places Reich film assets under the administration of trustees until it can be auctioned off.   It also orders the dissolution of UFA. [ADD]

Gold Coast

– Following a report written by John Grierson for UNESCO, the Colonial Film Unit establishes a film school in Accra. [ADD]

Iceland

13/1 -

Loftur Gudmundsson’s Milli Fjalls og Fjöru (From the Mountain to the Seashore), the first Icelandic feature film with sound, is released. [ADD]

India

30/6 -

The government revives the compulsory exhibition of ‘approved’ documentary films and newsreels. [ADD]

– Khwaja Ahmad Abbas’ Dharti Ke Lal (1946) becomes the first Indian film to be distributed in the USSR. [ADD]

– Because of modifications to the Cinematograph Act, entertainment tax goes up to 50%.   In West Bengal it is as high as 75%. [ADD]

– In Bombay, Dev Anand and Chetan Anand establish Navketan Productions. [ADD]

– New censorship classifications of ‘Adult’ and ‘Unrestricted’ are introduced. [ADD]

– The Film Enquiry Committee is established under the chairmanship of S. K. Patil. [ADD]

Other Key Films of 1949

Belarus

Konstantin Zaslonov (Aleksandr Fajntsimmer, Valentin Korsh) [ADD]

Chile

Esperanza (Eduardo Boneo, Francisco Mugica) [ADD]

China

An Orphan on the Street (Zhao Ming, Yan Gong) [ADD]

Wuya yu maque (Junli Zheng) [ADD]

Czechoslovakia

Cisaruv slavik (The Emperor’s Nightingale) (Jiri Trnka) [ADD]

Nemá barikáda (The Silent Barricade) (Otakar Vávra) [ADD]

Germany

Liebe ’47 (Wolfgang Liebeneiner) [ADD]

India

Ek Thi Ladki (Roop K. Shorey) [ADD]

Mahal (Kamal Amrohi) [ADD]

The History of Cinema: 1949