The heroes of this enterprise in retrieving the film clip produced by the Government Film Unit (aka GFU) are James Blake Jnr of Germany and Anusha Palpita & Arun Dias Bandaranaike of Lanka. The relevant details are indicated in a Memo from James emailed to me recently….. Michael Roberts in Australia, 20 November 2022
A NOTE from James Blake sent from Colombo in late October 2022:
Hi Michael: Please see below for the two links to the FILM CLIP produced by the Government Film Unit.
Note: the Source-1 clip was from an OLD post on your Thuppahis blog: dated 30 July 2020.
Note: the Source-2 clip surfaced when I did an additional YouTube ‘search’.
However………….. both film clips originated from Anusha Palpita (Secretary at the Ministry of Mass Media), as can be seen by the reference to his YouTube channel. I am also glad you chose Arun [Dias Bandaranaike]. He certainly seems to be “on the ball” and additional sources that could be the best. Thank you Michael, Thank you Arun,
Best wishes, James
Source-1: 13.50 minutes (reasonable quality – as shared on your Thuppahis blog – date 30July2020) :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8kOlMrmC_Q&t=7s
….. starting at the 8.38 minute mark is the footage with my father [as one of the relay runners].
Source-2: 14.10minutes (slightly poorer quality but includes the opening credits)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Tegjdoc2NE
……. starting at the 8.52 minute mark is the footage with my father.
Attachments area
Preview YouTube video NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE DAY 1949
NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE DAY 1949
Preview YouTube video නිදහස් දිනය සැමරීම 1949 the first independence anniversary of sri lanka 1949
නිදහස් දිනය සැමරීම 1949 the first independence anniversary of sri lanka 1949
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NOTES
- the late James Blake Snr was at Trinity College
- https://www.dailynews.lk/2017/02/04/features/106672/feature-ceylon-daily-news-coverage-first-day-independence
- https://thuppahis.com/2020/07/30/independence-day-1949-in-black-and-white-video/
