Old Barak

Glorious colour film of a fishing trip and geese-hunting expedition in north-eastern India

G. Mackrell was a tea planter and big game hunter who lived in India from the mid-1930s to the late-1950s with his wife, R.S. Mackrell. His amateur films provide some of the clearest records of the adventurous life that many British entrepreneurs and military personnel forged for themselves in India prior to Independence. This glorious colour film records a fishing trip by canoe down the Barak River in north-eastern India, and a geese-shooting expedition, which prove extremely fruitful judging by the array of catch the Mackrell party and local fishermen are seen posing for the camera with.

During WWII, Mackrell was also involved in rescuing refugees fleeing Upper Burma before the Japanese advance.