The editors wish to thank Nederlands Filmmuseum for graciously allowing its restored print of The Rose of Rhodesia to receive a premiere screening in Sweden in 2007, and for making a digital version available with this special issue of Screening The Past. Without the unflagging enthusiasm of our guardian angel Elif Rongen-Kaynakci and the kind support of her colleagues this project would never have seen the light of day.

The English Department at Uppsala University has provided financial and administrative support to this project throughout. Many thanks to Christer Geisler, Chair, and all those involved in the symposium at Slottsbiografen in Uppsala on 2 June 2007, including Nils Bingefors, Heli Dahlin, Katherina Dodou, Danuta Fjellestad, Ruth Hvidberg, Åsa Jernudd, Stefan Jonsson, and especially David Watson.

For adding a new dimension to this “silent” film in both its projected and streamed formats, we are indebted to the prodigiously talented Matti Bye. Our deepest thanks go also to Terence Ranger for writing so eloquent a foreword.

We wish to acknowledge the assistance of a number of other individuals and institutions. Tom Gunning, Mattias Krings, Astrid Söderbergh Widding, and Michael Titlestad gave valuable support to this project at a crucial early stage. Patrick Vonderau, Guido Convents, and Herbert Birett shared their expertise in early German and colonial film. In South Africa, Judy Seidman scanned early press reviews in Johannesburg Public Library, and Tony Ewels supplied information about Bawa Falls. Chenjerai Hove and Maryann Shaw kindly gave permission for us to reproduce the images in Figure 9.1 and Figure 3.4, respectively. For their efficient help we are grateful to the staff at the National Film and Television Archive (London), the Library of Congress (Washington), Deutsche Kinemathek (Berlin), and the National Film, Video and Sound Archive (Pretoria), particularly Trevor Moses, who first alerted us to the existence of a surviving print of The Rose of Rhodesia.

Generous funding for this project has been provided by The Swedish Research Council, The Holger and Thyra Lauritzen Foundation, and The Lars Hierta Memorial Foundation. At the Swedish Research Council, we would like to thank Marianne Wikgren.

Created on: Tuesday, 18 August 2009