Errol Hinds

Biography

Errol Stanley Hinds was the brother-in-law of filmmaker Major Chaplin Court Treatt, and was only 16 years old when he accompanied Court Treatt and his (second) wife Stella (Errol's sister) on the first motorized expedition across the length of Africa, from September, 1924 to January, 1926. The epic journey was filmed by Canadian-born cinematographer Thomas A. Glover and was subsequently released under the title Cape to Cairo. A shortened, re-edited version with an added soundtrack was released in 1934. Hinds may have been inspired by Glover, as Hinds went on to shoot two other films for Court Treatt, namely Stampede (1929, sound version released as Africa in Flames in 1930) and Struggle for Life (1935), both filmed in Sudan. Some of the footage from Stampede found its way into the film Stark Nature (1930). Hinds worked in Great Britain as an assistant cameraman on The Clairvoyant (1935) and then went to Australia on a two year contract to National Studios where he worked as camera operator on The Flying Doctor (1936) and afterwards as director of photography on Rangle River (1936). He returned to South Africa in 1938. During World War II he served as a staff cameraman with the South African Bureau of Information. In November, 1941 he was with the 1st South African Division during the battle of Sidi Rezegh. When he realized that he was unlikely to escape, he buried the negative in the desert, and after the battle the film was dug up, taken to Cairo, developed in South Africa, and subsequently shown in cinemas as Historic Record (1942). After the war Hinds joined African Film Productions and directed a number of documentaries for the State Information Office, among them: South African Cavalcade (1952), Fisherfolk of Kalk Bay (1955), The Bride Wore Pearls (1957), The Wild Are Free (1958) and Saturday Parade (1960). (Note: South Africa's Errol Hinds should not be confused with an American filmmaker with the same name.)