Walter Friedrich Knips Amateur Film: Pakistan
name: label: Collection Creator
content: Knips, Walter Friedrich, 1911-1994
setName: label: See more items in
content: Walter Friedrich Knips films
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 1 Film reel (silent black-and-white reversal; 250 feet, 8mm)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1953-1954
container: label: Container
content: Item 2015.7.1-2
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Human Studies Film Archives
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Moving Images
label: Type
content: Film reels
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: This film footage was assembled from two reels. The first reel is from Walter Knips and his wife's 1954 trip to Hunza and Srinagar, and the second reel is from their 1953 trip to Gilgit and Nanga Parbat.

Reel 1: Hunza #3 and Srinagar. This reel begins with scenes from Walter and Eva Knips' first visit to Hunza, in 1954. Several men dance to pipe and drum in front of an audience of other local men; a group of men stand around with horses being saddled; snow-capped mountain range filmed from an elevation—plane? But also from a ground level as evidenced by a view of some tree tops; two western women, including Eva in a tuuk hat, walk along a path, ahead of a group of men, including two or three men in western dress—the Mir (Muhammad Jamal Khan, the last Ismaili ruler of Hunza) in shirt, tie, jacket and hat appears in the foreground; women and children watch and wave from the side of the path; polo players stand ready with their mallets; polo match; a man dancing at the polo match; many men dancing in a circle with flags; the Mir, seated in a viewing area behind a protective screen of chicken wire, reaches toward the outstretched hands of his subjects who stop by to pay homage; men dancing; the Mir in a garden setting, outfitted in his elaborate official vestments of gold-thread embroidered coat and a flat cap decorated by a snow white plume of hair from a Himalayan mountain goat—perhaps analogous to the gamsbart —the German hat pin made of goat's beard hair; the Rani, the Mir's wife, poses in the garden setting, her hair covered by a diaphanous shawl and her neck wrapped in a string of pearls. Footage continues with scenes from Walter and Eva's trip to Srinagar (Note: the voyage to Srinagar actually took place before the trip to Hunza): the journey by small wooden boat down a river—most likely a shikara or type of open-air or partially covered gondola with a "driver" paddling or poling at the rear; views of the shoreline and other boats; people crossing over the river on a bridge; people looking out of houses that at times overhang the shoreline; children along the shoreline; men doing laundry in the river; passing under a stone bridge with people crossing and watching the boat pass; men poling the boat; a woman cleaning the floor of the boat; men sitting around a small steaming pot on the boat perhaps preparing a small snack or tea; Walter in a water taxi films the approach to the rented houseboat named "Doreen" as Eva looks down from the houseboat's upper deck; Eva in a dark blouse sits in the houseboat kitchen and smiles as she wields a large knife to trim and cut leeks; merchants display polished semi-precious agates and a small case of silver rings; the view of the lake—perhaps Lake Nigeen and surrounding coastline and mountain ranges; a small boat or water taxi comes into view; Srinagar footage ends with interior shots of the houseboat showing western furnishings and a floor covered in oriental rugs; another water taxi approaches. 


Reel 2: Gilgit and Nanga Parbat. Footage begins with a very brief glimpse of Eva Knips, in a white lace blouse, speaking to a heavily bearded man, Hermann Buhl, the prominent Austrian mountaineer and member of the 1953 German-Austrian Nanga Parbat Climbing Expedition. Eva and Walter Knips traveled to Gilgit from Karachi in order to attend a reception honoring the return of the European mountaineers from their successful summit of Nanga Parbat (elev. 26,660 feet) on July 3, 1953; in his role as Trade Commissioner with the German Embassy in Karachi, Walter had served as the expedition's local contact and as German/English/Urdu translator as he helped to organize climbing permits, Sherpas, etc.; the expedition members rewarded his assistance by inviting him to join them on the first leg of their climb to the mountain's first base camp (elev. 13,000 feet). Footage of the reception continues with scenes from the grounds of the Political Agent's residence: a stationary, uniformed marching band with drummers and their mascot? goat; Eva in white blouse stands in the background with other westerners—some of them are the mountaineers—as well as local officials, including the Political Agent; guests serve themselves from a buffet; a group of local men; the Political Agent congratulates the mountaineers and bids each man to kneel in order to receive a touch on the shoulder and have the traditional soft-rounded rolled-up hat (pakol) placed on his head; the return journey by plane from Gilgit, likely to the simple airstrip of Rawalpindi, offers views of the snow covered mountain ranges; a few quick scenes of the plane's interior show Eva and the mountaineers; there is some footage of the descent to a lower elevation to show a valley's landscape; more extensive footage (approx. 2 minutes) of Nanga Parbat continues to the end of the reel.