The Johnsons’ films are being screened as part of a series of documentary films at the Pompidou titled “À l’aventure!” or “To the adventure”, with the films linked by the theme of adventure, including films where the adventure is documented by the film and films where the production of the film IS the adventure. The series also includes works by pioneering documentarians Robert Flaherty, Merian C. Cooper, Marguerite Harris, and include later documentary filmmakers like Werner Hertzog.
The Pompidou Center’s webpage for the series begins with a quote from Osa Johnson describing their early challenges in motion picture filmmaking:
At no time since Martin and I started on our adventures together can I remember anything to exceed the anxiety we felt over our exposed film. Those round, flat tins of a thousand feet each held our future. While Martin was a fine camera artist, this was his first real attempt at professional motion-picture photography. Our camera and film both had been subjected to heat and humidity far beyond normal conditions. Light in the tropics offered problems not found in the temperate zones, and what we had or didn’t have-we couldn’t possibly know. To wait until we were back in the States would have prolonged the agony, and whether the gelatin had been affected by the excessive moisture and heat was something else that had to be determined as quickly as possible.