Documentaries 50/60

INVENTAIRE POUR UN BILAN (Inventory for a balance sheet)

Jean FAUREZ

1966

Version : French
Duration : 75'
Format : 35 mm.
Black & white
Producer : ARMOR Films
Country France

Stage set Algeria
With the participation of Ministère des Affaires Etrangéres

Archive footage - Roman ruins and roads in Algeria,
- Aerial views: Algiers, countryside, etc,
- Men drawing water from a well,
- Dams, irrigation and water drilling,
- Algerian earthworkers and farmers,
- Agricultural work, storage silos, fishing activity,
- Urban and rural development (housing estates overlooking shanty towns)
- Medicine and hospitals in Algeria, trachoma detection,
- Schooling & education, courses in a medersa,
- Coal extraction and mining,
- Electrification, thermal and hydraulic power stations,
- Oil exploration and production, construction of pipelines in the Sahara,
- Industrialisation: cable-making, Berliet lorries, flour mills, food industries, building materials, textiles (spinning mills, cotton), glass-making, paper-making, tobacco,
- Crafts: pottery, tapestry, weaving,
- Road building, engineering structures
- Construction of railway infrastructure,
- Port and airport infrastructure,
- Telecommunications
- Farms

This 75-minute film takes stock of French action in Algeria between 1830 and 1962. The history of the country since the Romans is evoked through works of art, followed by the major infrastructure projects undertaken by France: irrigation and dams, agriculture, town planning and the Constantine Plan, culture and education (schools, universities, vocational training), raw materials, equipment, crafts, infrastructure (ports, roads, communications). The film, produced by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, shows that when France left, it made major efforts to develop Algeria, without ever mentioning French domination or the Algerian War.