Gambia Film Unit: History and Key Facts

Gambia Film Unit was an agency of the Gambian government that produced short films and showed them in remote parts of The Gambia. It was founded in 1967 by Anthony Latham, a UK Filmmaker, first at the Department of Agriculture at Yundum, then in 1968 at the government's Information Office in Bathurst, as it was then. Ebrima Sanyang took over from 1972, and Tony left at the end of 1973. By the time Tony left, it had become a highly productive unit with up-to-date equipment, with two filmmobiles showing films for 23-nights every month in villages on both banks of the river Gambia. From the first film that Tony made when only 1% of the population had seen a moving picture, to seven-years later, when the census office recorded close to 100%. It was merged into Gam TV, a predecessor to the Gambia Radio & Television Service (GRTS), in 1995.

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