In the Land of the Head Hunters (1914)

Directed by Edward S. Curtis

Almost a decade before Robert Flaherty immortalized the Inuit people in Nanook of the North (1922), Edward S. Curtis filmed In the Land of the Head Hunters with an indigenous North American cast. Like Flaherty's "documentary," Head Hunters was both a reflection of contemporary life among the Kwakwaka'wakw people of British Columbia as well as a fiction that combined melodramatic elements with tribal customs: Motana, the son of a chief, must battle an old medicine man for the right to marry Naida, who has been promised by her father to the tribe of the headhunters. Around this plot, Curtis stages many authentic ceremonies, including the tribe's potlatch ceremony.

Seattle Film Co.. Screenwriter: Edward S. Curtis. Cinematographer: Edmund August Schwinke.

35mm, approx. 70 min.

Live musical accompaniment will be provided.