Editing In the Land of the Head Hunters

{{short description|1914 film by Edward S. Curtis}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Use American English|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox film
| name           = In the Land of the Head Hunters
| image          = Kwakwakawakwgirl.jpg

| caption        = [[Kwagu'ł]] girl, Margaret Frank (née Wilson) was featured in Curtis's ''In the Land of the Head Hunters''.  Here she is shown in a portrait by Curtis wearing abalone shell earrings.  Abalone shell earrings were a sign of the noble class.
| director       = [[Edward S. Curtis]]
| producer       = 
| writer         = Edward S. Curtis
| narrator       = 
| starring       = [[Maggie Frank]]	
| music          = 
| cinematography = [[Edmund August Schwinke]]	
| editing        = 
| distributor    = [[World Film Company]]
| released       = {{Film date|1914|12|07}}
| runtime        = 65 min
| country        = {{ubl|[[United States]]|[[Canada]]}}
| language       = [[silent film]]<br> [[English language|English]] intertitles
| budget         = 
}}
[[File:In the Land of the Head Hunters (1914).webm|thumb|thumbtime=1|upright=1.5|''In the Land of the Head Hunters'' (1914)]]
[[File:Filming In The Land of the Head Hunters.jpg|thumb|George Hunt (with megaphone), Edward S. Curtis, and actors filming ''In The Land of the Head Hunters'']]
[[File:Filming In The Land of The Head Hunters 2.jpg|thumb|Another production still.]]
'''''In the Land of the Head Hunters''''' (also called '''''In the Land of the War Canoes''''') is a [[1914 in film|1914]] [[silent film]] fictionalizing the world of the [[Kwakwaka'wakw]] peoples of the [[Queen Charlotte Strait]] region of the [[British Columbia Coast|Central Coast of British Columbia]], Canada, written and directed by [[Edward S. Curtis]] and acted entirely by Kwakwaka'wakw native people.<ref name=official-site>{{cite web |url=http://www.curtisfilm.rutgers.edu/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1 |title=Web site for ''In the Land of the Head Hunters'' re-release, a joint project of U'mista and Rutgers University |access-date=2008-06-22 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080924162932/http://www.curtisfilm.rutgers.edu/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1 |archive-date=2008-09-24 }}</ref>

The film was selected in 1999 for preservation in the U.S. [[National Film Registry]] by the [[Library of Congress]] as being "culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.loc.gov/film/nfrwww.html |title=Films selected to the National Film Registry, Library of Congress 1989-2005 |website=[[Library of Congress]] |access-date=2008-08-27}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Complete National Film Registry Listing |url=https://www.loc.gov/programs/national-film-preservation-board/film-registry/complete-national-film-registry-listing/|website=Library of Congress|access-date=2020-05-01}}</ref> It was the first feature-length film whose cast was composed entirely of Native North Americans; the second, eight years later, was [[Robert Flaherty]]'s ''[[Nanook of the North]]''.<ref name=official-site/> Most of the film was shot on the Deer Island near [[Fort Rupert]], British Columbia.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=America's film legacy : the authoritative guide to the landmark movies in the National Film Registry|last=Eagan, Daniel.|date=2010|publisher=Continuum|others=National Film Preservation Board (U.S.)|isbn=9781441116475|location=New York|pages=37–39|oclc=676697377}}</ref> It was the first feature film made in British Columbia, and is the oldest surviving feature film made in Canada.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/in-the-land-of-the-headhunters-b-c-s-first-feature-film-celebrates-100-years-1.2860859|title=In the Land of the Headhunters: B.C.'s first feature film celebrates 100 years|last=Chau|first=Elaine|publisher=[[CBC News]]|date=5 December 2014|access-date=7 December 2014}}</ref>

==Original release==
Curtis had earlier experimented with multimedia. In 1911 he created a stage show with slides, a lecture, and live musical accompaniment, called ''[[The Indian Picture Opera]]''. He used [[stereopticon]] projectors, where two projectors dissolved back and forth between images. This was his prelude to entering the motion picture era.<ref name=":0" />

The film opened in [[New York City]] and [[Seattle, Washington]] in December 1914, with live performances of a score by [[John J. Braham]], had access to [[wax cylinder]] recordings of Kwakwaka'wakw music, and the promotional campaign at the time suggested that his score was based on these; in fact, there were few snatches of Kwakwaka'wakw music in the score. Curtis hoped the film would be successful enough to fund the completion of ''[[The North American Indian]]'', a multi-volume history of every indigenous tribe on the continent he had been working on since 1906.<ref name=":0" /> Although critically praised, the film was a commercial failure.<ref name=program>Aaron Glass, Brad Evans, Andrea Sanborn, Project statement, p. 2–3 of the program for presentation of ''In the Land of the Head Hunters'', Moore Theatre, Seattle, Washington, June 10, 2008.</ref> Curtis spent approximately $75,000 to make the film, but it only earned $3,269.18 after a year in theaters. He was so disappointed with the film's financial performance that he sold all the rights to the film to the [[New York Museum of Natural History]] in 1919 or 1920. When the museum lost Curtis's donated material, the film was considered lost until 1947.<ref name=":0" />

==Salvaging the film and score==
A single damaged, incomplete print of the film was salvaged from a dumpster by film collector Hugo Zeiter of Danville Illinois and donated to [[Chicago]]'s [[Field Museum of Natural History]] in 1947.<ref name=":0" /> [[Bill Holm (art historian)|Bill Holm]] and [[George Quimby]] obtained a 16mm copy in 1965 and completed a re-edited version of the film in 1974,<ref name=":0" /> having added a soundtrack by Kwakwaka'wakw musicians, and released the result as ''In the Land of the War Canoes''. Independently, some other damaged clips from the film made their way to the [[UCLA Film and Television Archive]]. The score had been filed at the library of the [[Getty Research Institute]], but without a title that tied it to the film.<ref>{{cite web |last=Getty Center |url=http://www.getty.edu/visit/events/head_hunters.html |title=Premiere film screening and Gwa'wina traditional dance presentation. In the Land of the Head Hunters |date=June 5, 2008 |access-date=2008-08-27}}</ref> The 2008 restoration brought together these materials.<ref name=program/> [[Milestone Films]] has announced plans to release a restored "One-Hundredth Anniversary" DVD of the film with the original score in 2014.<ref>Milestone Films catalog, [http://www.milestonefilms.com/products/in-the-land-of-the-head-hunters In the Land of the Head Hunters].</ref>

==Historical accuracy==
''In the Land of the Head Hunters'' has often been discussed as a flawed [[documentary film]]. The film combines many accurate representations of aspects of Kwakwaka'wakw culture, art, and technology from the era in which it was made with a melodramatic plot based on practices that either dated from long before the first contact of the Kwakwaka'wakw with people of European descent or were entirely fictional. Curtis appears never to have specifically presented the film as a documentary, but he also never specifically called it a work of fiction.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=program />

Some aspects of the film do have documentary accuracy: the artwork, the ceremonial dances, the clothing, the architecture of the buildings, and the construction of the [[dugout canoe|dugout]], or a [[war canoe]] reflected Kwakwaka'wakw culture. Other aspects of the film were based on the Kwakwaka'wakw's orally transmitted traditions or on aspects of other neighboring cultures. The film also accurately portrays Kwakwaka'wakw rituals that were, at the time, prohibited by Canada's [[potlatch]] prohibition, enacted in 1884 and not rescinded until 1951.<ref name=program />

However, as is noted by the producers who supervised the centennial restoration of the film,

{{blockquote|The most sensational elements of the film—the head hunting, sorcery, and handling of human remains—reflect much earlier practices that had been long abandoned, but which became central elements in Curtis's spectacularized tale. And some activities were never part of Kwakwaka’wakw culture. For example, Curtis borrowed the whaling practices (and the rented whale!) from neighboring groups for what seem to be purely dramatic and cinematic reasons.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://curtisfilm.rutgers.edu|title=Curtis's Landmark 1914 Silent Film of Pacific Northwest First Nations Culture|publisher=[[Rutgers University]]|access-date=2019-09-27}}</ref>}}

==Plot==
The following plot synopsis was published in conjunction with a 1915 showing of the film at [[Carnegie Hall]]:

{{blockquote|To gain power from the [[Kwakwaka'wakw mythology|spirit forces]], Motana, a great chief's son, goes on a vigil-journey. But though the tribal law forbids the thought of woman during the fasting, his dreams are ever of Naida; her face appearing in the coilng smoke of the prayer-fire he builds high upon a mountain peak. To forfend the anger of the spirits he must pass a stronger ordeal. He sleeps upon the Island of the Dead, then hunts and kills the [[whale]]; and raids the clustered [[sea lion|sea-lion]] rookeries, a whole day's paddle out to sea.

Naida is wooed and won by Motana, and splendid is the wooing. But Naida, with her [[dowry]], is coveted by the Sorcerer. He is evil, old and ugly. Waket, Naida's father fears the baleful "medicine" of the Sorcerer, and also stands in dread of the Sorcerer's brother, who is Yaklus, "the short life bringer," and the head-hunting scourge of all the coast. Waket promises Naida to the Sorcerer. So ensues war between the two factions.

Motana and his father, Kenada, and their clan resolve to rid the region of the head hunters. In their great canoes they attack the village of the Sorcerer and Yaklus. The Sorcerer's head they bring to prove his death to those who believed him "deathless." But Yaklus escapes. After the wedding of Motana and Naida, with pomp of primitive pageantry, and dancing and feasting, in which the throngs of two great totem villages take part, Yaklus attacks and burns Motana's village. Motana is left for dead. Naida is carried away into captivity. Wild is the reveling that follows at the village of Yaklus. The beauty of Naida's dancing saves her life. Naida's slave boy, a fellow captive, escapes. His message brings Motana, who rescues Naida by stealth. The raging Yaklus pursues. Motana, hard pressed, dares the waters of the surging gorge of Hyal. His canoe flies through, but Yaklus is overwhelmed and drowned.<ref>"Synopsis", program for a performance of ''In the Land of the Head Hunters'' at Carnegie Hall, February 9, 1915, reproduced on p. 6 of the program for presentation of ''In the Land of the Head Hunters'', Moore Theatre, Seattle, Washington, June 10, 2008.</ref>}}

==Cast==
{{Cast listing|
* Maggie Frank
* Alfred Charlie
* Awidi
* Bob Wilson
* Francine Hunt
* Kwagwanu
* Balutsa
* Paddy 'Malid
* Mrs. George Walkus
* Sarah Constance Smith Hunt
* Stanley Hunt
}}

==See also==
*''[[Dances of the Kwakiutl]]'' (1951), short documentary

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|In the Land of the Head Hunters}}
*''In the Land of the Head Hunters'' essay by Brad Evans and Aaron Glass at [[National Film Registry]] [https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/land_head_hunters.pdf]
*''In the Land of the Head Hunters'' essay by Daniel Eagan in America's Film Legacy: The Authoritative Guide to the Landmark Movies in the National Film Registry, A&C Black, 2010 {{ISBN|0826429777}}, pages 37–39 [https://books.google.com/books?id=deq3xI8OmCkC]
*{{IMDb title|id=0004150|title=In the Land of the Head Hunters}}
*[http://www.curtisfilm.rutgers.edu/ Edward Curtis meets the Kwakwaka'wakw: "In the Land of the Head Hunters"]
*[https://archive.org/download/inlandofheadhunt00curtrich/inlandofheadhunt00curtrich.pdf Book version of ''In the Land of the Head Hunters''] (published 1915; now in public domain). PDF scanned from a copy in the [[Bancroft Library]] of the [[University of California, Berkeley]].
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DywTnHvLHJg ''In the Land of the Head Hunters'': Film Introduction and Panel] [[Simon Fraser University]] - [[YouTube]]

{{DEFAULTSORT:In The Land Of The Head Hunters}}
[[Category:1914 films]]
[[Category:United States National Film Registry films]]
[[Category:American black-and-white films]]
[[Category:American silent feature films]]
[[Category:World Film Company films]]
[[Category:1914 drama films]]
[[Category:Headhunting accounts and studies]]
[[Category:Kwakwaka'wakw]]
[[Category:First Nations films]]
[[Category:First Nations history in British Columbia]]
[[Category:Films set in British Columbia]]
[[Category:Films shot in British Columbia]]
[[Category:Articles containing video clips]]
[[Category:Silent American drama films]]
[[Category:1910s American films]]
[[Category:1910s rediscovered films]]
[[Category:Rediscovered American films]]
[[Category:Rediscovered Canadian films]]