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film shop
Ethnographic film catalogue
RAI Film – view on demand
Teaching resources
Prices
RAI film festival
RAI Film Festival 2025
Group rates for RAI Film Festival 2025
Prizes and awards
RAI Film Festival programme 2023
Archive of past editions
Menu
film shop
Ethnographic film catalogue
RAI Film – view on demand
Teaching resources
Prices
RAI film festival
RAI Film Festival 2025
Group rates for RAI Film Festival 2025
Prizes and awards
RAI Film Festival programme 2023
Archive of past editions
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Films
found one film
Directors
“Curtis, Edward S”
x
Region
North America
1
Country
Canada
1
Keywords
Archival material / Museum displays
1
Film / Photography / Mass media
1
Marriage
1
Directors
Curtis, Edward S.
1
Series
not set
1
Country of production
Canada
1
United States
1
Year of production
1972
1
Film
In the Land of the War Canoes
1972
47
‘
Directed by
Edward S. Curtis
.
The film was made in 1914 by Edward Curtis. The plot concerns the efforts of a young man, Motana, son of a great chief, to obtain a bride and how he is thwarted by a wicked sorcerer. Many of the conventions of early film narrative can be identified in the film’s structure and organisation. The film vanished and was completely forgotten and only rediscovered in 1962 by Bill Holms at the Field Museum in Washington. In 1972 the film was restored and re-edited by Holms, David Gerth and George Quimby, with soundtrack of songs and dialogue by the Kwakiutl. The name of the new version was changed to ‘In the Land of the War Canoes’ when the Kwakiutl objected to Curtis’ original title. Although the original material had suffered some nitrate damage over the years, the film is an artistic triumph by one of the finest photographers and an invaluable ethnographic resource of a vanishing culture. The war canoes and totems, built by the Kwakiutl for the film, represent some of the largest great work of their traditional art.
North America
Archival material / Museum displays
Marriage
Film / Photography / Mass media
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