In the Land of the Head Hunters at Pacific Cinémathèque, Friday, Dec. 5 at 6:30 p.m and Saturday, Dec. 6 at 8:30 p.m. Special Centennial screening at Vancity Theatre on Sunday, Dec. 7 at 7 p.m. Special guests in attendance: Bill Cranmer, hereditary chief, N'amgis First Nation, and K'ómoks and Kwakwaka'wakw artist Andy Everson. Owen Underhill from the Turning Point ensemble will also be on hand to talk about his involvement with recording the film's score. Evening hosted by filmmaker Colin Browne.
When American photographer Edward S. Curtis witnessed the rich culture of the aboriginal community in Fort Rupert and Alert Bay 100 years ago, he decided to make a melodrama set against the backdrop of precolonialism in North America.
He collaborated with the Kwakwaka'wakw people to tell a tale of love, war and adventure before contact with European settlers.
On Dec. 7, 1914, his silent film In the Land of the Head Hunters screened in Seattle. It was not only the first feature-length film produced in British Columbia, and oldest extant feature in Canada, but also the first to only star aboriginals.
But the film was a financial disaster that was not preserved properly.
That is, until a recent restoration project between academics and descendants of the film's cast worked to re-release it on its 100-year anniversary, which will be screened at Vancity Theatre and Pacific Cinémathèque this weekend.
Hereditary Chief Bill Cranmer, of the N'amgis First Nation, was part of the restoration project between academics and the U'mista Cultural Centre in Alert Bay.
But Cranmer also has personal ties to the film, as his great-grandfather, George Hunt advised Curtis during shooting. He's also related to the film's leading stars.
"It's pretty special for us as descendants of the actors in the film," he says. "My great aunt Maggie Frank was the star, and my great uncle Stanley Hunt was the male star."
The film mixes documentary and dramatic elements, with authentic traditions and rituals, including the potlatch ceremony, which at the time was prohibited by the federal government.
"It's really something special," Cranmer notes. "I knew my great aunt, my great uncle when they were fairly old and to see them as they were way back then is something special."
The film shows his ancestors as the healthy, industrious people Captain Vancouver discovered in 1792, Cranmer added.
"Our old people were pretty good actors," he says. "A lot of the things we do in our ceremonies involved a certain amount of acting."
The film is a significant link between the community and its ancestors, Cranmer said.
"His work was very valuable to us," he says.
"We got to see, first off, our ancestors as they were. We got to see some of the dances... lots of information that probably would've disappeared if it hadn't been for Curtis's work."
Colin Browne, a film scholar and Simon Fraser University professor who was involved with the restoration project, says from 1915 to the early 1970s the film dropped from the public's purview, which is why it isn't as recognized as much as other iconic movies from that bygone era.
What saved it was a film collector who salvaged a single, incomplete print from a dumpster in 1947. Hugo Zeiter then donated it to Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History.
"The film has been around since the early '70s in a different version, which was called In the Land of the War Canoes," he says. "That film was usually restricted to classrooms.
"It had a soundtrack which was in the language of the Kwakwaka'wakw people in Fort Rupert and Alert Bay."
But time was unkind to the re-edited 1974 version by Bill Holm and George Quimby as the projectors damaged many of the reels.
"It was mostly shown in universities in anthropology classes," Browne explains. "People didn't understand it very well. I'd often show it to my students and they often fell asleep because they didn't quite get it."
The film was also the subject of criticism and used as an example of the negative impact colonialism had on aboriginal communities.
"But the film was meant to take place before contact," Browne notes. "All of the costumes and all of the ceremony - everything but the melodrama, really - was all designed by the Kwakwaka'wakw people and performed by them. They were imagining."
In truth, Browne adds, it was 1914 and the community was wearing overalls, dungarees, dresses, bonnets, using gas boats and attending church.
Some damaged clips from the film were found at the University of California, Los Angeles Film and Television Archive. The original score was filed at the library of the Getty Research Institute, however, it lacked the title connecting it to the film.
The resurrection project for the original film by Curtis was started by American academics Aaron Glass and Brad Evans, with Browne's assistance.
"Now there's a brand-spanking new restored version and the reason for that is because of Aaron Glass, a colleague of mine who studied here, went to Emily Carr (University) and UBC. .. . and discovered at the Getty Institute in Los Angeles was the music for the original score of the film."
This score is the oldest one in existence for a film more than 60 minutes long in North America, according to Browne.
The idea to restore the 1914 film several years ago sparked yet another collaborative effort between the community and academics to restore a historical piece of the Kwakwaka'wakw culture.
The new version also features John J. Branham's original 1914 score performed by Vancouver's Turning Point Ensemble.
"It's thrilling for those of us who like movies and for those of us who somehow think it always happens somewhere else to realize one of the great films of that period was made here," he says. "This film that was actually quite influential were counted in terms of the history of cinema but people haven't known this story."
There will be two screenings of the film at Pacific Cinematheque in Vancouver on Dec. 5 and 6. The exact centenary anniversary screening of the film on Dec. 7 will be at Vancity Theatre, and will feature Browne and Cranmer on hand, including others involved with the restoration project, to discuss the film followed by a food and wine reception.
