| Summary: | SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement hosted a screening and panel discussion on In the Land of the Head Hunters, the first feature film made in B.C. and the oldest surviving feature made in Canada. It is also the first feature made with an entirely indigenous North American cast. A portrait of the Kwakwaka’wakw (formerly Kwakiutl) people of northern Vancouver Island and the central coast, it was directed by Edward S. Curtis, the renowned American photographer of First Nations life. The film mixes documentary and dramatic elements, recording authentic traditions and rituals, including the potlatch ceremony, but also offering an epic tale of love, war, and adventure set in pre-European times. It premiered in New York and Seattle on December 7, 1914. This beautiful restoration features John J. Branham’s original 1914 score performed by Vancouver’s Turning Point Ensemble.
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