In the Land of the War Canoes
In the Land of the War Canoes (Edward S. Curtis, US, 1914)
The early documentaries were either newsreels reporting on current events or as was the case in some of the Mitchell and Kenyon films, reflections of everyday life. Documentary filmmaking would later become more ambitious with the work of Robert Flaherty, whose ‘Nanook of the North’ (1922) remains perhaps the most iconic documentaries of the silent era. Made before then, and at the point it was made, it probably was the most impressive documentary feature, was ‘In the Land of the War Canoes’. Curtis was primarily a stills photographer and he incorporates many photographic images into this film. Although the accuracy of the film has been called into question and its melodramatic narrative is flawed, its major significance is its desire to show the lives and cultures of the Kwakwaka’wakw native North Americans, which surely inspired Flaherty’s more celebrated documentary.
Into Great Silents 