Hiawatha, the Messiah of the Ojibway

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Hiawatha, the Messiah of the Ojibway is a 1903 dramatic short film shot in Canada directed by the American pioneering cinematographer and director Joe Rosenthal, based on the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's famous poem, The Song of Hiawatha , made in Desbarats, Ontario, with a cast of Ojibway First Nations people. According to the Canadian Journal of Film Studies, it was the first dramatic narrative film to be shot in Canada. [1] [2]

At 15 minutes, Hiawatha was considerably longer than the usual productions of 1903, which rarely exceeded three minutes. The film's subtitle was The Passion Play of America and was largely a photographed stage play with Longfellow's words spoken in a natural surrounding. [3]

It is considered a lost film. [4]

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References

  1. Clandfield, David (1987). Canadian Film. Toronto: Oxford University Press. p. 3. ISBN   0-19-540581-1.
  2. Ross, Ryan (Fall 2012). "Hiawatha, the Messiah of the Ojibway (1903): Photographic Stills from the First Dramatic Narrative Film Made in Canada". Canadian Journal of Film Studies. 21 (2): 140–147. doi:10.3138/cjfs.21.2.140.
  3. Morris, Peter (1978). Embattled Shadows: A History of Canadian Cinema 1895-1939 . Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press. p.  36. ISBN   0-7735-0323-4.
  4. "Hiawatha, The Messiah of the Ojibway". Canadian Film Encyclopedia. Retrieved 16 November 2021.