Sioux Ghost Dance

Last updated

Sioux Ghost Dance
Directed by William Kennedy Dickson
Produced byWilliam Kennedy Dickson
Starringmembers of Sioux nation
Cinematography William Heise
Distributed by Edison Manufacturing Company
Release date
  • 1894 (1894)
Running time
21 seconds
CountryUnited States
Languages Silent
English intertitles

Sioux Ghost Dance is an 1894 American black-and-white silent film from Edison Studios, produced by William K. L. Dickson with William Heise as cinematographer. Filmed on a single reel, using standard 35 mm gauge, it has a 21-second runtime. The film was shot in Edison's Black Maria studio at the same time as Buffalo Dance . [1] These are two of the earliest films made which feature Native Americans. In this film, a group of Sioux warriors, including two boys, perform the Ghost Dance. According to the Edison catalog, the performers in both films were genuine Sioux people wearing traditional costumes and war paint. All were veterans of Buffalo Bill's Wild West show. [2]

Contents

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>Dances with Wolves</i> 1990 film by Kevin Costner

Dances with Wolves is a 1990 American epic Western film starring, directed, and produced by Kevin Costner in his feature directorial debut. It is a film adaptation of the 1988 novel Dances with Wolves, by Michael Blake, that tells the story of Union Army Lieutenant John J. Dunbar (Costner), who travels to the American frontier to find a military post, and who meets a group of Lakota.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sitting Bull</span> Hunkpapa Lakota leader (1831–1890)

Sitting Bull was a Hunkpapa Lakota leader who led his people during years of resistance against United States government policies. Sitting Bull was killed by Indian agency police on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation during an attempt to arrest him at a time when authorities feared that he would join the Ghost Dance movement.

The following is an overview of the events of 1894 in film, including a list of films released and notable births.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wounded Knee Massacre</span> 1890 South Dakota civilian killings

The Wounded Knee Massacre, also known as the Battle of Wounded Knee, was the deadliest mass shooting in American history, involving nearly three hundred Lakota people shot and killed by soldiers of the United States Army. The massacre, part of what the U.S. military called the Pine Ridge Campaign, occurred on December 29, 1890, near Wounded Knee Creek on the Lakota Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, following a botched attempt to disarm the Lakota camp. The previous day, a detachment of the U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment commanded by Major Samuel M. Whitside approached Spotted Elk's band of Miniconjou Lakota and 38 Hunkpapa Lakota near Porcupine Butte and escorted them five miles westward to Wounded Knee Creek, where they made camp. The remainder of the 7th Cavalry Regiment, led by Colonel James W. Forsyth, arrived and surrounded the encampment. The regiment was supported by a battery of four Hotchkiss mountain guns. The Army was catering to the anxiety of settlers who called the conflict the Messiah War and were worried the Ghost Dance signified a potentially dangerous Sioux resurgence. Historian Jeffrey Ostler wrote in 2004, "Wounded Knee was not made up of a series of discrete unconnected events. Instead, from the disarming to the burial of the dead, it consisted of a series of acts held together by an underlying logic of racist domination."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kinetoscope</span> Motion picture exhibition device

The Kinetoscope is an early motion picture exhibition device, designed for films to be viewed by one person at a time through a peephole viewer window. The Kinetoscope was not a movie projector, but it introduced the basic approach that would become the standard for all cinematic projection before the advent of video: it created the illusion of movement by conveying a strip of perforated film bearing sequential images over a light source with a high-speed shutter. First described in conceptual terms by U.S. inventor Thomas Edison in 1888, it was largely developed by his employee William Kennedy Laurie Dickson between 1889 and 1892. Dickson and his team at the Edison lab in New Jersey also devised the Kinetograph, an innovative motion picture camera with rapid intermittent, or stop-and-go, film movement, to photograph movies for in-house experiments and, eventually, commercial Kinetoscope presentations.

<i>The Dickson Experimental Sound Film</i> American film

The Dickson Experimental Sound Film is a film made by William Dickson in late 1894 or early 1895. It is the first known film with live-recorded sound and appears to be the first motion picture made for the Kinetophone, the proto-sound-film system developed by Dickson and Thomas Edison. The film was produced at the "Black Maria", Edison's New Jersey film studio. There is no evidence that it was ever exhibited in its original format.

<i>Fred Otts Sneeze</i> 1894 American film

Fred Ott's Sneeze is an 1894 short, black-and-white, silent film shot by William K.L. Dickson and featuring Fred Ott. According to the Library of Congress, it is the second oldest surviving U.S. motion picture to be copyrighted, although it is now in the public domain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edison's Black Maria</span> Film production company

The Black Maria was Thomas Edison's film production studio in West Orange, New Jersey. It was the world's first film studio.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edison Studios</span> Defunct American film production organization (1894–1918)

Edison Studios was an American film production organization, owned by companies controlled by inventor and entrepreneur, Thomas Edison. The studio made close to 1,200 films, as part of the Edison Manufacturing Company (1894–1911) and then Thomas A. Edison, Inc. (1911–1918), until the studio's closing in 1918. Of that number, 54 were feature length, and the remainder were shorts. All of the company's films have fallen into the public domain because they were released before 1928.

<i>Carmencita</i> (film) 1894 film

Carmencita is an 1894 American short black-and-white silent documentary film directed and produced by William K.L. Dickson, the Scottish inventor credited with the invention of the motion picture camera under the employ of Thomas Edison. The film is titled after the dancer who features in it.

<i>Bucking Broncho</i> 1894 film

Bucking Broncho is an 1894 American black-and-white silent film from Edison Studios, produced by William K. L. Dickson with William Heise as cinematographer. Filmed on a single reel, using standard 35 mm gauge, it has a 32-second runtime. One of the earliest known films in the Western genre, it is preserved by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and available in the DVD collection More Treasures from American Film Archives (2004).

<i>Corbett and Courtney Before the Kinetograph</i> 1894 American film

Corbett and Courtney Before the Kinetograph is an 1894 American short black-and-white silent film produced by William K.L. Dickson and starring James J. Corbett. It was only the second boxing match to be filmed, following The Leonard-Cushing Fight which had been filmed by Dickson on June 14, 1894.

<i>Buffalo Dance</i> (film) 1894 film

Buffalo Dance is an 1894 black-and-white silent film from Edison Studios, produced by William K. L. Dickson with William Heise as cinematographer. Filmed on a single reel, using standard 35 mm gauge, it has a 16-second runtime. The film, with English intertitles, was shot in Edison's Black Maria studio at the same time as Sioux Ghost Dance. These are two of the earliest films made which feature Native Americans. According to the Edison catalog, the performers in both films were Sioux people wearing traditional costumes and war paint. All were veterans of Buffalo Bill's Wild West show. Buffalo Dance has three dancers and two drummers. Hair Coat, Last Horse and Parts His Hair dance in a circle while drummers Pine and Strong Talker provide their rhythm.

<i>Annie Oakley</i> (1894 film) 1894 film

Annie Oakley is an 1894 American black-and-white silent film from Edison Studios, produced by William K. L. Dickson with William Heise as cinematographer.

<i>Leonard-Cushing Fight</i> 1894 American film

The Leonard-Cushing Fight is an 1894 American short black-and-white silent film produced by William K.L. Dickson, starring Mike Leonard and Jack Cushing. Leonard and Cushing participate in a six-round boxing match under special conditions that allow for it to be filmed and displayed on a Kinetograph. The film was shot on an uncertain date between May 24 and June 14, 1894, in a specially configurated ring in Edison's Black Maria film studio in West Orange, New Jersey. Premiered on August 4, 1894 in Manhattan, the movie is the first sports film ever released. As of 2023, no full print of the film is known to have survived, making it a partially lost film. A 23-second fragment is available at the Library of Congress.

Buffalo Bill is a lost American 1894 black-and-white silent film from Edison Studios, produced by William K. L. Dickson with William Heise as cinematographer. Filmed on a single reel, using standard 35 mm gauge, it has a 60-second runtime. The film was shot in Edison's Black Maria studio and is an exhibition of rifle shooting by Buffalo Bill himself. The film is one of several shot by Dickson and Heise after Thomas Edison invited Cody and his Wild West show performers to the kinetoscope studio.

<i>Lasso Thrower</i> 1894 film

Lasso Thrower is a lost 1894 American black-and-white short silent film from Edison Studios, produced by William K. L. Dickson with William Heise as cinematographer. It has a 60-second runtime and was filmed on a single reel, using standard 35 mm gauge, in Edison's Black Maria studio. The film, an exhibition of roping skills by Mexican vaquero Vicente Oropeza, is one of several shot by Dickson and Heise after Thomas Edison invited William F. Cody and his Buffalo Bill's Wild West show performers to the kinetoscope studio.

Mexican Knife Duel is an 1894 American black-and-white short silent film from Edison Studios, produced by William K. L. Dickson with William Heise as cinematographer. It features an exhibition of fighting skills by Mexican vaqueros Pedro Esquivel and Dionecio Gonzales. Filmed in Edison's Black Maria studio, it has a runtime of 60 seconds. Although stills exist, the film is understood to be lost.

<i>The Boxing Cats (Prof. Weltons)</i> 1894 American film

The Boxing Cats , or simply Boxing Cats, is an 1894 American short silent film directed by William K.L. Dickson and William Heise, and starring Henry Welton. It depicts a boxing match between two cats, each wearing a pair of boxing gloves. The two cats were members of Welton's touring "cat circus", which reportedly also featured cats riding bicycles.

References

  1. "Buffalo dance". Library of Congress. 1894. Retrieved September 9, 2021.
  2. "Sioux ghost dance". Library of Congress. 1894. Retrieved September 9, 2021.