White Fawn's Devotion | |
---|---|
Directed by | James Young Deer (uncredited) |
Written by | James Young Deer (uncredited) |
Starring | Lucille Young |
Distributed by | Pathé Frères |
Release date |
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Running time | 11 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | silent with English intertitles |
White Fawn's Devotion: A Play Acted by a Tribe of Red Indians in America is a 1910 American short dramatic silent film. Although a few writers believe the film features Young Deer's wife, Lillian St. Cyr, otherwise known as Princess Red Wing as "White Fawn", the lead woman does not fit St. Cyr's description. IMDb now identifies the lead actress as Lucille Young. [1] The movie was shot in New Jersey at 24fps. [2]
White Fawn's Devotion is the earliest surviving film directed by a Native American. It was one of the earlier films shot in America by the French company Pathé. [3] A reviewer in the New York Dramatic Mirror wrote that the film "proves to be interesting if we can forget the New Jersey scenery" and noted that "it is not quite clear where the devotion comes in, nor of what it consists." [4]
In 2008, the movie was added to the United States National Film Registry as being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". [5] [6]
A white settler named Combs, his Indian wife, White Fawn, and their daughter live in a Dakota log cabin. When Combs gets word that he is to inherit a large fortune, his Native American wife is upset. Believing that she will lose her husband if he returns East, she stabs herself with a knife. Her husband finds her and removes the knife, but their daughter sees him with the knife in his hand and her apparently dead mother. [7] The girl, believing her father committed the murder, alerts the nearby Indian village. Several Indians then engage the settler in a long chase. When the settler is captured, the Indians intend to put him to death until White Fawn miraculously revives and informs the Indians of the truth. This ending, in which an interracial couple ends up together, is a rare occurrence for this period of film production. The surviving print, preserved by the Library of Congress, is missing a few feet at its end. This print was digitized for the Treasures from American Film Archives DVD set, therefore subsequent digital releases are also missing the ending. Contemporary publicity from Pathé fills in the resolution: "the Combs take their departure and return to their home, for he feels he will be happier with his family on the plains than if he goes east and claims his legacy." [8]
James Young Deer (also known as J. Younger Johnston or James Young Johnson), the uncredited director and writer of White Fawn's Devotion, was believed to be the first Native American film director. His ancestors were members of the Nanticoke people of Delaware. [9] [10] Young Deer was hired by Pathé Frères as a director and scenario writer and frequently worked in collaboration with his actress wife Lillian St. Cyr, also known by her stage name Princess Red Wing. Out of the more than 100 short and a few feature films he made, White Fawn's Devotion is one of fewer than 10 films of Young Deer's to have survived.
Broken Blossoms or The Yellow Man and the Girl, often referred to simply as Broken Blossoms, is a 1919 American silent drama film directed by D. W. Griffith. It was distributed by United Artists and premiered on May 13, 1919. It stars Lillian Gish, Richard Barthelmess, and Donald Crisp, and tells the story of young girl, Lucy Burrows, who is abused by her alcoholic prizefighting father, Battling Burrows, and meets Cheng Huan, a kind-hearted Chinese man who falls in love with her. It was the first film distributed by United Artists. It is based on Thomas Burke's short story "The Chink and the Child" from the 1916 collection Limehouse Nights. In 1996, Broken Blossoms was included in the annual selection of 25 motion pictures to be added to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress.
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Lucille May Young was an American actress of the early silent film era.
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James Young Deer, also known as J. Younger Johnson or Jim Young Deer, was actually born James Young Johnson in Washington, D.C. Although he was identified in the early Hollywood trade paper Moving Picture World as of the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska, his ancestry is of the Nanticoke people of Delaware. He became an early film actor, director, writer, and producer. He is believed to be the first Native American filmmaker/producer in Hollywood. Together with his wife and partner Lillian St. Cyr, Winnebago, the couple were labeled an "influential force" in the production of one-reel Westerns during the first part of the silent film era. Their films, along with several others of the silent era, were notable for portraying Native Americans in a positive light.
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Thirty Days is a 1922 American silent comedy film produced by Famous Players–Lasky and distributed by Paramount Pictures. The film is a farce based on the play Thirty Days by A. E. Thomas and Clayton Hamilton which did not make it to Broadway.
The Daughter of Dawn is a 1920 American silent Western film. It is 83 minutes long and is one of few silent films made, along with In the Land of the Head Hunters and Before the White Man Came (1920), with an entirely Native American cast.
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