SIFF Part 5: “In the Land of the Headhunters”

On Tuesday night we went to the 7:00 screening of “In the Land of the Headhunters” at the Moore Theatre downtown. The Moore is the oldest remaining theater in Seattle and is currently celebrating its centennial year. To add to the historical echoes of this event, “In the Land of the Headhunters” had its world premiere at the Moore Theatre back in 1914.

The film was made by Edward S. Curtis, an American photographer famous for his photographs of Native Americans from tribes all over North America. (I saw an exhibit of his photographs in February in San Diego at the Museum of Man.) “Headhunters” is a silent film set in the Pacific Northwest that tells a story of love and war among the original people of the region. We knew we weren’t seeing the film in its original form; much had been lost to time and decay, and the print we watched had been reconstructed from a decomposing original. There were whole scenes that had to be replaced by stills from the surviving frames and by photographs taken on the set.

The interesting thing for me was the experience of being a modern viewer and watching this early film. In the years since “Headhunters” was made, the visual grammar of film has grown so sophisticated that it took me a while to figure out how to watch it. There were no close-ups and very few cuts. Camera angle hardly ever varied and the camera itself never moved during a scene. I was a static observer, as if I were watching something happen across the street, with very little of the usual cinematic guidance to direct my attention and help me understand what was going on. It was fascinating as an artifact of both film history and native culture. I also liked the music; the original score was performed by a live orchestra, and blended western music with some native-sounding elements in a way that effectively supported the film.

The real treat of the evening, though, were the performances of tribal dances by members of a First Nations band from British Columbia, the Kwakwaka’wakw (and don’t even think about asking me how to pronounce that), several of whom were descendants of people who had taken part in making “Headhunters.” After the film was shown, a group of around twenty dancers, singers, and drummers performed half a dozen traditional dances in full costume, including some enormous wooden bird masks very similar to those seen in the film. I was struck by how varied the dances, songs, and rhythms were. The tribal chief was present, and he welcomed the audience to the land of their ancestors. The leader of the performing group introduced each dance with a short explanation of its significance. I think a number of the audience members were also members of various Northwest tribes, which contributed to the feeling of importance and authenticity of the evening.

A great evening, and I have to congratulate David here for picking this one out of the SIFF schedule.