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]

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.


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