''A Maori Maid's Love'' (Originally titled The Surveyor's Daughter) is a 1916 Australian

silent film A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, when ...

written and directed by

Raymond Longford Raymond Longford (born John Walter Hollis Longford, 23 September 18782 April 1959) was a prolific Australian film director, writer, producer and actor during the silent era. Longford was a major director of the silent film era of the Australian ...

about an interracial romance between a white man and a

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the C ...

girl. It is considered a

lost film A lost film is a feature or short film that no longer exists in any studio archive, private collection, public archive or the U.S. Library of Congress. Conditions During most of the 20th century, U.S. copyright law required at least one copy o ...

as there are no known copies.

Plot

Graham, an unhappily married surveyor, goes on a job to New Zealand where he falls in love with a Maori woman. She becomes pregnant and dies in childbirth. Graham puts his daughter in the care of Maori Jack, who later kills Graham. However his daughter (

Lottie Lyell Lottie Lyell (born Charlotte Edith Cox, 23 February 1890 – 21 December 1925) was an Australian actress, screenwriter, editor and filmmaker. She is regarded as Australia's first film star, and also contributed to the local industry during the ...

) inherits his property and falls in love with a jackeroo called Jim.

Cast

*Kenneth Carlisle * Rawdon Blandford

Production

The film was shot on location in

Rotorua Rotorua () is a city in the Bay of Plenty region of New Zealand's North Island. The city lies on the southern shores of Lake Rotorua, from which it takes its name. It is the seat of the Rotorua Lakes District, a territorial authority encompass ...

and

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

from August 1915, with finance from a Sydney company, Vita Film Corporation. It was the first of two films Longford and Lyell made in New Zealand, the other being ''

The Mutiny of the Bounty ''The Mutiny of the Bounty'' is a 1916 Australian-New Zealand silent film directed by Raymond Longford about the mutiny aboard . It is the first known cinematic dramatisation of this story and is considered a lost film. Longford claimed it was ...

'' (1916).

Release

Distribution difficulties

Longford was unable to secure a release for the film in New Zealand. He blamed this on the influence of "the Combine" of

Australasian Films Australasian Films, full name Union Theatres and Australasian Films, was an Australian film distribution and production company formed in 1913 that was wound up in the 1930s to merge into Greater Union. The Union Theatres and Australasian Films d ...

and Union Theatres, who dominated distribution and exhibition at the time. The film was given a limited release in Sydney at a cinema owned by Hubert and Caroline Pugliese.

Critical reception

The critic from the ''Sydney Sun'' called it "unquestionably the best moving picture produced up to date at this end of the world... there would be little need for importing films while Australia can make her own of such a standard." The ''Motion Picture News'' said the film "certainly could not be classed as a masterpiece. Reduced to three reels it would make a good, pleasing feature. The subtitles in their present state are crude and need revision. Director Raymond Longford had a hard task when he posed the Maori maids before the camera and deserves credit for the results obtained." Lottie Lyell edited the film for its British release.

Significance

The movie is generally agreed to be the first full-length New Zealand feature film.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Maori Maid's Love 1910s New Zealand films 1916 films Australian drama films New Zealand drama films Australian silent feature films Australian black-and-white films Films about interracial romance Films directed by Raymond Longford Films set in New Zealand Films shot in New Zealand Lost Australian films 1916 drama films Lost New Zealand films 1916 lost films Lost drama films Films about Māori people Silent drama films 1910s Australian films