''Hiawatha, the Messiah of the Ojibway'' is a 1903 dramatic

short film A short film is a film with a low running time. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of not more than 40 minutes including all credits". Other film o ...

shot in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

directed by the American pioneering cinematographer and director Joseph Rosenthal, based on the

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (February 27, 1807 – March 24, 1882) was an American poet and educator. His original works include the poems " Paul Revere's Ride", '' The Song of Hiawatha'', and '' Evangeline''. He was the first American to comp ...

's famous poem, ''

The Song of Hiawatha ''The Song of Hiawatha'' is an 1855 epic poem in trochaic tetrameter by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow which features Native American characters. The epic relates the fictional adventures of an Ojibwe warrior named Hiawatha and the tragedy of his lo ...

'', made in Desbarats, Ontario, with a cast of

Ojibway The Ojibwe (; Ojibwe writing systems#Ojibwe syllabics, syll.: ᐅᒋᐺ; plural: ''Ojibweg'' ᐅᒋᐺᒃ) are an Anishinaabe people whose homeland (''Ojibwewaki'' ᐅᒋᐺᐘᑭ) covers much of the Great Lakes region and the Great Plains, n ...

First Nations First nations are indigenous settlers or bands. First Nations, first nations, or first peoples may also refer to: Indigenous groups *List of Indigenous peoples *First Nations in Canada, Indigenous peoples of Canada who are neither Inuit nor Mé ...

people. According to the ''Canadian Journal of Film Studies'', it was the first dramatic narrative film to be shot in Canada.

Production

Joseph Rosenthal was the director and cinematographer. E. Armstrong adapted

's poem ''

''. ''Hiawatha'' was 15 minutes long using 800 feet of film. It is considered the first dramatic film in Canadian history. It 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. It is now a

lost film A lost film is a feature film, feature or short film in which the original negative or copies are not known to exist in any studio archive, private collection, or public archive. Films can be wholly or partially lost for a number of reasons. ...

and only a few pictures remain.

References

Works cited

* 1900s lost films 1903 films 1903 short films First Nations films Films shot in Ontario Films based on works by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Lost Canadian films Lost drama films Ojibwe culture Canadian silent short films 1903 drama films Works based on The Song of Hiawatha Canadian drama short films Silent Canadian drama films 1900s Canadian films {{1900s-short-drama-film-stub