Notice of New Website

Dear friends and colleagues,

We are very pleased to announce the official launch of our new website developed in support of our current project:

EDWARD CURTIS MEETS THE KWAKWAKA'WAKW “IN THE LAND OF THE HEAD HUNTERS”:
Curtis’s Landmark 1914 Silent Film of Pacific Northwest First Nations Culture—Restored, Re-evaluated, and Framed with a Live Orchestral Arrangement of the Original Score and a Performance by the Gwa’wina Dancers, Descendants of the Indigenous Cast.

This collaborative project approaches the film from two distinct but overlapping perspectives: As a scholarly recovery and restoration of the original melodramatic contexts and content of the film and musical score; and as an indigenous re-framing of this material given unique Kwakwaka'wakw perspectives on the original film, its specific cultural content, and its historical context of production.

Please visit: http://www.curtisfilm.rutgers.edu

The website functions as the gateway to partner institutions that are hosting public screening/performance events and related programming in June 2008 (in Los Angeles, Seattle, and Vancouver) and in November 2008 (in Chicago, Washington DC, and New York City). In addition, the site provides a thorough scholarly introduction to Curtis's film, to the central role of the Kwakwaka'wakw (Kwakiutl) in its production, and to the new archival discoveries that have led to its current restoration. It also includes extensive media relating to the film's production as well as contemporary Kwakwaka'wakw culture.

Please circulate this widely to individuals and groups who may share an interest in Edward Curtis, film history, and First Nations. We hope to see many of you at the public events later this year.

Your Curtis project coordinators,

Aaron Glass
Killam Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Department of Anthropology
University of British Columbia

Brad Evans
Associate Professor of English
Rutgers University

Andrea Sanborn
Executive Director
U'mista Cultural Centre