View source for Hiawatha, the Messiah of the Ojibway

{{short description|1903 film by Joe Rosenthal}}
{{italic title}}
{{Infobox film
| name           = Hiawatha, the Messiah of the Ojibway
| image          = Hiawatha, the Messiah of the Ojibway.png
| director       = Joseph Rosenthal
| producer       =
| writer         = E. Armstrong
| starring       =
| music          =
| cinematography = Joseph Rosenthal
| editing        =
| studio         = [[Charles Urban Trading Company]] <br/> [[Canadian Bioscope Company]]
| distributor    =
| released       = {{Film date|1903}}
| runtime        = 15 minutes
| country        = Canada
| language       =
| budget         =
| gross          =
}}
'''''Hiawatha, the Messiah of the Ojibway''''' is a 1903 dramatic [[short film]] shot in [[Canada]] directed by the American pioneering cinematographer and director Joseph 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 in Canada|First Nations]] people. According to the ''Canadian Journal of Film Studies'', it was the first dramatic narrative film to be shot in Canada.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Clandfield|first1=David|title=Canadian Film|date=1987|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Toronto|isbn=0-19-540581-1|page=3}}</ref>
==Production==
Joseph Rosenthal was the director and cinematographer. E. Armstrong adapted  [[Henry Wadsworth Longfellow]]'s poem ''[[The Song of Hiawatha]]''. ''Hiawatha'' was 15 minutes long using 800 feet of film. It is considered the first dramatic film in Canadian history.{{sfn|Ross|2012|p=140}}<ref>{{Cite web |title=Hiawatha, The Messiah of the Ojibway |work=[[Toronto International Film Festival]] |url=https://cfe.tiff.net/content/films/hiawatha-the-messiah-of-the-ojibway |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240831020438/https://cfe.tiff.net/content/films/hiawatha-the-messiah-of-the-ojibway |archive-date=31 August 2024}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Morris|first1=Peter|title=Embattled Shadows: A History of Canadian Cinema 1895-1939|url=https://archive.org/details/embattledshadows0000morr|url-access=registration|date=1978|publisher=McGill-Queen's University Press|location=Montreal|isbn=0-7735-0323-4|page=[https://archive.org/details/embattledshadows0000morr/page/36 36]}}</ref> It is now a [[lost film]] and only a few pictures remain.{{sfn|Ross|2012|p=140}}
==References==
{{reflist}}
==Works cited==
* {{cite journal|last=Ross |first=Ryan |title=Hiawatha, The Messiah of the Ojibway (1903): Photographic Stills From The First Dramatic Narrative Film Made In Canada |journal=Canadian Journal of Film Studies |publisher=[[University of Toronto Press]] |date=2012 |volume=21 |issue=2 |pages=140-47 |doi=10.2307/24411798 |jstor=24411798 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24411798}}
[[Category:1900s lost films]]
[[Category:1903 films]]
[[Category:1903 short films]]
[[Category:First Nations films]]
[[Category:Films shot in Ontario]]
[[Category:Films based on works by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow]]
[[Category:Lost drama films]]
[[Category:Ojibwe culture]]
[[Category:Canadian silent short films]]
[[Category:1903 drama films]]
[[Category:Works based on The Song of Hiawatha]]
[[Category:Canadian drama short films]]
[[Category:Silent Canadian drama films]]
[[Category:1900s Canadian films]]
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