In the Land of the Head Hunters

A pioneering 1914 ethnographic drama that documents and fictionalizes Kwakwaka'wakw life and culture through the lens of early cinema, blending documentary observation with narrative storytelling.

In the Land of the Head Hunters is a 1914 silent film fictionalizing the world of the Kwakwaka'wakw (Kwakiutl) peoples of the Queen Charlotte Strait region of the Central Coast of British Columbia, Canada, written and directed by Edward S. Curtis and acted entirely by Kwakwaka'wakw natives. It was the first feature-length film whose cast was composed entirely of Native North Americans; the second, eight years later, was Robert Flaherty's Nanook of the North.