The Daughter of Dawn (1920), a silent film long thought lost, was recently screened at the deadCENTER Film Festival in Oklahoma City, fully restored and with a new score.
Directed by Norbert Myles and produced by the Texas
Film Company, The Daughter of Dawn is
a love story that includes some standard movie fare—a chase scene, displays
of bravery, a celebration, and, of course, a happy ending. But what makes this
film so special is its all-Native American cast, uncommon today and unheard of
during the silent era. Filmed in the Wichita Mountains in Oklahoma, the film
features a cast of 300
Comanches and Kiowas including White Parker, the son of the Comanche leader Quanah Parker, as the lead, and
tells the story
of Native Americans with nary a cowboy or soldier in sight.
Like many stories about rediscovered silent films, this
one has an intriguing back-story. In 2005, the Oklahoma City Museum of Art
received a phone call from a private investigator in North Carolina claiming to
own a silver nitrate copy of The Daughter
of Dawn. Apparently a client had given it to him as part of his
payment. The Oklahoma Historical Society was informed and set about obtaining
and restoring the film with the help of a grant from the National Film Preservation Foundation.
Plans are under way to release the film on DVD and
Blu-ray but for now here are the first ten minutes of the film—a fascinating glimpse
of a true American story.
For more information, visit the Historical
Society’s website here.
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