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85 minutes Grades 7-12, College, Adult Directed by Anne Makepeace DVD Purchase $99, Rent $45 US Release Date: 2000 Copyright Date: 2000 Subjects American Studies Anthropology Art/Architecture Biography Ecology Geography History Human Rights Indigenous Peoples Macrohistorical Dynamics Native Americans Photography Social Psychology Sociology Awards and Festivals ALA Notable Videos for Adults List Sundance Film Festival Gold Hugo, Chicago International Television Competition Gold Award, Special Jury Prize, Houston WorldFest CINE Golden Eagle Best Documentary, MountainFilm, Telluride Audience Award, Best Documentary, Aspen Filmfest Audience Award, Best Documentary, Newport Beach Film Festival Best Documentary, New Jersey International Film Festival Best Environmental Film, Vermont International Film Festival Grand Festival Award, Historical Documentary, Berkeley Film & Video Festival Award of Commendation, Visual Anthropology Film/Video Festival Best Documentary, Saguaro International Film Festival Musée de l'Homme, Paris Double Take Documentary Film Festival Environmental Film Festival in the Nation's Capital Beeldvoorbeeld, Amsterdam Munich International Film Festival Santa Barbara International Film Festival Lake Tahoe International Film Festival Nashville International Film Festival Florida International Film Festival Hawaii International Film Festival Canyonlands Film Festival Seattle International Film Festival First Peoples' Festival, Montreal St.Louis International Film Festival Denver International Film Festival Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival American Indian Film Festival |
Coming to Light: Edward S. Curtis and the North American Indians - Special Offer Activist ![]() An in-depth portrait of Edward S. Curtis, the preeminent photographer of North American Indians.
Edward S. Curtis (1868-1952) was a driven, charismatic, obsessive artist, a pioneer photographer who set out in 1900 to document traditional Indian life. He rose from obscurity to become the most famous photographer of his time, created an enormous body of work -- 10,000 recordings, 40,000 photographs, and a full length ethnographic motion picture -- and died poor and forgotten. His work was rediscovered in the 1970s and is now synonymous with photography of Indians. Coming to Light tells the dramatic story of Curtis' life, his creation of his monumental work, and his changing views of the people he set out to document. The film also gives Indian people a voice in the discussion of Curtis' images. Hopi, Navajo, Eskimo, Blackfeet, Crow, Blood, Piegan, Suquamish, and Kwakiutl people who are descended from Curtis subjects or who are using his photographs for cultural preservation respond to the pictures, tell stories about the people in the photographs, and discuss the meaning of the images. In 1900, Curtis attended a Piegan Sundance, a ceremony that had recently been outlawed. Curtis believed this would be the last Sundance, and it was this experience that set him on his path to document traditional Indian cultures. Eighty years later, some of Curtis' photographs inspired the Piegans to revive the ceremony, and it is still going strong today. The documentary begins with footage shot at a contemporary Piegan Sundance last year intercut with Curtis' 1900 photographs that led to its revival. When Curtis began photographing Indians, he believed that their cultures were vanishing. When he finished in 1930, his own work vanished into obscurity, then was rediscovered in the 1970s and helped to inspire the revival of traditional culture on many reservations. Coming to Light presents a complex, dedicated, flawed life, and explores many of the ironies inherent in Curtis's story, the often controversial nature of his romantic images, and the value of the photographs to Indian people and to all Americans today. Reviews "COMING TO LIGHT tells more than the story of its main subject, " dward S. Curtis and the North American Indians." It tells, too, of the tragedy of cultural loss and hopes for recovery of memory. The film honors the great achievements of Curtis by placing his pictures in a vibrant frame of sorrow, desire, and promise. In its sensitive and intelligent fusion of image, sound, and story, the film offers an extraordinary experience of living history. It cannot be praised enough." Alan Trachtenberg, Neil Gray Professor of English and American Studies, Yale University "The Odyssean photographic career and poignantly forlorn private life of Edward S. Curtis are charted with impressive sensitivity in this very welcome portrait...It's an outstanding subject, one that...emerges compellingly in documentary form." Todd McCarthy, Variety "Beautifully filmed, skillfully edited and well-paced, Coming To Light is highly recommended for courses on North American Indians, visual anthropology, and American popular culture. Well researched and deftly touching on the complex politics of cross-cultural visual representation, Makepeace's film exhibits a balanced perspective on Curtis as a trailblazer in visual ethnography." Harald Prins, American Anthropologist "A beautifully crafted epic..." David Ansen, Newsweek "An unusually well-balanced view of Edward Curtis' life and works as the best known photographer of North American Indian people during the first part of the twentieth century." Bill Sturtevant, Curator of Ethnology, National Museum of National History, Smithsonian Institution "Remarkable, a fascinating and thorough look at a photographer whose 40,000 images recorded Native American life." Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times "A phenomenal film. Well crafted, intelligent, and beautiful to behold...brings historical depth and cultural context to our understanding of Curtis' photographs and his monographs on Native Americans...I highly recommend this piece for use in Art History courses, Photography courses, Native American Studies, and especially in Anthropology." Julia Thompson, Professor of Anthropology, Mount Holyoke College "Anne Makepeace has done total justice to the myth and the man that Edward S. Curtis was. " oming to Light" is a thoroughly researched masterpiece of its own, honoring the man whose portraits continue to honor the beauty and glory of American Indians." Wishelle Banks, Nevada Outpost |