Horst in Translation ([email protected])
It's basically 15 seconds of Indians (one of them quite a porker) dancing to another Indian playing the drums. This one was released in 1894, just like the Dickson Experimental Sound Film, even pretty much at the same time month-wise. Sadly we have no sound in here. Otherwise it might have been easier to go back in time in our minds and feel the vibe the Indians were getting during the production of this little short film.What I find most interesting about it is how one of the three dancers is clearly interacting with the camera and the viewer. He seems to have understood this new medium much more than the other two who are basically just doing their show as if nobody else was in the room.
tavm
Well, here's another early film from The Edison Company that depicts something that was popular during that time. In this case, it's the "Buffalo Dance" as we see three American Indians dancing in the Black Maria studio seemingly conscious of being on camera the whole time while two other of their tribe are playing instruments-drums-as accompaniment. They're all from "Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show", the one chronicled in Irving Berlin's Broadway show and movie Annie Get Your Gun where Annie Oakley and Frank Butler fight and fall in love. Since this is only a few seconds, my rating is mainly based on how fascinating a document this was and how audiences might have reacted when they watched this on their kinetoscopes-those peepshow machines that you twirl on one side that are probably still available for viewing at Walt Disney World for a penny. I just found this on Internet Archive. Probably the earliest thing I've reviewed here on IMDb.
Snow Leopard
As one of several features that the Edison Company made of performers from the Buffalo Bill Wild West exhibition, this was probably interesting to its original viewers as a chance to see a more or less authentic 'Indian dance'. As is often the case with the earliest movies, it's of interest now mainly for other reasons.Like the companion feature "Sioux Ghost Dance" made at the same time, this movie shows several Sioux performing one of their rituals for the camera. This "Buffalo Dance" differs slightly in having only three dancers, while two others accompany them with drums.What stands out in this one is the unfeigned interest in the camera that the dancers show, frequently staring right at it. It certainly doesn't seem to fit in with the dance itself, and it looks like an unintended but honest reaction to being filmed - which was just as novel an experience for these Sioux as it would have been for anyone else at the time.These frequent stares at the camera, plus the somewhat artificial background of Edison's 'Black Maria' studio, make it hard to determine to what degree the movie portrays the dance as it would have been done on its own. But it does give this little feature a point of interest.
PeterJordan
Another clip from the shots taken on September 24th 1894 in Edison's Black Maria studio with William Heise behind the camera. This 15 second (20 fps) clip features the three named Native American dancers (from Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show) plus three drummers. It is interesting to note that the three dancers are particulary aware of the camera and appear to act to it on occasion, although this may be merely a feature of the Buffalo dance itself or quite possibly under receipt of direction from Movies first ever acting coach/director behind the camera.
