Film Details

Look beyond the offensive title and you will find a late silent movie—partially shot in Technicolor, released with a synchronized music track, and shown here in a newly restored 35mm archive print—that is unusually sensitive to the plight of Native Americans. Richard Dix stars as a Navajo man who receives a scholarship to a prestigious Eastern college. But after graduation, he finds himself alienated from both mainstream American society and his own tribe. The film’s score is by J.S. Zamecnik, a major composer of “photoplay music” (music for silent movies) who was born in Cleveland in 1872 and whose work we will celebrate this weekend. Rodney Sauer, a scholar of both Zamecnik and silent film accompaniment (he’s also the pianist and director of the Colorado-based Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra, which has recorded Zamecnik’s photoplay music), will introduce the feature and answer questions after the screening. 35mm. 82 min.