WHERE IT BEGAN
In 1898, ‘Indian Day School’ is the first film to be shot in New Mexico
With “Indian Day School” in 1898, New Mexico became a player in the film industry.
“Indian Day School” was a fizzy little charmer with the life span of a bubble.
It was the first film shot in New Mexico and was produced by Thomas Edison’s company.
The 1898 film lasts about 38 seconds. In snowy black and white, a bevy of Native American children walk in and out of the Isleta Indian School door. Its short length and documentary look were common during film’s earliest era.
“It wasn’t Edison himself” who shot the film, said University of New Mexico film historian and pop culture expert Paul Hutton. “It was one of his employees who was traveling through New Mexico.
“He decided to get some human interest stuff,” Hutton continued. “In those days, they did these little one-totwo-minute things for nickelodeons.”
The nickelodeon was the first type of indoor exhibition space dedicated to showing projected motion pictures. Usually set up in converted storefronts, these small, simple theaters charged five cents for admission and flourished from about 1905 to 1915.
“You would go put a nickle into the machine in entertainment centers of the city,” Hutton said. “It’s kind of like a boardwalk item, kind of like a peep show. This was just higher end.”
A camera man named Frederick Blechynden used Edison’s Kinetograph camera to capture the moment.
“He just went down to Isleta (Pueblo) and had all the kids walk out and walk back in, and that’s the film,” Hutton continued. “But if you’re in the Bronx and see it, you go, ‘How quaint.’”
The railroad was critical to filming here because visitors could travel from Chicago to Los Angeles through New Mexico, Hutton said.
“That led to a lot of early filming in New Mexico,” he continued. “The Harvey House is right there and all the Indian folks are selling stuff. It was exotic.”
Edison’s company was making short films, more accurately documentaries, across the U.S., and in Mexico and Asia.
“He had some of the earliest shots of Buffalo Bill and his Wild West show,” Hutton said.“Edison didn’t see any value in entertainment; he saw it as education.”
The earliest filmmakers thought audiences could only handle films lasting from 30 seconds to 2 minutes long.
“The idea of making a film into a story wouldn’t come for six or seven years,” Hutton said. “‘The Great Train Robbery’ is considered the first film to tell a story. It was in 1903.”
“He (camera man Frederick Blechynden) just went down to Isleta (Pueblo) and had all the kids walk out and walk back in, and that’s the film. But if you’re in the Bronx and see it, you go, ‘How quaint.’ ” – UNM film historian Paul Hutton