The Island County Historical Society will screen the recently re-released silent film classic, “In the Land of the Headhunters” this month.

This rare film, produced by photographer Edward S. Curtis, was shot in and around the Prince Rupert area of British Columbia, and debuted in 1914. The film portrays a simple love story, but is renowned for the Kwakwaka’wakw actors, who Curtis had dress in their aboriginal cedar bark and animal skin clothing, according to a Thursday news release.

The showing begin at 1:30 p.m. Saturday, March 21, at the Clyde Theater in Langley. Doors open at 1 p.m.

A single damaged, incomplete print of the film was salvaged from a dumpster by film collector Hugo Zeiter of Danville Illinois and donated to Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History in 1947. Bill Holm and George Quimby re-edited this print in 1974, added a soundtrack by Kwakwaka’wakw musicians, and released the result as In the Land of the War Canoes. Independently, some other damaged clips from the film made their way to the UCLA Film and Television Archive.

The score had been filed at the library of the Getty Research Institute, but without a title that tied it to the film. The 2008 restoration brought together these materials. Milestone Films released this restored “One-Hundredth Anniversary” DVD of the film with the original score in summer of 2014.

Some aspects of the film have documentary accuracy: the artwork, the ceremonial dances, the clothing, the architecture of the buildings, and the construction of the dugout, or “war canoe” reflected Kwakwaka’wakw culture, the news release said.

Other aspects of the film were based on the Kwakwaka’wakw’s orally transmitted traditions or on aspects of other neighboring cultures. The film also accurately portrays Kwakwaka’wakw rituals that were, at the time, prohibited by Canada’s potlatch prohibition, enacted in 1884 and not rescinded until 1951.

“This screening offers possibly the closest glimpse of what the local native populations looked like in the pre-contact period” Island County Museum Director Rick Castellano said, in the news release. “Seeing it on a large screen with great sound will be a real treat.”

Admission is $7. Proceeds will benefit the Island County Museum.

Tickets may be purchased in advance at the museum from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily, or by calling 360-678-3310. Tickets will also be available at the door, based on availability. The film is suitable for all ages, though some convincing severed heads do make a cameo appearance.

This event is shown in conjunction with the opening of the Island County Museum’s new Native American exhibit: “Native People – Native Places”, and special traveling exhibit, “The Northwest Treaty Trail – 1854-1856.”

The Museum and the Native People – Native Places and Northwest Treaty Trail exhibits are both now open daily, 11-4. The Northwest Treaty Trail will be open through April 12, 2015.