Painted Desert

The Navajo Witch

Disclaimer: The narrator claims that the Navajo came from the Gobi Desert and look like Mongols. Fictionalized names and melodic references engage stereotypes of the day. The narration for this film is very racist: generally condescending in tone and full of misinformation about Navajo culture. All of this is told in in light and joking manner; even the narrator is presented as a humorous caricature of a “Wild West” settler rather than a real person.

Villages In the Sky

Photography: Avalon Daggett
Establishing shot: Arizona desert landscape (using deep space). Large mountain range in the background, flat plain with some foliage in the mid-ground, with  a small tree in the right foreground. This frame then dissolves into a city scene.
Named locations: Southwest; Northeastern Arizona; Painted Desert, Arizona;
Major themes covered: Daily life of the Hopi

Miracle on the Mesa

Edited by: Ann Busch
Photographed by: Toge Fujihira
Establishing shot: A kachina figure dissolves over clouds and the camera vertically descends, revealing a large canyon. In the base of the canyon water can be seen flowing. A tree in the left foreground provides depth to the shot.
Named locations: The Painted Desert; the towering Mesas of Arizona; Keams Canyon, headquarters of the Hopi Indian Agency; Pinon Junction (sign); Oraibi (sign); Tuba City (sign);