e graduated, on the power of his genius, to master of the medium. Later, with The Birth
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of a Nation (19
15), history wo
uld grant him
another title, "father of th
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e narrative fil
m." A casting office could not have come up with better material for the first great movie director: tall, patrician, impeccably dressed, megaphone in hand, he was the model for future directors, and their inspiration. Griffith and the Biograph troupe, 45 strong, had spent the winter months of 1911-1912 in Los Angeles churning out featurettes. At the end of May they boarded the train to return to N
ew York and sto
pped in Albuquerque to take in the local scene -- and make a picture. As it turned out, they completed two films during their weeklong stay in New Mexico. One was a full-length dramatic love story, the other a short comedy. Like the Edison Company filmmaker before him, D.W. Griffith went directly to the Isleta Pueblo to make a Romeo and Juliet tale about a Hopi maiden and her Pueblo boyfriend. A Pueb
1912), 20 minut
es in length, is typical of Griffith's work at that time: brisk, theatrical, touching, filled with a
battle scenes
between warring Indian tribes prompted the local paper to report that "the picture taken in the hills . . . was one of considerable magnitude, and if it doesn't send chills and thrills t
Prerequisite Knowledge, Skills, and Abilitieshrough the effete East, it will . . . not be because of any d
- eficiency on the part of the photoplay people." The star of A Pueblo Legend was none other than "The Bi
- ograph Girl," Mary Pickford, a golden-haired beauty with rosebud lips. In a few short years she would become "America's Sweetheart
orld's highest-paid film arti
- st. In 1919, she and her husband Douglas Fairbanks would join
- with Griffith and Charlie Chaplin
- to make and distribute their own mov
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- ies under the banner of
- the United Artists. The other star of the
- film was the locale. "D
- irector Griffith said that the Isleta Pueblo off
ered some of the finest scenic opportunities
