The Hoax
odd: label: Local Numbers
content: HSFA 1991.7.1
name: label: Collection Creator
content: Schuyler, John B., III
setName: label: See more items in
content: John B. Schuyler III films
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 1 Film reel (10 minutes, black-and-white sound; 302 feet, 16mm)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1932
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Human Studies Film Archives
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Film reels
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: Edited film produced by the Matto Grosso Expedition in Brazil. This semi-documentary film centers on the story of a young (Sao Lourenco) Bororo boy, who one day will be chief, preparing for and going on a hunt. He is shown speaking with an elder, making an arrow, feeding his pet otters, leaving for the hunt riding a tapir, and unsuccessfully hunting with bow and arrows. He comes across a dead iguana which he shoots in order to bring back to the village as game that he has killed. However, the village men know from the smell of the dead animal that a hoax has been played on them.

E. R. Fenimore Johnson, son of the founder of Victor Talking Machine (the world's leading sound recording company) and board member of the University of Pennsylvania Anthropological Museum, sponsored the expedition to Brazil with the express purpose of recording rapidly disappearing Amazonian cultures, including their languages. Through his Hollywood contacts, Johnson tapped technical talent and acquired the expensive and cumbersome sound recording equipment for the expedition.