A Daughter of the Gods (1916): Film, Tourism and Empire on Location in Jamaica

This article examines the location production of the early Hollywood blockbuster movie A Daughter of the Gods (1916) in British colonial Jamaica on the basis of historical newspapers and magazines, and demonstrates the close ties between film, tourism and empire on the island in the early twentieth century, both materially and ideologically. In so doing, the article reflects a twofold comparative perspective: between different histories and between different countries. Despite the rise of postcolonial cinema historiography, the early cinema histories of the Caribbean have remained largely unexposed. More specifically, Jamaica’s early film history has, notwithstanding some notable exceptions, hardly been dealt with, particularly in relation to the island’s tourism and colonial histories. At the same time, the early relationship between Hollywood and the British Caribbean has not often been explored. All in all, this article seeks to contribute to the discussion of the interconnectedness between cinema, tourism and empire, and between Hollywood, the British Empire and Jamaica, by revealing the colonialist cine-tourist practices and discourses of A Daughter of the Gods, one of the most important American moving pictures of the silent era, and one of the most significant global imperial tourist films of the early twentieth century.