"Eyes of the Totem," a silent movie filmed around Tacoma featuring shots of Annie Wright Seminary in 1926, has been found and will be re-released in September.
The film was produced by the legendary filmmaker WC Van Dyke through Weaver Studios near Titlow Beach. The addition of sound to motion pictures marked the decline of Weaver, and the film was lost until historian Lauren Hoogkamer found it at New York's Museum of Modern Art, which houses a collection of Van Dyke's films. "Eyes of the Totem" was among these but hadn't been viewed in nearly 90 years.
The plot involves a young woman who moves to Tacoma with her husband and daughter and involves tragedy, mystery and suspense, not to mention the daughter's enrollment in a certain seminary for girls!