Golden Talons: The Dawn of Justice (P.P. Jambrina, 1927)
#CoMoPanama
The film is a fierce critique of United States policy towards Latin America, focusing in particular on the United States' backing of Panamanian separatists that led to the partition of the former Isthmus Department from Colombia.
→
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gran_Colombia
→
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_of_Colombia
→
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Separatio ... m_Colombia
It is believed that all actors and staff involved in the film employed pseudonyms in order to avoid the fallout from what in 1926 was still a very polemical subject in Colombia. The film was censored by the Colombian (& U.S.) government(s) upon its release. It subsequently faded from the public view and was thought lost for decades.
It was found (in the mid-1980s) and restored by the Fundación Patrimonio Fílmico Colombiano, though only the film's beginning, end, as well as another three reels' worth of footage, has been found.
so, the film's plot opens in 1903, when the two powers (the Yankeeland & the Ex-United States of Colombia) struggle over Panama.
In 1903, the United States and Colombia signed the Hay–Herrán Treaty to finalize the construction of the Panama Canal but the process could not be completed because the Congress of Colombia rejected the measure (which the Colombian government had proposed) on August 12, 1903. The United States then moved to support the separatist movement in Panama to gain control over the remnants of the French attempt at building a canal.
(besides other things) the film celebrates the power of investigative journalism!
after the investigators of the main Yankee anti-establishment journal (called “The World”) managed to afford (in Colombia) the irrefutable proof (the first and foremost “Panama Papers”) of Teddy Roosevelt's involvement in the dirty Panama Canal business, Teddy's aspirations for second term are thwarted and (here we are already entering into the realm of alternate history) when the Canal opens in 1914, no imperialist power can hold an upper hand over its traffic because the international law and order is restored & prevails (happy end!)
→
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_World
Panama Canal Libel Case →
https://exhibitions.library.columbia.ed ... libel-case
international law and order weights more than all the dirty money of the plutocrats!
Garras de oro (Golden Claws), also known as Alborada de justicia (Dawn of Justice), has been referred to as the first anti-imperialist film.
an extensive (serious!) read about the film:
html →
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/362425
pdf →
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/362425/pdf