Let There Be Light (1891–1923)

Every journey has a beginning. In the premiere season of A Film Podyssey, we’ll travel back in time to the earliest days of cinema, when inventors, illusionists, and storytellers were still exploring what motion pictures could do. From the flickering fantasies of Georges Méliès to the explosive epics of D. W. Griffith, we’ll discover how a curious little novelty became one of humanity’s most powerful art forms.

000 • The Dawn of Film

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View from the Window at Le Gras (Nicéphore Niépce, 1827)

The Horse in Motion (Eadweard Muybridge, 1878)

Horse and Rider Jumping a Hurdle and a Ditch (Ottomar Anschütz, 1886)

Roundhay Garden Scene (Louis Le Prince, 1888)

001 • Edison Studios

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Screening I: Early Cinema

Monkeyshines, No. 1 (William K. L. Dickson, c. 1890)

Dickson Greeting (Dickson, 1891)

Blacksmith Scene (Dickson, 1893)

Leonard-Cushing Fight (Dickson, 1894)

Annabelle Serpentine Dance (Dickson, 1895)

Screening II: Early Film Form

The Barbershop (Dickson, 1894)

Fire Rescue Scene (Dickson, 1894)

Sandow (Dickson, 1894)

Fred Ott’s Sneeze (Dickson, 1894)

The Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots (Alfred Clark, 1895)

002 • The Lumière Brothers

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Screening I: Actualités

Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory (Louis Lumière, 1895)

Baby’s Meal (Lumière, 1895)

Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat Station (Lumière, 1896)

Panorama of the Grand Canal (Alexandre Promio, 1896)

The Pyramids (Promio, 1897)

Screening II: Non-Actualités

Demolition of a Wall (Lumière, 1895)

The Waterer Watered (Lumière, 1895)

The Lover in the Sack (Georges Hatot, 1897)

Pistol Duel (Gabriel Veyre, 1896)

The Life and Passion of Jesus Christ (Lumière & Hatot, 1898)

003 • The Cinema of Attractions

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004 • Georges Méliès and A Trip to the Moon

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Screening I: Trick Films

The Vanishing Lady (1896)

The One-Man Band (1900)

A Mysterious Portrait (1899)

The Triple Conjurer and the Living Head (1900)

The Man with the Rubber Head (1901)

Screening II: Story Films

The Astronomer’s Dream (1898)

Cinderella (1898)

The Dreyfus Affair (1899)

005 • The Brighton School

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Screening I: George Albert Smith

The Kiss in the Tunnel (1899)

Grandma’s Reading Glass (1900)

As Seen Through a Telescope (1900)

The Sick Kitten (1903)

Screening II: James Williamson

Attack on a China Mission (1900)

Stop Thief! (1901)

Fire! (1901)

The Big Swallow (1901)

006 • Edwin S. Porter and The Great Train Robbery

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Screening I: Early Narrative Films

Jack and the Beanstalk (1902)

Another Job for the Undertaker (1901)

The Finish of Bridget McKeen (1901)

The Gay Shoe Clerk (1903)

Screening II: Life of an American Fireman (1903)

007 • The Nickelodeon Boom

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008 • Edwardian Cinema

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009 • Gaumont and Pathé Frères

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008/9 • The Spread of Continuity Cinema

Screening I: Rescued by Rover (Cecil Hepworth & Lewin Fitzhamon, 1905)

Screening II: The Physician of the Castle (prod. Ferdinand Zecca, 1908)

009 • Pathé Frères

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010 • D. W. Griffith

Screening I: The Lonely Villa (1909)

Screening II: The Lonedale Operator (1911)

011 • Alice Guy-Blaché and Lois Weber

Screening I: Falling Leaves (Guy-Blaché, 1912)

Screening II: Suspense (Weber & Phillips Smalley, 1913)

012 • The Continuity System and the Move to Hollywood

Screening I: The Strength of Men (Ralph Ince, 1913)
Screening II: The Last of the Line (Thomas H. Ince, 1914)

013 •

014 • Keystone Comedies

015 • Max Linder

Screening I: Max’s First Job (Louis J. Gasner & Max Linder, 1910)
Screening II: Tillie’s Punctured Romance (Mack Sennett, 1914)

016 • The Film d’Art Movement and Albert Capellani

Screening I: L’Arlésienne (1908)

Screening II: L’Épouvante (1911)

016 • The Assassination of the Duke of Guise (André Calmettes & Charles Le Bargy, 1908)

017 • Fantômas (Louis Feuillade, 1913–1914)

Screening I: In the Shadow of the Guillotine (1913)

Screening II: Juve vs. Fantômas (1913)

018 • The American Serial

019 • The Danish Golden Age

020 • The Student of Prague (Stellan Rye, 1913)

021 • Twilight of a Woman’s Soul (Yevgeni Bauer, 1913)

022 • The Italian Diva Film

023 • Cabiria (Giovanni Pastrone, 1914)

024 • Japanese and Indian Cinema

Screening I: Chūshingura (Shōzō Makino, 1910–1917)

Screening II: Raja Harishchandra (Dadasaheb Phalke, 1913)

025 • The Birth of a Nation (D. W. Griffith, 1915)

026 • Oscar Micheaux and the Race Film

027 • Intolerance (D. W. Griffith, 1916)

028 • The Hollywood Star System

Screening I: The Poor Little Rich Girl (Maurice Tourneur, 1917)

Screening II: Wild and Woolly (John Emerson, 1917)

029 • Charlie Chaplin

Screening I: The Tramp (1915)

Screening II: The Immigrant (1917)

030 • The Kid (Charlie Chaplin, 1921)