In the beginning there were inventors, photographers, mechanics, showmen, magicians, actors and adventurers who with varying degrees of imagination and entrepreneurism were the pioneers of modern cinema. Today's program brings together a sampling of their works. Highlights include:

The hand-tinted Annabelle Dances (1894), made for Edison's Kinetoscope “Peep Show”; Lumiere films from 1895-98; George Melies' trick films including an exquisitely hand-colored fantasy, Palace Of The Arabian Nights (1905), taken from a recently discovered and restored 35mm nitrate print; Edwin S. Porter's early western made for Edison & Co., The Great Train Robbery (1903), a very selectively hand-colored print from a 35mm nitrate original; and a rare Porter work, The “Teddy” Bears (1907), significant for its impressive display of stop-motion animation. From England, Cecil Hepworth's Rescued By Rover (1905), exploring basic editing principles to tell a story, but more rare: the films of the so-called Brighton School at the turn of the century, the work of Esme Collings, G.A. Smith and James Williamson. From Italy, a lavish costume drama, precursor of the epic historical spectacle film for which the film factories of Turin and Rome were to become famous - Giovane Pastrone's Fall Of Troy (1910); and a comedy by French actor/director Marcel Fabre entitled Amor Pedestre (1914) which used only medium and close shots of feet to tell a complete narrative.

Our program concludes with a D.W. Griffith film made for the Biograph Studio: The Lonedale Operator (1911).