The end of the first decade of the 20th century is a fitting time to reflect on the monumental changes facing the cinematic medium and the global industry that supported it in 1909. As this season will demonstrate, with an extremely diverse array of guest picks that features the least amount of overlap for the show so far, established genres and techniques, which are effective and pleasurable, coexist with the exciting refinement of composition, effects, narratives, and screen acting.

Films mentioned:

• Hiawatha (1909) - William V. Ranous
• Disinherited Son’s Loyalty (1909) - Fred J. Balshofer
• In the Sultan’s Power (1909) - Francis Boggs
• The Heart of a Race Tout (1909) - Francis Boggs
• Pippa Passes; or, The Song of Conscience (1909) - D.W. Griffith

The introduction to this 1908 season addressed the elephant in the room: D.W. Grififth’s directorial debut. However, even though he came up quite a bit in the five conversations, his films didn’t dominate the selections (yet), and the heterogeneity of the picks makes for an eclectic viewing experience to represent 1908.

Films mentioned:

• Get Me a Stepladder (1908) - unknown
• Unterm Paraplui Nr. 87 (1908) - unknown
• The Adventures of Dollie (1908) - D.W. Griffith
• The Assassination of the Duke of Guise (1908) - Charles le Bargy and André Calmettes
• The Last Days of Pompeii (1908) - Arturo Ambrosio and Luigi Maggi
• Rescued from an Eagle’s Nest (1908) - J. Searle Dawley
• The Electric Hotel (1908) - Segundo de Chomón
• The Haunted House (1908) - Segundo de Chomón
• Fantasmagorie (1908) - Émile Cohl

Benjamín Schultz-Figueroa, Associate Professor of Film and Media at Seattle University, focuses his research on the history of scientific filmmaking, nontheatrical film, and animal studies. But except for a couple of intriguing threads related to this work, his selections branch out and revel in spectacle and fantasy.

Ben is the author of The Celluloid Specimen: Moving Image Research into Animal Life. He is currently working on two other book projects, tentatively titled Against Encounter: The Problem of Organicism in Animal Documentary and Beastly Futures: Rightwing Animal Aesthetics in the 21st Century.

Films mentioned:

• The Grateful Mice (1908) - Giovanni Vitrotti
• Legend of a Ghost (1908) - Segundo de Chomón
• The Harvest (1908) - unknown
• The Frog (1908) - Segundo de Chomón
• The Electric Hotel (1908) - Segundo de Chomón
• Sinners (2025) - Ryan Coogler
• Grandma’s Reading Glass (1900) - George Albert Smith
• The Great Mouse Detective (1986) - John Musker, Ron Clements, Dave Michener, and Burny Mattinson
• Maximum Overdrive (1986) - Stephen King
• Excursion to the Moon (1908) - Segundo de Chomón
• A Trip to the Moon (1902) - Georges Méliès
• Under the Skin (2013) - Jonathan Glazer
• The Dancing Pig (1907) - unknown
• The War and the Dream of Momi (1917) - Segundo de Chomón

Donald Sosin has been composing and performing silent film music since 1971. His experience playing at major festivals all over the world, often with his wife, singer/percussionist Joanna Seaton, informs the milestone in film music that is one of his picks, in addition to the rhythm of fluid animation and classic tales.

Donald and Joanna record for Criterion, Kino, Milestone, Flicker Alley and European labels. Their website is oldmoviemusic.com.

Films mentioned:

• The Adventures of Dollie (1908) - D.W. Griffith
• The Taming of the Shrew (1908) - D.W. Griffith
• Fantasmagorie (1908) - Émile Cohl
• Stenka Razin (1908) - Vladimir Romashkov
• The Assassination of the Duke of Guise (1908) - Charles le Bargy and André Calmettes
• The Phantom of the Opera (1925) - Rupert Julian
• The Gold Rush (1925) - Charlie Chaplin
• The Birth of a Nation (1915) - D.W. Griffith
• Intolerance (1916) - D.W. Griffith
• Broken Blossoms (1919) - D.W. Griffith
• The General (1926) - Buster Keaton and Clyde Bruckman
• The Great Train Robbery (1904) - Siegmund Lubin
• The Great Train Robbery (1903) - Edwin S. Porter
• The City without Jews (1924) - Hans Karl Breslauer
• A Night at the Opera (1935) - Sam Wood
• Jaws (1975) - Steven Spielberg
• Metropolis (1927) - Fritz Lang
• Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927) - F.W. Murnau
• Pass the Gravy (1928) - Fred Guiol
• The Diabolical Pickpocket (1908) - Segundo de Chomón
• Hugo (2011) - Martin Scorsese
• Rain (1929) - Mannus Franken and Joris Ivens
• Parsifal (1912) - Mario Caserini
• Ingomar, the Barbarian (1908) - D.W. Griffith
• Alexander Nevsky (1938) - Sergei Eisenstein
• Ivan the Terrible (1945) - Sergei Eisenstein
• The Last Days of Pompeii (1908) - Arturo Ambrosio and Luigi Maggi
• The Night Before the Christmas (1913) - Ladislas Starevich
• The Origin of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata (1909) - unknown

Ivo Blom, lecturer in Comparative Arts & Media Studies at Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, connected, through the lens of an early film pioneer in the Netherlands, international aesthetics and film industry markets with his book Jean Desmet and the Early Dutch Film Trade. His five selections for 1908 similarly give a broad picture of filmic development in the year and period, from attempted artfulness to technological novelties.

Ivo has frequently published on Italian silent film and its links to art and visual culture, resulting in his most recent monograph Quo vadis?, Cabiria and the ‘Archaeologists’: Early Italian Cinema's Appropriation of Art and Archaeology. He is also the author of Reframing Luchino Visconti and is currently involved in the research project Museum of Dream Worlds: Silent Antiquity Films in the British National Film Archive.

Films and resources mentioned:

• The Assassination of the Duke of Guise (1908) - Charles le Bargy and André Calmettes
• The Last Days of Pompeii (1908) - Arturo Ambrosio and Luigi Maggi
• The Adventures of Dollie (1908) - D.W. Griffith
• Lion Hunting (1908) - Viggo Larsen
• Unterm Paraplui Nr. 87 (1908) - unknown
• Fantômas (1913) - Louis Feuillade
• Judex (1916) - Louis Feuillade
• Queen Elizabeth (1912) - Louis Mercanton and Henri Desfontaines
• La dame aux camélias (1912) - André Calmettes, Louis Mercanton, and Henri Pouctal
• The Fall of Troy (1911) - Giovanni Pastrone and Luigi Romano Borgnetto
• L’Inferno (1911) - Francesco Bertolini, Adolfo Padovan, and Giuseppe De Liguoro
• Fabiola (1918) - Enrico Guazzoni
• Quo Vadis (1913) - Enrico Guazzoni
• Ben Hur (1907) - Sidney Olcott and Frank Oakes Rose
• The Last Days of Pompeii (1913) - Eleuterio Rodolfi
• Jone or the Last Days of Pompeii (1913) - Ubaldo Maria Del Colle and Giovanni Enrico Vidali
• Way Down East (1920) - D.W. Griffith
• Electrocuting an Elephant (1903) - Edwin S. Porter or Jacob Blair Smith
• The Adventures of Milo and Otis (1986) - Masanori Hata and Kon Ichikawa
• Atlantis (1913) - August Blom
• The Red Rooster Scare: Making Cinema American, 1900-1910 - Richard Abel

Don McHoull is the creator of @silentmoviegifs, first on Twitter and now Bluesky. He has found viral success with striking images throughout silent film history, and with his picks, he similarly finds comedy, tricks, and drama that still resonate today.

Don’s enthusiasm for silent movies led to his GIF creations over ten years ago. He has also been making long-form videos on film and comic strips on his YouTube channel.

Films and resources mentioned:

• His First Cigar (1908) - Louis J. Gasnier
• Excursion to the Moon (1908) - Segundo de Chomón
• The Dog Outwits the Kidnapper (1908) - Lewin Fitzhamon
• The Last Days of Pompeii (1908) - Arturo Ambrosio and Luigi Maggi
• L'Arlésienne (1908) - Albert Capellani
• Wings (1927) - William A. Wellman
• Workers Leaving Lumière Factory (1895) - Louis Lumière
• The Birth of a Nation (1915) - D.W. Griffith
• Rescued from an Eagle’s Nest (1908) - J. Searle Dawley
• A Trip to the Moon (1902) - Georges Méliès
• The Great Train Robbery (1903) - Edwin S. Porter
• Humanity through the Ages (1908) - Georges Méliès
• Intolerance (1916) - D.W. Griffith
• Taxi Driver (1976) - Martin Scorsese
• Raging Bull (1980) - Martin Scorsese
• Reefer Madness (1936) - Louis J. Gasnier
• One A.M. (1916) - Charlie Chaplin
• Troubles of a Grass Widower (1908) - Max Linder
• Mary Jane’s Mishap (1903) - George Albert Smith
• The Dream of an Opium Fiend (1908) - Georges Méliès
• The Impossible Voyage (1904) - Georges Méliès
• The Kiss (1896) - William Heise
• Rescued by Rover (1905) - Cecil Hepworth and Lewin Fitzhamon
• Taken (2008) - Pierre Morel
• Air Bud (1997) - Charles Martin Smith
• The Last Days of Pompeii (1913) - Eleuterio Rodolfi
• Jone or the Last Days of Pompeii (1913) - Ubaldo Maria Del Colle and Giovanni Enrico Vidali
• Pompeii (2014) - Paul W.S. Anderson
• The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906) - Charles Tait
• The Corbett-Fitzsimmons Fight (1897) - Enoch J. Rector
• The Last Days of Pompeii (1935) - Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack
• Ronin (1998) - John Frankheimer
• Les misérables (1912) - Albert Capellani
• Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927) - F.W. Murnau
• The Zulu’s Heart (1908) - D.W. Griffith
• Movies Silently
• Albert Capellani: cinéaste du romanesque - Christine Leteux

Author and preservationist Tracey Goessel is the founder of the Film Preservation Society and is in the thick of restoring all of the D.W. Griffith Biograph films. So it makes sense that she selects two films he made in his first year of directing, while also addressing comedy, morbidity, and the enduring appeal of dogs doing things.

Tracey is the author of The First King of Hollywood: The Life of Douglas Fairbanks. She is also on the board of directors of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, has published numerous articles on silent film history, and has lectured on Fairbanks widely.

Films mentioned:

• The Adventures of Dollie (1908) - D.W. Griffith
• Troubles of a Grass Widower (1908) - Max Linder
• The Thieving Hand (1908) - J. Stuart Blackton
• The Dog and His Various Merits (1908) - unknown
• An Awful Moment (1908) - D.W. Griffith
• The Good Bad-Man (1916) - Allan Dwan
• The Half-Breed (1916) - Allan Dwan
• The Guerilla (1908) - D.W. Griffith
• The Little Tease (1913) - D.W. Griffith
• Gold and Glitter (1912) - D.W. Griffith
• The White Rose of the Wilds (1911) - D.W. Griffith
• The Scarlet Drop (1918) - John Ford
• The Great Train Robbery (1903) - Edwin S. Porter
• Life of an American Fireman (1903) - Edwin S. Porter
• Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat (1896) - Auguste and Louis Lumière
• Rough Sea at Dover (1895) - Birt Acres
• Rescued by Rover (1905) - Cecil Hepworth and Lewin Fitzhamon
• Robin Hood (1922) - Allan Dwan
• The Birth of a Nation (1915) - D.W. Griffith
• His Trust (1911) - D.W. Griffith
• The Red Man and the Child (1908) - D.W. Griffith
• A Trip to the Moon (1902) - Georges Méliès
• The Hands of Orlac (1924) - Robert Wiene
• Mad Love (1935) - Karl Freund
• A Trip Down Market Street Before the Fire (1906) - Harry Miles
• Those Awful Hats (1909) - D.W. Griffith
• Romance of a Jewess (1908) - D.W. Griffith
• The Musketeers of Pig Alley (1912) - D.W. Griffith
• Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory (1895) - Louis Lumière
• Electrocuting an Elephant (1903) - Jacob Blair Smith or Edwin S. Porter
• Dumbo (1941) - Ben Sharpsteen
• The Race for the Sausage (1907) - Alice Guy-Blaché
• The Clash of the Wolves (1925) - Noel M. Smith
• A Tin-Type Romance (1910) - Laurence Trimble
• The Lonely Villa (1909) - D.W. Griffith
• The Fatal Hour (1908) - D.W. Griffith
• The Chicken Thief (1902) - unknown
• Intolerance (1916) - D.W. Griffith
• Triumph of the Will (1935) - Leni Riefenstahl
• Coontown Suffragettes (1914) - unknown
• A Corner in Wheat (1909) - D.W. Griffith

The beginning of D.W. Griffith’s directorial career looms large for 1908, with past seasons referring to the upcoming “Griffith era” and behind-the-scenes conversations with potential guests featuring requests to reach back out around this period of narrative development, often attributed to or considered to be represented by the filmmaker. But the films selected this season certainly go beyond Griffith and this brief context-setting introduction addresses other artistic, technical, and business developments in film the world over.

Films mentioned:

• The Adventures of Dollie (1908) - D.W. Griffith
• The Assassination of the Duke of Guise (1908) - Charles le Bargy and André Calmettes
• Stenka Razin (1908) - Vladimir Romashkov
• Fantasmagorie (1908) - Émile Cohl
• Nick Carter, le roi des détectives (1908) - Victorin-Hippolyte Jasset
• A Visit to the Seaside (1908) - George Albert Smith

Some already old-school genres, from the chase film to the vaudeville recreation to the traveling actuality, made a good showing in the most selected films for this 1907 season. But the unique array of picks, among the most diverse list of films for the show so far, paints a better picture of how the cinematic medium was unfolding in new directions as much as it was holding on to established formulas.

Films mentioned:

• The Policemen’s Little Run (1907) - Ferdinand Zecca
• The Irresistible Piano (1907) - Alice Guy-Blaché
• The Haunted Hotel (1907) - J. Stuart Blackton
• The Dancing Pig (1907) - unknown
• Vancouver (1907) - William Harbeck
• The Red Spectre (1907) - Segundo de Chomón
• 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1907) - Georges Méliès
• The Eclipse: A Courtship of the Sun and Moon (1907) - Georges Méliès
• Ben Hur (1907) - Sidney Olcott and Frank Oakes Rose
• Bride of Frankenstein (1935) - James Whale
• A Trip through British North Borneo (1907) - H.M. Lomas
• The Haunted House (1908) - Segundo de Chomón

Film historian Randy Haberkamp just recently retired as the Executive Vice President of the Library, Archive and Sci-Tech for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, where he held various positions for 23 years. With that experience in film preservation in mind, he highlights hard-to-find films as well as more famed stars and titles.

Randy worked for CBS for 14 years, culminating as Director of Specials and Feature Films. He is also the founder of The Silent Society, a silent film preservation and appreciation group that has presented and preserved silent films in Los Angeles for nearly 40 years, and currently serves on the board of Hollywood Heritage.

Films mentioned:

• Max Learns to Skate (1907) - Louis J. Gasnier
• Ben Hur (1907) - Sidney Olcott and Frank Oakes Rose
• The Haunted Hotel (1907) - J. Stuart Blackton
• Smuggled into America (1907) - unknown
• The Girl from Montana (1907) - Gilbert M. “Broncho Billy” Anderson
• Modern Times (1936) - Charlie Chaplin
• The Rink (1916) - Charlie Chaplin
• Reefer Madness (1936) - Louis J. Gasnier
• Napoleon (1927) - Abel Gance
• The Great Train Robbery (1903) - Edwin S. Porter
• The Great Train Robbery (1904) - Siegmund Lubin
• Ben-Hur (1959) - William Wyler
• The Haunted House (1908) - Segundo de Chomón
• A Clockwork Orange (1971) - Stanley Kubrick
• The Count of Monte Cristo (1908) - Francis Boggs and Thomas Persons
• Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat (1896) - Auguste and Louis Lumière
• Repas de bébé (1895) - Louis Lumière
• L'Arroseur Arrosé (1895) - Louis Lumière
• Vertigo (1958) - Alfred Hitchcock
• In the Mood for Love (2000) - Wong Kar-wai
• The Wizard of Oz (1939) - Victor Fleming