A little wonder, every day

early cinema goes global

an audio describer working at a live-theater sound desk; creator MOAI12; public domain dedication by the creator; attribution optional, retained here as credit. Original: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Audio_describer_in_live_theater.jpg

a film projector in an abandoned theater; creator P.J.L Laurens; CC BY-SA 3.0; credit “P.J.L Laurens / Wikimedia Commons”; license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/; unchanged. Original: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Movie_projector.JPG

projectionist operating cinema equipment in 1958; photograph Marion S. Trikosko, Library of Congress; no known copyright restrictions per LoC; attribution “Marion S. Trikosko, U.S. News & World Report Magazine Photograph Collection, Library of Congress”; unchanged. Original: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Man_working_with_a_projector_in_a_movie_theater_1958.jpg

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an audio describer working at a live-theater sound desk; creator MOAI12; public domain dedication by the creator; attribution optional, retained here as credit. Original: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Audio_describer_in_live_theater.jpg

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In the early 20th century, French companies were giants of world cinema: by 1910 they are estimated to have made about two-thirds of the world’s films. Films were also growing longer; D. W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation was released in 1915 and was unusually long for its time. Reference sources disagree on its running time, and the film glorifies the Ku Klux Klan and is racist propaganda.