1905

The year 1905 pops up early in many film histories to address the start of the "nickelodeon era." As past seasons have shown, the Harris brothers' Pittsburgh storefront wasn't truly the first space dedicated to showing movies, but it and others shifted the needle in forming the activity of moviegoing. This season and its guests address the unification of the global "trade" of filmmaking and the changing aesthetics that supported that.

Dan Willard’s interest in film was fostered by a viewing of Eraserhead in 1977 and a number of UCLA film classes. In more recent years and reflecting the depths of his cinephilia, that has manifested in his extensive Films by the Year site and YouTube channel, which have been linked to many times in this very show’s notes (in this case, ranging from comedy and the féerie to “message films” and naturalism).

Shawn Hall brings his love of silent films to new audiences through his Shawn Toks Silents TikTok account, where he is currently working his way through reviewing each movie on Silent Era’s Top 100 Silent Movies List. He stretches back a little bit further than most silent film enthusiasts, however, by exploring 1905 through films of “serious” topics and advancing forms of comedy and feel-good stories.

Scott Curtis, associate professor of radio/film/television and communication at Northwestern University, has published extensively on the use of moving images in scientific and medical research, education, and communication. That particular interest certainly informs most of his picks, but the conversation also includes the spectacle of sound and fantasy.

Chris O’Rourke, Associate Professor of Film and Television Studies at the University of Warwick, explores the early history of film acting, stardom and fandom in Britain up to the end of the silent era in his book Acting for the Silent Screen: Film Actors and Aspiration between the Wars. While film acting wasn’t quite a specific discipline in 1905, that distinction would arise sooner than one might think, and in the meantime, Chris’ picks explore UK innovations in editing, pace, and length, French spectacle, and American actuality.

Film historian and author Mary Mallory has written five books about cinematic yesteryear. With her research of past traditions and underappreciated figures in mind, Mary selects some films that reflect the intermediality of early film and its basis in stage tricks, poetry, and even postcards, while others demonstrate new cinematic inventions.

While the “nickelodeon boom” began in the United States and the global film industry was standardizing certain production elements, many of the conversations for this 1905 season turned to how wide the modes of moviemaking still were, resulting in strange yet beautiful experiments. As this year’s five guests have shown, cinema in even in an apparently obscure period such as the mid-1900s can still yield up riveting viewing experiences.