1908

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.