Further Reading

The Phillips had an exhibit about 3 years ago called Moving Pictures: American Art and Early Film which showcased a few of the films we have seen in class. Here is a page from the Washington Post that has a few articles on the exhibit that I thought would be enlightening to the class. When I went to the exhibit, what I found interesting was the movement (no pun intended) from art to cinema. While we may see these short films as being boring or trite, I like to imagine what people in that time thought of this revolutionary idea.

It is too bad this exhibit is long gone because it provides a different perspective on early film than I think we perceive it to be. We are familiar with the dramatic and often dim narratives of modern "art films" but these early works are a more literal take on the relationship between art and film.