The Whole Dam Family and the Dam Dog (1905)

Coney Island At Night (1905)

The Academy salutes the year 1905 and its developmental contributions to motion pictures with a program of selected films, “A Century Ago: The Films of 1905,” in the Linwood Dunn theater at the Pickford Center for Motion Picture Study on Vine Street.  After years as a technological novelty programmed as added attractions in vaudeville line-ups and presented at fairs and in contained machines called kinetoscopes, motion pictures finally began to find a home of their own in 1905 with the appearance of local storefront nickelodeons that would multiply quickly worldwide over the next few years.  Filmmakers were shooting films both in studios and on location while continuing to push the boundaries of narrative storytelling. “A Century Ago: The Films of 1905” will reflect a partial survey of turn-of-the-twentieth-century international filmmaking with trick films, actualities, primitive dramas and gag films.  It will be highlighted by the one-reel “feature” films The Palace of the Arabian Nights (a hand-tinted extravaganza from George Mèliés presented with live narration), The Little Train Robbery (the Edison company’s ambitious follow-up to The Great Train Robbery (1903), this time starring children) and The Kleptomaniac (an Edison film of social commentary involving theft among different classes).  The program will also feature such popular box-office hits as Peeping Tom in the Dressing Room, Airy Fairy Lillian Tries on Her New Corset, Rube in an Opium Joint (all Biograph), The Whole Dam Family and the Dam Dog and Coney Island At Night (both Edison).  Most prints will be in 35mm and are drawn from the collections of the Academy, the Library of Congress and the UCLA Film and Television Archive.  Live musical accompaniment will be provided by Michael Mortilla.