D.W. Griffith in California
Los Angeles Filmforum will present "D.W. Griffith in California," on Sunday, Nov. 15, at 7:30 pm. at the Echo Park Film Center. At the screening, film scholar Tom Gunning will discuss D. W. Griffith and his early Californian films.
Six of those Griffith productions will be screened: Man’s Genesis (1912, 17 min); The New Dress (1911, 17 min.); The Massacre (1914, 20 min); The Unchanging Sea (below right, 1910, 14 min.); The Sands of Dee (1912, 17 min); and The Female of the Species (1912, 17 min).
All in 16mm, with live musical accompaniment by Cliff Retallick.
Among the early stars featured in those shorts are Blanche Sweet, Mae Marsh, Robert Harron, Arthur Johnson, Wilfred Lucas, and, according to the LAF website, "a rather murderous" Mary Pickford.
"In 1910, retreating from the harsh East Coast winter which confined them inside the narrow limits of their NYC studio in a 14th st. brownstone," explains Gunning on the Los Angeles Filmforum site, "D.W. Griffith transported the Biograph film company to southern California. For the next four winters the company made over a hundred one reel (15 minutes) films in the area around Los Angeles, covering every genre in a range of locations: westerns in the deserts and hills; a caveman film in Griffith Park; tales of lost lovers by the seaside; Mexican dramas among the cacti. These brief films laid the foundation for cinema as a narrative art, but, even more, the displayed a beauty of landscape and detail that year[s] later Griffith claimed Hollywood had completely forgotten."
Los Angeles Filmforum is located at the Echo Park Film Center, 1200 N. Alvarado Street (@ Sunset Blvd), Los Angeles CA 90026. 213-484-8846. General admission $10, students/seniors $6, free for Filmforum members.
Photos: Los Angeles Filmforum
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Tags: Blanche Sweet, Classic Movies, D. W. Griffith, Los Angeles Filmforum, Los Angeles Screenings, Mae Marsh, Man's Genesis, Mary Pickford, Shorts, Silent Films, The Female of the Species, The Unchanging Sea
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