Below is a list of significant events and films in underground film history between the years 1900 and 1919.
Click each film still for a larger version, or go straight to the 1900–1919 Film Still Gallery.
Reference key:
D.C: David Curtis. Experimental Cinema. New York: Dell Pub., 1978.
D.E.J.: David E. James. The Most Typical Avant-garde: History and Geography of Minor Cinemas in Los Angeles. Berkeley: University of California, 2005.
F.S.: Frank Stauffacher. Art in cinema; a symposium on the avantgarde film. New York: Arno Press, 1968. (reprint from 1947)
P.A.S.: P. Adams Sitney. Visionary Film: the American Avant-garde, 1943-2000. New York: Oxford UP, 2002.
S.R.: Sheldon Renan. An Introduction to the American Underground Film. New York: Dutton, 1967.
1900
Major Events:
Robert Florey is born. (D.E.J.)
1904
Major Events:
Gregg Toland is born in Illinois. (D.E.J.)
1905
Significant Films:
France:
Ferdinand Zecca:
Scenes of Convict Life (F.S.)
A Father’s Honor (F.S.)
1906
Significant Films:
France:
Ferdinand Zecca:
Whence Does He Come? (c1906) (F.S.)
Slippery Jim (c1906) (F.S.) (WATCH)
1907
Major Events:
Alexander Hackenschmied is born in Prague, Czechoslovakia. (He would later change his name to Alexander Hammid.) (P.A.S.) (D.E.J. does not note the city.)
Significant Films:
France:
Emile Cohl:
Drame chez les fantoches (F.S.)
Ferdinand Zecca:
Fun After the Wedding (c1907) (F.S.)
1909
Significant Films:
U.S.:
Winsor McCay:
Gertie the Dinosaur (F.S.)
France:
Emile Cohl:
Joyeux microbes (S.R.)
1912
Significant Films:
France:
Jean Durand:
Onésime Horloger (S.R.) (F.S. lists 1908)
1913
Significant Films:
France:
Louis Feuillade:
Fantômas (S.R.)
1915
Significant Films:
France:
Louis Feuillade:
Les Vampires (DVD) (S.R.)
Abel Gance:
La Folie du Docteur Tube (D.C.) (S.R. lists as 1916)
1916
Major Events:
Boris Deutsch comes to the U.S. from Germany. (D.E.J.)
1917
Major Events:
Maya Deren is born as Eleanora Derenkowsky in Kiev. (D.E.J.)
Significant Films:
France:
Germaine Dulac:
Ames de Fous (D.C.)
Louis Feuillade:
Judex (S.R.)
1919
Major Events:
Louis Delluc founds serious film criticism in France. (S.R.)
Dimitri Kirsanov moves to Paris to study the cello. (D.C.)
Boris Deutsch moves to Los Angeles. (D.E.J.)
Significant Films:
France:
Germaine Dulac:
La Fête Espagnol (D.C.)
Abel Gance:
J’Accuse (DVD) (S.R.)