Below is a list of significant events and films in underground film history between the years 1900 and 1919. Reference key of sources appears at the bottom of the page.
Click each film still for a larger version, or go straight to the 1900–1919 Film Still Gallery.
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
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
FRANCE
Emile Cohl
Joyeux microbes
S.R.
U.S.
Winsor McCay
Gertie the Dinosaur
F.S.
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
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
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.