Author and preservationist Tracey Goessel is the founder of the Film Preservation Society and is in the thick of restoring all of the D.W. Griffith Biograph films. So it makes sense that she selects two films he made in his first year of directing, while also addressing comedy, morbidity, and the enduring appeal of dogs doing things.

Tracey is the author of The First King of Hollywood: The Life of Douglas Fairbanks. She is also on the board of directors of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, has published numerous articles on silent film history, and has lectured on Fairbanks widely.

Films mentioned:

• The Adventures of Dollie (1908) - D.W. Griffith
• Troubles of a Grass Widower (1908) - Max Linder
• The Thieving Hand (1908) - J. Stuart Blackton
• The Dog and His Various Merits (1908) - unknown
• An Awful Moment (1908) - D.W. Griffith
• The Good Bad-Man (1916) - Allan Dwan
• The Half-Breed (1916) - Allan Dwan
• The Guerilla (1908) - D.W. Griffith
• The Little Tease (1913) - D.W. Griffith
• Gold and Glitter (1912) - D.W. Griffith
• The White Rose of the Wilds (1911) - D.W. Griffith
• The Scarlet Drop (1918) - John Ford
• The Great Train Robbery (1903) - Edwin S. Porter
• Life of an American Fireman (1903) - Edwin S. Porter
• Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat (1896) - Auguste and Louis Lumière
• Rough Sea at Dover (1895) - Birt Acres
• Rescued by Rover (1905) - Cecil Hepworth and Lewin Fitzhamon
• Robin Hood (1922) - Allan Dwan
• The Birth of a Nation (1915) - D.W. Griffith
• His Trust (1911) -...

The beginning of D.W. Griffith’s directorial career looms large for 1908, with past seasons referring to the upcoming “Griffith era” and behind-the-scenes conversations with potential guests featuring requests to reach back out around this period of narrative development, often attributed to or considered to be represented by the filmmaker. But the films selected this season certainly go beyond Griffith and this brief context-setting introduction addresses other artistic, technical, and business developments in film the world over.

Films mentioned:

• The Adventures of Dollie (1908) - D.W. Griffith
• The Assassination of the Duke of Guise (1908) - Charles le Bargy and André Calmettes
• Stenka Razin (1908) - Vladimir Romashkov
• Fantasmagorie (1908) - Émile Cohl
• Nick Carter, le roi des détectives (1908) - Victorin-Hippolyte Jasset
• A Visit to the Seaside (1908) - George Albert Smith

Some already old-school genres, from the chase film to the vaudeville recreation to the traveling actuality, made a good showing in the most selected films for this 1907 season. But the unique array of picks, among the most diverse list of films for the show so far, paints a better picture of how the cinematic medium was unfolding in new directions as much as it was holding on to established formulas.

Films mentioned:

• The Policemen’s Little Run (1907) - Ferdinand Zecca
• The Irresistible Piano (1907) - Alice Guy-Blaché
• The Haunted Hotel (1907) - J. Stuart Blackton
• The Dancing Pig (1907) - unknown
• Vancouver (1907) - William Harbeck
• The Red Spectre (1907) - Segundo de Chomón
• 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1907) - Georges Méliès
• The Eclipse: A Courtship of the Sun and Moon (1907) - Georges Méliès
• Ben Hur (1907) - Sidney Olcott and Frank Oakes Rose
• Bride of Frankenstein (1935) - James Whale
• A Trip through British North Borneo (1907) - H.M. Lomas
• The Haunted House (1908) - Segundo de Chomón

Film historian Randy Haberkamp just recently retired as the Executive Vice President of the Library, Archive and Sci-Tech for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, where he held various positions for 23 years. With that experience in film preservation in mind, he highlights hard-to-find films as well as more famed stars and titles.

Randy worked for CBS for 14 years, culminating as Director of Specials and Feature Films. He is also the founder of The Silent Society, a silent film preservation and appreciation group that has presented and preserved silent films in Los Angeles for nearly 40 years, and currently serves on the board of Hollywood Heritage.

Films mentioned:

• Max Learns to Skate (1907) - Louis J. Gasnier
• Ben Hur (1907) - Sidney Olcott and Frank Oakes Rose
• The Haunted Hotel (1907) - J. Stuart Blackton
• Smuggled into America (1907) - unknown
• The Girl from Montana (1907) - Gilbert M. “Broncho Billy” Anderson
• Modern Times (1936) - Charlie Chaplin
• The Rink (1916) - Charlie Chaplin
• Reefer Madness (1936) - Louis J. Gasnier
• Napoleon (1927) - Abel Gance
• The Great Train Robbery (1903) - Edwin S. Porter
• The Great Train Robbery (1904) - Siegmund Lubin
• Ben-Hur (1959) - William Wyler
• The Haunted House (1908) - Segundo de Chomón
• A Clockwork Orange (1971) - Stanley Kubrick
• The Count of Monte Cristo (1908) - Francis Boggs and Thomas Persons
• Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat (1896) - Auguste and Louis Lumière
• Repas de bébé (1895) - Louis Lumière
• L'Arroseur Arrosé (1895) - Louis Lumière
• Vertigo (1958) - Alfred Hitchcock
• In the Mood for Love (2000) - Wong Kar-wai
• The Wizard of Oz (1939) - Victor Fleming

Agata Frymus, Senior Lecturer in Film and Television Studies at Monash University Malaysia, selects mostly comic films to represent 1907. But by rounding out her selections with an (only maybe regrettably?) lost historical drama and the first Japanese selection of the whole show, she illustrates the multiplicity of film form at the time.

Agata is the author of Damsels and Divas: European Stardom in Silent Hollywood. She was also a principal investigator on Black Cinema-Going in New York during the Interwar Period (2018-2020) and serves as a submissions editor for Early Popular Visual Culture.

Films and resources mentioned:

• The Dancing Pig (1907) - unknown
• Race for the Sausage (1907) - Alice Guy-Blaché
• Laughing Gas (1907) - Edwin S. Porter
• Pocahontas: A Child of the Forest (1907) - Edwin S. Porter
• Katsudō Shashin (1907) - unknown
• Laughing Gas (1907) - J. Stuart Blackton
• The Great Train Robbery (1903) - Edwin S. Porter
• Mary Jane’s Mishap (1903) - George Albert Smith
• Pocahontas (1995) - Mike Gabriel and Eric Goldberg
• The New World (2005) - Terrence Malick
• Humorous Phases of Funny Faces (1906) - J. Stuart Blackton
• Fantasmagorie (1908) - Émile Cohl
• Something Good/Negro Kiss (1898) - William Selig
• The Dull Sword (1917) - Jun'ichi Kōuchi
• Death by Laughter: Female Hysteria and Early Cinema - Maggie Hennefeld

Filmmaker and musician Sean Guinan has an eye for the surreal, as exhibited by his TikTok channel Candy Town Follies. With that in mind, his selections cover a lot of topical and aesthetic ground, from eroticism and over-the-top comedy to social commentary and actuality footage of a major 20th century pop culture figure.

Sean directed the 2000 feature film Flipping the Whale. He also led the musical group Candy Town from 2010 to 2016.

Visit the5bestfilmsofeveryyearever.com/list to submit your own top five for 1907!

Films and resources mentioned:

• Bridge Jump with Handcuff Escape (1907) - unknown
• Diana Bathing (1907) - Johann Schwarzer
• Children’s Reformatory (1907) - Charles Decroix
• The Policemen’s Little Run (1907) - Ferdinand Zecca
• The Irresistible Piano (1907) - Alice Guy-Blaché
• Star Wars (1977) - George Lucas
• King Kong (1976) - John Guillermin
• Superman (1978) - Richard Donner
• Cabaret (1972) - Bob Fosse
• Bugsy Malone (1976) - Alan Parker
• Un chien andalou (1929) - Luis Buñuel
• Little Red Riding Hood (1997) - David Kaplan
• El Satario (1907) - unknown
• Man’s Castle (1933) - Frank Borzage
• The World of Apu (1959) - Satyajit Ray
• Cops (1922) - Edward F. Cline and Buster Keaton
• The Blues Brothers (1980) - John Landis
• The Race for the Sausage (1907) - Alice Guy-Blaché
• Dream of a Rarebit Fiend (1906) - Edwin S. Porter
• The Silent Clowns - Walter Kerr

Three of Associate Professor at Brock University Liz Clarke’s picks are defined by a sort of morbid delight. But with a cuddlier creature and the colonizing gaze represented in her other two selections, the conversation reveals more layers of the global film industry in 1907.

Liz is the author of The American Girl Goes to War: Women and National Identity in US Film, 1908-1918. She also researches women writers in film and television from the silent period to contemporary female show-runners.

Visit the5bestfilmsofeveryyearever.com/list to submit your top five for 1907!

Films and resources mentioned:

• Race for the Sausage (1907) - Alice Guy-Blaché
• The “Teddy” Bears (1907) - Edwin S. Porter
• The Doll’s Revenge (1907) - Cecil Hepworth
• The Dancing Pig (1907) - unknown
• Vancouver (1907) - William Harbeck
• Rescued by Rover (1905) - Cecil Hepworth and Lewin Fitzhamon
• The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat Station (1896) - Auguste and Louis Lumière
• The Birth of a Nation (1915) - D.W. Griffith
• Explosion of a Motor Car (1900) - Cecil Hepworth
• How It Feels to Be Run Over (1900) - Cecil Hepworth
• A Trip through British North Borneo (1907) - H.M. Lomas
• A Trip Down Market Street Before the Fire (1906) - Harry Miles
• Films by the Year

Film historian Matt Page has been researching film adaptations of the Bible for over 20 years. And yet only one of his picks for 1907 stems from that source and this wide-ranging conversation also reaches chases, tricks, and more.

Matt is the author of the BFI’s 100 Bible Films book and has contributed to a variety of books and journals. He also runs the Bible Films Blog.

Visit the5bestfilmsofeveryyearever.com/list to submit your own top five for 1907!

Films and resources mentioned:

• The Race for the Sausage (1907) - Alice Guy-Blaché
• Life and Passion of Jesus Christ (1907) - Ferdinand Zecca and Lucien Nonguet
• Cinderella (1907) - Albert Capellani
• The Red Spectre (1907) - Segundo de Chomón
• The Blind Man of the Village (1907) - Antonio Cuesta and Ángel García Cardona
• Ben-Hur (1959) - William Wyler
• The King of Kings (1927) - Cecil B. DeMille
• The Sign of the Cross (1932) - Cecil B. DeMille
• Golgotha (1935) - Julien Duvivier
• L’exode (1910) - Louis Feuillade
• Roundhay Garden Scene (1888) - Louis Le Prince
• Traffic Crossing Leeds Bridge (1888) - Louis Le Prince
• The Butterflies (1906) - unknown
• Ben Hur (1907) - Sidney Olcott and Frank Oakes Rose
• Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925) - Fred Niblo
• The Birth, the Life and the Death of Christ (1906) - Alice Guy-Blaché
• The Irresistible Piano (1907) - Alice Guy-Blaché
• Madame’s Cravings (1907) - Alice Guy-Blaché
• The Cleaning Man (1907) - Alice Guy-Blaché
• The Cabbage Fairy (1896) -...

1907, somewhat unlike the past couple years covered on this show, is chock-full of historical developments with details that are fun to plumb. But exploring the legal battles, studio foundings, and trade journal publications of the year just sets up the spectacular film texts themselves, with guests’ selections ranging from chase film evolutions to horrifically bizarre gems to actualities as historical documents to an animation milestone.

Visit the5bestfilmsofeveryyearever.com/list to submit your top five for 1907!

Films mentioned:

• Ben Hur (1907) - Sidney Olcott and Frank Oakes Rose
• Nosferatu (1922) - F.W. Murnau
• The Prodigal Son (1907) - Michel Carré
• An Exciting Honeymoon (1905) - unknown
• Life of a Cowboy (1906) - Edwin S. Porter

Maybe it’s just Tristan who is surprised by the film that topped this season’s collective list. But its inclusion at all, and its ubiquity in submitters' lists, reflects that the balance of narrative and actuality is not quite as heavily weighted in the former’s favor as one might expect, even for as early (or late, 11 years after the “birth of cinema” as many measure it) as 1906.

Films mentioned:

• A Trip Down Market Street Before the Fire (1906) - Harry Miles
• The ? Motorist (1906) - Walter R. Booth
• Humorous Phases of Funny Faces (1906) - J. Stuart Blackton
• The Merry Frolics of Satan (1906) - Georges Méliès
• The Consequences of Feminism (1906) - Alice Guy-Blaché
• Dream of a Rarebit Fiend (1906) - Edwin S. Porter
• The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906) - Charles Tait
• Fantasmagorie (1908) - Émile Cohl

Most of the picks from Coraline Refort, postdoc fellow at University of Sassari, offer exciting readings through the lens of feminism. But she also examines an animation milestone and a microcosm of film tricks up to 1906.

At University of Sassari, Coraline works on the national project “WOW – Women Writing around the Camera,” which focuses on mapping the autobiographical writings of Italian actresses. She holds a PhD in Film History from the University of Florence, in cotutelle with Sorbonne Nouvelle University, where her dissertation explored the French career of Alice Guy-Blaché.

Visit the5bestfilmsofeveryyearever.com/list to submit your own top five of 1906!

Films and resources mentioned:

• Madame’s Cravings (1906) - Alice Guy-Blaché
• The Consequences of Feminism (1906) - Alice Guy-Blaché
• The Maids’ Strike (1906) - Charles-Lucien Lépine
• Humorous Phases of Funny Faces (1906) - J. Stuart Blackton
• The ? Motorist (1906) - Walter R. Booth
• The Birth, the Life and the Death of Christ (1906) - Alice Guy-Blaché
• Esméralda (1905) - Alice Guy-Blaché
• Nurses’ Strike (1907) - André Heuzé
• The Strike (1904) - Ferdinand Zecca
• Pauvre Pierrot (1892) - Émile Reynaud
• Steamboat Willie (1928) - Walt Disney
• The Wizard of Oz (1939) - Victor Fleming
• A Butterfly’s Metamorphosis (1904) - Gaston Velle
• The Boxing Cats (1894) - William K.L. Dickson and William Heise
• Race for the Sausage (1907) - Alice Guy-Blaché
• A Trip to the Moon (1902) - Georges Méliès
• The Impossible Voyage (1904) - Georges Méliès
• How It Feels to Be Run Over (1900) - Cecil Hepworth
• Cinema’s First Nasty Women

Michigan State University professor Joshua Yumibe has spent much of his research career examining color in silent film (and beyond). Having that particular lens, it makes sense that all of his picks contain some aspect of color, most of them quite spectacular.

Joshua is the author of Moving Color: Early Film, Mass Culture, Modernism and co-author of Fantasia of Color in Early Cinema and Chromatic Modernity: Color, Cinema, and Media of the 1920s. He is also an editor of Screen and of the Contemporary Film Directors at the University of Illinois Press.

Visit the5bestfilmsofeveryyearever.com/list to submit your own top five for 1906!

Films and resources mentioned:

• The Witch (1906) - Georges Méliès
• Miniature Theatre (1906) - Gaston Velle
• Tit-for-Tat (1906) - Gaston Velle
• The Butterflies (1906) - unknown
• Le chemineau (1906) - Albert Capellani
• Annabelle Serpentine Dance (1895) - William K.L. Dickson
• The Merry Frolics of Satan (1906) - Georges Méliès
• The Inventor Crazybrains and His Wonderful Airship (1905) - Georges Méliès
• The Legend of Rip Van Winkle (1906) - Georges Méliès
• Bob’s Electric Theatre (1909) - unknown
• An Adventurous Automobile Trip (1905) - Georges Méliès
• Grandma’s Reading Glass (1900) - George Albert Smith
• Mickey’s Garden (1935) - Wilfred Jackson
• Under the Skin (2013) - Jonathan Glazer
• The Wizard of Oz (1939) - Victor Fleming
• Les Misérables (1934) - Raymond Bernard
• Les Misérables (1925) - Henri Fescourt
• Les Misérables (1912) - Albert Capellani
• Show more...