Edison

Lets talk Edison! This is a tricky post to craft considering cinema sprouted from France, America, & Germany simultaneously (and Russia and Italy and so on), but is commonly attributed by the casual consumer only to T-Ed. Edison though, highly paranoid no doubt (later in life he typically did not invent the machines he patented) and possibly affected by reading his own press, was fiercely protective of his copyrights and spent his time and considerable fame and fortune edging other production companies out of business. But History, that harsh and honking Uhaul Truck of time,  has shined its glaring headlights on the matter. Hopefully today, we the people of America can agree that possibly, just maybe, somehow we may not be the only ones responsible for moving pictures.

With that being said, I do recommend watchng as many of these Kinetoscope and early Vitascope pictures as possible. They are an incredible way of going back in time without leaving your laptop. A large quantity of them are "actualities" which is a fancy old guy word for documentary. But that's what is so fascinating! You can watch a Sioux Indian tribe do a Ghost Dance (which, recorded in 1894, marks the first time the Native American was captured in cinema) or you can watch the first screen kiss EVER--highly scandalous though be prepared--in May Irwin Kiss. Largely free of narrative constraint, most of these gems clock in around 30-60 seconds. All of these are free to watch and download. I have watched most of them but ya'll there's a lot.

A complete alphabetical list of surviving Edison films.