Dreams blur with reality as a woman chases a mysterious figure in a exploration of the subconscious.

Meshes of the Afternoon is a groundbreaking 1943 silent film by Maya Deren and Alexander Hammid. It defies traditional narratives, instead delving into a dreamlike exploration of the unconscious ...

Hypnotic doctor uses sleepwalker for murders in twisted German town.

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, a silent horror film from 1920 directed by Robert Wiene, breaks away from the conventions of realism that dominated early filmmaking. Instead, the film embraces German Expressionism, a movement that...

Sailors mutiny on battleship, sparking a rebellion crushed by a brutal massacre.

Sergei Eisenstein's silent film, Battleship Potemkin (1925) is a Soviet masterpiece that broke away from traditional storytelling technique using a revolutionary editing style known as montage.

Eisenstein believed ...

Absurd film cuts & pistons dance to a pounding score, mocking the modern machine age.

Unlike traditional films with narratives and characters, Dudley Murphy and Fernand Léger's 1924 film, Ballet Mécanique, throws those expectations out the window. Instead, it presents a whirlwind of fragmented i...

Salomé dances for King Herod, demanding Prophet's head as reward.

Salomé, a daring 1923 silent film directed by Charles Bryant and starring Alla Nazimova, adapts Oscar Wilde's play of the same name, but instead of a straightforward narrative, the film prioritizes visual spectacle and heightened...

Lost at sea, 3 souls face their past & mortality in haunting silence.

Inspired by a haunting photograph, Limite, a 1931 silent film by Brazilian director Mário Peixoto, abandons traditional narrative structure. Instead, we see three figures adrift in a small boat, their pasts revealed through po...

Marseilles barmaid finds love, heartbreak, & artistic camerawork in silent film.

While Jean Epstein's silent film, Cœur Fidèle (1923), a melodramatic love story set in the bustling port of Marseille, might seem familiar, Epstein's approach is revolutionary.

He throws out the rulebook, employing...

Soviet city life unfolds through a cameraman's lens, in a silent symphony of editing techniques.

Directed by Dziga Vertov, Man with a Movie Camera (1929) explodes the traditional structure of filmmaking. Instead of a narrative or staged scenes, Vertov presents a symphony of Soviet life captured ...

Pastor dreams of naked Truth exposing hypocrisy in church & society.

Hypocrites (1915), directed by Lois Weber, pushes boundaries in both narrative and content. The film interweaves two stories: a medieval monk sculpting a nude figure representing truth, and a modern-day minister grappling with ...

Black and white documentary by Maya Deren pushes the boundaries of traditional filmmaking.

Unlike typical documentaries, Private Life of a Cat, a 1947 black and white documentary by Alexander Hammid and Maya Deren, forgoes narration and human presence entirely. Instead, the film offers an intima...

Astronauts in a cannon blast to the moon, fight bug-eyed moon men, and return with a captive.

Created in 1902, Georges Méliès's A Trip to the Moon (1902), a whirlwind adventure to the lunar surface, throws out the rulebook and embraces theatrical trickery and fantastical imagery to bring Méliès'...

Silly scientist's powder warps reality, chaos with mirrors for laughs.

In silent short La Folie du Docteur Tube (1915), French director Abel Gance utilizes rapid editing, superimpositions, and distorted sets to depict the hallucinations of a scientist under the influence of a mysterious powder. ...

Witness the early days of this revolutionary transit system, a glimpse into 1905 New York life.

Filmed by G.W. Bitzer just seven months after the New York City subway's inauguration, Interior New York Subway, 14th Street to 42nd Street (1905) takes viewers on a novel journey beneath Manhattan's ...

Mother & baby alone. Tramp intrudes. Husband races home in stolen car. Split-screen suspense!

Suspense, a 1913 silent short by Lois Weber and Phillips Smalley, deviates from the standard one-scene, one-action format prevalent at the time. Suspense unfolds a thrilling narrative through parallel e...

D.W. Griffith's 1916 epic, Intolerance, stands as a cornerstone of cinema. While Griffith was a major figure in early cinema, Intolerance pushed boundaries with its narrative structure.

The film weaves together four distinct stories set in different historical periods: a tale of modern social i...

Ferry to sunset, skyscrapers to streets, a love letter to urban dynamism.

Manhatta (1921), a collaboration between photographer Paul Strand and painter Charles Sheeler, abandons traditional narrative structure, instead presenting a series of 65 carefully composed shots that capture the dynamism ...

Dreamy hopeful numbered by Hollywood, crushed, finds solace beyond studio gates.

The Life and Death of 9413, a Hollywood Extra (1927), directed by Robert Florey and Slavko Vorkapić, dismantles the conventions of Hollywood glamor, instead portraying the harsh realities faced by aspiring actors. I...

Lovers fight Death's grasp amid Spanish plague's horror.

Danse Macabre (1922), a silent film collaboration between choreographer Adolph Bolm and director Dudley Murphy, isn't simply a filmed ballet; it integrates animation, special effects, and innovative synchronization with live music.

The fi...

In this ad for Excelsior tires by Ruttmann, geometric shapes attack but the tire remains undamaged.

Walk into the world of early abstraction with Walther Ruttmann's Der Sieger (1922). This brief, silent animation pushes the boundaries of traditional cinema, exemplifying the spirit of experimenta...

Daring man bets he can last an hour in a haunted castle, but a twist awaits!

Au Secours! (1924), a short silent film by French director Abel Gance and starring Max Linder, is classified as a comedy-horror but defies easy categorization.

This short work pushes the boundaries of silent film stor...

Early silent film shows dancer defying gravity on wild waves.

A Nymph of the Waves (1900), a brief and captivating experiment, stands at the dawn of cinema. This silent film defies the limitations of early filmmaking by creating a fantastical scene.

Watch as a dancer, clad in flowing white, pi...

Spinning discs & suggestive puns challenge film & language in this Dada masterpiece. Anemic Cinema (1926) by Marcel Duchamp embodies the spirit of experimental film.

Instead of a narrative or actors, the film presents a playful sequence of spinning discs. These discs, called "Rotoreliefs" by Du...

A magic hand draws a wacky stick figure on a chalkboard adventure.

Step into the world of early animation with Émile Cohl's Fantasmagorie (1908). This brief film, a whimsical chase featuring a stick-figure clown, is much more than just a cartoon. It's a landmark experiment that pushed the bounda...

A fast-paced trip down the river, showing off scenery & riverside industry in a blink.

While Down the Hudson (1903), a seemingly simple travelogue, captures a trip down the Hudson River, the way it does so challenges traditional filmmaking techniques.

The film utilizes a sped-up effect, achiev...