In December 1895, Auguste and Louis  Lumiere projected their moving pictures to a mesmerized audience at the Salon Indien du Grand Café in Paris, marking the birth of cinema. Though its creators had little faith in the future for their invention, film would evolve from a sideshow gimmick to the most popular, and powerful, art form of the 20th century. This talk will chart the first two decades of film and show how the rules and language of cinematic storytelling first evolved. Joins us this 1-hour presentation includes a Q&A session at the end.

Presenter: Jonathan Crow is an artist and filmmaker who received an MFA in filmmaking from the California Institute of the Arts and an MA in Japanese studies from the University of Michigan. During his dozen years in the Hollywood industry as a writer, editor, and producer. Later, as an editor for Yahoo Movies, he interviewed numerous filmmakers and covered cinema from around the world. He currently teaches film history at Stanford Continuing Education.