Year 1900 - 18

Villa Negro is a silent travelogue of unknown date and production company, preserved in a 35mm print (300 ft., 4'53" at 16 fps) with German intertitles, held by the BFI National Archive in London. According to notes by Renato Venturelli in the 44th Pordenone Silent Film Festival catalogue, the film opens with a view labeled “Villa Negro,” referring to Villetta Di Negro—a public park in Genoa that was formerly a cultural center in the early 19th century. The villa is shown from Piazza Corvetto, with statues of Giuseppe Mazzini and Victor Emmanuel II. The film also includes views of Castello Mackenzie, designed by Gino Coppedè, as well as scenes of a coastal storm, the Cathedral of San Lorenzo, the Church of the Nunziata’s vestibule, the Columbus monument in Piazza Acquaverde, Palazzo Doria (Villa del Principe), and the Staglieno Cemetery. The surviving footage is fragmentary but features consistent image quality and frequent panoramic camera movement.

A view of Dam Square and the Damrak. To the right the 'Beurs van Zocher', the commodity exchange building of architect J.D. Zocher.

Short film about the 25th anniversary celebration of the Gutenberg Museum in Mainz, Germany.

Reconstructed from a late 1800s flip book. The given date is approximate

Shot in 1900, the film is of Elizabeth Yates, a trailblazing woman elected Mayor of Onehunga in 1893 – just a few weeks after New Zealand women became the first in the world to win suffrage and the right to vote in a general election. Created by Enos Pegler for the Zealandia Living Picture Company, the film is a re-enactment – most likely of a speech Yates gave to the local council. Lacking sufficient lighting technology, many early films were filmed outdoors on a set made to look like it’s inside. This film is no exception – look closely and you will see the ‘walls’ are blowing in the breeze.

The parade of carriages, costumed riders, and exotic animals passing over the bridge at Inverness, Scotland, has attracted a crowd, despite the rain.

An old lady is seated at a table with her work basket and her cat washing its paws beside her. The old lady makes several attempts to thread a needle and a look of triumph appears on her face as she finally succeeds.

At the turn of the 20th century, the streets of Manila are filled with horse-drawn carriages, people in white European dresses, and wedding parties coming out of the church. Behind the civilized face of the fin-de-siècle, however, lie the dictates of a colonizing power that has conquered a third world country.

A "lady" undresses for bed.

Back in Blighty - after fighting in the Boer War, these volunteer soldiers are heading home to London and Middlesex

A short film

You’ll need your sea legs to watch this film, which was apparently filmed from a perilous position on the ship’s mast - in rough seas. This is a nautical example of a 'phantom ride' - in which a camera is mounted on a moving vehicle - a popular genre among early filmgoers for the still-novel sensation of travel it offered. Thanks to the swelling waves, the effect when projected on a screen is rather queasier than the comparatively gentle train or tram journeys that were more typical phantom ride subjects. Waves on Bow of a Ship was made by Warwick Trading Company, a leading British film production and distribution company between 1898-1915.

Panorama of the quai de la Seine and the foreign pavilions of the Exhibition: Sweden, Monaco, Romania, Spain.

Panorama of the Quai de la Seine and the pavilions of the exhibition.

Southampton High Street, train view

This striking film re-stages an episode from the Matabele wars between African natives and British infantry

Cavalry cross the river in enormous number. Occasionally a horse stops to take a drink, and then walks on.

Photographed February 5, 1900.