Rashit Yangirov (December 2008)

Sadly, Who's Who of Victorian Cinema has to report the death from cancer at just 54 of Rashit Yangirov, one of the original contributors to the 1996 book on which this site is based. Rashit was a journalist with Associated Press in Russia, who combined reports on the war in Chechnya with academic studies of Russian and Soviet silent cinema, based on detailed study of original documentation. For the Who's Who of Victorian Cinema book he supplied us with pieces on Ivan Akimov, Charles Aumont, A. Fedetsky, Aleksei Samarsky and Vladimir Sashin-Fydorov, providing vital information on the very first Russian filmmakers which largely had not been published before in English. His most recent work was published this year, the book Slaves of the Silent, which documents (in Russian) the lives of those Russian filmmakers who left their homeland in 1917 to find work in America, France and Germany. He will be much missed.

The man who made movies (October 2008)

This year's Pordenone Silent Film Festival saw the launch of Paul Spehr's The Man Who Made Movies: W.K.L. Dickson, published by John Libbey. This is the first biography of William Kennedy-Laurie Dickson, the assistant to Thomas Edison who led Edison's experimentation into motion picture devices, established the 35mm film format, built the world's first film studie, and made hundreds of some of the world's first films, first for Edison and then for Biograph, where he filmed such notable subjects as Pope Leo XIII, the coronation of Queen Wilhelmina, the first Shakespeare film and scenes on the battlefields of the Anglo-Boer War. The book is not simply a biography but a major investigation into the Victorian cinema period and is certain to become an essential reference source for years to come.

Who's Who book out of print (September 2008)

Who's Who of Victorian Cinema: A Worldwide Survey, the book on which this website is based, has just gone out of print. The book, edited by Stephen Herbert and Luke McKernan, was first published by the British Film Institute in 1996. When the BFI originally took the book out of print in 2003, Herbert and McKernan decided (with the BFI's pdermission) to create the Who's Who of Victorian Cinema website, which would not only reproduce the book's contents but update and extend them, with new biographical entries and supporting resources. Meanwhile, distribution of the book was taken on by The Projection Box, which has just announced that stocks have come to an end. The book now becomes a collector's item (and can be found on some second-hand book websites). The website, of course, continues.

John Barnes (June 2008)

It is with great sadness that we report the death of John Barnes, the pre-eminent historian of Victorian cinema. John, who had been unwell for some time, died on June 1st. He was best known as the author of the five volume series, The Beginnings of the Cinema in England, 1894-1901 (1976-1998), his lovingly and meticulously researched history of the first five years of English cinema. Together with his twin brother Bill, John spent decades collecting and documenting the pre-cinema era and the beginnings of cinema. Their collection of artefacts, many collected at a time when few others recognised their value or their significance, eventually became the Barnes Museum of Cinematography, which was to attract film scholars from around the world. It is now housed by the Museo Nazionale del Cinema of Turin, with some artefacts in Hove Museum and Art Gallery. John's writings stand as the cornerstone of their subject, and have inspired countless other studies, not least this website and the book that preceded it. We owe him a great debt.

Fight pictures (May 2008)

After many, many years in production, Dan Streible's long-awaited Fight Pictures: A History of Boxing and Early Cinema has been published by University of California Press. It is an entertaining and exhaustively researched account of the interlocking histories of boxing and early cinema, showing how a stigmatized sport was turned into legitimate entertainment. Boxing was a part of filmmaking for 1894 onwards, and Streible provides rich information on the place of boxing in Victorian cinema, including the stories of James Corbett, Bob Fitzsimmons, Jim Jeffries, Enoch Rector and more. More information is on the University of California Pess website.

Now with films online (April 2008)

The Who's Who of Victorian Cinema website now includes links to freely (and legitimately) available moving image files of Victorian films which can be found online on sites such as YouTube and American Memory. The links appears at the top of the left-hand column of the pages for individuals. A further addition is a page of sample clips, Films Online, which has been added to the site's Resources section. The films come from the Victorian era (pre-1901) only, so films made later in an individual's career are not featured. More links and clips will be added in due course.

Méliès, magicien du cinéma (April 2008)

A major exhibition on Georges Méliès opens on 16 April at the Cinémathèque française in Paris. Entitled Méliès, magicien du cinéma, the exhibition looks at his life, background, work and influence, and features many exhibits not seen in public before. A lavish 360-page catalogue has been produced, L'oeuvre de Georges Méliès, edited by Jacques Malthete and Laurent Mannoni, and there are screenings and DVD releases to accompany the exhibition. Further details are available (in French) from the exhibition website.

What Happens Next? (February 2008)

The PM Gallery in West London, in association with Thames Valley University, is hosting an exhibition on the photographic sequence, entitled What Happens Next?, looking at its evolution from the work of Eadweard Muybridge to the present day. The exhibition, which runs 8 February-15 March, takes in the work of artists John Blakemore, Julie Cassels, Matt Finn, Steffi Klenz, Mari Mahr, Edweard Muybridge, James Newton, Nanna Saarhelo, Andrew Warstat, Sally Waterman and Cary Welling. Coinciding with the exhibition, there is an article on Muybridge in the 9 February 2008 edition of The New Scientist on Muybridge's work and the enduring legacy of chronophotography, which includes an interview with co-editor of this site, Stephen Herbert. For further information, visit the exhibition site.

Georges Méliès: The First Wizard of Cinema (January 2008)

Flicker Alley, the American producer of specialist silent DVDs, has announced the release in March of Georges Méliès: The First Wizard of Cinema 1896-1913). This is a five-disc DVD set, comprising over 170 of the films of Georges Méliès (most of his extant output), plus the renowned Georges Franju documentary, Le Grand Méliès (1953). It ranges from his first film Une partie de cartes (1896) to his last, Le voyage de la famille Bourrichon (1913), and includes such classics as Voyage dans la lune, Les quatres cent farces du diable and A la conquète du pôle. In total it comprises some thirteen hours of material, taken from archives and private collections in eight countries. This prestigious release has been put together by Eric Lange and David Shepard, and includes fifteen films reproduced from partial or complete hand-colored original prints, and thirteen accompanied with the original English narration. More details from the Flicker Alley site.