To sum it up, it was the 20th century that seen films to get longer as since the very first films presented to the public in 1894 through Thomas Edison’s Kinetoscope, a peepshow-like device for individual viewing they were all very short one-shot “actuality” or “interest” films depicting celebrities, royal processions, travelogues, current affairs and scenes from everyday life. However in the early 1900s, improvements in recording and editing technology allowed film-makers to produce longer, multi-shot films and after about 1910 onwards, studio competition and audience demand induced film-makers to make even longer, multi-reel films and the first features were born.
Now-a- days short films have fallen out of favour with commercial cinemas but their popularity has never waned among visual artists, who first started experimenting with them in the Twenties. As film has always been the enfant terrible of the art world – some critics still dispute whether it should be considered as art at all – so it is perhaps unsurprising that some of the more rebellious artists of the past hundred years have been keen to embrace it.
The ability to screen films easily and cheaply has spawned hundreds of dedicated short film festivals and companies around the world. These have flourished over the years, finding innovative new ways – from warehouse parties to live music and performance collaborations – to present short films to an eager and ever-growing audience.
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