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Welcome!films by the year

Films by the Year began around 2011 as a way to organize my film viewing by watching a film from each decade beginning with the 1890s up to the present decade. I begin with years that end in zero, 1890, 1900, 1910, etc. and once I’ve watched a film from each decade I return to the 1890s and start with films from years that end in one, 1891, 1901, 1911, etc. and so on. In order to do this I began entering the films in a spreadsheet in chronological order by release date. After a while I made the spreadsheet public as a Google sheet and in 2015 I created this website which includes my film index, which has now grown to over 21,000 entries. You will also find film reviews, articles on film history and the complete Lumière and American Mutoscope & Biograph photo catalogues organized by catalogue number. The latter catalogue is still a work in progress. Many of the films in the index and playlists for the film history articles link to my Films by the Year YouTube channel. I also have a channel on the Russian social media site Odnoklassniki. I invite you to join my Films by the Year Facebook Group where I post about my current projects and uploads to my YouTube channel.

Updates to the Film Index as of September 15, 2024

Here is the list of new YouTube uploads and index entries:

1896 Li Hung Chang Driving Through 4th St. and Broadway – added to index and online AM&B Photo Catalogue 
1897 Descente de la grande pyramide – new YouTube upload from my digital archive (unlisted). Also added to Year in 1897 playlist.
1898 10th U.S. Infantry, 2nd Battalion, Leaving Cars – new YouTube upload for Year in 1898 playlist
1902 A Pipe Story of the Fourth (Uncle Pete’s Pipe: A Tragedy of the Glorious Fourth) – new index entry from Paper Print Collection Catalogue
1903 Royaume des fées – new YouTube upload for Year in 1903 playlist
1912 Rigadin père nourricier – new index entry and YouTube upload from my digital archive
1949 I Shot Jesse James [Sam Fuller’s directorial debut] – new index entry from IMDb’s list of films released in 1949 (Odnoklassniki)
1983 Pneuma – new index entry from rarefilmm.com

Updates to the Film Index as of September 11, 2024

Here is the list of new YouTube uploads and index entries:

1896 Basse-cour – new YouTube upload from my digital archive (unlisted). Also added to Year in 1896 playlist.
1896 Rip Leaving Sleepy Hollow – added to online AM&B Photo Catalogue
1898 Procession à Séville, [III] – new YouTube upload for Year in 1898 playlist (unlisted)
1903 La Pêche miraculeuse – new YouTube upload for Year in 1903 playlist
1904 A Fair Exchange No Robbery (A Pipe for a Cigar) – new index entry from Paper Print Collection Catalogue
1912 Walk,—You, Walk! – new index entry and YouTube upload from my digital archive
1939 Each Dawn I Die – new index entry from IMDb’s list of films released in 1939
1983 Hysterical – new index entry from rarefilmm.com

Coming Soon

The Year 1898 in Film –  Article and YouTube playlist. Currently adding films from May with 115 films in the playlist so far.

The Year 1903 in Film – Article and YouTube playlist with 26 films added to playlist so far.

Les Misérables (1913) – A two hour and 45 minute adaptation by Albert Capellani. Translating French intertitles to English. I’ve completed the first 110 minutes.

Ongoing Projects

  1. Adding all entries from Kent Niver’s Early Motion Pictures: The Paper Print Collection in the Library of Congress to the film index. There are about 3,000 films listed in the book arranged in alphabetical order. I’m currently working through titles that begin with the letter “P”.
  2. Creating an online version of the American Mutoscope and Biograph Photo Catalogues. These can be downloaded from Rutgers University but there’s no way to search them. When it’s finished you will able to search by title and find a still from the film along with other information.
  3. I have an enormous amount of films in digital format that I haven’t added to the index or uploaded to YouTube. I’m currently working through all the films I have from 1912.
  4. Adding films from Jon Whitehead’s streaming site rarefilmm.com. I’m currently adding films from years ending in “3” to the film index.
  5.  Adding films from IMDb’s list of films from each year sorted by number of ratings. Currently working on years that end with “9”. I add one film 1899, 1909, …until I get to 2019 then start with the year 1900, 1910 and so on ad infinitum.
  6. Uploading my collection of over 600 movie trailers to Odnoklassniki. So far I’ve uploaded 58.
  7. Uploading my entire collection of digitized films to the cloud. Eventually external hard drives fail or might be destroyed in a fire or natural disaster. I started in July, 2023 and have uploaded over 8 TB so far. Currently I’m working through films from the year 2010 and some anthologies of films from the late 19th and early 20th centuries along with DVD extras, trailers, etc.