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Before the Nickelodeon
The Early Cinema of
Edwin S. Porter
(1982)

This documentary by primitive cinema authority Charles Musser covers the career of Edison cameraman/director Edwin S. Porter.

Kino International
2008 DVD edition

Before the Nickelodeon: The Early Cinema of Edwin S. Porter (1982), black & white and color-tinted black & white, 58 minutes, not rated, with Uncle Josh at the Moving Picture Show (1902), black & white, 3 minutes, not rated, Waiting at the Church (1906), black & white, 9 minutes, not rated, and Life of a Cowboy (1906), black & white, 17 minutes, not rated.

Kino International,
unknown catalog number, UPC 7-38329-05892-0.
One single-sided, single-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD disc, 1.33:1 aspect ratio image in full-frame 4:3 (720 x 480 pixels) interlaced scan format, SDR (standard dynamic range), ? Mbps average video bit rate, ? Kbps audio bit rate, Dolby Digital 48 kHz 2.0 stereo sound, English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles, chapter stops, 5.5 Mbps average video bit rate, 192 Kbps audio bit rate, Dolby Digital 48 kHz 2.0 mono sound, English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles; 10 chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $24.99.
Release date: 22 April 2008.
Country of origin: USA

Ratings (1-10): video: 7 / audio: 5 / additional content: 7 / overall: 7.

This DVD edition of Thomas Hanlon’s documentary shows a very-good source print, with modern view inserts of some of the sample film clips. Documentary narration by Blanche Sweet.

Surprisingly, with such a short documentary, we feel that the films should be the focus of this disc and the documentary should be its supplementary material. Overall, the image quality is very-good and the experience a little like sitting in a classroom and watching a 16mm print.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.

Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.

BFI Video Publishing
2006 DVD edition

Before the Nickelodeon: The Early Cinema of Edwin S. Porter (1982), black & white and color-tinted black & white, 40 minutes, BBFC Classification E.

BFI Video Publishing, BFIVD 577,
UPC 5-03567-30057-7, ISBN 503567300577, EAN 5.03567E+11.
One single-sided, single-layered, Region 2 PAL DVD disc, 1.33:1 aspect ratio image in full-frame 4:3 (720 x 576 pixels) interlaced scan MPEG-2 format, SDR (standard dynamic range), ? Mbps average video bit rate, ? Kbps audio bit rate, Dolby Digital 48 kHz 2.0 mono sound, English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles; chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; £15.65.
Release date: 28 August 2006.
Country of origin: England

We have not viewed this PAL DVD edition, which should be nearly identical to the Kino edition noted above. The package includes a 12-page booklet with notations by Luke McKernan.

North American collectors will need a region-free PAL DVD player capable of outputting an NTSC-compatible signal to view this edition.