Inverted Narratives: New Directions in Story Telling (1910 1943)

Early directors D. W. Griffith and Lois Weber develop the radical language of cinema narrative through audiencefriendly melodramas made for nickelodeon theaters. Experimental fantasies are depicted in such independent productions as Moonland (c. 1926), Lullaby (1929), and The Bridge (192930). Depressionera films by sociallyconscious filmmakers reshape drama as demonstrated in Josef Berne s brooding Black Dawn (1933) and Strand and Hurwitz s biting Native Land (193741): each picture a raw reality. Parody and satire find their mark in Theodore Huff s Little Geezer (1932) and Barlow, Hay, and Le Roy s Even as You and I (1937). David Bradley s Sredni Vashtar by Saki (194043) boasts an inadvertent postmodern attitude.