Review of A Trip Down Market Street Before the Fire

Film has always been one of the greatest inventions ever created. It really does captures a moment of time, whether it is from yesterday or over a century ago; like this short black & white documentary film directed & film by the Miles Brothers, (Harry, Herbert, Earle and Joe J. Miles) about a trolley cart's POV, heading east toward the ferry terminal building in San Francisco, California. Originally thought to have been dated and made in September or October 1905, based on the angles of shadows showing the sun's position. Film historian, David Kiehn study the film, and noticed a few inaccurate in that claim, such as puddles of water being seen in the street & more recent registration record for the car licenses, feature in the film. After examining, contemporary newspapers, city records and weather reports, he report that the film was probably, made around March to April 1906, making this film, one of the rarest early films to capture, life before a major disaster, like the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire, which started on the morning of Thursday, April 18, 1906. Call it, morbid curiosity, but seeing, what the city look like, before the disaster, is haunting to see; as most of the buildings surrounding Market Street were destroyed by the fire that engulf, San Francisco, later that week. I can't help, wondering, what the people in the film, went through, only a few days later, after this was filmed. It must had been hell on earth. Another thing that I love, about this film is there is no apparent intentional camera movement, edits, or anything like that with the Bell & Howell. The film is consist as one continuous real-time shot, making everything looks it really happening. While, it's true, that the traffic by cars was apparently staged by the producer to give Market Street the appearance of a prosperous modern boulevard. Most of everything, besides the hired drivers, was real to events. It help gave birth to the documentary genre. While it's not a great entertainment film; it's does give great insight of how life was like in the beginning of the turn of the 20th century. It was hardly mind-numbing and dull. Call me, nostalgia, but I was always curious, about the 1900s; ranging from the rapid technology innovations such as the automobile & film, to seeing Edwardian era architect like the Grant Building &California Academy of Sciences Building to looking at the latest fashion trends of that day such as 'Gibson Girl' to bowler hats. There was somewhat, a unique & splendor grandeur with that era. Even if the car driving and foot traffic was really horrible to see. It's mostly was beautiful to watch. I really enjoyed the video. It's a virtual time capsule! You really have to give the brothers respect. They really did take advantage of their cameras' extra film capacity, after filming the "Battling" Nelson-Jimmy Britt prize fight in Colma, California on September 9, 1905 & 1906 "A Trip Down Mount Tamalpias", because it's a remarkable piece of history. Also, thank goodness, they send the film footage to New York to get developed, the day before the disaster hit. If not, it would certainly be among, the early films, consider as lost. It's very surprising, that this documentary short film from 1906 has been "preserved" so well. Somehow, the Brothers knew, this film would be valuable, as they packaged a two-hour program with a lecturer to show in theaters across the country after the disaster with several 35mm prints with slight changes in footage. However, the sands of time, wouldn't be, kind to them, as they quickly lost their business in 1910, with bad business practices & pretty much out of the film industry by 1930, when silent films became less profitable. Nevertheless, this film continue to live on, besides a few grainy scratches from improperly stored, because of the fact, the brothers took good care of the negatives. They even sent copies to be held at the Library of Congress and the Prelinger Archives to make sure, they survive, for a long time. Because of that, a digital public domain version is viewable online at Internet Archive and YouTube. For the most part, the versions, I saw, online are alright, with some of them, being all cleaned up in HD with sound to go along with it. Although, I still, a bit disappointed, on how little, color-versions of the film, existed. I would love to see more of those, around. Overall: This film is really amazing. It is a must watch for anybody curious about US History or film, in general. Highly recommended.