Silent Film in the Bay Area

What are the roots of silent cinema in the bay area? How did it play an important role in early cinema history? What famous personalities made films here?

Filmmaking in the bay area started in the East Bay hamlet of Niles. Niles became known as the center of the nascent movie industry in the early 1900s. Here, actors such as the silent-film cowboy star Gilbert M. “Broncho Billy” Anderson and Charlie Chaplin created famous films. The Bay Area also had screening of silent films and film festivals such as the Broncho Billy Silent Film Festival. Geoffrey Bell was also an important figure for Bay Area filmmaking through his 1984 book, The Golden Gate and the Silver Screen. Even before the film studios and screenings, the Bay Area was a birthplace for motion pictures because Eadweard Muybridge conducted his experiment with the horse in the area.