Kanopy is a free video streaming resource provided by the Wayland Library for its patrons. Among the variety of Kanopy offerings is a particularly strong collection of important classic movies from the silent era to the 1960s. This one-hour talk will describe many of these movies and discuss their influence in the history of cinema. The goal of the talk is to highlight older movies that are often overlooked but have been acknowledged for decades as masterpieces, including early short films and features by D.W. Griffith; the silent comedies of Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Harold Lloyd; the sound-era satires of Frank Capra and Preston Sturges; and important foreign films from Sweden, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and Russia.

With Kanopy as your streaming resource, and the downloadable handout accompanying this talk, you can have your own personal class on the history of cinema in the comfort of your home. Presenter Randall Warniers

Randall Warniers has pursued interests in 19th-century British literature and early 20th-century American cinema for decades. He has worked in the world of publishing since 1989, and he is currently a freelance editor and book publisher.