Quartile rating: 6.5/10 · 1 rating
Time-lapse photography showing the one month-long demolition of the Star Theatre in New York.
A landmark early cinema artifact, this 1901 short by Frederick Ackerman is historically significant as one of the earliest uses of time-lapse photography ever recorded. The technique of condensing an entire month of demolition into minutes was genuinely revolutionary and wholly novel for its era. Cinematography earns top marks for the sheer ingenuity and technical pioneering of the fixed-camera time-lapse method. Novelty likewise scores highest as this is a singular, unprecedented document in film history. There is no plot or acting by nature of the documentary form. The ending is simply the completion of demolition — unremarkable structurally, though contextually meaningful.