The Thanhouser Studio Documentary

This award winning 53 minute documentary premiered on opening night at the Pordenone Silent Film Festival in Pordenone, Italy on October 4, 2014 and was featured on Turner Classic Movies "Silent Sunday Nights" in July 2015. It was awarded a Special Jury Award for Documentary at the 2015 WorldFest-Houston, Award of Excellence by the Depth of Field International Film Festival, nominated for Best Documentary Feature by the Los Angles Film Review, selected for competition by the New York Independent Film Festival, and was awarded Best Documentary Feature by Star Doc Fest. Read reviews by Marc Mohan (The Oregonian), Sean Axmaker (Fandor's Keynote), and Lea Stans (Silent-ology). It is now available for purchase on DVD and BluRay or to watch online. The DVD disc also includes two Thanhouser films highlighted in the documentary: Petticoat Camp (1912) and The Evidence of the Film (1913). Buy the DVD and BluRay on Amazon.com, or watch the trailer below and stream the documentary online:

My grandparents, Edwin and Gertrude Thanhouser, founded a groundbreaking independent silent movie studio in 1909. This studio eventually made over 1000 films that were distributed around the world until suddenly disappearing in 1917…almost all the films were either lost or destroyed. As a result, the Thanhouser Film Studio is largely forgotten today.

I've spent more than two decades recovering what I can find of the studio’s output, including original nitrate films, posters and historical artifacts. To date, I've discovered over 225 Thanhouser films, and I continue to find more every year buried in archives and private collections around the world. The Thanhouser story deserves a place in any discussion of early American Cinema, and to that end, I've worked for three years on a documentary that tells my family’s story, as well as my journey of discovery.

The documentary recounts the untold story of the rise and fall of this remarkable pioneering motion picture studio during the first decade of the twentieth century. It traces the evolution of one family’s career as it transitioned from producing live theater to establishing one of the most successful independent silent motion picture studios in early cinema. Set against a backdrop of Thomas A. Edison and his Motion Picture Patents Trust companies dominating the industry, the story plays out in New York, Florida and California. It is a compelling story of fame and fortune, twisted by the vagaries of fate and ending on a bittersweet note.

I believe telling this story is important because it is provides a new perspective on the development of early cinema in America. Scholars, researchers, and fans of film history will learn how the Thanhouser studio helped to establish independent productions that led to what we know today as Hollywood.

Please Contact Us if you wish to to schedule a screening at your venue. And, THANK YOU to everyone who supported the fundraising campaign to help finish this film...your contributions are very much appreciated!

- Ned Thanhouser, October 2014