The participatory potential of early cinema: a reexamination of early projected films

This paper examines the formal qualities and historic context of three early films produced for the Edison Manufacturing Company by James White and Frederick Blechynden in 1897 titled Lurline Baths, Sutro Baths, and Sutro Baths, No. 1. It argues that the standard readings of early films posited by Tom Gunning and Charles Musser do not fully account for the self-reflexive materiality of the actualities under consideration. Working through Gunning and Musser???s debate with Lurline Baths, Sutro Baths, and Sutro Baths, No. 1 in mind, I argue for an alternative reading of early film that understands the participatory potentials of cinema