In 1918 and 1919, DW Griffith turned from spectacles such as The Birth of a Nation, Intolerance and Hearts of the World to smaller films, which he called his short story series. Among these is True Heart Susie (June 1919). There are those of us who consider True Heart Susie to be the Griffith's masterpiece, writes Tom Gunning in his notes for a 2006 screening at the Pordenone Silent Film Festival. He goes on to praise the narrative structure and point...

Martin Scorsese’s contribution to the Century of Cinema series is a fascinating exploration of some of the landmarks of American cinema, as well as some of its lesser known byways. Under chapter headings such as The Director’s Dilemma or The Director as Iconoclast, Scorsese analyses the work of filmmakers as diverse as DW Griffith, FW Murnau, Sam Fuller and John Cassavetes. This is no academic history, but a declaration of passion for cinema from...

Across a turbulent history, Black poets created a rich and multifaceted tradition that has been both a reckoning with American realities and an imaginative response to them. One of the great American art forms, African American poetry encompasses many kinds of verse: formal, experimental, vernacular, lyric, and protest. The anthology opens with moving testaments to the power of poetry as a means of self-assertion, as enslaved people voice their passionate...