Over the years, our rapidly changing technology has dramatically altered the way movies are made. I am especially aware of this since I have a daughter with a degree in visual effects. We now watch the movie credits all the way to the end. It is really amazing what movie makers can achieve.
However, less than a century ago, movies were silent. There is certain charm to the films from that time. And in some cases, these films were amazing in their own right. About a week ago we attended the Nell Shipman Film Festival at the Egyptian Theatre in Boise. We experienced a showing of her short film "White Water" and the full length feature, "The Grub Stake" complete with organ accompaniment by a professional theatre organist from New York on one of the few original theatre organs left in the country. What a special evening! Nell Shipman was an amazing woman - writer, actress, co-director, editor. The truly incredible part is that these films were filmed in northern Idaho at Priest Lake in the 1920s, much of it during the winter. This was wild country at that time. She had a large menagerie of animals which she used in her films. There were no stunt men or special effects. Nell canoed down rivers, fell in, and clung to rocks; she jumped into the frozen lake, multiple times (along with her reluctant son); she trudged up and down snow covered mountains; she climbed up rock walls. Nell Shipman was a true film pioneer.
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