I have a D.W. update for you all! I've done some more research on D.W. since I started the Forget the Talkies Honor Project for Mr. Griffith (give him a cenotaph and restore his name to the DGA lifetime achievement award). And what I've found I did not like.
I expect certain silent stars to have faded to a degree...I mean after all why would most people know who Nita Naldi is still? But I believe Mr. Griffith has been forgotten way more than originally thought...and this just must change.
For an unfair comparison (Cecil was a showman who made several majorly successful talkies) Cecil B DeMille has a museum dedicated to him with his office preserved in a very neat way. He's remembered and several of his films have been released on DVD including silents. And then I found he has this bitchin official site with a lovely filmography page. Again you don't expect a lot of silent folk to have such nice ''official'' pages (even Valentino technically lacks one, though Donna Hill has given him a lovely site) but Cecil has one, Mary has one, why not D.W.?
Well much like a lot of silent stars D.W. died too late for silent acclaim and too early for renewed interest acclaim. To top it off that whole Birth of a Nation thing has pretty much rendered him forgotten. I stand by my rebuttal of that: 1) you have to understand the conditions and time and place of that film...not agreeing with it at ALL but its not as outrageous as it now seems and 2) No matter how offensive it is I find it no less offensive then Norbit, White Chicks, or any of those other horrible films that continue to exploit stereotypes...only a white man isn't behind them. In short Eddie Murphey should be shot...but that's another topic.
So I bought me a web domain: http://dwgriffithforever.com/ and I'm going to make D.W. a fan site. Even though my html abilities are crude (why do you think this is a blog?) I'll figure it out. However I want a complete filmography and lots of good info and though I have that OFFLINE getting it online is gonna take awhile. So look for that somewhere in the near future (of course I'll update you here when its live!)
As for the original Honors Projects they are still going on. Please click here for more info. I'm going to work on getting some of his films screened in the near future, hopefully bringing some publicity to both projects. If you would like to help please let me know, any help is welcome!
PS: There will be an Anna May Wong update soon! I know a lot of people are excited about this so know it is coming!
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