Shoots Fall 2026Feature
A Voice at the End of the World
Written & directed by Stephen Wallis
Sienna Guillory · Matthew Modine · Eric Stoltz · Karen Allen · Ron James
Est. New York · MDCCCXCV
The first house of Motion Pictures returns.
One of cinema's most historic names begins a new chapter — one hundred and thirty years after the first reel turned, the Biograph Company reopens its doors.
Now in Pre-Production
In partnership with Hollywood North Films.
Shoots August 2026Feature
The Splendid Thing
Written by Stephen Wallis & Matthew Modine
Liam Neeson · Matthew Modine · Spike Lee · Eddie Izzard · Vanessa Redgrave · John Cleese
— Chapter I —
What Began Here
A short reel of firsts — the ones that made the medium itself.
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First in Cinema
A short list of things that began here.
- 1865America's first motion picture studio is incorporated.
- 1876First studio built for artificial-light shooting — 11 E. 14th St.
- 1878Griffith directs his first picture: The Adventures of Dollie.
- 1880First film shot in Hollywood — In Old California.
- 1882First American gangster picture — The Musketeers of Pig Alley.
- 0+Pictures released across twenty-one years.
What We Invented
The grammar of cinema was written here.
Between 1908 and 1913, on a single stage in Manhattan, D. W. Griffith and the Biograph stock company taught the camera how to tell a story. Six of those firsts — each one a picture you can still watch today.
1911The Close-Up
First seen in · The Lonedale Operator (1911)
Griffith holds on Blanche Sweet's face — and on the wrench she's pretending is a pistol. The first time an American audience was asked to read an actor's expression instead of a stage gesture.
1909The Cross-Cut
First seen in · The Lonely Villa (1909)
Three locations, one rising tension: burglars at the door, a wife at the telephone, a husband racing home. Parallel editing — the engine of every thriller since — codified in fourteen minutes.
1908The Narrative Short
First seen in · The Adventures of Dollie (1908)
Griffith's first picture as a director. A complete story — kidnap, river, rescue — told in shots that move the plot rather than record a stage play. The short film as we know it begins here.
1909The Social-Issue Picture
First seen in · A Corner in Wheat (1909)
A Frank Norris story turned into the first film with a thesis: a commodities baron, the farmers he ruins, and the families who can't afford bread. Cinema discovers it can argue.
1909The Locked-Room Thriller
First seen in · The Sealed Room (1909)
A Poe-and-Balzac mash-up — a jealous king bricks his unfaithful queen and her troubadour into an alcove. Suspense generated by what the audience knows and the characters don't.
1912The Gangster Genre
First seen in · The Musketeers of Pig Alley (1912)
Shot on the real streets of the Lower East Side, with real Bowery toughs in the frame. Every American crime picture — from Scarface to Goodfellas — traces back to this one reel.
Every one of these pictures survives, and every one is in the Biograph vault. Find them in The Pictures.
— Chapter II —
The Next Century
From the first reel — to streaming and the fractional ownership of legacy film.
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Sector 01 · The Future
From the first reel — to the next century.
Biograph was America's first major motion picture studio. Between 1895 and 1916, the grammar of cinema — the close-up, the cross-cut, the narrative short — was written here, on Fourteenth Street in New York. We invented the language. Now we're rebuilding the house around it.
The next chapter is streaming and the fractional ownership of legacy film. Every year, thousands of remarkable pictures disappear into vaults, libraries and private collections — unseen, out of print, and locked away from the audiences who would love them. Biograph exists to bring them back.
Our consumer home is Planet Legends— a Biograph Company site dedicated exclusively to legacy cinema: silent pioneers, Hollywood's Golden Age, forgotten masterpieces, cult favourites and international treasures. Members stream the collection nightly. On select titles, they can also own a piece of the film itself.
- 01Browse the collectionsTen curated lanes — Silent, Golden Age, Forgotten, Cult, International, Western, Horror, Sci-Fi, Documentary, Independent. Stream tonight, or open the dossier on any title that offers ownership.
- 02Take your stake — from $25Back a single legacy title or spread your stake across several. You choose how large a piece of cinema history you own.
- 03We do the preservation workAn SEC-compliant funding portal handles the offering, escrow and reporting. Capital goes to restoration, rights clearance and re-introducing the film to modern audiences.
- 04Earn from every screeningRestored titles stream on Planet Legends and through licensing partners. Owners receive revenue share, member perks and quarterly statements as each film finds its second audience.
For generations, audiences could only buy a copy of a movie. The future allows the next generation to participate in the films themselves — to see, and to share in, the cinema that came before them.
500+
Films in the legacy vault
$25
Minimum ownership stake
4K
Reference restorations
— Chapter III —
The Pictures
One of cinema's most historic names begins a new chapter.
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Featured Restoration / 1912
The Musketeers of Pig Alley
D. W. Griffith's seventeen-minute portrait of New York's tenement underworld — widely regarded as the first gangster picture ever made. Shot for Biograph on the streets of the Lower East Side, starring Lillian Gish and Elmer Booth.
— Chapter IV —
From the Archive
Six pictures the Biograph stock company left to the world.
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From the Archive
The Vault
Over four hundred restored pictures from the original Biograph catalogue (1895–1916), preserved frame by frame.
HeritageRead the full history
We did not invent the cinema. We taught it how to tell a story.
Founded in 1895 by William Kennedy Dickson — the inventor who built Edison's first motion picture camera — the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company became the United States' first studio devoted entirely to film. Over twenty-one years it released more than three thousand pictures from rooftops on Broadway, brownstones near Union Square, and stages in the Bronx.
D. W. Griffith directed here. Mary Pickford was called The Biograph Girl before she was called by name. Lillian Gish, Lionel Barrymore, Mabel Normand and Mack Sennett all worked the boards. In 1910, a Biograph crew shot the first motion picture ever made in a small Los Angeles village called Hollywood.
1895
American Mutoscope incorporated · W. K. Dickson, founder.
1906
First all-artificial-light studio · 11 East 14th St., NY.
1908
D. W. Griffith directs The Adventures of Dollie.
1910
In Old California — first film shot in Hollywood.
1913
New Bronx studio. Griffith departs in October.
1916
Final release. The lights go dark.
MMXXVI
The Biograph Company returns.
In the Press
Stream on Planet Legends ▸Biograph, cinema's oldest name, announces its first slate in 110 years.
Read StoryA bold revival: how the Biograph Company plans to film like 1912 — and 2027.
Read StoryThe return of the studio that taught us how to tell a story.
Read StoryThe Mailing
Dispatches from the Biograph
Occasional letters from the studio — restoration progress, the next picture in production, new arrivals on Planet Legends, and the rare invitation to a private screening. No more than one a month. Unsubscribe whenever.