San Francisco: Aftermath of Earthquake (1906) - (5/10)

84 seconds of footage shot after the great earthquake in San Francisco in 1906. It is mostly historically interesting. Such footage has become common place now but it was probably rare back when this was might, might have been the first time that people saw the effects of a natural disaster captured on tape. The version that I saw had some violin music that felt a bit out of place. The footage was clearly edited and placed in sequence, in a way it is a documentary avant-la-lettre. The “movie” ends with a shot of a building that carries the sign “A little disfigured but still in business. Men Wanted.”


Cinema is the only place where historic achievements document themselves, the achievement itself serves as a means of documentation.