Will Day – William Friese-Greene & Me

Postcards From the Past

23 Aug 2020

Some unique postcards reveal the lives of the Friese-Greene children after the death of their father. … More Postcards From the Past

A Friese-Greene Christmas Carol

23 Dec 2019

A quasi-Dickensian true Christmas story of hardship softened by kindness. Featuring Will Day and William Friese-Greene. … More A Friese-Greene Christmas Carol

William Friese-Greene & The Art of Collaboration

26 Apr 2018

Last Friday I got back to doing something I used to do 20 years ago: talking about William Friese-Greene in public. The occasion was the British Silent Film Symposium 2018 and the place was King’s College London. Almost as terrifying as finding myself in front of a roomful of early film history experts was using … More William Friese-Greene & The Art of Collaboration

That Eureka Moment – 5

21 Feb 2018

“When are you going to get to the point?” is an entirely justifiable cry to escape from you, my dear, (im)patient reader. Well, I have been working on something rather special, just for you. So I hope it will seem worth the wait. To quickly recap the story so far and what we know: Between … More That Eureka Moment – 5

That Eureka Moment – 4

3 Jan 2018

To some it would have been the most boring place in the world, but to me it was Aladdin’s Cave. It was March 1996 and I was in the deepest, dimly-lit reaches of the astonishingly extensive archives of the Cinémathèque Française. My guide down these subterranean corridors of cinematic archaeology was the relatively recently-appointed new … More That Eureka Moment – 4

That Eureka Moment – 3

20 Dec 2017

There are some photographs of Friese-Greene’s early film experiments that seem to have been wilfully ignored by historians writing about the beginnings of cinema. My guess is that this is because explaining and dating them is problematic – and because to attempt to do so might disrupt the status quo of academic opinion around Friese-Greene; … More That Eureka Moment – 3