Pioneering in Movies

Here is a top 10 list of awesome movies about awesome people who were truly pioneers in some way:

• Notorious (2009)SUBJECT: Notorious B.I.G.PIONEERED: modern hip hop and rap
  

On the Basis of Sex

(2018)

• SUBJECT: Ruth Bader GinsbergPIONEERED: equality and women’s representation on the US supreme court (the second woman and first Jewish woman on the to be Supreme Court Justice)

• Selma (2014)SUBJECT: Martin Luther King, JrPIONEERED: the civil rights movement
  

• Coco Before Chanel (2009)SUBJECT: Coco ChanelPIONEERED: modern fashion
  

• Straight Outta Compton (2015)SUBJECT: musical group NWAPIONEERED: modern hip hop and rap
  

• Malcolm X (1992)SUBJECT: Malcolm XPIONEERED: the civil rights movement
  

• Loving Vincent (2017)SUBJECT: Vincent Van GoghPIONEERED: modern art
  

Milk

(2008)

• SUBJECT: Harvey MilkPIONEERED: equality for LGBTQ, first openly gay person to hold political office

• Gandhi (1982)SUBJECT: Mahatma GandhiPIONEERED: peaceful pacifism
  

• The Imitation Game (2014)SUBJECT: Alan TuringPIONEERED: invented the first ever computer

Honourable mentions:The Social Network (2010), Harriet (2019), The Founder (2016). I’m sure I would include Chaplin (1992) and The Theory of Everything (2014), but I haven’t seen them yet.

And here are some “movie firsts.” Keep in mind, movie shorts are not included. 

• FIRST FEATURE LENGTH MOVIE: The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906)

• FIRST FEATURE LENGTH DOCUMENTARY: Nanook of the North (1922)

• FIRST FEATURE LENGTH MOVIE IN COLOUR:Little Lord Fauntleroy (1914, UK) and The World, the Flesh, and the Devil (1914, UK) – Both were released in April of that year. I’m not sure which came out first. Unfortunately, the latter is a lost film.
  

• FIRST “TALKIE”: The Jazz Singer (1927)

• FIRST FEATURE LENGTH SCI-FI MOVIE: A Trip to Mars (1918, Denmark)

• FIRST FEATURE LENGTH HORROR MOVIE: The Student of Prague (1913, Germany)

• FIRST FEATURE LENGTH ANIMATED MOVIE: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)

• FIRST ALL CGI ANIMATED: Toy Story (1995)

• FIRST MOVIE TO EARN $100M AT THE BOX OFFICE:Jaws (1975)

• FIRST MOVIE TO EARN $1B AT THE BOX OFFICE: Titanic (1997)

I mentioned that I haven’t seen a couple of the “honourable mentions” in the first list, and I have to add that I also haven’t seen this week’s movie about a pioneer for trans people. I do plan to, however. Until then…

Congratulations The Danish Girl. This is your week.

And the Oscar goes to…

Best Actress:

Sonoya Mizuno as Kyoko in Ex Machina

Best Actor: Eddie Redmayne as Lili in The Danish Girl

Best Quote: “Isn’t it strange, to create something that hates you?” – Alicia Vikander as Ava in Ex Machina.

The first movie in colour was actually very difficult to figure out. People were able to add colour to film for a long time, especially since many early films were roughly a minute to 15 minutes long and they would have people colour each frame by hand. The one I settled on was both feature length and used a new technology that opened up the possibilities of adding colour to movies that had this much film: Kinemacolor.

There, now you can sleep at night.