1905 - Baby's Toilet

    To graduate I have to take two years of a foreign language.  I've been sitting in French class tonight, reciting a conversation between three students repeatedly.  I feel confident that I can now introduce Nadine to Abdou without hesitation.  Beyond that school's been rather dull.  I've been reading Puritan poetry and a woman's account of her capture and captivity by Native Americans.  It's all been a bit God-y and dry.  Luckily I got to watch Baby's Toilet.  
    Baby's Toilet is an actuality film from 1905 which shows a nurse bathing and clothing a baby.  These films are basically very short documentaries in that they show real events.  Unlike documentary there is no bigger story to fit these images into.  This is simply a nurse washing and clothing a baby.  It's an early genre of film that died out rather quickly, although I'm sure I could find some people to argue with me over certain Gus Van Sant works.  Movies like these work exactly as they are described.  It is simply an experience to watch the film, but it will not impact your life in any truly meaningful way.  It's simply a woman and a baby and a bowl of water.  More interesting for its historical value than anything else.  
    So far the films have been fun and short which has been suiting me just fine with all my colonial readings I have to cram into my day.  We'll see how I fare when the longer, more challenging films come along.  I was hoping for my next entry to get the world's first ever feature film, but unfortunately the 1906 Australian film The Story of the Kelly Gang doesn't exist as a whole and I can't seem to locate the part that survived, so we'll have to do something else, I guess.  I guess I should go introduce Nadine to Abdou some more.