S8E4: Edison’s Cameras, Manila’s Trenches

Yes, Edison as in Thomas Edison, the light bulb guy. At the turn of his century, the tech wizard of Menlo Park produced thousands of movies as a showcase for his company’s vitascopes. Among those movies are five films about the Philippine-American War, produced in a flurry all throughout June of 1899. It turns out that the boom of cinema dovetailed neatly with America’s growing imperial ambitions. But what made this faraway war so compelling for wide-eyed audiences captured by the magic of the silver screen?Support us on Patreon: patreon.com/thecolonialdeptFollow us on IG: @thecolonialdeptFollow us on TikTok: @thecolonialdeptEmail us: [email protected]:Rafael, Vicente (2016). Motherless Tongues: The Insurgency of Language Amid Wars of Translation. Ateneo de Manila University Press.Palis, Joseph (2009). “The ethnographic spectacle of the ‘other’ Filipinos in early cinema.” GeoJournal, 74, pp. 227-234.Robbins, Dylon Lamar (13 July 2017). “War, Modernity, and Motion in the Edison Films of 1898.” Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies, 26(3). https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13569325.2017.1292222#d1e122Brewer, Susan A. (1 October 2013). “Selling Empire: American Propaganda and War in the Philippines.” Asian Pacific Journal, 11(40). https://apjjf.org/2013/11/40/susan-a-brewer/4002/articleWalker, Malea (6 February 2024). “The Spanish American War and the Yellow Press.” Library of Congress Blogs. https://blogs.loc.gov/headlinesandheroes/2024/02/the-spanish-american-war-and-the-yellow-press/“Advance of Kansas Volunteers at Caloocan.” Library of Congress“History of Edison Motion Pictures.” (undated) Library of Congress Blinkhorn, Martin (1980). “Spain: The ‘Spanish Problem’ and the Imperial Myth.” Journal of Contemporary History, 15(1), pp. 5-25.Paterson, Thomas G. (1996). “United States Intervention in Cuba, 1898: Interpretations of the Spanish-American-Cuban-Filipino War.” The History Teacher, 29(3), pp. 341-361.Ocampo, Ambeth (19 March 2013). “Treasure trove in thick books.” Philippine Daily Inquirer.Ocampo, Ambeth (21 March 2013). “An Igorot in the Philippine-American War.” Philippine Daily Inquirer.Legarda, Benito J., Jr. (2001). The Hills of Sampaloc: The Opening Actions of the Philippine-American War, February 4-5, 1899. The Bookmark, Inc.Angeles, Jose Amiel P. (2013). As Our Might Grows Less: The Philippine-American War in Context [Ph.D. dissertation]. Department of History, Graduate School of the History of Oregon.