Loading
About
Public domain films from the 1890s to the early sound era, gathered from the archives and channels that keep them, with the reading to go beside them.
The films here are hosted on YouTube, the Internet Archive, Wikimedia Commons and other archives. This site gathers them in one place, from the first films of the 1890s to the early sound era, and plays the best print it can find. The Reading Room sets essays, interviews and archive material beside the films they discuss.
None of this would be possible without the channels, archives and restorers who host and preserve these films. We are grateful for their work keeping film history open to everyone.
Kino is cinema and polis is the city. The hyphen that joins them is drawn as a bar of light, cut at the angle of a broad pen. It is amber here, and inside a collection it takes that collection's tint.
Silent release prints were often dyed by scene: amber for interiors and lamplight, blue for night shot by day, red for fire. Each collection here is printed in one of six tints, and its stills, numerals and markers take that dye. Amber is the house tint.
Anyone can browse and watch films without an account. A free account remembers what you watch:
Your email address is never shared and is used only for password resets and account verification.
Know of a public domain film on YouTube that belongs here? Paste the link and send it our way.
Questions or problems: write to info@kino-polis.com.