To Demonstrate How Spiders Fly (1909)

Directed by

F. Percy Smith

Genre

documentary film, silent film

Country

United Kingdom

Runtime

1 min

Rating

2.0 of 10 from 1 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

This short silent film shows an animated model spider using a silk thread to float through the air. It was made to help people overcome their fear of spiders by showing them enlarged images on screen.

educationalcuriouswhimsicalearly-cinemaclose-uphistoricalgentle

What happens

To Demonstrate How Spiders Fly is a 1909 British animated short silent documentary film, directed by F. Percy Smith, featuring a close-up of an animated model spider throwing its silken thread to take to the air. The film features "the first of several animated creatures to appear in Smith's films", and according to Jenny Hammerton of BFI Screenonline was made in the belief, "that he could cure people of their fear of spiders by showing them blown up images of their eight legged foes on the cinema screen." (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

• The Life History of a Silk Worm (1915)
• Spiders on a Web (1900)
• The Strength and Agility of Insects (1911)
• The Acrobatic Fly (1910)
• The Spider and the Butterfly (1909)
• Grandma Threading her Needle (1900)
• The Gold Spider (1908)
• Lucanus Cervus (1910)