Back to Articles Entertainment & Media Back to Sections Geocaching By Carolina Figueroa Volume 2 Issue 5 March 28, 2022 Image provided by Winchester-Frederick Country Convention & Visitors Bureau Do you love to be outdoors, solve riddles, and search for interesting things? If so, you may want to try searching for geocaches! Geocaching is a popular “fun outdoor recreational activity and hobby that feels like real-world treasure-hunting”! People participate in geocaching from all over the world by using navigational techniques to “hide and seek” compact containers at specific locations marked by coordinates worldwide. They hide small containers, called geocaches or caches, with small prizes inside, and then other people try to find them using maps and clues on their Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers or GPS-enabled mobile devices. Currently, there are more than 3 million geocaches hidden around the world for people to find. A typical geocache is created when a player hides a small-scale waterproof container somewhere in the world and then logs its exact location on the Geocaching app. Inside the container, the hider will put a logbook (or a notebook that players can sign) with a pen or pencil and sometimes small prizes, pins, trinkets, or little toys for trading. These mini toys and trinkets are usually of more sentimental worth than financial. Some geocachers may choose to use large plastic storage containers (similar to Tupperware). Next, other players try to find what has been hidden using the navigation system on the Geocaching app. Sometimes finding a geocache will be easy and straightforward, but other times they are very well hidden in their spots and you really have to look and search hard for them! To get started, you first have to download the Geocaching app on a smartphone. When you click on the app, it shows you a map of nearby or local geocaches. You can also search for geocaches in different locations. For instance, if you plan on being away, you can search to see if and where there are geocaches in that location as well. Once you click on a geocache, you are able to see a description of it and other information about it, such as how much time it may take for you to find it. Next, click “navigate” to open up the directions to guide and navigate you to the spot. You will have to ask an adult to drive you to a park that you walk around together. Some geocaches may be hidden in other public spots, like a walking path in town. Other geocaches are hidden in parks, urban areas, forest, deserts, underwater, on top of mountains – pretty much anywhere you can imagine! The rule for a hiding place is “the geocache should not be easily visible to a passerby who is not looking for the cache. It should be a camouflaged hiding spot and the cache should blend perfectly into their environment”. People use their creativity to find hard and challenging hiding places, like in a tree hollow or stump, underneath bushes, wedged securely in-between rocks, using a fake rock or small fake squirrel container, or even road signs (a magnetic geocache, nestled between the sign itself and the pole). Another rule is “ do not ever bury geocaches (do not create a hole in the ground to find or place a geocache)”. Once you navigate to the location, you will have to look at the recent activity and description in the app for any hints or signs for clues that might help you find the cache. Have fun on your search! Geocaches come in all shapes and sizes and most often they are a small tube or a medium-sized box that looks like a heavy-duty plastic container. The container could also be innovatively stored inside an object. People from around the world cleverly and creatively store and hide geocaches in fun containers. For example, hidden in the woods in Germany, one geocache is housed in a tricky wooden birdhouse covered in puzzles for finders to solve. In Spain, a plastic super-sized strawberry geocache container looks like a big piece of fruit. In Massachusetts, a geocache has its logbook hidden within a classic calling telephone. In California, a tiny tube is screwed into the back of a plastic pigeon to hold a geocache’s logbook. And in Holland, a container features a hen with plastic eggs, one of which contains the logbook! There should always be a logbook so you can write down that you found the geocache with the date. The geocacher signs the log with their established code name and dates it, in order to prove that they found the cache. Many times, “you will find small prizes called tradeables, like small toys, pins, keychains, or crafts. You can take one of them as long as you replace it with an item of similar value”. When you are done signing the log, you must place the geocache back exactly where you found it so that other people can find it! Geocaching is a fun and exciting way to spend time outdoors, explore the beauty of nature, exercise your mind and body, solve puzzles and riddles, appreciate quality time with family and friends, and enjoy treasure-hunting! It is a hobby and interest that delights and appeals to all ages. It provides fun and happiness for the whole family. You may experience new places and meet new people, and you will stay active and healthy while creating lasting new memories. You will realize that discovery, exploration, beauty, and adventure still exist in the real world. Good luck searching for cool and interesting geocaches, wherever you may be in the world! BACK TO TOP

Back to Articles News Back to Sections Welcome to BSU! By Sasha Smalls and Ahmya McMillan Volume 1 Issue 2 November 24, 2020 Original logo by Sasha Smalls Black Student Unions have been a space for advocacy and education operating in schools and universities around the country for decades. But where did this begin? During the Civil Rights Movement, in response to racial injustice, Jerry Varnado and James Garrett created the first Black Student Union at San Francisco State University, a predominately white campus. Vernando and Garret started a campus movement that demanded institutions of higher learning to address the needs of their black students. This has laid the groundwork for reform, advocacy, and change across many student bodies in various U.S. communities. “Welcome to BSU!” The title for our first meeting that announced the revival and revamping of Valley Stream North High School’s very own Black Student Union. The club began last year as an effort by some Class of 2020 seniors to rally school spirit and support for the Black student demographic here at North. Kristina Dormeus, Carlton Paris, Tonei Laroche, Sydney Hunt, Amir Grant, along with our gracious advisors Assistant Principal Mrs. Small and Teacher Member Ms. Coleman, put BSU on the map. The current cabinet is grateful for much of the groundwork established by last year’s cabinet and acknowledge all the contributions they have made to get the ball rolling for this club. When COVID-19 hit Long Island and soon thereafter Valley Stream, the school went full-remote during the month of March. Over quarantine, BSU, like most clubs, found it challenging to make the switch to virtual. Gratefully, in all this chaos, we managed to hold elections for this year’s cabinet: President Sasha Smalls (Class of 2021), Vice President Tobi Adebowale (Class of 2021), Treasurer Chris Devis (Class of 2021), Secretary Mereddith Rony (Class of 2021), Head Event Coordinator (Ahmya McMillan Class of 2021), and Junior Council Member Ariana Paul (Class of 2022). Over the summer of 2020, BSU was remodeled with a new mission and renewed perspective (not to mention a fantastic website and Instagram that you should check out - see below ). Our mission is to enhance North's community. We are an inclusive organization open to students of all backgrounds. We desire to create a welcoming, judgment-free learning environment and safe space. Through a mixture of information and discussion, we serve to educate and inform the community. We want the conversations of our meetings to transfer out and positively affect how North students conduct themselves: respectfully, kindly, with integrity, and with the utmost confidence. With a focus on Black history and culture, BSU delves into perseverance and overcoming adversity. Discussing current events and topics gives our members insight concerning the minority youth of America. Above all, we emphasize embracing the younger students at North. The sooner they feel empowered, the sooner they can outwardly influence the community here at North and around the world. Let’s discuss how we go about achieving all this. This year’s cabinet members sat down soon after our first club meeting and decided it would be best to do bi-weekly meetings. “Quality over quantity,” said Mrs. Small, and we all agreed. The cabinet meets independently twice. Once to solidify a club meeting topic, determine who will be designing the PowerPoint presentation, and discuss agenda items; then we meet again by Sunday to collaborate on the shared PowerPoint and delegate who speaks at what slide. By Tuesday, we have run everything by Mrs. Small, and we are ready to meet with our club. We have found that certain discussions warrant longer discussions, and we want to give everyone who desires, a chance to share. Therefore, we will have a longer discussion/meeting topic such as police brutality or political perspectives followed by a shorter meeting topic such as plans for Black Solidarity Day. We believe this balance is essential, or we fear we may lose the interest of club members who have to divide their time between schoolwork, jobs, and extracurriculars - much like the members of our cabinet. We acknowledge that the club is a Black Student Union, but we are an inclusive organization, as you may read in our mission statement. Our topics correlate with an issue plaguing the Black community members in America, but we also address other communities such as Latinx and Middle Eastern. We also put an emphasis on perspective and fervently exercise “playing the Devil’s advocate” during our meetings to balance the conversations. Now that you have learned about BSU, we would love to hear from you! You can reach out via email, Instagram, our website, or Teams chat. We have listed all our information below. Email : vsnbsu@gmail.com Instagram : vsn_bsu Website : esmalls28.wixsite.com/vsnbsu Microsoft Teams code : zwf3p7w BACK TO TOP

Back to Articles Feature Back to Sections North's Hidden Gems Rachel Ezeadichie Volume 5 Issue 4 April 8, 2025 Image Provided by Rachael Ezeadichie While most students at North High School are engrossed in their studies, academics are not the only opportunities children have access to here. Students can always join one of the many clubs at our school, whether it’s B.S.U. or S.T.O.P., or something else that interests them (acronym optional). One of the lesser-known clubs at Valley Stream North is the Weightlifting Club. Recently, I have started to attend their meetings and have found a welcoming community and an opportunity to improve my strength and health. The Weightlifting Club at VSN meets every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday in the weight room (which has been moved to the wrestling room) from 2:45 to 3:30. Despite its name, the Weightlifting Club is not just for lifting weights, but for anyone who wants a place to work out after school without having to commit to joining a sport for the semester. When I first started going in early December, I was nervous as I was not used to working out using the equipment there, and I had never been in that “gym environment” outside of Phys. Ed. But, after just one session, I had already started feeling more comfortable with working out on the machines and accepting help when it came to correcting my form and technique. While I was there, I had the opportunity to interview Coach Dias, the club’s advisor, and ask him some questions about the club and its community: Who is welcome to join the club? Dias: Everyone is welcome. There are no restrictions. What characteristics and activities do the club promote? Dias: It’s a fitness and weightlifting club, so it promotes fitness, people lifting weights to get stronger for either a sport or just to look better and feel better. Do you enjoy being the club’s advisor? Dias: I think, for the most part, there’s a nice comradery among all the people that come here, it’s a good group. Everyone helps each other. Obviously, I tried to help people with how they’re doing their exercises, but it really is a nice group. What would you say to someone who is hesitant or debating joining? Dias: Well, if you’re hesitant or debating whether to join because you feel self-conscious, it’s a very good group. Everyone helps each other; there’s nobody here that’s super-advanced to where you would feel inferior. So, I think everyone should give it a chance. You’re going to feel better, you’re going to look better, and you’re going to have more confidence in everything else that you do. The Weightlifting Club is one of North’s hidden gems, a part of the school that I am glad to have discovered. Even if you’re only slightly interested, consider visiting and see if it is a community right for you. BACK TO TOP

Back to Articles Feature Back to Sections Does Glasses Equal Intelligence: A Stereotype or Fact? Akilan Subramaniyan Volume 6 Issue 3 June 8, 2026 Image Provided by Akilan Subramaniyan You are struggling with your algebra homework, desperate for an answer. You need help from somebody who is comfortable with this concept. However, you must choose between someone who is wearing glasses and someone who is not. The person wearing glasses is probably smart; thus, he should help you…right? Well, the answer is not that simple. We will be looking into the worlds of frames and intelligence, and whether there is a correlation between them. Apart from the many stereotypes we encounter, this stereotype is one that’s well-known and long-standing. However, before the creation of this stereotype, what was the historical aspect of glasses? The earliest corrective lenses were crystals polished to magnify text. This originates in ancient Egypt and China. However, wearable glasses date back to Italy in the 13 th century. These glasses were the modern equivalent of what we normally use today. Crucially, glasses were not widely used, as they were luxurious and lavish items. Hence, the upper class, consisting of the wealthy and educated, used it. People who are into education and transcriptions, even in their old age, were the first to utilize glasses. These people were primarily scholars and monks. This early concept shaped the path for the modern-day stereotype as it connected eyewear to educational goals ( NeuroLaunch Editorial Team). Now that we know where everything started, we can start to delve into why people conclude that eyewear equals intellect. As discussed before, eyewear is often expensive. Usually, those who could afford glasses and be “studious” were educated. This led to the connection that a person who wears glasses is likely educated ( Mo & The Team ). In addition, a physical aspect also plays a role. Someone who is wearing glasses may look more “genuine.” He or she could look more skilled, knowledgeable, and sharp with glasses ( Ellix ). These details prove why people think a person who wears glasses is smarter or more competent. Furthermore, in media, smart people are frequently depicted with glasses, giving the character a “nerd or geek” style ( TV Tropes ). Both these details subtly support this stereotype, influencing people into the trend. Likewise, this also applies to the world. People like Benjamin Franklin, Stephen Hawking, Mark Zukerberg, Bill Gates, and numerous other figures all wear glasses. This reinforces the stereotype and gives examples of people who wear glasses who were successful, intelligent, and innovative ( NeuroLaunch Editorial Team). Now we have a deep understanding of the cultural, social, and psychological view of this stereotype. Now it is time to magnify through a lens into the biological aspect. In other words, what does science say? To put it simply, there is no clear correlation between glasses and intelligence. In one study, students with and without vision correction were observed based on their educational capabilities. Students wearing glasses did a bit better, but this could be the result of socioeconomic status, and someone with access to eyecare could have more academic possibilities ( Mo & The Team ). Some other studies show that there is a small connection between myopia (near-sightedness) and minimally higher IQ scores. This could mean that people who wear glasses for myopia are smarter. However, glasses help with vision issues other than myopia, like hyperopia. This correlation only applies to glasses wearers with myopia. Additionally, this small link is a correlation and does not necessarily equal causation. There could be other factors influencing this ( Vivue) . On the other hand, a large genetic study done with about 3,000 participants proves a connection between wearing glasses and cognitive functions. The study shows 30 percent of “intelligent people” are more likely to wear glasses . This study still has its flaws, as it is based on European ancestry ( Dockrill ). Even though it is such a massive study, you cannot easily conclude that wearing glasses equals being smarter. Nonetheless, what is “near work” and how does it connect to what we are talking about? Near work is when you work close-up to something while needing concentration. Activities that fall under this category, especially when done in the dark, include coding, studying, computer work, writing, reading, and screentime for hours. These activities often help you do better at school. Overtime these activities can regularly exhaust your eyes and can affect the growth of your eyes, specifically in those predisposed to Myopia genetically. Moreover, this near work could result in: Myopia and educational success. Nevertheless, behavior patterns, genetics, and environment still influence this complicated pattern. So, to tie it all up, if someone is truly smart and is wearing glasses for myopia, there could be a chance that they participated in near-work activities, which made them smart. Not the glasses, their effort and work made the person smart ( Ellix; Mo & The Team; Vivue ). Finally, intelligence comes beyond physical traits. It comes from valuable skills, memory, innovative thinking, flexibility, and emotional acknowledgement (Mo & The Team). Critically, people who are wearing glasses are often pushed into this stereotype, making them work harder to be “smart.” On the other hand, people who do not need glasses might be judged less smart due to the absence of frames. This can have serious problems in the real world (NeuroLaunch Editorial Team). It is safe to say that for the most part… wearing glasses will not make a person smarter. Someone who is simply wearing glasses will not automatically be smarter. However, his or her actions and effort will make the person smarter. While doing activities that support academic success, there is a chance for the person to develop a need for vision correction (glasses). However, this is not entirely true and is influenced by other factors. Intelligence comes from within and cannot be easily identified through physical cues. We must question stereotypes, whether big or small, so we can all grow and become open-minded and inclusive to everybody. Just maybe, we might be able to ask for help with a tricky algebra question to a person without glasses. Glasses and Intelligence: Exploring the Cultural Connection Are People With Glasses Smart? | Myth Busting Truths Smart People Wear Glasses - TV Tropes Do Smart People Really Wear Glasses? Science (Kind of) Says Yes | by Tau Ellix | Medium Do Glasses Make You Look Smarter? The Truth About the Stereotype and IQ - Affordable Prescription Glasses, Eyewear Online | Vivue People Who Wear Glasses Really Are More Likely to Be Smart, Says Huge Study : ScienceAlert BACK TO TOP

Back to Articles News Back to Sections North Star Club and Mrs. Byrne By Jeselys Vazquez Volume 2 Issue 3 January 14, 2022 Original photography by Christy Mansfield Hello, my name is Jeselys Naylana Vazquez and I’m in 10th grade! I’ve recently joined North Star. It is club where you write new articles about different topics of the month or your choice of what you decide to write about. I’ve always wanted to join a club but never made the time to manage my schedule to make time for it. I feel like a lot of people have the same issue or just forget about it, until at the worst times it comes to mind. My 8th period teacher Mrs. Byrne, the lovely, sweet lady in room 113, assigns her students a quick assignment on watching a video or reading an article and explain our personal thoughts or ideas about it. Sometimes in class on Fridays, she tells her students to check out the North Star page, choose an article we’d like to read, and tell her what we learned or what we got from it. I enjoyed the times we read the articles from our smart and inspiring writers. It really helps and educates readers in a variety of subject areas. Every time she read my response or called on me to tell her what I learned about the article I read because she was pleased with my answers. She asked me why don’t I join the Poetry Club or the North Star ? I said, I’ll think about it”. I asked the leader of the club if I could still join, and she said, “Yes!” Here, I am writing my first article for the North Star and starting to pursue more of what I love, which is writing. Thank you, Mrs. Byrne! And thank you North Star. BACK TO TOP

Back to Articles Feature Back to Sections The First Black Congresswoman By Shinedip Kundlas Volume 2 Issue 5 March 28, 2022 Image provided by Associated Press During her seven terms in the House of Representatives, Shirley Anita Chisholm, the first African American woman to serve in Congress and the first African American to seek a presidential nomination in the United States, has been outspoken in her advocacy for women and minorities. Born and raised in New York, Shirley Chisholm was born the oldest of four daughters to immigrant parents from Guyana and Barbados. While her parents worked to settle their family in Bedford-Stuyvesant during the Great Depression, Chisolm spent part of her childhood living on her maternal grandparents' farm in Barbados. She received a British education during this time. However, Chisholm returned to the states to finish high school and graduated top of her class. On a scholarship, she attended Brooklyn College and graduated with a Bachelor of sociology in 1946. Before starting her political career, Chisholm worked as a nursery school teacher from 1946 to 1953. At Columbia University, Shirley Chisholm obtained an M.A. in early childhood education three years later. From 1959 to 1964, she served for New York City's Division of Day Care as an educational consultant. Chisholm became involved in several campus and community groups throughout her training to become a teacher. Politics became her interest and her skills of organizing and fundraising developed from there. Her deep resentment towards the treatment of women originated from the role women played in local politics at that time, which consisted mainly of staying in the background and serving as an afterthought to their male counterparts. Chisholm found a way to express her opinions about economic and social structures in a rapidly changing nation through campus politics and her membership in the NAACP, an organization fighting for equal rights for African Americans since 1909. A second African American woman was elected to Albany's legislature in 1964 when Shirley Anita Chisholm was elected to the New York state assembly. Chisholm continued her service in the state assembly until 1968, when she ran for the U.S. Congress. She was elected and began serving in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1969 to 1982. In 1972, Chisholm ran for the Democratic presidential nomination, claiming the other candidates did not represent the concerns of black and minority voters and the poor. The campaign for Chisholm's Democratic Party presidential nomination in 1972 was marked by discrimination. After pursuing legal action, she was allowed to make just one speech after being barred from participating in televised primary debates. Across the nation, women, minorities, and students flocked to the "Chisholm Trail." Despite severe under-funding and disagreements with the primarily male Congressional Black Caucus, she won 12 primaries and 152 delegates' votes. However, she did not win the Democratic nomination, yet the nation still admired Chisholm. In January 1983, Chisholm left Congress and co-founded the National Political Congress of Black Women. She campaigned for Jesse Jackson's presidential campaigns in 1984 and 1988. Shirley Anita Chisholm made history as America's first black presidential candidate and first black congresswoman. Upon leaving Washington, Shirley Chisholm said she did not want to be remembered as "the nation's first black congresswoman" or, as she put it, "the first black congresswoman." Instead, she stated, "I'd like them to say that Shirley Chisholm had guts". Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm will continue to inspire generations of women of color to run for office, and her legacy will never be forgotten. "I want history to remember me not just as the first black woman to be elected to Congress, not as the first black woman to have made a bid for the presidency of the United States, but as a black woman who lived in the 20th century and dared to be herself. " - Shirley Chisholm BACK TO TOP

Back to Artwork Black American Artists Back to Sections Relative By Sam Gilliam February 12, 2021 Volume 1 Issue 5 Medium: Acrylic on Canvas, Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington

Back to Articles Science & Technology Back to Sections Cool Creatures: The Crested Gecko By Matteo Somma Volume 2 Issue 6 April 14, 2022 Image provided by The Spruce Pets The Crested gecko, or Correlophus Ciliatus, is a gecko species that lives in New Caledonia, a chain of islands in the Southwest Pacific Ocean. The Crested gecko is a common pet that was thought to be extinct until 1994, when scientist Robert Seipp rediscovered the species. Along with the fact that this little lizard reaches lengths of 6-8 inches, the Crested gecko is known for its wide eyes and bright colors. Like many other species of geckos, the Crested gecko lacks eyelids. Thus, they have incredibly long tongues that allow them to reach from their mouths to their eyes to keep them moist as well as to clear away debris. Other than being known for their bulging eyes, Crested geckos are also famously known for their hundreds of distinct color and pattern variations. From spots to stripes, the Crested gecko has it all. The Crested gecko lives in the trees of the rainforest. As an arboreal species of reptile, they often leap from tree to tree. Since they are also a nocturnal species – meaning awake during the night – they can be commonly found sleeping high in tree crevices in the daytime and feasting at night. Just like humans, they are omnivores, meaning they consume both meat (or insects) and plants (in their case, fruits). During the evening, they can be found down on the rainforest floor eating rotten fruit and any bugs that may be inside. For those who are familiar with gecko species, they lose their tails. While many species of gecko regrow their tails, the Crested gecko does not. When attacked by a predator, they will drop or lose their tail to distract predators from escaping. Once their tail is lost, the Crested gecko will not regrow it. In captivity, Crested geckos make great pets. They can be kept in relatively small enclosures (10–36-gallon tanks stood upright) and require little annual fees. They can live up to 20 years in captivity and often tolerate being handled. We love this interesting little lizard! BACK TO TOP

Back to Articles Feature Back to Sections Enjoy the Silence Jasmine Roberts Volume 6 Issue 2 December 22, 2025 Image Provided by Kantonsbibliothek Appenzell Ausserrhoden A peculiar quote was spoken into the atmosphere one day with no true origin or genesis to explain its magnitude in the understanding of the role that art plays in the modern world. The quote said softly on one unspecific day, during an unspecific time: “Books were made for reading, music for hearing; films for seeing; a silent film must stay silent.’’ This quote pertained to the evolution of the film and the fears of those who saw it roar into the modern-day beast it would become. Birthed in the silence of nitrate film stock and negative film, it grew into what was deemed “The Talkies” around 1927 with the introduction of early sound demonstrated by the 1927 silent film “The Jazz Singer.” Although an avalanche would roll down the snow hill that is film, one by one descending together a series of events which would bring CGI, VFX, and digital video into modern films. The silent film has been arguably forgotten in modern day discourse on what makes beautiful cinematography, what makes a film intriguing, unnerving , and most importantly, what makes a film, not a book, or a song, or a stage play, or even a perfectly framed photo, but instead a series of photos stitched together to tell a tale made to both exist within the time of the viewer, but also supersede it all the same. To explain the type of stock and film that silent films were shot on, it is to also describe the physical appearance of silent films themselves. To a keener eye, or a zealot of the art form. A silent film is not simply what was once colored, turned black and white, having its vibrant color suffocated out of our vision. Instead, it captures the world turned monochrome, until it embodies both light and shadow. However, neither is this definition definitive; instead, the idea that silent films are solely monochrome, is a misconception. For instance, in the film Waxworks (1924) , a story narrating the imaginative ways in which a nameless poet schemes stories to bring historical wax figures to life, simply cannot be considered black and white, neither can it be considered a reflection of how color is shown in modern day film. In fact, a tint is applied to each scene to set the mood and tone. When the scenes are set in the hot, swarthy, arid Arabian desert, the tint takes an orange appeal, when the scenes begin in the icy winter of the Russian lands, the tint takes upon a blue to reflect said winter storm. The 1907 short film, Le Spectre Rouge , is one of the closest examples of color made diverse. White for bone, yellow for gold, and purple for granite caves within the unfolding scene. Even in the realm of black and white, progress had been made from the 1920’s to the 1950’s. For example, not only had the sound system slowly begin to develop prominence, but also end the need for intertitles, or printed text, spliced between shots to convey dialogue or action, while derailing the studio system or a method in which actors were signed to a specific studio such as Warners or MGM and would exclusively work with said studio on films. Around the 50’s, the freelance actor arose, or the system mostly used in the modern age. The silent film would soon be lost, as with many things, by its own evolution. Although, there might stand a modern-day director, such as director, Denis Villenueve, best known for his modern adaptation of literary work known as Dune, might profess a desire to film a movie in complete silence, only using narrative, physical and environmental storytelling to convey plot, tone, and message of a film, stating to the Times of London that, ‘’movies have been corrupted by television.’’ It is warranted to suspect that the context in which olden silent films were curated was also a lighter to the spark they had which allowed them to be completely absent from audible dialogue but not absent from humanity. Weimer Germany, the roaring 20’s, the infancy of film, the exploration, testing, trial and error, imperfections, all followed into the creation of the silent film. The grainy film and stock, the theatrical stage like acting, the bare film stages and imperfect faces smothered in camera correcting makeup in shades of yellow and blue. Without these things, both little and small, can there ever be a silent film, or more likely an uncanny imitation, taking the nose and eyes of the medium but never the heart and the mind. Fixing the superficially understood aesthetic upon a mannequin who poses in what feels human but is known to be unnatural. With modern advancements in technology, silent films have truly been allowed to die. But unlike The Golden Age of Hollywood or the peepshow shock value which carried on into the modern age, there is no detective to arrest its murderer: Time. The rawness of early films was its charm. There were no billionaire corporations to ensnare, nor were there large franchises to milk dry. Later, the Hayes Code would arrive, limiting what could be shown on screen, and while that might be a different story. One can only wonder if technology has killed film. Had CGI, digital camera, streaming, and years and years of film history both grown film to what it is, but also stunted its lifeblood from running freely and warming its body with the unbridled oddity of the silent film? As it seems, the silent film might be without a detective to cause the jailing of its executioner; it might stay rotting in a black and white alleyway, of pale skies and black markings. It might wither away and be called upon when intellectuals must signal their intellect, and directors desire to draw attention to the madness in their minds. Nonetheless, film must be seen, not heard, and therefore it needs a lawyer, and advocate for its remains. This article is simply evidence to be given to discovery; a cold case finally gone warm for this piece of film history. BACK TO TOP

Back to Artwork Portrait Back to Sections Mirror Reflection By Sienna Munro January 20, 2021 Photography Volume 1 Issue 4