This website is dedicated to exploring the once vibrant relationship between Santa Cruz county and the silent film industry. Over eighty silent films were made in and around Santa Cruz, with such star powers as Mary Pickford and Cecil B. DeMille utilizing the visual complexity of the Bay Area. I feel that, both as a student of UCSC and as member of the local community, I am indebted to the cultural diversity represented in Santa Cruz. This research into a cinematic history forgotten is not only a way for me to engender an interest for historical film studies within the UCSC student body, but is also an opportunity for Santa Cruz citizens to reevaluate their own relationship with the county’s past.