director: David Robinson

The discovery of a print of the 1916 Famous Players Film Company-Paramount Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, directed by J. Searle Dawley and starring Marguerite Clark, makes two significant contributions to film history. It brings to light a virtually unknown actress whose popularity during the teens rivaled Mary Pickford's. It also places before us, after a hiatus of 80 years, Walt Disney's acknowledged inspiration for his studio's first animated feature, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. For both these reasons, film scholars should applaud the Nederlands Filmmuseum, whose discovery of a print of the 1916 film among its holdings adds an important chapter to film history; to the George Eastman House for restoring the film; and to the 17th Le Giornate del Cinema Muto for exhibiting it to an international audience. (Karen Merritt, "Marguerite Clark as America's Snow White: The Resourceful Orphan Who Inspired Walt Disney", Griffithiana 64, October 1998)