most people at that time thought that movies were just a passing novelty. But a few of the men who were making movies in that early period saw their great potential. Soon the directors and producers decided to make longer films that told longer and better stories, and they began to demand better arting. Among the pioneers in movie making was David Wark Griffith, an American director, whose most popular film was a three-hour story about the American Civil War, The Birth of a Nation. With this film, for the first time, the movies began to grow up as fine entertainment and as works of art, like fine novels and fine plays