Orphans of the Storm (1921)
In the late 18th century, Henriette (Lillian Gish) takes her blind sister Louise (Dorothy Gish) to Paris to find a doctor who can cure her condition. The two are separated by the political forces of the French Revolution.
This romantic epic is really a warning about the then contemporary dangers of Bolshevism and communism.
The popular conception of silent films is so wrapped up in ideas of Charlie Chaplin most people assume all silent films are comedies, but the films of D.W. Griffith are elaborate epics, huge movies made when it actually took thousands of people to film large scenes.
While not as important as Griffith’s Birth of a Nation (1915) or its apology Intolerance (1916), this film is a decent melodrama and still engaging almost one hundred years after its premiere.
All My Babes: A Midwife’s Own Story (1953)
This short documentary about midwives in the rural south in the first half of the twentieth century was added to the National Film Registry in 2002.
If you’re interested in the recent past, or midwifery, check this out. It’s not a life changing film, but it was very interesting; one of the better non-fictional films in the National Film Registry.