Public Screening

What it does

A catalog of 1,186 public domain films, from the 1890s to 1990, that you can search, filter and sort in the page. Open a film for its year, length, rating, credits and a couple of lines about it. Where the Internet Archive holds the film, press Watch here and it plays right there.

• One search box for titles, directors and cast. Type Buster Keaton and you get what he directed and what he’s in.
• Filters for genre, decade, rating, director, actor and length, plus Watchable, Has poster and your own list.
• Honest ratings. IMDb scores out of ten where a film could be matched, and the source site’s stars where it couldn’t. The two are never mixed.
• Checked matches. Each Internet Archive match was checked against the film’s running time, to weed out the clips filed under its name.
• A link for every view. Filters and the open film live in the address, and Copy link gives a film its own page with its poster.
• A drawn poster, sprocket holes and all, for any film without art.