In 1901, long before editing was recognized as an art form, a curious cut appeared in an Edison actuality film. More than a century later, filmmaker and editor Wiebe van der Vliet discovered it while studying early cinema. The edit seemed too deliberate to be accidental, leading him deep into the archival paper rolls of the Library of Congress.

The Evolution of the Cut is a 5-minute essay film that explores what may be the earliest surviving example of continuity editing. Using a Steenbeck as his microscope, van der Vliet reconstructs a hidden moment when cinema shifted from recording life to reshaping it.

The film is both an homage to forgotten innovators like Edwin S. Porter and a meditation on how cinema was, at its birth, stitched together through error, intuition, and invention.

Supported by the Danish Arts Foundation and FAF.