''To Demonstrate How Spiders Fly'' is a

1909 Events January–February * January 4 – Explorer Aeneas Mackintosh of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition escapes death by fleeing across ice floes. * January 7 – Colombia recognizes the independence of Panama. * Janu ...

British short silent

animated Animation is a filmmaking technique whereby image, still images are manipulated to create Motion picture, moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on cel, transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and e ...

documentary film A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

, directed by

F. Percy Smith Frank Percy Smith (12 January 1880–24 March 1945) was a British naturalist and early nature documentary pioneer, who explored time-lapse photography, microphotography, microcinematography, underwater cinematography and animation. Biography ...

, featuring a close-up of an animated model spider throwing its silken thread to take to the air. The film features "the first of several animated creatures to appear in Smith's films", and according to Jenny Hammerton of BFI Screenonline was made in the belief, "that he could cure people of their fear of spiders by showing them blown up images of their eight legged foes on the cinema screen."

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* 1909 animated short films 1909 films 1900s short documentary films 1900s British films British black-and-white films British silent short films Black-and-white documentary films Animated films about spiders Stop-motion animated short films British short documentary films 1909 documentary films {{short-silent-documentary-film-stub