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The first sequel ever made was 1916's "Fall of a Nation," a follow-up to D.W. Griffith's wildly successful 1915 feature "Birth of a Nation." "Birth of a Nation" is considered a landmark feature film, marking innovations in editing, cinematography, and narrative technique. Unfortunately, it's also an openly racist paean to the Ku Klux Klan. As a review on IMDb notes, "Fall of a Nation" was written by Thomas Dixon, whose book "The Clansman" was turned into "Birth of a Nation."
Dixon didn't get any money out of the film, so he threw together "Fall of a Nation" to cash in -- and started a Hollywood tradition. In other sequel-related offerings, we found a nifty article by Eric Huber called "Beneath the Planet of the Sequels" in the official student paper of Livonia High in New York State. Mr. Huber is a veritable fount of sequel-related trivia. For example, can you name the first sequel to win the Oscar for Best Picture? Here's a hint -- it wasn't "Deuce Bigalow 2."
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