Interspecies Labor in Early Cinema: Making Animal Pictures at David Horsley's Bostock Jungle and Film Company

Abstract

This article examines how David Horsley's Bostock Jungle and Film Company adapted interspecies labor practices from the circus on- and offscreen in order to popularize animal pictures and legitimize animal labor and captivity. As this article documents, colonialist perspectives about human subjugation of nature through animals were translated to cinema by the adaptation of circus interspecies labor and stardom, which shaped early cinema's practice of using exotic animals as resources for filmmaking. By examining Bostock Jungle and Film Company paratexts, training manuals, and trainer autobiographies, the article sheds new light on the neglected practice of animal training and animal work in early cinema.