Griffith was an American film director best known for his controversial film The Birth of a Nation. Initially an actor, he sold film scenarios to the Biograph Company, which hired him as a director in 1908. In over 400 films for Biograph, he developed filmmaking as an art form with techniques such as the close-up and the scenic long shot, and he collaborated with cinematographer Billy Bitzer to create fade-out, fade-in, and soft-focus shots. In 1919, Griffith co-founded what film company? Discuss