Sequels are important in today's movie industry: Star Wars, Lord of the Rings to name just a few. Many, if not most sequels are money monster machines in today's theaters. Cinema's first sequel was released in January 1911 in Biograph Studio's "His Trust Fulfilled." There is some debate whether this short 15-minute film can qualify as a true sequel since it's not a feature movie. But those who defend their application to the term for this particular movie have a strong position.
"His Trust Fulfilled" is unlike a serial or a movie series in that it continues the storyline introduced in "His Trust" by referring to events in the first movie. Although not a "feature" film sequel, this second movie does conclude the plot.
D. W. Griffith, always looking to move forward from the industry's short one-reelers, directed a two-reeler called "His Trust." Biograph executives didn't think audiences in the nickelodeon theaters had the attention span to sit through 30 minutes of a movie. Plus they felt they could double the profits by splitting Griffith's film by creating two movies and charge separate admissions to see the entire plot unfold.
Griffith would have to wait a full four years before he got his wish to produce a full-length two-hour movie. In "His Trust," he introduces a slave who, during the Civil War, honors the wish of the plantation owner who goes off to war that he promises to protect the owner's family in case he dies--which he does. Griffith, in metaphoric terms, shows how the whites in the post war South badly treated the freed slaves. George, the ex-slave, sacrifices everything to provide for the family while the whites portrayed here are an apathetic group who act callous towards the family whose patriarch died for "The Lost Cause."