While film studios from New York and Chicago had already established operations in California, Balboa Films became one of California's most significant early film production companies when Herbert M. Horkheimer purchased Edison's California Motion Picture Manufacturing Company in 1913. The California Motion Picture Manufacturing Company operated from 1910-1913 before becoming Balboa Films.

Based in Long Beach, Balboa Films was a prolific studio, producing more than 1,000 films that were distributed across the US and Europe during its operation from 1913 to 1918.

Only 10% of the nitrate films and artifacts made at Balboa survive today, some of which are stored at archives across the country and Europe, including the UCLA Film and TV Archive, the Margaret Herrick Library, and Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal.

This documentary explores the origins, innovations, and demise of California's forgotten silent film studio.