Trained as a photographer, Cleveland native Ralph Steiner crafted an impressive body of work in the 1930s in both experimental and nonfiction modes. His first major work, H2O  is an abstract film which focuses on the rhythmic flow of water and its interplay with light and shadow, and was recently selected for the National Film Registry. Steiner continued in this mode with poetic works such as Mechanical Principles and Surf and Seaweed before turning to more ideologically motivated pieces. Pie in the Sky is a political satire made with members of the Group Theater (including Elia Kazan and Nykino), a group dedicated to producing agit-prop films. Along with Paul Strand and Leo Hurwitz Steiner formed Frontier Films, which sought to expand the possibilities of documentary film, most notably seen in The City, his collaboration with Willard van Dyke. In his later career Steiner worked as a writer in Hollywood studios and eventually returned to commercial photography.