December 28: Lumière Brothers Film Debut (1895)
Prayer Idea
Pray that you would exercise wise moderation in the type and amount of video content you consume.
History Note
In the late 1800s, several people in several countries were experimenting with moving pictures. Photography had been around for decades, but photographs captured just one moment in time. Early experiments with film showed a series of still images in rapid succession. To the human eye, this made people and objects appear to move across the screen.
Auguste Lumière (born in 1862) and Louis Lumière (born in 1864) were brothers from Besançon, France. Their father, Antoine, was a painter who became a photographer. In 1894 Antoine saw a demonstration of the Kinetoscope in Paris. This was a device produced by Thomas Edison’s company that allowed one person at a time to watch a short film strip.
When Antoine told his sons about the Kinetoscope, they began creating their own device. They built the Cinématographe, which was a motion-picture camera and projector. They began filming everyday scenes and scheduled a public demonstration.
On December 28, 1895, a few dozen people gathered in a cafe to watch a series of ten short films. The total length was about 15 minutes. The event was a hit, and subsequent screenings required a policeman to control crowds. The Cinématographe was soon showing films to audiences around the world.
This is a Cinématographe on display at the Institut Lumière in Lyon, France. Photo by Victorgrigas / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0.
Learn More
This compilation attempts to recreate the public debut of the Lumière Brothers film technology.
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