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The Past in Motion: A Look at Early Cinema

On a sunny afternoon 125 years ago, the inventor Louis Lumiere set up a new kind of photographic device outside his factory in southern France. Equipped with nearly 55 feet of a new kind of flexible film, he trained this camera on workers as they left through the complex’s main gate to end their daily shift. In sixteen frames per second, he created one of the earliest motion picture recordings that remain available to us today.

Like many developments in photography and film, the motion picture arose out of a rich history of performance, shadow puppetry, and immersive storytelling. Join us this Friday for a look at the origins of the moving image, a preview of two early films currently featured in MOPA’s exhibition Illusion: The Magic of Motion, and for a lively discussion with special guest Joaquin Ortiz, the museum’s Director of Innovation, about their legacy and importance to us today.

Artists in focus:

• Louis Lumiere
• George Méliès

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Image credits:

Méliès, George, director. Voyage Dans La Lune. 1902.