year: 1895

The Arrest of a Bookmaker
A man strolling in a city street is attacked by three assailants. A policeman comes to the rescue and the men struggle with each other.

Incident at Clovelly Cottage
Incident at Clovelly Cottage, also known as Incident Outside Clovelly Cottage, Barnet, shot by Birt Acres and produced by Acres and his collaborator Robert W. Paul in March 1895, was the "first successful motion picture film made in Britain" Considered lost since only a few frames have survived.

Tom Merry, Lightning Cartoonist, Sketching Kaiser Wilhelm II
A tiny fragment of an actuality film of Tom Merry (William Mechem), a 'lightning sketch' caricaturist performing his act for the camera and producing a large profile caricature of Kaiser Wilhelm II. The loss of the rest of the film has bequeathed us 6 seconds that are of Mechem standing next to the completed portrait and sadly, that is all there is. An early film made by Birt Acres for R.W. Paul. (see release information for further detail).

The Derby 1895
A stationary camera, looking diagonally across a racetrack toward the infield, records the horses as they race past. Once they are out of view and the race is over, police officers run onto the infield. The crowd moves around.

Animated Portrait Shot by L and A Lumière
An early Kinora demonstration film.

The German Emperor Reviewing His Troops
Directed by Birt Acres.

Opening of the Kiel Canal
The opening of the Kiel Canal in Germany by Kaiser Wilhelm II on 20 June 1895.

The Sprinkler Sprinkled
A gardener is watering his flowers, when a mischievous boy sneaks up behind his back, and puts a foot on the water hose. The gardener is surprised and looks into the nozzle to find out why the water has stopped coming. The boy then lifts his foot from the hose, whereby the water squirts up in the gardener's face. The gardener chases the boy, grips his ear and slaps him in his buttocks. The boy then runs away and the gardener continues his watering. Three separate versions of this film exist, this is the original, filmed by Louis Lumière.

Fishing for Goldfish
A man, holding a baby up in his hands, is standing next to a fishbowl. The baby is trying, in vain, to catch a goldfish with her bare hands.

Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory
Working men and women leave through the main gate of the Lumière factory in Lyon, France. Filmed on 22 March 1895, it is often referred to as the first real motion picture ever made, although Louis Le Prince's 1888 Roundhay Garden Scene pre-dated it by seven years. Three separate versions of this film exist, which differ from one another in numerous ways. The first version features a carriage drawn by one horse, while in the second version the carriage is drawn by two horses, and there is no carriage at all in the third version. The clothing style is also different between the three versions, demonstrating the different seasons in which each was filmed. This film was made in the 35 mm format with an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, and at a speed of 16 frames per second. At that rate, the 17 meters of film length provided a duration of 46 seconds, holding a total of 800 frames.

Swimming in the Sea
Several little boys run along a pier, then jump into the ocean.

Baby's Meal
A father, a mother and a baby are sitting at a table, on a patio outside. Dad is feeding Baby her lunch, while Mum is serving tea.

Transformation by Hats
Félicien Trewey uses a basic prop to create comical hats and their accompanying caricatures.

Wintergartenprogramm
On 1 November 1895, the brothers Max and Emil Skladanowsky presented their pioneer film work and legendary Bioscop program in Berlin′s Wintergarten Theater. With live musical accompaniment, the compilation program included short film sequences with famous artists of the time: Italienischer Bauerntanz, Komisches Reck, Der Jongleur, Das boxende Känguruh, Kamarinskaja, Die Serpentintänzerin, Akrobatisches Potpourri, Ringkampf, and Apotheose, with the Skladanowsky brothers bowing to their audience.

Photograph
A photographer has his camera all set up to take a gentleman's picture. The subject checks his face in a hand mirror, and the photographer poses him. Just as the photographer is about to take the picture, the subject gets up to look at the camera more closely. The frustrated photographer soon becomes quite impatient.

The Mechanical Butcher
A butcher puts a full-grown live pig into his large box-like machine. Moments later, he draws out a full range of pork products, many already packaged for sale.
Ringkämpfer
Two men in white leotards and tights, and black slips over it, wrestle on a theatre stage.

The Photographical Congress Arrives in Lyon
Down the gangway, photographers leave the deck of a riverboat in large numbers.

Danse serpentine (Annabelle)
In a long, diaphanous skirt, held out by her hands with arms extended, Broadway dancer Annabelle Moore performs. Her dance emphasizes the movement of the flowing cloth. She moves to her right and left across an unadorned stage. Many of the prints were distributed in hand-tinted color.

Partie de tric-trac
A man and a woman, observed by others, are playing a game of Tric-trac, a French variant of Backgammon. During the course of the game, the man gets caught red-handed, which results in him closing the game board.