The Surprisingly Mysterious Story of the World’s First Filmmaker

This post is in partnership with History Today. The article below was originally published at History Today.

In 1888, in Leeds, the French inventor Louis Le Prince shot what many now consider to be the world’s first films. Fragments of three survive — the Roundhay Garden, Accordion and Leeds Bridge scenes — in which the inventor managed to capture moving pictures years before Thomas Edison or the Lumière brothers.

This post is in partnership with History Today. The article below was originally published at History Today. In 1888, in Leeds, the French inventor Louis Le Prince shot what many now consider to be the world’s first films. Fragments of three survive — the Roundhay Garden, Accordion and Leeds Bridge scenes — in which the inventor managed to capture moving pictures years before Thomas Edison or the Lumière brothers.