04/01/2026
The earliest surviving motion picture is the Roundhay Garden Scene, filmed by French inventor Louis Le Prince on October 14, 1888, England. It was shot at 12 frames per second and lasts 2.11 seconds.
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https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/15/Roundhay_Garden_Scene_%281888%29_7fps.webm
According to Le Prince's son, Adolphe, it was filmed at the Whitley home Oakwood Grange, the home of Joseph and Sarah Whitley, in Roundhay, Leeds, West Riding of Yorkshire. In it is Le Prince’s son Adolphe Le Prince, Sarah, Joseph Whitley and Harriet Hartley in their garden. Le Prince later shot trams and the horse-drawn and pedestrian traffic on Leeds Bridge, UK. They were projected in Leeds, making it the first motion picture screening. In September 1890, Le Prince was in Bourges to visit family, and decided to go to Dijon to see his brother before returning to the UK to patent his new camera. On 16 September he left Dijon and boarded the train to Paris. He was never seen again: no luggage nor co**se was found on the Dijon-Paris train nor along the railway. No one noticed strange behaviour or aggression in the Dijon-Paris express. The French police, Scotland Yard and the family undertook exhaustive searches but never found his body or luggage. This case was never solved.
