This Day in Indie History: Auguste and Louis Lumière

Early prodigies in the development of the moving picture, brothers Auguste and Louis Lumière introduced the first commercially profitable film screening at Paris’ Grand Cafe in 1895. Improving on Thomas Edison’s Peephole Kinetoscope, the pair developed the Cinematograph, a lightweight and hand-cranked camera that ran 16 frames per second. Early films showed slice of life moments of everyday people gardening, exiting trains and heading home from work. In 1903 narrative films arrived on scene with breakthroughs including Edwin S. Porter’s The Life of an American Fireman and The Great Train Robbery.