Ambition, betrayal, murder, deception… and the birth of moving pictures! The first feature documentary to bring the fantastical story of the trailblazing 19th-century photographer to life.
Pre-screening Gallery Talk: Muybridge in Focus | March 26, 12 pm | Martha and David Moore Prints, Drawings, and Photographs Study, third floor, Eskenazi Museum of Art: Nan Brewer, the Eskenazi Museum of Art’s Lucienne M. Glaubinger Curator of Works on Paper, and Rebecca Fasman, curator at the Kinsey Institute, will discuss examples of Eadweard Muybridge’s groundbreaking movement studies of nude and clothed human forms in Animal Locomotion and The Human Figure in Motion from the museum and Kinsey collections. Free, but registration required as space is limited. Register here.
Born Edward James Muggeridge in 1830 in England, Muybridge escaped a dreary life of lugging barges in his family’s business when, at 20, he set sail for the United States. Determined to become successful, he would try his hand at various professions, repeatedly changing his name along the way. After spending several years recuperating from a near-fatal stagecoach accident that left him brain damaged, he came to San Francisco with a new name and new career. Riding the crest of his popularity, Muybridge wed a beautiful woman half his age, but their marriage came to a melodramatic and spectacular end, and with it nearly Muybridge himself. Ever the survivor, Muybridge turned his attention to the work that would forever change the world: managing to coax his slow-moving, wet-plate cameras to move fast enough to capture running horses. These images were the first ever made of something moving faster than the human eye can see. In public lectures, the disheveled photographer with the flowing white beard would delight his audiences by projecting crude animations of his motion sequences, the first moving picture shows based on live action photography, and a giant leap towards the invention of cinema. [88 min; documentary; English]
Winner of the Writers Guild of America’s 2022 Documentary Screenplay Award
“It’s like splitting the atom, it’s like discovering penicillin—it’s a monumental achievement." — Gary Oldman, Exposing Muybridge
“One key achievement alone would be worthy of a documentary. But director Marc Shaffer unfolds an even richer story with this cinematic biography, which tracks the complex, ornery, strange central figure from his humble beginnings in England.” –Leslie Felperin, The Guardian
Any film screened at IU Cinema may contain content that viewers find sensitive or upsetting. Visit our Audience Advisories page to learn more.
