First Surviving Motion Picture Filmed

Date: October 14, 1888 • Location: Shadwell, United Kingdom

French inventor Louis Le Prince filmed Roundhay Garden Scene (pictured), the earliest surviving motion picture, in Leeds, England.

Louis Aimé Augustin Le Prince was a French-American artist, cinematographer and the inventor of an early motion-picture camera, and director of Roundhay Garden Scene. He was possibly the first person to shoot a moving picture sequence using a single lens camera and a strip of (paper) film. He has been credited as the "Father of Cinematography" but, due to his disappearance in 1890, his work did not influence the commercial development of cinema.