The Photographical Congress Arrives in Lyon (1895) FULL VIDEO

 

 

Original Title (French): Débarquement du Congrès de Photographes à Lyon - English: The Photographical Congress Arrives in Lyon (1895)

Director: Louis Lumière

Cast: Auguste Lumière,  P. Jules C. Janssen

Release Date: June 12, 1895

Country of Origin: France

In Neuville-sur-Saône, the photographers who must attend the Lyon Congress disembark from a boat and split to the left and right.

On a summer day, members of the French Photographic Society travel by riverboat to the location of their congress in Neuville-sur-Saône. They cross a wooden landing platform to get ashore. A few women wearing long skirts are among the numerous guys wearing straw hats. When they pass the photographer, a few of the men raise their hats. A large number of them have their own cameras.

A bridge over a river is visible in the distance as a throng of people gets off a riverboat. Tripods, bellows cameras, and boxes are among the photographic equipment that both men and women carry. Each of them works as a photographer. Some guys merely stare at the camera operator (the lens recording them) when they are aware that they are being photographed, while others tip their hats to the camera. One individual with a bellows camera even tries to take a picture of the recently developed Lumière Cinematograph, which is a source of fascination.

Jules Janssen and Auguste Lumière were among those captured on camera.

On June 11, 1895, Louis Lumière recorded the delegates' disembarkation on the Quai Pasteur on a boat voyage on the Saône, which took them fifteen kilometers upstream to Neuville-sur-Saône at the congress of French photographic clubs in Lyon. The event is now commemorated by a plaque. The visible Seguin-style suspension bridge has been replaced in 1934 with a concrete bridge.

The following day, June 12, 1895, the movie was shown in the Monnier chambers (Place Bellecour in Lyon) at the conclusion of the congress session. The film's educational element makes it the first cinematic newsreel and the forerunner of television news.

Débarquement du congrès de photographes à Lyon (The Photographical Congress Arrives in Lyon), directed by Louis Lumière in 1895, is credited with several major "firsts" in cinematic history: 

First Newsreel and Documentary: It is considered the first newsreel and one of the earliest examples of a documentary film. Unlike earlier "actuality" films that simply captured movement (like trains or walking), this film recorded a specific scheduled historical event.

Rapid Processing and Projection: It achieved a major technical milestone by being developed and screened for its subjects on the same day it was filmed. This demonstrated the commercial and practical efficiency of the Lumière brothers' Cinématographe.

First Self-Referential Film: Since the subjects—members of the Congress of Photographic Societies—were also the initial audience, it is often cited as the first "film about film". The footage captures fellow photographers disembarking a ferry, many of whom acknowledge the camera.

Historical Documentation: The film serves as a "time machine," preserving the dress, mannerisms, and architecture of the late 19th century, including the now-demolished Neuville Suspension Bridge.

Public Debut: It was one of the ten short films featured in the world's first commercial public movie screening on December 28, 1895, at the Grand Café in Paris.