In October 1888 the French-born inventor Louis Aim Augustin Le Prince recorded what is probably the first film in the history of cinema. His subject was the ebb and flow of people across Leeds Bridge. Inspired by that historic film Ken Jacobs, an artist based in New York, has produced a video installation called 'Gift of Fire - Nineteen (obscure) Frames that Changed the World'. Jacobs uses a 3D projection system and 3D glasses to reveal hidden beauty and waves of motion. The video is part of Evolution 2007, a three-day festival combining video, sound and visual art. The Ken Jacobs installation is at: Whitehall Waterfront, 2 Riverside Way, Leeds, LS1 4EH
The exhibition runs daily from 25 May-1 June, 11.30am-6.30pm (closed Monday 28 May). There is free entry to the installation.  | | Woodhouse Lane, site of Le Prince's workshop |
Only 19 frames of the historic film exist today. Louis Le Prince's workshop was on Woodhouse Lane in a building that, until recently, hosted the BBC in Leeds. This film shot in Leeds was several years ahead of the work of competing inventors such as Thomas Edison. Le Prince was unable to perform a planned public demonstration in the United States as he mysteriously vanished from a train in 1890. His body was never found, but, a century later, a police archive was found to contain a photograph of a drowned man that could be Le Prince. You can see the moving footage of Leeds Bridge on the Louis Le Prince Centre or the Leodis websites and further details of the festival on the Evolution 2007 website. | 
