Home Page	IN SEARCH OF LIGHT LePrince to the Present [En Recherche de la Lumiere: LePrince au Present] This was the second Living Time® Docufilm™ to go into production. The first stage of filming took place in Leeds, the true birthplace of Film-making, while the second stage of filming took place in La Ciotat, on the Côte d'Azur, where the Lumière Brothers filmed their famous train arriving in a station. The third and final stage remains to be filmed in Lyon, a third location of significance in Cinema's history. More Details below. Return to the Living Time® Docufilms™ Main Page	Contact Us
	Gare de la Ciotat on the Côte d'Azur in the South of France More About 'In Search of Light' En Recherche de la Lumière, a film that takes us from the indus- trial city of Leeds in the north of England to the small seaside resort of La Ciotat in the South of France, is a search for "light" in many different ways. It is as much an investigation into the birth of cinema as it is into the relationship between two locations, separated by hundreds of miles and a channel of water, but not for that reason totally unconnected to each other (that is, apart from their filmic connection). Of course, the prio-rity of Leeds in the History of Cinema was already set forth in the documentary "The Missing Reel" where it was made clear that the very first films in the world were shot in this city by a half frenchman called Louis Augustin LePrince (1888). However, even though he has rightful claim to being the earliest film-maker, earlier than Edison (whom some assert stole LePrince's idea by having the latter spied on in Leeds), earlier than the Lumière brothers, he was not the first to screen films publicly in cinemas, a privilege to which the Lumière brothers do have a rightful claim. Of these films "L'Arrivée d'un Train en Gare de La Ciotat" may claim to be the one as it was shown at their first café screening in Paris in 1895, a moment when people thought the train was coming straight at them and where somejumped out of their seats! The connection between the two stories - that of LePrince in Leeds and of the Lumière brothers in Paris and Lyon (their hometown), is what the film investigates more than anything else, though to "give everything away" in this synopsis would rather defeat the objective of making a film on this topic. Suffice to say the fact that both these originators of the "Moving Image" (I refer to the Lumiére brothers as if they were 'one person') are of French origin certainly sheds light on new and intriguing areas of a forgotten story in the history of cinema. And not only this, but the "railway" connection with Leeds (it was in Hunslet in Leeds that the very first tracks of rail in the world were set down), and the fact that Leeds houses the 'World Clock' and not Greenwich (Caesium Atomic Clock at Leeds University) fuels several other lines of enquiry in the documentary. However, the most compelling path of enquiry for the film-maker - who spent his whole life in Leeds - is that La Ciotat was the birthplace of his Great-Grandfather, a person who he has heard about from his Grandfather of 94 who still lives quite close to this area of the South. How can one not be curious about places where a person of the same strain of blood as oneself led out their days - though one hundred years earlier! There is nothing more to say about this film here that would not diminish the pleasure in its viewing, except that the film is in three parts, determined by the locations in which the film was shot. The three stages and their respective locations are: 1. From Twilight to Dark - Leeds 2. The Dawning Day - Lyon 3. A Light Shines - La Ciotat