The Lumière brothers (19 October 1862 – 10 April 1954) and Louis Jean Lumière (5 October 1864 – 6 June 1948),[1][2] were French manufacturers of photography equipment, best known for their Cinématographe motion picture system and the short films they produced between 1895 and 1905, which places them among the earliest filmmakers.
On 22 March 1895 in Paris, at the "Society for the Development of the National Industry", in front of a small audience, one of whom was said to be Léon Gaumont, then director of the company the Comptoir Géneral de la Photographie, the Lumières privately screened a single film, La Sortie de l'usine Lumière à Lyon. The main focus of the conference by Louis Lumière concerned the recent developments in the photographic industry, mainly the research on polychromy (colour photography). It was much to Lumière's surprise that the moving black-and-white images retained more attention than the coloured stills.[11] The American Woodville Latham screened films to a paying public two months later on 20 May 1895 at 156 Broadway, New York City.
