“Exposing Muybridge” Screening and Discussion

Exposing Muybridge marks the first feature documentary to chronicle the fascinating tale of nineteenth-century photographer Eadweard Muybridge, the mysterious figure whose work fast-tracked the development of early motion pictures. Written and directed by Marc Shaffer, the documentary sheds light on Muybridge’s early career as a photographer of U.S. military conflicts with Native Americans in the West. However, Muybridge is perhaps best known for The Horse in Motion (1878), a series of sequential images commissioned to document the movement of the animal’s limbs at full gallop. The documentary reveals the strange story behind its development and the eventual betrayal by the patron who sought sole credit. Well over a century later, Exposing Muybridge uses interviews with historians, photographers, and even actor Gary Oldman—a collector of Muybridge’s work—to illustrate the lasting significance of his contributions to film and photography.

Writer/director Marc Shaffer will join Cristina Venegas (Film and Media Studies, UCSB) for a post-screening discussion of Exposing Muybridge.