The 68mm Mutoscope and Biograph films are among the earliest motion pictures ever created and projected. They represent a historically innovative film technology, developed in 1896.
These large format films are preserved at Eye Filmmuseum (Amsterdam), the British Film Institute (London), the Museum of Modern Art (New York), the Cinemathique Française (Paris) and the Centre National du Cinema et de l'image animee (Bois d’Arcy) since the 1960s. Because the Mutoscope and Biograph camera operators travelled the world, these films constitute a first-hand testimony to the past.
They document places, people, events, and customs that captured the interest of the time, while narrating fictional stories that display the common behaviour and relations between people of different cultures, ages, classes and professions.
