Solar Eclipse
- 1900
One of the earliest surviving films from pioneer producer RW Paul.
Originally dated to 1900, this film was later re-catalogued as 1896, making it one of pioneer producer RW Paul's earliest actuality films. The side of the road is lined with promenading onlookers, and the pace of the cyclists, many of them women, and pony-traps is gentle and leisurely, suggesting a Sunday outing.
It was a lucky filmmaker who managed to be on hand to capture real 'hard news', as in the disastrous launch of HMS Albion. The second Boer War, the biggest international story of the late-Victorian era, lured several cameramen to South Africa. Others responded to audience demand for moving pictures of such events by dramatising them for the camera.