In my beginning studies of film, I have been spoon-fed a few experimental shorts from the days of the early video camera, or cinematograph. Or cinèmatographe, as it was called in 1895 by its inventors, Auguste and Louis Lumière. (...because they were French... obviously...) The cinèmatographe was a camera, a projector, and a printer all in one, a significant improvement on Thomas Edison's kinetoscope, which was large and bulky and only allowed one audience member to view the film at a time.

The Lumière Brothers made several short films, shot on-location (with their new, compact technology) depicting various attractions (workers leaving the factory, a baby being fed...). My favorite of these films is Démolition d'un mur ("Demolition of a wall").

In class, we were shown a version of this short film in which the footage played first normally, and then in reverse. Apparently, this is something Louis Lumière was very fond of doing. (I can't find a version like this online anywhere, unfortunately. The only reference I can find to it is here.)

Playing film in reverse, even knowing that it is (now) a relatively simple process, never ceases to be amazing to me.

Thus, I have made my own (crappy) homage to the Lumière Brothers and their amazing, self-re-beuilding wall: