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Pick of the indies
RARE footage shot by Britain’s first movie maker is being screened at the Phoenix Cinema, East Finchley on Sunday.
RW Paul is seen as the pioneer of modern film. He grew up in Highbury and trained as an engineer at Finsbury Technical College.
His break into the movie business came when two entrepreneurs realised Thomas Edison had yet to file a patent for his camera equipment in Britain. They brought one of Edison’s cameras to Paul and he made his own version. He also began producing projectors and then moved on to make films to show on his new equipment. The films were shot around Camden and edited in his Muswell Hill studio.
Birkbeck College’s Professor Ian Christie, who is writing Paul’s biography, is giving a talk after the showing.
He said: “Paul was the first person in the country to make moving picture and projection equipment.
“He manufactured them for about a year and then realised he could not sell projectors unless he could provide films. It was a chicken and egg situation, so he started making them.”
• RW PAUL’s films with a talk by Professor Christie takes place at 2pm, on
Sunday 18 February 2007 at the Phoenix Cinema, East Finchley. Call: 020 8444 6789. |
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