In 1897, at the very dawn of cinema, Alexandre Promio, an agent of the Lumière Brothers, visited Ireland to capture films for their international catalogue of actualities. This 50 second actuality film presents a view of Sackville (now O’Connell) Street from the O’Connell Bridge end. The Lumières – pioneers in the development of cinema in the 1890s – inaugurated ‘actuality cinema’, a non-fiction film genre consisting of the depiction of everyday life, military and sporting activities unfolding in an unmediated manner before the camera.

Notes by Experimental Film Club.