‘Exposing Muybridge’ paperwork the beginning of transferring footage – Colorado Each day
This story has been updated to reflect that Gary Oldman’s documentary “Flying Horse” has not yet been released.
In 2013, veteran documentary filmmaker Marc Shaffer was working on a film in San Francisco when he became captivated by the work of English photographer Eadweard Muybridge. The film, “American Jerusalem: Jews and the Making of San Francisco” that aired on PBS in 2014, used some of Muybridge’s photography.
It was then when Shaffer conceptualized the idea of creating a film about Muybridge, who is considered to be the father of stop-motion photography.
“[Exposing Muybridge] tells the fantastical story of the pioneering 19th century motion photographer whose breakthrough photography influenced today’s cinema,” Shaffer said.
Shaffer will screen his 2021 film “Exposing Muybridge” at the Boulder International Film Festival this weekend. In Shaffer’s first visit to BIFF, he will be present for three screenings — two in Boulder and one in Longmont.
The film was brought to the attention of Robin Beeck, BIFF’s executive director, after festival staff member Sherri Fike saw “Exposing Muybridge” at a New York festival.
“’Exposing Muybridge’ is one of those films that engrosses you so much in the story that you forget you’re sitting in a movie theater,” Beeck said. “And when you leave the theater, you have to reorient yourself to place and time a little bit. That’s the sign of a great film and is why we selected it to bring to our audiences.”
Muybridge is famously known for capturing motion by taking photos of a running horse in each stage of its gallop, a photo sequence that helped set the tone of modern-day cinema. This sequence has been said to be the first time a photographer captured movement faster than the human eye can see.
“Aspects of his work, once understood, made you feel different about how you can trust the person behind the machine,” Shaffer said.
Among historians and professionals, the film also features Academy Award-winning actor Gary Oldman, a collector of Muybridge’s work.
“It’s like splitting the atom, it’s like discovering penicillin — it’s a monumental achievement,” Oldman says in the film, when talking about Muybridge’s discoveries.
Oldman has written a screenplay about Muybridge, “Flying Horse,” with the plan of directing and starring in the movie. Shaffer said the film is yet to be released due to funding shortfalls.
“I wanted Gary Oldman in the film,” Shaffer said, “not because I wanted a celebrity plant, but because, as an artist and a public figure, Gary relates to Muybridge on a deeply personal level, in a way others do not. ”
Shaffer began production of the film in 2019, after receiving funding, including a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
“The hardest part in making a film is the funding,” Shaffer said. “Getting approved for funding and trying to figure how much you’ll actually end up needing is the most difficult part.”
After nine years of work and two years of filming through a pandemic, “Exposing Muybridge”’ will now hit BIFF’s big screens. It will be screened in Boulder at the Boulder Theater, 2032 14th St., at 3 pm Saturday and at eTown Hall, 1535 Spruce St., at 7:30 pm Sunday. It will be screened at Longmont Museum’s Stewart Auditorium, 400 Quail Road, at 5:15 pm Saturday.
“[Boulder International Film Festival staff] have been terrific and I’m really looking forward to being there and sharing our film,” Shaffer said.
