Exposing Muybridge

Photographer Eadweard Muybridge changed the world from Leland Stanford’s farm in 1878, shooting multiple photos of a horse in motion, setting the stage for motion pictures. This experiment was but the tip of the iceberg in Muybridge’s almost unbelievable globe-trotting personal odyssey. Photographer, businessman, raconteur, fugitive, even murderer: Muybridge, driven to become famous or die trying, was all of those things and more.

The first feature documentary about the elusive Eadweard Muybridge, Exposing Muybridge is a beautifully crafted and thoroughly engaging portrait of this pioneering iconoclast. Born Edward James Muggeridge in Kingston upon Thames in England, he ran off to America when he was 20, changed his name, ran a bookstore and then became a photographer for wealthy patrons. At one point, in a fit of jealousy, he murdered a man and somehow, proudly admitting he did it, was acquitted. The film boasts an impressive array of interviews, including the delightful actor and Muybridge collector Gary Oldman, whose wit and insights are as enthralling as any of his fictional performances. Not to be denied, however, are Muybridge’s own extraordinary photographs, which exhibit a timeless power all their own.

Director Biography

Award-winning documentary filmmaker Marc Shaffer has made more than two dozen documentaries for PBS, National Geographic, Al Jazeera and more. His first documentary feature, American Jerusalem: Jews and the Making of San Francisco (2013) exposed him to the work of Muybridge. Exposing Muybridge (2021) is his most recent documentary.

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