''Newark Athlete'' is an
1891
Events
January–March
* January 1
** Paying of old age pensions begins in Germany.
** A strike of 500 Hungarian steel workers occurs; 3,000 men are out of work as a consequence.
** Germany takes formal possession of its new Af ...
American
short silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized Sound recording and reproduction, recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) ...
directed and produced by
William Kennedy Dickson
William Kennedy Laurie Dickson (3 August 1860 – 28 September 1935) was a British inventor who devised an early motion picture camera under the employment of Thomas Edison.
Early life
William Kennedy Dickson was born on 3 August 1860 in ...
. The film, roughly ten seconds in length, displays a young athlete swinging
Indian club
Indian clubs, which originated in the Indian subcontinent, are a type of exercise equipment used to present resistance in movement to develop strength and mobility. They consist of juggling club shaped wooden clubs of varying sizes and weights, ...
s. It was filmed in May or June 1891, in the Photographic Building at the
Edison Laboratory, West Orange, New Jersey.
The film was made to be viewed using
Thomas Edison
Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventi ...
's
Kinetoscope
The Kinetoscope is an early motion picture exhibition device, designed for films to be viewed by one person at a time through a peephole viewer window. The Kinetoscope was not a movie projector, but it introduced the basic approach that woul ...
.
In 2010, ''Newark Athlete'' was selected for preservation in the United States
National Film Registry
The National Film Registry (NFR) is the United States National Film Preservation Board's (NFPB) collection of films selected for preservation, each selected for its historical, cultural and aesthetic contributions since the NFPB’s inception ...
by the
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library ...
as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". It is currently the oldest film chosen to be in the Registry.
References
External links
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1891 films
1890s American films
American silent short films
American black-and-white films
United States National Film Registry films
Films directed by William Kennedy Dickson
Articles containing video clips
Films shot in New Jersey
Sports in Newark, New Jersey
1891 short films
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