Sara Canning & Jodi Balfour: 'Eadweard' Trailer

Sara Canning & Jodi Balfour: 'Eadweard' Trailer

It is the story of the legendary Muybridge, the best candidate as the real inventor of movies. (He was the first man ever to project moving images, more than a decade before Edison or the Lumieres.)

He was also the creator of the movie nude scene, and an absolutely amazing character. Muybridge once stalked and killed his wife's lover at point blank range with dozens of witnesses. He was jailed for three months before his trial for first degree murder. He acknowledged premeditation during his testimony. His lawyers used a two-edged defense: (1) they used the legal argument that he was not guilty by reason of insanity; (2) they snuck in the utterly extra-legal sympathy argument that killing one's wife's lover was a justifiable act. The jury rejected the insanity argument, but Muybridge was acquitted anyway - despite having no legitimate legal defense after the insanity argument fell apart. He owed his freedom to the unpredictability of the American jury system in the 19th century West.