Michael Allan draws on his new book, Cinema Before the World: The Global Routes of the Lumière Brothers (Fordham, 2026), to talk about the transnational origins of filmmaking by focusing on a case study in world cinema—the 1896-1897 voyage of one of the Lumière Brothers camera operators, Alexandre Promio, across North Africa and the Middle East. The book shows how the sites in these early films are not simply backdrops, but integral to film form and its global history. The talk will be accompanied by rare moving footage shot in North Africa and the Middle East, including Palestine.

Michael Allan (Society of Fellows 2008-2009) is Associate Professor of Comparative Literature and Cinema Studies at the University of Oregon, and editor-in-chief of the journal Comparative Literature. His research and teaching explore the intersections of colonial and postcolonial studies, film and visual culture, and world literature, with a particular focus on Arabic, Francophone, and Anglophone literary traditions.

This event is presented by the Maison Française and the School of the Arts Film and Media Studies.

This event is a continuation of the screening of Lumière Brothers films taking place on Monday, September 14, 7:00 PM at the Lenfest Center for the Arts, 615 West 129th Street.