The Paris Universal Exposition (1900)

Weary of directing traffic for 8-10 hours a day-let's boot up my Time Machine and find some culture...oh, is this Paris again? Looks like something special going on today...

This particular feature is a literal postmortem collaboration between French film-maker Marc Allegret , cameramen from the Edison Film studios and a third series of stereoscopic shots made by an unknown contributor. Some reels from each self-contained feature were lost through time and entropy-but what survives contains myriad scenes of the famous Paris landmarks, excited tourists and native Parisians alike enjoying the festivities, a few of the individual exhibits (such as a prototype automated Boardwalk, several dance recitals and parades) and quick glimpses of the Paris streets replete with coaches, wagons, pedestrians and cyclists, all making their way through a city whose future looked endlessly bright at the beginning of the Twentieth Century...

These fragments of different newsreels languished for countless decades in a state of advanced degradation-until media maven Guy Jones found them, performed a full restoration through an advanced AI , cleaning up the print, correcting for proper speed and aspect ratio, normalizing tints and even generating a 'soundtrack' of background noise to add to one's viewing experience. The result? Nearly 36 minutes of the Paris Exposition, available to experience over some Jasmine tea before bed, an experience that I am very grateful for...B&W, Soundtrack.