Breakers

A handful of passers-by watch waves breaking gently onto a shore

This was one of a number of films made to exploit the filmic possibilities of flowing water in the wake of the popular appeal of Rough Sea at Dover (1895). It's believed to have been shot in 1896, possibly in Spain or Portugal, by Henry William Short, a cinematographer-inventor whose films were distributed by the more celebrated pioneer RW Paul.

A friend of both Paul and his former colleague Birt Acres, Short is credited by film historian John Barnes as a vital catalyst in the development of the cinema, particularly for introducing like-minded people to each other (including Acres and Paul).