YORKSHIREMAN David Nicholas Wilkinson has spent 33 years trying to prove for once and for all that the inventor of the moving picture was a Frenchman in Leeds by the name of Louis Le Prince.

What's more, was Le Prince subsequently murdered for his deeds as the world’s first cameraman, director and producer?

The Guerrilla Films boss and actor now brings his research to fruition in The First Film, wherein Wilkinson contends that the Frenchman beat the Lumière brothers and Thomas Edison to build a revolutionary "projection machine" and create a Yorkshire first.

Le Prince disappeared under mysterious circumstances, just before he was due to travel to America to demonstrate his invention, whereupon the Lumière brothers and Edison were credited with creating film technology as we know it.

Wilkinson was told this story at school in Leeds. The fact that his hometown could have been the birthplace of film sparked his lifelong interest in the story and, after 45 years in the film industry as a distributor, producer and actor, his continuing bafflement that Le Prince’s name was little known, or celebrated, outside Yorkshire.

Applying trademark Yorkshireman doggedness, Wilkinson set himself the challenge of discovering "the truth behind the greatest mystery in cinema history", and you can see the results in Thursday's 6.15pm screening of The First Film (PG), as part of the PicDOCS programme at City Screen, York.

Wilkinson seeks to present a convincing case for his contention that the forgotten inventor should finally be accorded due honour. To do so, he uses archive footage, expert commentary from authorities such as Hungarian-American writer-director Joe Eszterhas, and testimony from the Le Prince family, voiced by Ben Eagle, Sarah Lancashire and Stephane Cornicard.

This thorough investigation of the evidence, interviews with Yorkshire and international film historians and experts in patent law and police procedure combine to reveal a story of Yorkshire innovation, ruthless international competition and possibly murder.

York Press:

Louis Le Prince

"In the late 19th century, the race was on to be the first to make the leap from stills photography to actual moving pictures," says Wilkinson. "The likes of the Lumiére Brothers in Paris, Thomas Edison in New York, and many others were all experimenting with the process and new technology but also a French inventor and artist Louis Le Prince based in Leeds, Yorkshire. In October 1888, Le Prince produced the world’s first films in Leeds, on cameras patented in both America and the UK.

"Once he had perfected his projection machine, which took some time, Le Prince arranged to demonstrate his discovery to the American public and thus the world. On September 16 1890, just weeks before he was due to sail to New York, Louis Aimé Augustine Le Prince stepped on to the Dijon to Paris train and was never seen again."

No body was ever found, so legally no-one could fight the Le Prince claim that he invented a camera that recorded the very first moving image. As a result, several years later, Thomas Edison and the Lumiere Brothers were to claim the glory and the prize and Le Prince's name and his pioneering work was forgotten. Until now.

The 106-minute film will be followed on Thursday by a question-and-answer session with David Wilkinson. Tickets can be booked on 0871 902 5726 or at picturehouses.com/cinema/York_Picturehouse