A vibrant video showing a bustling street scene in Jerusalem from 1897 has captivated numerous users on the . The clip, which appears to depict the , shows people walking through the frame in full color—prompting both fascination and skepticism. While some users marvel at the historical glimpse, others question its authenticity, wondering whether such footage could exist from that era or if it’s AI-generated. Others comment that there were no videos back in 1897.
DW took a closer look at the video.
A glimpse into the past?
The video indeed portrays the Jaffa Gate in , and remarkably, the gate and surrounding buildings still resemble those seen in the clip.
A reverse image search reveals the original footage was filmed by Alexandre Promio in 1897, titled “Jérusalem, porte de Jaffa, côté Est” (“Jaffa Gate East Side”).
This information was confirmed by Michael Allan, Associate Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Oregon, who has dedicated himself to this exact sliver of cinematic history.
The original film, like most from that time, was black and white and silent. The version circulating online has been digitally colorized and enhanced, breathing new life into the historic scene.
Further research links the footage to a catalogof motion pictures created by the pioneering , including the exact scene from 1897.
How real footage gets discredited
Despite its traceable origins, the video blurs the line between real and artificial. While no one sharing or commenting on the clip is necessarily spreading misinformation, the enhancements—colorization, added sound, and motion correction—raise questions about authenticity.
Here, the black and white film footage from 1897 has been enhanced through colorization, and additional sound that was not previously present has been potentially added with the help of .
Additionally, “the motion of the image seems to have been “corrected” to adjust and render more consistent the movements of those depicted onscreen”, Allan wrote to DW.
Allan notes that even the version included in the DVD The Lumière Brothers First Films has been restored, prompting reflection on what “real footage” truly means. He describes this phenomenon as an effet de réel—a rendering style that resonates with contemporary audiences. “Viewing conditions evolve with each iterative variation of these films,” Allan told DW, suggesting that such enhancements give historical footage a kind of afterlife.
The double-edged sword of digital restoration
The allure of colorized historical footage is not new. TIn 2018, filmmaker Peter Jackson used similar techniques to produce They Shall Not Grow Old, a documentary featuring . However, the AI has also been misused—for example, to create fabricated images of Auschwitz, distorting the historical memory of the Holocaust.
This raises a critical issue: the danger of circulating falsified content under the guise of authenticity. According to the Social Media Watchblog (SMWB) , another risk lies in discrediting genuine content by falsely labeling it as fake. Both phenomena contribute to growing mistrust in digital media. The authors caution that constant warnings about disinformation can backfire, undermining trust even further.
The birth of global cinema
The debate also sparked curiosity: was it even possible to film in 1897? While the French Ministry of Culture has not confirmed whether the Jaffa Gate film is part of its official collection, its archives include motion pictures dating back to 1883—proving that film history reaches further than many assume.
The Lumière brothers, Auguste and Louis, were pioneers of early cinema. In 1895, they developed the so-called Cinématographe, a portable camera and projector system that revolutionized motion picture technology. That same year, they filed patents in several countries, including Germany.
Following their initial success, the brothers dispatched operators around the world. For some time it remained unclear who filmed the iconic scene at Jaffa gate in the 1890s, but other sources clearly name Alexandre Promio as an operator who filmed on behalf of the Lumière brothers’ film company. Alexandre Promio, one of their cameramen, began traveling across North Africa and the Middle East in December 1896. His memoirsdetail visits to present-day Turkey, Syria, and Jerusalem, aligning with the suggested recording date of April 1897.
While filmmaking in the modern sense was not yet possible at the time, the history of moving images stretches back further than many users realize.
Boris Geilert and Björn Kietzmann contributed to this report
Edited by: Rachel Baig
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