Will Simpson

Film + TV · Writer / Director · In production · 2026

A Short History of the World's Most Important Artist

A three-part documentary series following Louis Le Prince and the beginnings of cinema through to questions of authorship in the age of AI.

My role: Writer / Director

Film strips, production notes and a brass lens from the development artwork

The series begins with Louis Le Prince, the moving images he filmed in Leeds and his disappearance in 1890. From there, it follows the people who shaped cinema and asks who gets remembered, who defines a new medium and who gets to call it theirs.

Across three parts, that story reaches into the present: filmmaking, the platforms through which work is seen, and the questions AI raises about being an author.

I've been carrying this idea for around fifteen years. The three-part series is now written and in production, as a self-initiated project.

Credits
  • Research, writing and direction
    Will Simpson
  • Three-part documentary series
  • In production