“The Lost Factory” Spring 2026

The Lumière Brothers are often credited as the founding fathers of cinema and the inventors of color photography. The brothers primarily conducted their work in Lyon, France. Up until recently, all of their factories were thought to have been torn down…

In 1991, environmental engineer, Hugo Martínez Cazón, was rummaging through microfilm fire insurance maps at The Vermont Legal Library and happened upon something unexpected: an insurance map detailing a Lumière factory in Burlington, Vermont!

Since then, Hugo has dedicated over thirty years of his life to researching the historical building, which he found to be the birthplace of the autochrome process in the Americas. Throughout this journey, we will meet others who are fascinated by Hugo's research, and one person in particular who found a significant piece of evidence at the factory's site.

What Hugo discovered has uncovered parts of history that were not just forgotten, but nearly lost forever. This short documentary explores why the Lumière Brothers chose Vermont for their only factory outside Europe and highlights how important this factory was and still is today.