Workers Leaving The Lumiere Factory (1895) is a significant short film produced and distributed by the Lumière Brothers.

It depicts everything promised in the title — a large group of mostly female workers in Victorian garb, exiting a large building, (25 rue St. Victor, Montplaisir on the the outskirts of Lyon, France) as if they had just finished a day's work. The film is widely cited as the first documentary film, an honor debunked by modern film scholars who suggest that several "takes" may have filmed on the same day.

Arguments against the "documentary" honor include:

• Judging from the shadows, the sun is directly overhead. It is roughly noon; an early day?
• Are those really their work clothes, or did they purposefully dress up, knowing that they would have their pictures taken?
• The workers on the left exit to the right, and vice versa (this suggests they were given direction -- not a "documentary" practice).
• None walk toward the camera.
• A dog and bicyclist appear at the same time, from different parts of the frame.
• A carriage drawn by two horses is the grand finale -- what was THAT doing in the factory?

Often cited as the "first film ever projected" [1].

The factory, incidentally, was called "Société anonyme A. Lumière et ses fils" ("A. Lumière and Sons").[2]

see also: Arrival of a Train history of cinema