Manakis brothers
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The Manakis brothers, Yannis/Yannakis (Avdela, 1878–Thessaloniki, 1954) and Miltiadis (Avdela, 1882–Bitola, 1964) (Greek Γιάννης/Γιαννάκης and Μιλτιάδης Μανάκιας; Macedonian Јанаки and Милтон Манаки), were Aromanian photographers and filmmakers born in the small village of Avdela in the Ottoman vilayet of Monastir. They made the first motion pictures in the Balkans in the city of Monastir (now Bitola) in 1905. They are also referred to as the Manakia or Manaki brothers.
From 1898 to 1904, they operated a photographic studio in Yanya (modern Ioannina). In 1905, they moved their business to Monastir. In total, they took over 17,300 photographs in 120 localities.
In 1905, they purchased a Bioscope camera in London and used it to capture a variety of subjects: their 114 year old [1] grandmother spinning wool in Avdela; visits by government officials to Monastir, including Sultan Mehmed V, King Peter and Prince Alexander of Serbia (1913), and King Constantine and Prince Paul of Greece (1918); local festivals and weddings; and revolutionary activities.
They opened the first cinema in Bitola (the new name of Monastir), first open-air (1921), then covered (1923).
Their archive of film footage was deposited in the State Archive of the Yugoslav Socialist Republic of Macedonia in 1955, and transferred to the Cinémathèque of the Republic of Macedonia in 1976. (Stardelov)
The annual Manaki Brothers International Film Camera Festival, commemorating them, is held in Bitola.
The plot of Theo Angelopoulos's film Ulysses' Gaze revolves around the fictional and metaphoric quest for a lost, undeveloped reel of film taken by the Manakis brothers before the Balkans were split by the forces of nationalism. It opens with the images of their grandmother spinning wool.
[edit] Filmography
- Spinning Women (Avdela), 1906
- The Funeral of the Metropolitan Aimilianos of Gravena, 1911
- Welcoming of the Greek King and Heir to the Throne Paul by General Bojovic, in Bitola, 1918
[edit] Bibliography
- Exarchos, Giorgis, Αδελφοί Μανάκια: πρωτοπόροι του κινηματογράφου στα Βαλκάνια και το "Βλαχικόν ζήτημα" (The Brothers Manakia: Pioneers of the Cinema in the Balkans and the "Vlach question"), Athens, Gavriilidis, 1991. Summary
- Igor Stardelov, "Preservation of Manaki Brothers Film Heritage", Journal of Film Preservation, April 1997, 26:54:27-30. [2] Describes the preservation of the Manaki brothers films in the Kinoteka na Makedonija/Cinémathèque of Macedonia.
