Bitola 2005

Abstract

INTERNATIONAL FILM CAMERA FESTIVAL "MANAKI BROTHERS" IN BITOLA When you see packed houses for all the screenings at a film festival, you know that this will be an event to be remembered. So it was at the 26th International Film Camera Festival "Manaki Brothers" in Bitola (20-25 September 2005) under festival director Tomi Salkovski and selector-programmer Blagoja "Dore" Kunevski. Indeed, this specialized festival honouring the cinematographer had every reason to celebrate. For, as every film historian worth his salt knows, the first film shot in the Balkans was by the Manaki Brothers. Back in 1905, shortly after Yanaki Manaki returned home to Bitola in Macedonia from London with a Film Camera 300 in the Bioscope series bought from the Charles Urban Trading Company, he teamed with his photographer brother Milton Manaki to film in nearby Audela (today Greece) their 114-year-old grandmother at her spinning-wheel. Of course, a Manaki heir was...