# Brothers Yanaki and Milton Manaki - First Balkan's Cinematographers



## PantaOz (Aug 22, 2022)

According to the memoirs of Milton Manaki, in 1905, his older brother traveled through several European capitals. In London he bought a 35-mm Bioscope film camera with serial number 300 from the Charles Urban Trade Company. With it they shot a 60-second film of their 114-year-old grandmother Despina weaving in Avdella, becoming the first motion picture shot in the Balkans.





_Milton Manaki in a scene from the movie Camera 300
Born
September 9, 1882
Avdella, Ottoman Empire (today northern Greece)
Died    
March 5, 1964 (aged 81)
Bitola, Yugoslavia_

Yanaki and Milton shot a number of films, mostly documentaries, covering aspects of life in the city of Bitola such as popular dances, religious rituals, weddings and funerals.

The brothers also made a newsreel of the visits of Sultan Mehmed Rashid V to Salonika and Bitola in 1911.

Apart from their activity in filmmaking and photography, in 1921 they started an outdoor cinema, "Manaki", on the main street Shirok Sokak. From 1 December 1923 they operated a movie theater (the building was destroyed in a fire in 1939).

The National Archive of the Republic of Macedonia holds more than 17,000 Manakis' photographs made in 120 locations and over 2,000 metres of recorded film. The collection is of an important historical and cultural value, so I wanted to share some of those with you... no fakes here... I've seen these ones when I was 17 and now I am going to be 62 this Christmas... there were always a part of my life.

Let's start with the grandma Despina who was 114 and looked really in a good shape... this was 1905... 4 years before my grandma was born!





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For me, as an educator, the following film from 1905 was important - the OUTDOOR CLASS! Remember that this was a time when that part of the Balkans was under the rule of the Ottoman Empire (Muslims were ruling this part of the world for over 500 years), but all the religious freedom was guaranteed! Lots of people somehow forgot that... look at the children - in one part of the film they are making the sign of the cross (the Orthodox Christians' way – with three fingers).





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Markets were always popular, and the meat was the staple diet, so lots of butchers at the markets! The third film was simply named MARKET PLACE AND BUTCHERS.





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## PantaOz (Aug 24, 2022)

Having lived in seclusion most of his life, Mehmed Reşad became sultan after his brother Abdülhamid II was forced to abdicate (Abdülhamid II  was a sultan from 1876 to 1909, and under his autocratic rule the reform movement of Tanzimat or Reorganization reached its climax adopting a policy of pan-Islamism in opposition to Western intervention in Ottoman affairs... so I guess that was the end of him).





The choice of Mehmed V Reşad was strange... a kind and gentle man, educated in traditional Islāmic subjects and Persian literature, he showed a keen interest in Ottoman and Islāmic history; nevertheless, he lacked the ability to govern. Attempting to rule as a constitutional monarch, he surrendered all authority to the Committee of Union and Progress, the liberal–nationalist organization of the Young Turk movement... and that was the end of the Empire!

On the advice of the committee, the Sultan went on a goodwill tour of the southern Balkan (1911) and these are the recordings from that time! Saying a goodbye to "his people"... after 500 years of relatively "normal" live, things started changing quickly!

It seems that the video is TOO LONG for this post, so you have to click to the cloud link!

Video of the Sultan Mehmed V...


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## Udjat (Aug 27, 2022)

PantaOz said:


> Having lived in seclusion most of his life, Mehmed Reşad became sultan after his brother Abdülhamid II was forced to abdicate (Abdülhamid II  was a sultan from 1876 to 1909, and under his autocratic rule the reform movement of Tanzimat or Reorganization reached its climax adopting a policy of pan-Islamism in opposition to Western intervention in Ottoman affairs... so I guess that was the end of him).
> 
> View attachment 24779
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> ...


I just wanted to point out that his hat must represent the "Shriners".  Every "Shriner" is a Mason.


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## BusyBaci (Aug 28, 2022)

Abdul Hamid II was not able to cope with the changes the Industrial Revolution was able to bring and thus his days were numbered. He is remembered also for some genocides.



> _During Abdul Hamid's reign the Ottoman Empire became known for the massacres of Armenians and Assyrians of 1894–1896. Many attempts were made on Abdul Hamid's life during his reign. Amongst the many assassination attempts against him, one the most famous is the Yıldız assassination attempt of 1905 by the Armenian Revolutionary Federation.__[5]_



He was succeed by the reformer Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. He is rumored to be an Albanian from Selanik or today Thessaloniki (Greece). He is still remembered to this day in Turkey as the leader who brought prosperity and created a laik state separated from religion. He undertook a series of economic and political reforms which brought Turkey to a productive and modern country.



> _His father Ali Rıza is thought to have been of Albanian origin by some authors;[32][33][34] however, according to Falih Rıfkı Atay, Vamık D. Volkan, Norman Itzkowitz, Müjgân Cunbur, Numan Kartal and Hasan İzzettin Dinamo, Ali Rıza's ancestors were Turks, ultimately descending from Söke in the Aydın Province of Anatolia.[35][36][37][38][39][40] His mother Zübeyde is thought to have been of Turkish origin,[33][34] and according to Şevket Süreyya Aydemir, she was of Yörük ancestry.[41] According to other sources, he was Jewish (Scholem, 2007) or Bulgarian (Tončeva, 2009).[42] Due to the large Jewish community of Salonica in the Ottoman period, many of the Islamist opponents who were disturbed by his reforms claimed that Atatürk had Dönmeh ancestors, that is Jews who converted to Islam publicly, but still secretly retained their belief in Judaism.__[43]_


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## PantaOz (Sep 6, 2022)

BusyBaci said:


> Abdul Hamid II was not able to cope with the changes the Industrial Revolution was able to bring and thus his days were numbered. He is remembered also for some genocides.
> 
> He was succeed by the reformer Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.


Mehmed V Reşad succeeded Abdul Hamid II, and everything becomes clearer if Mustafa Kemal Atatürk followed... as a Jew! We could have a Mason... followed by a Jew... interesting!


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## Udjat (Sep 6, 2022)

The Masons are the only group that I have noticed where it does not matter what nationality or religion you are.  It truly is the new world order foundation.  Almost every town I have gone to, seems to have a  Masons temple.

Most Masons today don't even know why they do the ritual ceremonies they preform.  I remember asking a Mason in my town if I could join, being a woman and all.  I told him I want to know the answers and wanted to be a 33 degree Mason.  He did not like that very much.  I did it just to see what his reaction would be and it was the exact result I thought I would get.  

The Shriners are supposed good people, like the Shriners hospital and all that.  It is just a front, and what a better front than to seem like saints trying to take care of sick people.  No one would dare and try to say that they would be devious.  Most people I know are the same way, they put up a front, and behind closed doors they are the total opposite.  

It seems as though there has been a hidden agenda for some time now.


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## PantaOz (Sep 14, 2022)

Cinema Manaki​

 


 

The Balkans was always a place where turmoils are normal, so most of the people would just adjust and live in the new environment. The Manaki brothers are claimed by the Macedonians, Greeks and Romanians (as they were probably Walachians/Vlahs/Tsintsars and they spoke the dialect of the Romanian language) but they were smart enough to work with all of them! The cinema they opened had signs in Serbian at that time "За част отаџбине" (For the honour of the fatherland) because that was the easiest way to get funds! The project for the new cinema building was simple, but the workmanship was not up to the standard so during the construction, two walls collapsed, which created new financial difficulties for the Manaki Brothers... they already spent all their money and were broke! When you are in a hole you usually do not dig deeper but they did just that - got a loan from the Mortgage Bank ... luckily at the last moment they had investors and new partners Kosta Chomu and Dimitrie Georgievski... anyway, they managed to complete the facility and bought the necessary equipment for the cinema to be fully functional.

Their new partner Kosta Chomu was n old friend and knew how good these guys were, especially in the period from 1921 to 1922 when they organized numerous cinema performances at three places in the city – in the halls of the hotels “Bosnia” and “America” and in the cinema garden “Manaki”.

With thee newly built cinema “Manaki” they finally got all the conditions for uninterrupted work. Fully equipped, with total of 373 seats in the cinema hall they worked hard using innovative methods to attract the audience. Like with any new thing, over time the number of visitors to the cinema screenings began to decline, which in 1925 brought the question of working profitably. The partner owners were not happy and they withdrew from the project to cut the losses so in 1927 the cinema was wholly owned by the Manaki Brothers. They were financially exhausted and in huge debt. That is the period where ll around the globe the economic crisis could be felt more and more... the pressure of the competition followed and the work in the photography studio was slowly decreasing.

After six years of struggling, in 1933 a bankruptcy of the cinema was announced, which gave the bank the right to manage with it. They rented it to actor Risto Zerde in 1937 . He signed a 10-year contract with the Mortgage Bank, with an obligation to renovate the building and modernize the equipment but in two years things were slowly improving ... in 1939 the building burnt to the ground.


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## PantaOz (Sep 28, 2022)

Here is the whole footage recorded by the Manaki brothers in Monastir (today's Bitola in Macedonia) when the last Sultan visited the town... notice that there is no impressive buildings, no traces of a paved road even... and I've been to the oldest excavated sites where the things were really different! During 4th Century B.C., Philip II of Macedon founded the town of Heraklea Lynkestis (Heraclea Lyncestis). The town is named after the Greek mythological hero, Heracles (Hercules), and Lynkestis is Greek for the ‘Land of the Lynx’. In earlier times the lynx was more prevalent in Macedonia and are still present today but only in a few isolated areas. These are photos from the Roman period.



 



Sorry... it seems there is a problem with the video (like the previous ones from Egypt)... so let me try to send it again!







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## TurpinHero (Oct 9, 2022)

PantaOz said:


> Here is the whole footage recorded by the Manaki brothers in Monastir (today's Bitola in Macedonia) when the last Sultan visited the town... notice that there is no impressive buildings, no traces of a paved road even... and I've been to the oldest excavated sites where the things were really different! During 4th Century B.C., Philip II of Macedon founded the town of Heraklea Lynkestis (Heraclea Lyncestis). The town is named after the Greek mythological hero, Heracles (Hercules), and Lynkestis is Greek for the ‘Land of the Lynx’. In earlier times the lynx was more prevalent in Macedonia and are still present today but only in a few isolated areas. These are photos from the Roman period.
> 
> View attachment 25531 View attachment 25532
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> ...


Absolutely captivating PantaOz, thankyou...the standout thing for me, other than the beautiful time capsule that it is? The 'on the train then off the train' photography. 
How did they manage to be on the train for some shots, then on a platform later to capture it entering a station, all with only horses and carriages to get them ahead of the train, and using a hand cranked camera? What a Sunday this is turning out to be!


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## PantaOz (Oct 14, 2022)

Gravena was the place where the population was mixed... Greek, Walachian (Romanian), Macedonian... but all of them were Orthodox Christians... The minority of Muslims were mainly Turkish families in charge of that area. Towards the height of the conflict between the ethnic Balkan governments at the end of the first decade of the twentieth century, Emilianos Lazaridis of Grevena served as Metropolitan of the Metropolis of Grevena. He served as metropolitan from 1908 to 1911 while falling victim to the internal strife of the Church of Constantinople.

Metr. Emilianos and his deacon Dimitrios Anagnostou were slained on October 14, 1911, when they were attacked by Turkish soldiers as they were moving between villages. They had horrifically mutilated bodies. According to a legend from that period, the villagers found their remains after a shepherd spotted a candle flickering in the forest, which led them there.





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## PantaOz (Oct 15, 2022)

Here is another old work from the brothers Manaki, a film recorded during the St George Day celebration!






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