The Weavers (1905 film)

The Weavers[1] or Grandmother Despina is a short silent, black and white documentary film made in 1905 by the Balkan film pioneers the Manaki brothers in the small Aromanian village of Avdella (Aromanian: Avdhela), in the Ottoman vilayet of Monastir presently modern Greece. It is about 60 seconds long and depicts the Manakis' aunts and 114-year-old grandmother Despina spinning and weaving.[2][3][4] It was originally called "Our 114-year-old grandmother at work weaving", but has come to be known as The Weavers.[5]

It is believed to be the first film shot anywhere in the Ottoman Balkans.[6]

The film was shot with 35 mm film with an Urban Bioscope movie camera (serial number 300) imported from London.[6]

Appropriation

An extract from the film appears at the beginning of Theo Angelopoulos's 1995 film Ulysses' Gaze.

References
  1. Cinema and Classical Texts: Apollo's New Light, Martin M. Winkler, Cambridge University Press, 2009, ISBN 0521518601, p. 71.
  2. Zacharia, p. 323
  3. Balkan border crossings: First annual of the Konitsa Summer School, Vasilēs G. Nitsiakos, LIT Verlag Münster, 2008, ISBN 3825809188, pp. 41–42.
  4. Hellenisms: culture, identity, and ethnicity from antiquity to modernity, Katerina Zacharia, Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2008, ISBN 0754665259, p. 323.
  5. Filmland Griechenland – Terra incognita: griechische, Elene Psoma, Logos Verlag Berlin GmbH, 2008, ISBN 3832516182, S. 23. (Ger.)
  6. Vecer Online – One century of the Macedonian seventh art. (Mk.)

Bibliography
  • Greece in modern times: an annotated bibliography of works published in English in twenty-two academic disciplines during the twentieth century, 1:109
  • Katerina Zacharia, "'Reel' Hellenisms: Perceptions of Greece in Greek Cinema" in Katerina Zacharia, Hellenisms, p. 323
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