The Manakia brothers’ moving images survive as a group of film records preserved by the Cinematheque of North Macedonia — conventionally described as forty-two records, running to roughly seventy minutes in the institutional digital edition. The list of what survives is not the list of what was filmed: Milton reportedly counted sixty-seven titles, and a single reel can stand behind several catalogue entries.

This page keeps two chronologies visible at once. The conventional date of the first film, 1905, is retained wherever it is part of the historical record. The revised chronology, argued independently by Cătălin D. Constantin and Emil Țîrcomnicu, places the purchase of Camera 300 and the first filming in 1907. Dates that are not securely established are marked as such. The reasoning behind the revision is set out in Methods & Debates; the evidence is in the Journal.

1905 / 1907The first moving images

Avdela, Pindus Mountains

The earliest films of the Manakia brothers, including The Weavers and footage of their grandmother Despa, have traditionally been dated to 1905. Research by Cătălin D. Constantin and Emil Țîrcomnicu instead dates the acquisition of Bioscope Camera 300 and the first filming to 1907. Their first subjects were intimate: wool-working, schoolchildren and the ordinary gestures of village life.

1907–1908The world of the mountain villages

Avdela and the wider region

The brothers turn their camera towards weddings, dances, religious celebrations and the journeys of Aromanian shepherds. Surviving titles include Vlach Dance, Vlach Nomads, Village Wedding and The Open-Air School. Individual dates within this group remain to be verified.

1908The Young Turk Revolution

Monastir

After the restoration of the Ottoman Constitution, the brothers film parades, banners, carriages, horsemen and speeches in the streets of Monastir. Several surviving reels document closely related revolutionary celebrations, sometimes under overlapping catalogue titles.

1909–1910Public life after the revolution

Monastir and surroundings

Official ceremonies and military gatherings continue to attract their attention. Some undated film fragments may belong to these years, but a precise chronology cannot yet be responsibly assigned.

1911The journey of Sultan Mehmed V Reşad

Thessaloniki and Monastir

The camera records the Sultan’s journey, official receptions, stations, military formations and crowds. It preserves the public rituals of an empire nearing the end of its Balkan rule.

1911The funeral of Metropolitan Emilianos

Grevena

The brothers film the funeral procession of Metropolitan Emilianos, killed in October 1911. The relatively extended sequence follows the ceremony through successive stages, giving it a stronger narrative structure than many early actuality films.

1911The Romanian delegation in Macedonia

Monastir, Gopeš and Resen

Three surviving records document the journey of a Romanian delegation, including official receptions and visits to local communities. For this chronology, the date is fixed at 1911.

1912–1913The Balkan Wars

Monastir

New armies and political authorities enter the city. Military parades and receptions appear in the film archive, although the precise identities and dates of some sequences still require checking against contemporary documentation.

1918A problematic official reception

Monastir

A film catalogued as a reception involving General Bojović carries a disputed title and identification of dignitaries. The catalogue’s 1918 date is retained here only as an archival attribution, not as a verified filming date.

1924–1925The return to everyday life

Bitola and surrounding region

Later records include cattle markets, fairs and Epiphany celebrations. Their attention returns to the communal gestures and rituals that had first fascinated them in Avdela.

After 1925The later film records

Bitola

The brothers’ activity as cinema exhibitors and photographers increasingly takes precedence. Claims about films made in 1940, 1944 or 1963 require source-by-source verification to distinguish original cinematography from photographs and later compilations.

Selected Filmography and Dating Status

The list below groups surviving catalogue titles. It is not a claim that each label represents a separate original reel, nor that undated material was filmed in the year of the event depicted.

Early ethnographic films

Revolution and Ottoman public life

Official visits and political transitions

Undated or insufficiently dated records

On dating

The 1907 dating follows the evidence presented in the Journal and in Emil Țîrcomnicu’s archival edition Ioan D. Manakia în documente din arhiva Societății de Cultură Macedo-Română (1906–1948) (Bucharest: Editura Etnologică, 2024). Catalogue titles do not automatically correspond to distinct films: Grandmother Despina and The Weavers may denote the same footage. Undated titles stay undated until direct archival evidence appears. Milton is said to have listed 67 titles, while the surviving corpus is conventionally described as 42 film records; both totals depend on cataloguing conventions.

Sources

• Cinematheque of North Macedonia, Milton Manaki filmography
• Vlahoi.net, Τα Βαλκάνια με το βλέμμα των Μανάκια
• Cinematheque, Chronology of Macedonian Cinematography, Kinopis 45–46
• Karl Kaser, Under the Banner of Pathé, Contemporary Southeastern Europe 4/2 (2017)
• Cineculture, Manaki Brothers

Film frames on this page are reproduced from the digital edition of the surviving Manakia film records, Cinematheque of North Macedonia.