Yanaki and Milton Manaki
| Yanaki and Milton Manaki | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Native name | Miltiade (Milton) and Ienache (Yanaki), Manachia (Manaki) (Aromanian) |
| Born | 1878 (Yanaki) 1882 (Milton) Avdella, Monastir, Ottoman Empire |
| Died | 1954 Thessaloniki, Greece (Yanaki) 1964 Bitola, SR Macedonia, Yugoslavia (Milton) |
| Occupation | Filmmakers, photographers |
| Years active | 1905 - 1964 |
The Manaki brothers, Yanaki and Milton were photography and cinema pioneers who brought the first film camera and created the first motion pictures on the Balkan Peninsula and in the Ottoman Empire. Their work was done in the city of Manastir (modern Bitola, Republic of Macedonia), an economic and cultural center of Ottoman Rumelia. They started their film career with a 60-second documentary of their grandmother spinning and weaving entitled The Weavers; this is regarded as the first motion picture shot in the Balkans. The Manaki brothers did their work with a 35 mm Urban Bioscope camera that Yanaki Manaki imported from London.
In 1904, the two Aromanian brothers moved from their birthplace Avdella to the town of Manastir. One year later, they open their own atelier for photographic art. After their work became known, in 1906 they received an invitation from King Carol I of Romania to participate in the Bucharest Jubilee Exhibition, where they won a gold medal for their collection. Later, they become the official photographers of the Ottoman Sultan, and in 1929 to the King of Yugoslavia Alexander Karađorđević. According to the memoirs of Milton Manaki, in 1905, his older brother traveled through several European capitals. In London, he bought a Bioscope 300 film camera from the Charles Urban Trading Company. With this camera, they filmed their 114-year-old grandmother Despina; this was the first film shot in Southeastern Europe. The film was made only 10 years after the first Lumière brothers film, which influenced the brothers. Living in a time of transition from the 19th to 20th century, during the Ilinden Uprising, the Balkan Wars, and the First World War, the development of Manastir as a consulate and military center of the Ottoman Empire, the brothers Manaki with their films helped to record these historical events.
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