The division of Šiauliai Aušra Museum – the Photography Museum – also preserves exhibits important to the history of cinema. Some of the most interesting ones are nitrite-containing films from the second decade of the 20th century. Little could be said about them until now, but research conducted in recent years revealed their uniqueness and intriguing history. The history of the appearance of archival film tapes in the museum, their content and significance were presented by Vilija Ulinskytė-Balzienė (The Photography Museum), Aleksas Gilaitis (The First Wave) and Peter Bagrov (George Eastman House) at the early film festival ‘The First Wave” in ‘Skalvija’ cinema centre in Vilnius on September 17, 2022.

In 1983, the Šiauliai Aušra Museum purchased a set of film equipment from a private collector, which was described in the documents as a film projector, consisting of a housing for a carbide lamp-illuminator with a small chimney; 2 lenses and 3 cassettes (reels) as well as 2 boxes for reels and other accessories, which were also indicated. The undated projector belonged to Juozas Pažemeckas, who worked at the bookshop Spaudos fondas in the fourth decade of the 20th century. Based on the documents, the projector was used in the cinema theatre Liaudies Namai and in villages as a mobile film equipment for showing silent films until better equipment could be bought. It became clear that there had been more important objects in the set with the film projector only in 2007-2008, when in one of the divisions of the Aušra Museum – Chaimas Frenkelis’ Villa in Šiauliai – started preparing the museum exposition ‘Provincial Town’, one of the parts of which was dedicated to film culture in Šiauliai in the 3-4 decades of the 20th century. It was most delightful to see that the set included not only the projector itself, but also a number of accessories and little things, which allowed to create an authentic working environment of a film mechanic in the exposition. The most attention-grabbing were the 35 mm nitrite films rolled into three reels, which were not mentioned in the museum’s inventory at all and about which nothing else was known. Only a few years later, in 2020, as a result of cooperation of the specialists of the Photography Museum Viktoras Gundajevas and V. Ulinskytė-Balzienė with Aleksas Gilaitis, an expert and populariser of the old film, the organizer of the archive film festival ‘The First Wave’, it was possible to identify the silent film works recorded on the film tapes. These were the film ‘Human Abysses’ (‘Человеческие бездны’), created by probably the most famous director of pre-revolutionary Russia Yevgeni Bauer (Евгений Францевич Бауер, 1865-1917) in 1916, and the film ‘Daniel Rock’ (‘Дэниел Рок’), created by Mikhail Bonch-Tomashevsky (Михаил Михайлович Бонч-Томашевский, 1887-1921 or 1939) also about 1916.

Until now, both films have been considered nonextant in world film summaries, and there was very little information about them. According to Peter Bagrov, a prominent archival film researcher, images from Yevgeni Bauer’s film ‘Human Abysses’ were available only from a few photo publications in printings, and it was very little researched. Although 28 of the 83 films created by this author have survived, which is quite a lot compared to the works of other authors of pre-Soviet Russia, the majority (with a few exceptions) of the director’s most appreciated works have disappeared forever; thus, the remaining ones are particularly valuable just because they have survived at all and are available for research.

The author of the other film, Mikhail Bonch-Tomashevsky, is a particularly unexplored director, none of whose films has survived to date. The film created by Daniel Rok, discovered in 1916, is the second part of two circus-themed films released in the same year. Data about this film can only be found in the filmographies of the famous Russian actor Vladimir Maksimov. The film is also known for the fact that it starred Nikolai Nikitin, the then real circus celebrity, who at one time led the Moscow Circus, the most famous in the Russian Empire of that time. In general, although the circus was then a much-loved pastime among ordinary people and the nobility, circus artists rarely starred in films; however, in this circus duology, Nikitin himself, his troupe and other celebrities of this profession of that time can be seen. Thus, this film is an important and valuable source not only for the researchers of film, but also of circus history.

The history of coming of these films to Šiauliai is no less intriguing. In 1916, when the films were made, the territory of Lithuania was occupied by Kaiserian Germany and commercial relations in the film industry with Russia ceased. After World War I, the cinema of Tsarist Russia was no longer relevant in Lithuania, and Hollywood film production began dominating. However, there are data that after regaining Lithuania’s Independence, when post-war life was just beginning to recover, old films from the Tsarist era were still shown for a very short period of time (until 1919-1920, they were still shown without Lithuanian subtitles). Thus, at that time, the films that we now have also could have been shown on the screens of Lithuanian cinema theatres or traveling cinemas.

Another possibility is that film tapes could have entered Lithuania by private ways, through Lithuanian war refugees who returned from Russia after the war. Further research is expected to help to reveal more details about the origin of film tapes in Lithuania and supplement the history of the entertainment culture of Lithuania and the city of Šiauliai. The discovered films will be conserved and digitized at the film restoration laboratory ‘L’Immagine Ritrovata’ in Bologna this year and presented to the public in 2023.

Presentations by Vilija Ulinskytė-Balzienė (The Photography Museum), Aleksas Gilaitis (The First Wave) and Peter Bagrov (George Eastman House) at the early film festival ‘The First Wave”, on September 17, 2022.

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