At 1.00 p.m. on April 27, the Photography Museum (Vilniaus St. 140, Šiauliai) will host an archival film conference-film screening ‘Discoveries of World Cinema Heritage in Šiauliai’. During the event, two silent films recently discovered in the funds of Šiauliai Aušra Museum will be shown. The films created at the beginning of the 20th century were considered lost in the world cinema inventories – the only copies of these films are preserved in Šiauliai.

Film screening will be accompanied by the presentations of an art historian and cinema researcher Dr Juozapas Blažiūnas, an archival film specialist and organizer of the festival ‘Pirmoji Banga’ Aleksas Gilaitis, and the head of the Photography Museum Vilija Ulinskytė-Balzienė about the discovered films and early cinematography in Lithuania and Šiauliai.

The films will be screened with Lithuanian subtitles specially prepared for this occasion, and the silent film will be shown with a live accompaniment played on a piano by Viktoras Orestas Vagusevičius.

A few years ago, during the preparation of the exhibition in Chaimas Frenkelis’ villa, attention was drawn to particularly old 35 mm films preserved in the museum’s collections, which date back to the times of early silent films. A closer examination revealed that the tapes contained valuable works of world cinema history heritage, filmed in the second decade of the 20th century. These were ‘Человеческие бездны’ (‘Human Abysses’) directed by Yevgeni Bauer, a famous film director of the time, and ‘Дэниел Pок’ (‘Daniel Rok’), created by film director Mikhail Bonch-Tomashevskii. According to film historian Peter Bogrov (The George Eastman Museum, USA), the discovery of these films is a very significant event in the history of world cinema. The feature film ‘Human Abysses’, the work of a talented and globally recognized Russian film director, was previously considered lost. Meanwhile, the film ‘Daniel Rok’ was the only film to feature the most famous Russian and international circus stars of the early 20th century. Although the film itself is not a masterpiece of cinematic art, it is of particular relevance to researchers of circus art.

The discovered films and their history are also interesting for the history of early cinematography and cinema culture in Lithuania, since they reflect the specificity of cinemas and their repertoires in the early period of cinema history.

In 2022, Šiauliai Aušra Museum, in collaboration with the archival film enthusiast A. Gilaitis, implemented an international project to restore and digitize films at the film restoration and conservation laboratory ‘L’Immagine Ritrovata’ in Bologna (Italy). The process required exceptional knowledge and diligence, as the films were shot on a nitrate film. This type of film degrades rapidly over time and is extremely flammable.

In Lithuania, it was not possible to find specialists capable of performing such work. Later, a digital restoration of these valuable films was carried out at The George Eastman Museum in Rochester (USA).
Discoveries of world cinema heritage in Šiauliai Aušra Museum have aroused great interest in the community of archival film connoisseurs. Film screening is planned during the early film festival ‘Pirmoji banga’ (‘The First Wave’) in Vilnius in autumn. Bologna archival film festival ‘Il Cinema Ritrovato’ is also interested in the possibilities of including screenings in its programs.

On April 27, in Šiauliai, the audience will be the first to see these newly reborn archival films.

The event is organized by Šiauliai Film Art Club and the division of Šiauliai Aušra Museum branch – the Photography Museum.

The event is partially supported by Šiauliai City Municipality.

Digital restoration of films was carried out at The George Eastman Museum (Rochester, USA).