Grandma Despina
About Grandma Despina
In Avdella, Despina Manaki sits at the loom and the wheel. Her grandsons' camera, set high, watches her spin and weave. Her nieces, the brothers' aunts, work with her.
Cast & crew
More about Grandma Despina
Yanaki and Milton Manaki shot it in 1905 in Avdella, an Aromanian village in the Ottoman vilayet of Monastir, now in Greece. They used a 35mm Urban Bioscope, serial number 300, bought in London. The original title was Our 114-year-old grandmother at work weaving. It runs one minute. Despina was born in 1791.
Themes
Background
Avdella was still in the Ottoman Empire in 1905. The Manaki brothers' minute of Despina is the first moving-picture record made in the Ottoman Balkans.
Making
The brothers brought the London camera home and turned it on their grandmother at the wheel. One high angle, no story.
Look
A 35mm Urban Bioscope, serial 300, looks down on Despina at the loom.
Preservation
The minute survives. A 16-second extract is the piece often shown, including at the start of Ulysses' Gaze.
Notes
- It is also called The Weavers and Баба Деспина.
- Despina is the brothers' grandmother. The other women at the loom are their aunts.
- It is the first film shot in the Ottoman Balkans.
- Despina, born in 1791, is the earliest-born person known to have been filmed.
- Theo Angelopoulos opens Ulysses' Gaze (1995) with an extract.
- A short extract in circulation runs 16 seconds. The film itself is a minute.
Scenes
- Despina turns the wheel while the camera watches from above.
Influenced
- Ulysses' Gaze (1995)
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (Weavers.ogv)