Weaving Women
About Weaving Women
In Avdella, an Aromanian village then in the Ottoman vilayet of Monastir and now in Greece, the Manaki brothers film their aunts and their grandmother Despina at wooden looms. Despina is described as 114, with a birth year given as 1791. The shot runs about a minute. She spins and weaves. The brothers' own title for it was along the lines of their 114-year-old grandmother at work weaving.
Cast & crew
More about Weaving Women
Yanaki and Milton Manaki filmed it in 1905 with a 35mm Urban Bioscope, serial number 300, brought from London. Wikidata lists the country as the Ottoman Empire and the running time as 1 minute. The view is also called The Weavers and Grandmother Despina. It is often described as the first film shot in the Ottoman Balkans.
Themes
Background
Avdella was in the Ottoman vilayet of Monastir in 1905. The village is now in the Grevena region of Greece.
Making
The brothers turned the camera on their own household in Avdella rather than on a staged workshop.
Look
A fixed 35mm view on an Urban Bioscope, close enough to show the looms and the women's hands.
Preservation
The minute-long view survives and is on Wikimedia Commons.
Notes
- Despina is said to have been born in 1791, which would make her the earliest-born person recorded on film. That claim sits on the 114-year age given in 1905.
- Theo Angelopoulos opens Ulysses' Gaze (1995) with an extract from this view.
- The Commons file uses a Macedonian title, Домашна работа - предилки.
Scenes
- Despina and the other women work the looms in a single outdoor or courtyard view.
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (Домашна работа - предилки (1905).webm)
