EARLY CINEMA | Ottoman Years

Mavi Boncuk |

MOTION PICTURE | Ottoman Years

HISTORY
The American inventor Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931) makes a "motion picture camera" and a "motion picture projection" in 1891. Meanwhile he produces feature films and documentaries. He arranges a show of "filming" and "film showing" at Paris in 1894. The event of motion picture has come into existence completing its first stage.

The French inventor Louis Lumiere (1864-1948) and his brother Auguste Lumiere (1862-1954) watch Edison's show in Paris. The camera of Edison was filming but the projector was not capable of showing it on a large screen. This projector was only for one or two viewers, operating in a peep show manner. The Lumieres think of the necessity and technique of projecting the film on a big screen. Louis Lumiere makes a device with three functions of filming camera, editing machine and projector in 1894 with the help of his brother Auguste Lumiere and his father Antoine Lumiere. The Lumieres call this invention a "cinematograph". The event of motion picture has secured its completion of its second stage.

After a few previews, the Lumiere Family realizes the first motion picture show, in a professional manner, at "Boulevard Capucines- Grand Cafe" in Paris on the 28th of December 1895. This date is the "birthdate" of the motion picture.

The Turkish "Karagoz Oyunu / Shadow Show" is a show, a type of spectacle of which the source is "Shamanism", a religious belief of Central Asian Turkish Nations during the centuries of 5-6 BC which was formed as seen today in Asia Minor in the beginning of the 14th century. The Turkish "Shadow Show" event is basically a rectangular white screen with dimensions of 50 by 70 cm. Images and figures of human, animal, plant and object with dimensions of 25 by 5 cm on sticks of 50 cm long, made of transparent leather, dyed in colors letting light pass through connect the head with torso in human figures, the head with trunk of the animals and other joints making them mobile. A white light is projected strongly from the back of the screen. Colored mobile images project on the screen with a light passing through transparent figures are held against the screen with sticks and moved by the shadow show operator. The shadow show operator dubs for the figures. Songs which the operator and his assistant sing are accompanied by the assistant playing a def (musical instrument) or people playing a few musical instruments. The shadow show is a true "motion picture". This shadow show maybe called "Sinegoz / Cinema Eye" or a "hand-made moving picture". This is a Turkish discovery realized eight hundred years ago. Turkish motion picture history starts with "Turkish Karagoz Oyunu".

Turkish motion picture history is divided into ten periods within the context of method of chronogram. Developments, formations, transformations of motion picture take place in these ten periods. The first period of the "Turkish motion picture history" is the act of coming into existence of Motion Picture on the 28th of December 1895, the founding of the State of the Turkish Republic on the 29th of October 1923. During this period a separate chapter, called motion picture of Kuvayi Milliye / the National Independence Army or of Grand National Assembly, examines the activities going on in Asia Minor between the 19th of May 1919 and the 9th of September 1922.

Sultan Abdulhamit II (1842-1918) the sultan and the caliph of the Empire was ruling the country by monarchy (1876-1909) in Turkey in 1895. Cameramen of the French Lumiere company make documentaries in the borders of the Ottoman State in the cities of Istanbul, Jerusalem, Iskenderiye, in the spring of 1896. In complience with the orders of the Lumiere company they wash and dry the negatives they have produced using their mobile laboratory tools. They print the negative film to the positive film at their device with three functions as camera, printer and projector. They wash the negative film, then dry it. They show many times in open and closed areas the documentaries that they have prepared. 

An Assassination is attempted on Abdulhamit II on a Friday during the public procession to a mosque on the 21st of July 1905. Abdulhamit survives. This event echoes over the world. A group of foreign filmmakers make a documentary or news' film of the next weeks' ceremony of the public procession of the Sultan. We know from documents that this film has been made. But the filmmakers are still unknown to us. The Second Constitution was declared on the 23rd of June 1908. Foreign filmmakers make a documentary or news' film at the public procession of the Sultan on the Friday following the Constitution. The filmmakers are also unknown. 

The Sultan and the Caliph Mehmed V Reshat takes a trip to Rumelia on the 5th of June 1911. He goes from Istanbul to Tessalonika by a warship. Yanaki Manaki and Milton Manaki, photographer brothers of Manastir, made a film of news or a documentary of the welcoming ceremony of the Sultan to Tessalonika. This is the first film by a Turk-Ottoman citizen according to documents we possess.

The Turkish-Ottoman State joined the First World War on the 11th of November 1914. The Secretary of War and the vice commander in chief, Enver Pasha ordered the making of a documentary or news' film of the demolition of the Russian Victory Monument at Ayastefanos (former name of Yesilkoy in Istanbul). "Sascha-Gesellschaff-Vienna" supplied the utilities for the film making. Fuad Uzkinay, a reserve conscript officer, filmed the ceremony of the demolition of the monument on the 14th of November 1914. 

The "Motion Picture Department of Central Army" was founded in the structure of the Ministry of War and Turkish Army with the order of Enver Pasha on the 1st of June 1915. A Rumania State citizen and Polish Jew, Sigmund Weinberg who was making professional photography and motion picture shows was appointed to the presidency of the department. The Motion Picture Department of Central Army made many documentaries and two feature films.

"National Defense Association" which was a civilian organization founded in Istanbul on the 31st of January 1913 makes a few motion pictures about the war and the views of Istanbul in 1916. In the beginning of 1917 a writer Sedat Simavi (1896-1953) realizes the first feature film of the "Turkish Motion Picture History" for the National Defense Association. He wrote the scenario and was the stage-manager of this first motion picture "Pence / ". Sedat Simavi writes scenarios and stage-manages for two other motion pictures till the armistice at Mudros on the 30th of October 1918. The second motion picture "Casus / The Spy" was shown at movietheaters after "Pence". The filming of the third motion picture "Selim the 3rd or Alemdar Mustafa Pasha" was not completed due to the armistice at Mudros. 

The National Defense Association was closed on the 1st of April 1919. "Disabled Soldiers Association" which is a civilian organization begins to motion picture production. A theater stage-manager and actor Ahmet Fehim Efendi (1857-1930) makes the motion picture of the play "Binnaz" of Yusuf Ziya Ortac and the novel "Murebbiye / The Governess" of Huseyin Rahmi Gurpinar for the Disabled Soldiers Association in 1919. 

The Disabled Soldiers Association makes short documentaries and short feature films in 1920 and 1921. The first private motion picture company "Kemal Film" is founded in 1922. A theater actor and stage-manager Ertugrul Muhsin (1892-1979) makes motion pictures for Kemal Film; "Sisli Guzeli Mediha Hanim'in Oldurulmesi / The Killing of Miss Mediha, the Sisli Beauty", "Bogazici Esrari / The Bosphorus Mistery" in 1922; "Leblebeci Horhor", "Kizkulesinde Bir Trajedi / A Tragedy at Maidens' Tower", "Atesten Gomlek / A Shirt of Fire" in 1923. The first period has in result developments, formations and transformations.