Museum of Albanian Film to be set up for independence centennial

TIRANA, Dec. 1 – A museum featuring the heritage of “Shqiperia e Re” (New Albania) film studio, which operated during the country’s communist regime from the 1950s to the early 90s will be established next year when Albania celebrates its 100th anniversary of independence. This was confirmed during this week by Fatmir Musai, the director of the state-film enterprise, currently known as Albafilm studio, during the 18th edition of the Klik Ekspo Group exhibition where the film studio was introduced with its own stand showcasing four decades of memorabilia.
“I consider the establishment of the Museum of Albanian Film a personal and intellectual challenge. As many times as I walk the steps of former Kinostudio, currently Albafilm, as many times as I am within its spaces, surrounded by the arsenal of artifacts, I feel ashamed of the delay in setting up the Museum of Film, and I murmur ‘wait, wait a bit more. Patience, we’re on the right track and we will make it’,” said Musai.
The heritage of the former Kinostudio, which includes hundreds of features, short films, documentaries, and musical productions has recently been archived and catalogued.
The Film Museum, the first of this kind in Albania, will feature both artistic and scientific elements.
The State Film Archive has also recently promoted a new book tracing the history of Albanian cinema. The book called “Arti i Shate ne Tirane” (The Seventh Art in Tirana) is the first of this kind being offered to the Albanian public. Written by Spiro Mehilli, it comes as a missing and necessary guide to the movies screened in the Tirana cinemas during the past century.
The book is a chronological journey on the cinemas built in Tirana, starting with the first ‘Nacional’ cinema in 1926 and also recent ones such as the cinema of the Film Archive bringing a compilation of Albanian movie history.
Meanwhile, the Albanian National Center of Cinematography has recently approved financial support for two documentaries dedicated to Albania’s national hero Skanderbeg and the 1991 exodus of Albanians after the collapse of the 45-year communist regime.
The motion picture entered Albania in the years 1911-1912. The first public shows were made in the cities of Shkod철and Kor諮 The first newsreel about events related to Albania was one connected with the Congress of Manastiri (1908) that established the alphabet of the Albanian language. During 30 years after the Proclamation of Independence (1912) both foreign cinematographic societies from Europe and the U.S.A. as well as amateurs shot mostly newsreels and documentary films. Shortly after the World War II the government created the Albanian Agency of Films (1945) which later was transformed into the Albanian Cinematographic State Enterprise (1947) at a time when full nationalization of the network of cinemas and of film imports and production took place. The shooting of newsreels got started and in May 1948 the first Albanian newsreel was shown. In a country with a high rate of illiteracy in the 1940s and 1950s, the government placed importance on increasing the number of cinemas and mobile projectors and of imports of films mainly from East European countries, France and Italy.
The new stage was marked by setting up the first Albanian film studio, the “Shqip쳩a e Re” (“New Albania”) Film studio (1952).