Rare footage featured in Film Archive’s 65th anniversary

TIRANA, May 16 – Footage of the siege of the northern Albanian city of Shkodra by the Montenegrin army in 1914 were screened for the first time this week as the Central State Film Archive celebrated its 65th anniversary of foundation. The footage material, one of the eldest the Film Archive possesses, was donated by the Montenegrin Film Archive.
A 30-minute documentary of the most important historical events during the 100 years of the existence of the Albanian independent state was also featured in the event
Last year, the State Film Archive screened Albanian movies in open air sites of the most popular destinations in the country. It also celebrated each month as a special movie event dedicated to renowned Albanian directors, among them women directors, the French cinema, animated films and most recently the Balkan cinema of the 70s and 80s.
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.