През Дивата Европа. Неизвестни досега киноснимки в България през 1905 година
Through Savage Europe. Filming in Bulgaria in 1905

Summary/Abstract: It had been known for 5 decades now that the first ever (in all likelihood) shooting was made in Bulgarian lands by (with certainty) British camera operator Charles Rider Noble (1854–1914) in 1903 and 1904, and tens of publications on the subject have been published ever since. Still, Bulgarian film historiography mentions nothing of any films made here in 1905, though there were such films. The outcome of those was meticulously and in detail described in the catalogues of Charles Urban Trading Co., Ltd., set up by American Charles Urban (1867–1942). Now a dozen of newsreels and documentaries of 1 to 4 minutes are identifiable there, shot by Scott cameramen John Mackenzie (1861–1944) in Bulgaria (Sofia, Veliko Tyrnovo, Drianovo, Gabrovo, the Shipka Pass, Ruse), who, like Noble was assigned to the Balkans by producer Urban. During his one-month journey across the Balkans (from Trieste to Iasi) Mackenzie was accompanied by British explorer and travel writer Harry Willes Darell de Windt, who published his book Through Savage Europe in early 1907, where he rendered his impressions of the countries they crossed, including Bulgaria. It was de Windt, who later directed the footage filmed by Mackenzie, annotated in the catalogues of Urban’s company. The visit to Bulgaria by those two proved to be covered (though briefly) by the press in Sofia. It is these (completely unknown until now) facts of Bulgarian film history that are dealt with in the article by Peter Kardjilov.

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