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Group of people in folk dress. Still from ethnographic film Wedding in Nīca commissioned by the Monument Board. Liepāja county Nīca township. Camera operator Jānis Sīlis. 1931
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Filming Latvijas skaņu hronika (Sound Chronicle of Latvia) about author Edvarts Virza. From left: Voldemārs Blumbergs, Edvarts Virza, Edgars Blumbergs, Natālija Krauca. 1939. LKA Rīgas Kino muzejs
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Camera operator Eduards Kraucs’ 35 mm motion picture camera LE PARVO. 1930s. Anre Dobrie–Paris. LKA Rīgas Kino muzejs. This 35mm camera could hold 120 meters of film cassettes that could record just over 4 minutes of footage. It is equipped with a film volume meter and possibility to change the lens aperture. The camera was operated by turning the handle
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Camera operator Eduards Kraucs (on left) and sound engineer Edgars Blumbergs. 1930s. LKA Rīgas Kino muzejs
Hundred years after the invention of photography, motion pictures began to employ the leading role in visual media. This new technology also entered the documentation of everyday life, and by the 1920-30s, newsreels and documentaries captured current issues in culture, politics, as well as the environment and landscape. Some of the most notable pioneers of Latvian documentary cinema were Arnolds Cālītis, Jānis Sīlis, and Eduards Kraucs. In newsreels and short films for schools, they captured the Latvian cultural landscape, people, their lives, work and traditions, many of which have now vanished.
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Still from the documentary Arnolds Cālītis’ cinema workshop. 1925. Producer Arnolds Cālītis. Latvijas Nacionālā arhīva Latvijas Valsts kinofotofonodokumentu arhīvs Arnolds Cālītis’ photo and cinema shop advertisement. In: Fotogrāfijas Mēnešraksts. 1922. No. 9
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Still from the documentary Arnolds Cālītis’ cinema workshop. 1925. Producer Arnolds Cālītis. Latvijas Nacionālā arhīva Latvijas Valsts kinofotofonodokumentu arhīvs Arnolds Cālītis’ photo and cinema shop advertisement. In: Fotogrāfijas Mēnešraksts. 1922. No. 9
One of the pioneers in the distribution of cinema equipment in Latvia after the World War I was photographer Arnolds Cālītis. He owned the Vaga photo plate factory and also was the official representative of Kodak, Pathé, Lumière & Jougla in Latvia. In his shop, you could buy relatively smaller and cheaper American cameras, which did not lag behind the professional ones in terms of possibilities. As the technology became more available, not only professionals but also other enthusiasts could turn to cinema. True, it was not a widespread hobby until the World War II.
JĀNIS SĪLIS
Jānis Sīlis (1886–1970) was a photographer and operator. He was captured by the Germans during the World War I and studied photography at the Leipzig Academy of Visual Arts in the post-war years (1919–1920). After returning to Latvia, Sīlis worked at Arnolds Cālītis’ Photo and Cinema Shop. He also studied cinematography and was the camera operator for Aleksandrs Rusteikis’ film Wedding in Alsunga (The Homeland Calls) (1935), an ethnographic staging. At the end of World War II, Sīlis fled to Germany and then emigrated to the United States.
ARNOLDS CĀLĪTIS
Arnolds Cālītis (1883-1972) was photographer, operator, producer, entrepreneur, and one of the pioneers of Latvian cinema. He was an active member of the Latvian Photographic Society and an exhibitor since 1907 and later the head of the society (1932–1940). Cālītis read lectures in Latvian Photographic Society courses and published magazine Fotogrāfijas Mēnešraksts (Photography Monthly) (1921–1922); later also the periodical for photo and cinema art friends Attēls (Picture) (1927–1928). His photo and cinema shop was nationalised by the occupying Soviet government, and he was deported to Siberia with his family on 14 June 1941. After returning to Latvia (1956), he worked in a photo laboratory with photographer Jānis Rieksts.
Documentary My Homeland is Beautiful. 1933. Director Eduards Kraucs. Latvijas Nacionālā arhīva Latvijas Valsts kinofotofonodokumentu arhīvs
Documentary Kuldīga. 1922. Operator Jānis Sīlis, producer Arnolds Cālītis. Latvijas Nacionālā arhīva Latvijas Valsts kinofotofonodokumentu arhīvs
Newsreel Latvian film chronical, No. 16, 1924. Producer Arnolds Cālītis. Latvijas Nacionālā arhīva Latvijas Valsts kinofotofonodokumentu arhīvs
EDUARDS KRAUCS
Eduards Kraucs (1898-1977) was a photographer, photojournalist, and camera operator. During the World War I, he was a refugee in Russia where he studied architecture at the Moscow State Mountain Institute. After returning to Latvia, he worked as a press photographer. In 1929, Kraucs filmed the first newsreels, Latvijas hronoika (Latvia chronical) and Pēdējā brīdī (Last Minute), and in 1930 he became the correspondent for the German film company UFA newsreel Wochenschau (Week in Review) in Riga. In 1934, with his brothers Edgars and Voldemārs Blumbergs, he created Latvijas skaņu hronika (Sound Chronicle of Latvia) and started the history of sound newsreels. By 1940, Kraucs had created over 550 newsreels featuring traditional skills, among other stories. Ethnographic references were also widely used in newsreels, creating idealized scenes of Latvian life, especially after the government coup on 15 May 1934. After World War II, Kraucs fled to Germany and then emigrated to the United States.
Newsreel Latvijas skaņu hronika (Sound Chronicle of Latvia) No. 381. 1936. Director Eduards Kraucs. Latvijas Nacionālā arhīva Latvijas Valsts kinofotofonodokumentu arhīvs
Newsreel Latvijas skaņu hronika (Sound Chronicle of Latvia) No. 381. 1936. Director Eduards Kraucs. Latvijas Nacionālā arhīva Latvijas Valsts kinofotofonodokumentu arhīvs
Newsreel Latvijas skaņu hronika (Sound Chronicle of Latvia) No. 477. 1938. Director Eduards Kraucs. Latvijas Nacionālā arhīva Latvijas Valsts kinofotofonodokumentu arhīvs
See the next stand: While there is still time – Beginnings of photo-ethnography in Latvia. The end
See the previous stand: Following the call to document life in the countryside