The Beginnings of Filmmaking and Cinema In Tunisia

The very first moving images shot in Tunisia are twelve vues Lumière (the nos. 206-217 in the Lumière catalogue), made in early January 1897 by Alexandre Promio, the senior and most productive of the far-flung cinématographistes of the frères Lumière. He visited Tunis, Soussa and Hamman Lif during a trip of several months that took him to Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Palestine and Turkey. Promio returned to Tunisia in 1903 and shot six more vues on the occasion, covering the visit of Émile Loubet, President of the French Republique (the nos. 1374 to 1379 in the Lumière catalogue). All eighteen Lumière vues made in Tunisia by Promio are preserved.
Thanks to recent research by Morgan Corriou we are well-informed about early film screenings in Tunisia. They show the same pattern as known from cities in western Europe: presentations of the new machine in 1896-1897, followed by occasional screenings in music-halls and casinos by local exhibitors or itinerant enterprises – the Cinématographe Farroud from Marseille came occasionally to Tunis – and eventually the opening of a cinema in Tunis, in 1908. Samama Chikly appears in the role of the local exhibitor, organizing screenings of his ‘Cinémato-Chikly’ in the municipal theatre of Sfax (built in 1903) and, in December 1905, the casino of Tunis. His programme of 1905 combined, according to Carriou, Pathé productions such as Dix femmes pour un mari (Georges Hatot, 1905) with films of his own making (L’Embarquement des pélérins, Les Courses de Tunis, La Fantasia arabe, Les Souks et La Pêche du thon de Sidi-Daoud). This information led to the identification of Tunny Fishing in Tunis, distributed by Urban in 1906, as a work by Chikly.
The extraordinary collection left behind by Albert Samama Chikly included nine Lumière reels and a still unidentified Pathé short. Most likely, Chikly screened these films at his Cinémato-Chikli. The most interesting find is 1912 footage shot aboard the Carthage, a ship halted by the Italian Navy off the Sardinian coasts as it was allegedly transporting an airplane to the Turkish troops in Libya. These films are currently being restored.
Moreover, the Lobster Films Collection contains two films by Albert Samama Chikly, one of which has yet to be identified.

Mariann Lewinsky