The era of silent movies

The beginning of the XX century, recorded on cine-film

Prior to the establishment of Soviet power in 1920, filming in Armenia was of an accidental nature.

The first filmings date back to 1907. The funeral of the Catholicos of All Armenians Mkrtich Khrimyan was recorded.

During the First World War, chroniclers shot separate episodes of fighting scenes on the Caucasian front, the tragic events of the brutal massacre conducted by the Turkish authorities toward the Armenian population, also, the evacuation of the Armenians to Russia. In these years, in the Russian studios, Armenian filmmakers shot several feature films about the life of Armenians. In 1915, in Yekaterinodar (currently, Krasnodar) the film about an Armenian family who suffered the horrors of the Turkish slaughter - «Under the power of the Kurds» (director, screenwriter and cinematographer - A. Minervin) was created.

The community beyond the ocean did not remain indifferent towards the Armenian refugees' fate, too. On February 16 in 1919, in New York the premiere of the silent film «Ravished Armenia» (another name – «Auction of the Souls») took place. A year before, in 1918, the the book by Arshaluys (Aurora) Martikyan had been published, on the motives of which the film was shot. Her book is one of the first documentary evidence of an eyewitness of those terrible events. More than 10 000 Armenian residents of Southern California (including 200 children) who survived deportation were involved in the filming process.

In 1918 the director I.N. Perestiani, according to the scenario by Papazyan and Lakka shot the first screen version of Alexander Shirvanzade's novel «Namus» (the film was released under the title «Bound by Oath») at the A. A. Khanzhonkov's film studio.

Theatre figures Shahatuni, Nersisyan, Papazyan, Voskanyan, Zhasmen, Burdzhalyan and others were successfully shot in films in studios in Russia, Turkey and Western Europe. Zarifyan undertook an attempt to make a feature film in Armenia (the film was shot, but the cine-film was exposed).

In 1920, the operator A.G. Lemberg captured the events, connected with the establishment of Soviet power in Armenia: some of this material formed the basis of the film «The entry of the Red Army into Yerevan». On December 17 in 1920, by order of the People's Commissariat of Education of Armenia, cultural and educational organizations, including cinematography, were subordinated to the cultural and educational departments of local revolutionary committees. The traveling cinema began to move to mountain regions of Armenia. In 1922, the cinemas were nationalized, new ones were opened. Chronical shootings of the most important events in the republic’s life began. They were led by Dznuni, Totoventz, Kharazyan, Kraslavsky.