Presented by Vassiliki Tsitsopoulou

IU Libraries Screening Room (Wells Library 048)

Summary:

This event will be a screening, accompanied by an introduction and live commentary, of the recently restored With the Greeks in the Firing Line (1913), which reports on the Greek campaigns in the Balkan Wars of 1912-13.   Indiana University will be hosting the second American screening of the film, which is possibly the world's first feature-length war film.

The film was commissioned by the Greek government as part of its diplomatic efforts to obtain a favorable adjudication from the Great Powers regarding the final status of Ottoman territories captured by the Greek Army during the First and Second Balkan Wars.  With the Greeks in the Firing Line was produced by the German company Express-Films Co. of Freiburg (Breisgau) and screened internationally starting in late 1913.  There was even a screening in Gary, Indiana.

The introduction and live commentary will emphasize the historicity of the Balkan Wars of 1912-13 as reflected in the films’ content and in the circumstances of their production.  Based on sources from Greece and abroad, the commentary will link the film image to the internal fractures of Greek diplomacy, to the contradictory pressures of Great Power mediation, and to the press coverage of the wars.

Presenter Bio:

Vassiliki Tsitsopoulou (Ph.D. Cinema and Comparative Literature, University of Iowa) is an adjunct lecturer in Modern Greek at Indiana University, Bloomington.  She has taught courses in modern Greek cinema and culture at the University of Notre Dame, Brown University, and the University of Illinois.  Her current research focuses on early and pre-sound cinema in Greece and on the representation of the Ottoman Empire and (Ottoman) Greeks in international early and pre-sound cinema.

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