FROM THE HISTORY OD CROATIAN CINEMA

The Belgrade films by Oktavijan Miletić

During the thirties, up to the beginning of WW2, despite the unorganized film industry, there were professional, well-organized private companies in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, especially in Zagreb. After considerable success in the domain of amateur film where he perfected his knowledge as cinematographer as well as director and acquired not only the highest amateur but also professional reputation, Oktavijan Miletić gradually got involved in professional film work; he worked, mainly as a complete author (screen-writer, director, cinematographer, editor), for Pan film, Maar film and Zora film as well as for the so called Cooperative for Economic Films from Belgrade (Zadruga za privredni film) which is the subject-matter of this text. The text gives poorly examined details about the Belgrade films by Oktavijan Miletić that, according to his filmographies up to now, were not preserved. So far no documentation has been found on the basis of which one could get more details on when and how Miletić was hired by the Cooperative for Economic Films. Therefore the findings presented in this article are limited to his filmographies as well as the credits of his preserved films and only a few documents. This article gives an analysis of eight films that are completely or partly preserved – Željeznički most u Zagrebu (1938), Motorni voz (1938), Od austrijske ovce do jugoslovenskog štofa (1938), Drvna industrija (1938) and Jugoslavija zove (1939) – and presents known details on three unpreserved films – Jugoslavija gradi svoje lokomotive (1938), Most (1939) and Zašto betonski put (1939).

Dejan Kosanović