Is cinema ‘the most modern, technologically dependent and Western of all the arts?’ (Parkinson 1995). The book began by problematizing this misconception on the genealogy and history of cinema, and provided an alternative reading of cinema's development within a broader context of cultural history, visual arts, and historical legacies in the Balkans. I examined how the geopolitical position of the region, its unique crossroads positioning between East and West, as well as its multicultural, multi-confessional, and multi-ethnic identity at the turn of the twentieth century, influenced and shaped the development of early cinema. Engaging with the questions of archives, preservation, and cultural memory, I analysed a variety of surviving archival moving images and documents, early press and secondary sources to paint the complexity of the picture. This study aimed to go beyond considering the process of modernity and, consequently, cinema history as a narrative of lacks and absences, but rather as a story of survivals and persistence of artefacts, materials, people, and their aspirations. The intermingling, cross-hybridization, and fusion of artistic traditions from the East and the West, resulted in a unique regional visual culture at the end of the nineteenth century, enriched by the arrival of the cinematograph and moving images. Throughout history, the Balkans have occupied a peripheral position within world cinema historiographies; yet, as new perspectives presented in the book show, early cinema history needs to be re-evaluated and re-read in light of recent discoveries in most unexpected interstitial places and spaces.

By building on phenomenological theory and visual culture in the Balkans, and combining theoretical and empirical evidence, this monograph establishes a strong theoretical and historical basis that can inform further research on early cinema history, film reception studies, and embodied vision. Furthermore, my analysis of early cinema development in the region through a transnational and cross-cultural lens, adds to the existing scholarship in Balkan area studies by expanding on the re-imagining of the term ‘Balkan.’ The book does so, first, by focusing on the transnational itineraries and cross-cultural collaborations of early moving image-makers, and second, by placing an emphasis on archival materials of self-representation rather than of self-exoticism.