Centenary of Estonian Film Art

A film strip shot by the photographer Johannes Pääsuke, Utochkin’s Flight in Tartu on 14 and 15 April, 1912 had its first screening in the Tartu movie theatre, Illusion, on April 17, Old Style (the difference with New Style being 13 days), so the centenary of Estonian film art is now marked on 30 April 2012. The film is a recording of the acrobatic flight of the Russian test pilot Sergei Utochkin above Tartu, which, unfortunately, has not come down to our days. In fact, Johannes Pääsuke (1892-1918) became the first Estonian film maker. He shot movies such as The City of Tartu and its Vicinity (1912), Historical Reminiscences of Estonia’s Past (1913), Trip Through Seto Country (1913) and other documentaries. Johannes Pääsuke also shot the first Estonian feature film, Bear Hunt in Pärnu County (1914), a 14-minute allegorical mockery of the Germans’ and Estonians’ swaggering in the Parnu City Council elections in 1913. Johannes Pääsuke was a collector a antiquities for the Estonian National Musem and a photographer. The museum has more than 1,300 photographs he has shot. Pääsuke’s films are kept at the Film Archives of the Estonian National Archives. In World War I Johannes Pääsuke was mobilized into the Russian armed forces where he continued his activity as a photographer and film chronicler. He was killed in a train accident in 1918.