Aleksandar Lifka

Aleksandar Lifka (1880 - November 12 1952) was a central-European cinematographer. Of Czech descent, he was born in Brassó (Austro-Hungarian empire, now Romania). After spending his childhood with his parents in the willage of Zatec near Prague, he moved to Vienna to study at Technical High school. In that time he experimented with the Magic Lantern "moving pictures" but without success. After completing his education, he travelled to Paris where he bought a Pathé camera. In 1900 at the town of Gödöllő, Hungary he shot the visit of the emperor Franz Joseph and queen Elisabeth.

Career

After his father's death, together with his older brother Karl, they decided to run a travelling movie theater. It had professional equipment (Gaumont, AEG, Körting) and had a luxurious interior. The first city where they showed their films was Trieste, Italy. The tour continued in 1901 to Rijeka, Bjelovar, Osijek (Croatia), Ljubljana (Slovenia), and in 1902 Belgrade, Zemun, Novi Sad, Subotica (Serbia and Montenegro).

In 1903 the Lifka brothers bought another tent, so Karl separated and settled in Linz and Salzburg. Aleksandar Lifka shot films as documentary journals of some political events, or just about common people from the towns he visited, so he attracted the audience to see the new miracle - moving pictures.

Final Days

He visited Subotica again in 1905, and in 1910 he rearranged the grand hall of "Hungaria" hotel as a permanent movie theater. His wife Beck Erzsébet helped him to run the cinema. During World War I, he was hired by Filmkriegspresse to create films about battles in Galizia, where he was wounded. After the end of war he returned to Subotica, which than belonged to the Kingdom of Serbs Croats and Slovenes, and stopped making films. After World War II, he accepted Yugoslav citizenship. He died November 12th 1952 at his vineyard. He is buried in Subotica. At present, only 20 original films of his remain.