Aleksandar Lifka

Who was Aleksandar Lifka?

Aleksandar Lifka was a central-European cinematographer. Of Czech descent, he was born in Brassó in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, in what is now Romania. After spending his childhood with his parents in the village of Žatec near Prague, he moved to Vienna to study at technical high school. During that time, he experimented with magic lantern moving pictures, but without success. After completing his education, Lifka traveled to Paris, where he bought a Pathé camera. In 1900, he shot the visit of the emperor Franz Joseph and Queen Elisabeth to the town of Gödöllő, in Hungary.

After his father's death, Lifka and his older brother Karl started a traveling movie theater. It had professional equipment and had a luxurious interior. The first city in which they showed their films was Trieste, Italy. The tour continued in 1901 to Rijeka, Bjelovar, Osijek, and Ljubljana, and in 1902 to Belgrade, Zemun, Újvidék, and Szabadka.

In 1903, the Lifka brothers bought another tent, and Karl separated and settled in Linz and Salzburg. Aleksandar Lifka shot documentary film of some political events, and of common people in the towns he visited.