The 1800s E6 - Peter Domankiewicz

Peter Domankiewicz is a film director (Tea & Sangria), screenwriter, and journalist with a long-standing interest in the origins of cinema. That interest manifests in five picks that deconstruct some of the myths surrounding early film, including the definition of “cinema” and its “invention,” a widescreen format at least 70 years before it became a standard, and a genuinely exclusive explanation of a film residing in the French national film archive that Peter was able to identify this summer.

He is currently in the final year of a fully-funded PhD at De Montfort University, examining the work and inventions of the controversial moving picture pioneer, William Friese-Greene. He has written about early film for Sight & Sound and The Guardian, contributed to reference works and journals, and has recently co-authored Finding Birt Acres: The Rediscovery of a Film Pioneer for publication by University of Exeter Press in 2025. His blog William Friese-Greene & Me presents original research on early film history for a broad readership.

Films and resources mentioned:

• Fumerie d'opium (1899) - Gabriel Veyre
• La Nourrice (c. 1896-1900) - Georges Méliès
• The Derby 1895 (1895) - Birt Acres
• Young Griffo v. Battling Charles Barnett (1895) - Otway Latham
• "Untitled" (1890) - William Friese-Greene
• Napoléon (1927) - Abel Gance
• Repas annamite (1899) - Gabriel Veyre
• Le village de Namo: panorama pris d’une chaise à porteurs (1900) - Gabriel Veyre
• The Soldier's Courtship (1896) - Robert W. Paul
• Pauvre Pierrot (1892) - Charles-Émile Reynaud
• Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory (1895) - Louis Lumière
• The Oxford and Cambridge University Boat Race (1895) - Birt Acres
• Rough Sea at Dover (1895) - Birt Acres
• Bullfight (1896) - Gray Latham and Eugène Lauste
• The Nichols Sisters (1895) - Otway Latham
• Sidewalks of New York (1895) - Otway Latham
• Children Dancing with Barrel Organ (1898) - Charles Goodwin Norton
• Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat (1896) - Louis Lumière
• "Who? What? When? Where? A mini chronology of the start of cinema" - Peter Domankiewicz
• "Happy 125th Birthday, Cinema!" - Peter Domankiewicz