Albert Samama-Chikli

Albert Samama Chikly (24 January 1872 – 28 December 1934), was a Tunisian filmmaker and photographer. Considered one of the earliest pillars in World Cinema, Albert was a photographer, filmmaker, technophile, adventurer, and cyclist.

Personal life and Death He was born on 24 January 1872 in Tunis, Tunisia to a wealthy Tunisian Jewish family. His father David Samama, was a banker of the Bey who established a banking institution that later become the Bank of Tunisia. His mother was a housewife. Albert continued his studies with Charles Lavigerie and then with the Jesuits in Marseille. He was a traveler that traveled to Cape Horn, China and Australia frequently even at young age. He received his nickname 'Chikli' from the brotherhood of firefighters of the island of Chikly, a small island on Lake Tunis.

He was married to Bianca Ferrero, an Italian-born woman from Savoy, who was a musician. The couple had one daughter Haydée Tamzali. He later acquired French nationality.

Albert died in 1934 in Tunis at the age of 62 and buried in the Jewish cemetery called the Borgel.

Career In 1896, Albert returned to Tunisia and took the first cinematographic images with the help of photographer Soler. Accompanying the exhibition of Auguste and Louis Lumière, he broadcasts the films The Exit from the Lumière factory in Lyon and The Arrival of a train at La Ciotat station. He continued to study the science and techniques of photography and cinematography and became the first person to introduce the bicycle and wireless telegraph in Tunisia. Later he introduced first X-ray machine in a Tunisian hospital.

In the 1920s he worked as the photographer and documentarian for travel magazines and tourist guides. In 1922 he was the cameraman in the film Tales of a Thousand and One Nights directed by Russian Victor Tourjanski. After spending many weeks among rural populations, Albert created the Encyclopedia in images of Tunisian life.

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