Thursday 26th September 6.30pm Riverside Studios Box office 020 8237 1111 Book online 

Vasil Amashukeli (1886, Kutaisi – 1977, Tbilisi) was an early Georgian film director and cinematographer who worked in Azerbaijan and Georgia. He is considered the founder of cinema not only in Georgia, but in the whole Caucasus. His most famous documentary is Journey of Akaki Tsereteli in Racha-Lechkhumi (1912) shown at the 2nd London BGS Georgian film festival in 2010. In 1907, Amashukeli made several documentaries of oil production in Baku, then the ‘black gold’ capital of the world. This 5 minutes of footage is the only known surviving extract from the films. It will be accompanied live by Reso Kiknadze on saxophone. We are grateful to Giorgi Kakabadze and the National Archives of Georgia.