1898 Aleksandr Mişon - “Bibiheybatda neft fontani yangini“

This ominous looking little film of an oil gush fire was distributed in France as “Puits de pétrole à Bakou. Vue de près“ by Lumiere (catalogue number 1035). Mişon was a Russian photographer born to a french family in Kharkiv (now Ukraine). He started his career as a photographer and owned a photo studio in his hometown. He later settled in Baku (nowadays capital of Azerbaijan) and lived there for 25 years. Here, in 1898, he shot his first films using a Lumiere cinematograph. Mişon is widely regarded as the pioneer of Azerbaijani cinema. (source: wikipedia)