'Titles to Talkies
Author: Charlie Cauchi
Edited by Giulia Privitelli
Designed by Lisa Attard
Published: Fondazzjoni Patrimonju Malti / 2025

One of the most exiting publishing projects Fondazzjoni Patrimonju Malti has embarked on in 2025 is one that covers the origin and history of film culture in Malta. It is the first of its kind to line the bookshelves of our libraries, stores, and homes. Indeed, Charlie Cauchi (artist, director, and film historian) has attempted to outline the international and local context for film production and cinemagoing in Malta, particularly spanning the "magic lantern" years, to the era of the silent moving image, until the introduction of sound in the interwar period, thus clarifying how film in Malta enters into the political and cultural landscape that shaped the island at the time.

As Nicholas Vella remarks in his Foreword, what results "is a book that provides the reader with a vital view into the way Malta and the Maltese have been represented in the formative years of a nation in the making". The book, in a sense, adopts a double-lens, and offers the spectators' viewpoint too, featuring early cinemagoing culture and etiquette, promotion and advertisement of film, the debate around language and censorship, and the spaces utilised, or which were tailor-built, for film projection and screenings. The narrative unfolds through piecing together documentary and visual sources, through newspapers clippings and trade journals, altogether shedding light on the technological developments in filming and image projection, the rules and regulations that burdened the industry, concerns on morality and education, propagandic conditioning, as well as the dire need for entertainment in times of war and suffering.

In many ways, Cauchi peels away the layers to reveal the social dimension of film, but often works with fragments of recorded data. And yet, it is precisely there that fascinating discoveries were to be made. For example, the recently-released treasure trove on the subject held at the National Archives of Malta, much of which still needs to be closely analysed and interpreted, has led to the discovery of exciting documentation which effectively suggests that the genesis of film in Malta can be pushed to the beginning of the 20th century. It is, however, an incomplete story; a narrative that acknowledges the significant gaps owed to the fragile nature of film, of the loss of cinematic productions, traces of which only survive in written or photographic form, if at all. Here, then, is a book that celebrates both the enterprising and creative minds of the early visionaries of cinema, and a culture that supported its growth, as well as a lamentation for all that has been lost or is threatened by bureaucratic processes, ignorance, or the natural effect of time - an argument that is equally valid to this day.

'Titles to Talkies' can be purchased from the Victor Pasmore Gallery, Valletta, during the gallery's opening hours. The book is also available from selected local bookstores. This publication is sponsored and supported by the Central Bank of Malta. See https://www.patrimonju.org/books/titles-to-talkies for more information.