Why some works cite K. Serf as the operator for Oil Wells of Baku?

[Vincenzo Turi]

Hello, I'm reading Ecology and Popular Film by Robin L. Murray and Joseph K. Heumann and they say that the 2 films about Bakou oil wells are shot by Kamill Serf while the footage framed by Mishon was unavailable to be watched in 2009 when they wrote the book.

Could it be that the 2 films were attributed to Mishon later? Or is it even possible that Kamill Serf doesn't exists at all as it's not quoted anywhere in your archive?

I have difficulty in finding the book you use as the main source of this archive so I'm struggling in verifying this information.

Does anyone have more information about it?

Many thanks.

Vincenzo

[Manuel]

Hi Vincenzo,

The french book from 1995 that is used as main source for the website catalogue-lumiere gives no attribution regarding the two "Oil well in Baku" films, they are listed as "anonymous".

Some years ago, I was contacted by someone from the BBC who asked me about those movies "directed by the pioneer of cinema in Azerbaijan, Alexandre Michon". I then searched a bit, and came across the article from 1997 by Aydin Kazimzade "Cinema in Azerbaijan: Pre-Soviet Era" : https://azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/53_folder/53_articles/53_100years.html

Based on this info, I added the attribution to the catalogue-lumiere website.

I didn't carry out any deeper research, and didn't came across sources that mention Kamill Serf.

Best,

Manuel