Filoteo Alberini

Filoteo Alberini ( born March 14, 1867 Lazio, Italy, † April 12, 1937 in Rome, Italy ) was an Italian engineer, inventor and filmmaker.

After serving in the army in Padua, where a superior support his skills as a photographer, he was consequently employed as an engineer in the Military Geographic Institute. In 1891 he was awarded a gold medal for his photo-technical developments for the reproduction of maps. After he came in 1894 with the Kinetoscope in touch, he developed his own Kinetografen, a combined camera with projector and printer, who received an Italian patent on November 11, 1895. There are, however, no evidence that could ever be produced a working machine.

Alberini was an important exhibitors and filmmakers in the early years of Italian cinema. In 1897 he produced with Anchise Cappelletti and Lionello Ganucci - Cancellieri the " Cinesigrafo ", a device used the wide rolls of film, similar to the American " biographer ". He was first issued in May 1899 in Florence. In the early 1900s he opened cinemas in Florence and Rome (the " Moderno " ), and in 1905 he founded, together with Dante Santoni the production company " Alberini & Santoni ", with which he produced Italy's first dramatic film La Presa di Roma. The following year, the company was renamed " Cines " and soon developed into one of the most influential production companies, not only in Italy but worldwide.