Takes audiences behind the scenes of the new golden age of children’s picture books —a time when all children can see characters who look like them on the page; a time when creators come from diverse communities and backgrounds; and a time when instead of keeping the hard stuff out of stories for children, we put it in and provide context and counternarrative.

The film showcases the photographic work of Janaki and Milton Manaki, the first Balkan cinematographers. Over the years, the Manaki brothers have been mythologized, and the addition of new and unconfirmed information in order to increase their importance is unnecessary and harmful, because their work is of great cultural importance not only in Macedonia, but also in the wider Balkan context. For this reason, every fact and opinion presented in the movie MANAKI – A STORY IN PICTURES has been carefully researched and confirmed with presented artifacts. The story is told through original documentary photographs following their work from the opening of the first professional studio in 1898 in Ioannina and later moving to Bitola, now known as the town of the Manaki brothers.

The film is a study of a cultural phenomenon. In the midst of socialism - 1979 - in Bulgaria appears a magazine advocating Western influence – the comics art. “DAGA” exists for more than ten years and has a huge circulation – 300,000. This is a unique comics magazine, not only in Bulgaria but throughout the former Soviet bloc. Some of the series and the characters are still living today in the minds of the readers, shaping their personalities.