Vassil Gendov

Gendov also produced Bulgaria's first sound film The Slave's Revolt in 1933.

• Name — Vasil Gendov • Native Name — Васил Гендов • Born — 24 November 1891 • Birthplace — Sliven, Bulgaria • Birth Name — Vasil Dimov Hadzhigendov (Васил Димов Хаджигендов) • Died — 3 September 1970 • Place of death — Sofia, Bulgaria • Other Names — Vassil Gendov • Occupation — Actor, film director, screenwriter • Years Active — 1910–1937 • Spouse — Ivana Ivanova "Zhana" Gendova

Born Vasil Dimov Hadzhigendov was born in Sliven. He studied at the Tears and Laughter Theatre and the Ivan Vazov National Theatre in Sofia between 1905 and 1907. He made his stage debut as an actor in the role of Robert Pfeiffer in Otto Ernst's play The Educators. After graduating from theatre school in Vienna, he studied in filmmaking in Berlin before touring in a troupe of theatre performers led by Bulgarian stage actress Roza Popova.

Gendov would go on to initiate the establishment of the first Union of Actors in Bulgaria in 1919–1920, the Union of Filmmakers in Bulgaria in 1931 and the Museum of Bulgarian Cinematography in 1948. Vanquished after allying with Hitler, Bulgaria became a socialist people's republic and the film industry was nationalized and organized after the Soviet model in 1948. Gendov was then forced into early retirement from making films. However, he undertook creating the state film archives that would develop into what is now the Bulgarian National Film Archive. Gendov dedicated himself to collecting the films made by his colleagues, as well as film posters and media publications about the Bulgarian film industry. • Illustration — Vasil Gendov memorial plaque in Sliven Vasil Gendov would live out the remainder of his life in Sofia, where he died in 1970. On 15 January 2015, the centenary of the release of Bulgaran is Gallant, the Bulgarian National Film Archive held a celebration and exhibition at the Odeon Cinema in Sofia. In 2015, Bulgarian filmmaker Iliya Kostov would release the documentary Vasil Gendov - Myth and Reality, which explores Gendov's career and personal life in the context of the social and political situation of Bulgaria in the early twentieth century against the backdrop of the cultural development of Europe and the Balkans. The documentary was released in October 2015 and was screened at the 22nd Golden Rhyton Documentary and Animation Film Festival in December 2015 in Plovdiv.