Iluminace 2025, 37(3):21-42 | DOI: 10.58193/ilu.1819

Cinema’s Atmospheric A Priori: How Weather and Environment Shaped Celluloid Film Manufacturing and Raw Material Supply at Fujifilm, Daicel, and Agfa

Marek Jancovic
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands ✉

Where was the cotton for Fujifilm’s cine-film grown? Who supplied the animal parts that would end up coated on Agfa’s film as gelatin? How did climate, environment, geology, and river hydrology shape the history of celluloid film manufacturing, and thus of cinema? This article enlists several archival collections and a range of little-known, multi-language secondary sources in the broader task of understanding cinema’s relationship with the material environment and climate, and its historical role in global trade, extractivist practices, and colonial politics. Drawing on primary source research in the archives of film stock and chemical manufacturers Agfa-Gevaert, IG Farben, and Schering, and on the corporate histories of Fujifilm and Dainippon Celluloid, I clarify how parts of the raw material supply chain for celluloid film were structured between roughly 1920 and 1945. Methodologically, this article integrates eco-media thought with spatial approaches to show how nonhuman elements (earth, wood, air, and water) are historically implicated in the global photochemical industry. It introduces the notion of the atmospheric apriori and shifts emphasis to East Asian sites – or rather: environments – often overlooked in English-language research. By attending both to fine-grained microhistories of individual factories as well as global transnational trade networks, the article challenges prevailing Euro- and Americentric narratives of film technology and provides a situated account of the critical role of logistics and environment in cinema’s material foundation.

Keywords: elemental film history, colonialism, cotton, gelatin, camphor

Received: May 13, 2025; Revised: November 6, 2025; Accepted: November 23, 2025; Published: February 3, 2026  Show citation

ACS AIP APA ASA Harvard Chicago IEEE ISO690 MLA NLM Turabian Vancouver
Jancovic, M. (2025). Cinema’s Atmospheric A Priori: How Weather and Environment Shaped Celluloid Film Manufacturing and Raw Material Supply at Fujifilm, Daicel, and Agfa. Iluminace, 37(3), 21-42. doi: 10.58193/ilu.1819
Share...
Download citation
  • BibTeX (.bib)
  • Bookends (.ris)
  • EasyBib (.ris)
  • EndNote (.enw)
  • EndNote 8 (.xml)
  • ISI WoS (.isi)
  • Medlars (.medlars)
  • Mendeley (.ris)
  • MODS (.xml)
  • Papers (.ris)
  • RefWorks (.txt)
  • RefManager (.ris)
  • RIS (.ris)
  • MS Word (.xml)
  • Zotero (.ris)
    • Open full article

    References

    1. Acland, Charles R., and Eric Hoyt, eds. The Arclight Guidebook to Media History and the Digital Humanities (Sussex: Reframe Books in association with Project Arclight, 2016).
    2. Allen, Robert, and Douglas Gomery. Film History: Theory and Practice (New York: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages, 1994).
    3. Alt, Lutz. "The Photochemical Industry: Historical Essays in Strategy and Internationalization" (PhD Dissertation, Massachussets Institute of Technology, 1986).
    4. Angus, Siobhan. Camera Geologica: An Elemental History of Photography (Durham: Duke University Press Books, 2024. Go to original source...
    5. Arakawa, Jun. "Industrial History of the Photographic Materials - 'How Dainippon Celluloid Established Fuji Photo Film' [感光材料の産業史- 「大日本セルロイドから富士写真フイルム 設立の経緯」]," Journal of The Society of Photographic Science and Technology of Japan [日本写真学会誌] 87, no. 2 (2024), 79-86.
    6. Baptist, Vincent, Julia Noordegraaf, and Thunnis van Oort. "A Digital Toolkit to Detect Cinema Audiences of the Silent Era: Scalable Perspectives on Film Exhibition and Consumption in Amsterdam Neighbourhoods (1907-1928)," Studies in European Cinema 18, no. 3 (2021), 252-273. Go to original source...
    7. Beckert, Sven, Ulbe Bosma, Mindi Schneider, and Eric Vanhaute. "Commodity Frontiers and Global Histories: The Tasks Ahead," Journal of Global History 16, no. 3 (2021), 466-469. Go to original source...
    8. Bode, Herbert. "Geschichte der Filmfabrik Wolfen 1909 bis 1994," Mitteilungen der Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker, Fachgruppe Geschichte der Chemie, no. 13 (1997), 157-162.
    9. Bustamante, Carlos. "AGFA, Kullmann, Singer & Co. and Early Cine-Film Stock," Film History 20, no. 1 (2008), 59-76. Go to original source...
    10. Combs, Matthew Tyler. "Camphor, a Plastic History: China, Taiwan, and Celluloid, 1868-1937" (PhD Dissertation, UC Irvine, 2018).
    11. Cronqvist, Marie, and Christoph and Hilgert. "Entangled Media Histories: The Value of Transnational and Transmedial Approaches in Media Historiography," Media History 23, no. 1 (2017), 130-141. Go to original source...
    12. Daicel Chemical Industries. A 60-year history of Daicel Chemical Industries [ダイセル化学工業６０年史] (Osaka: Daicel Chemical [ダイセル化学工業株式会社], 1981).
    13. Dainippon Celluloid. History of Dainippon Celluloid Co. [大日本セルロイド株式会社社史] (Amagasaki: Dainippon Celluloid, 1952).
    14. Davis, Heather. Plastic Matter (Durham: Duke University Press, 2022).
    15. De Rosa, Miriam, and Andrea Mariani. "Experimenting in Circles: Agfa, Amateur Cinema, and the Art of R&D," NECSUS: European Journal of Media Studies 12, no. 2 (2023), 176-195.
    16. Duncan, Pansy. "CelluloidTM: Cecil M. Hepworth, Trick Film, and the Material Prehistory of the Plastic Image," Film History 31, no. 4 (2019), 92-111. Go to original source...
    17. Duncan, Pansy. "Towards a Natural History of Film Form: Silver Salts and the Aesthetics of Early Studio-Era Hollywood Cinema," Screen 63, no. 4 (2022), 411-426. Go to original source...
    18. Elsaesser, Thomas. "The 'New' Film History," Sight and Sound 55, no. 4 (1986), 246-251.
    19. Fengler, Silke. "'Den Markt klar im Sucher!?' Krise und Niedergang des Amateurkamerageschäfts der Agfa-Gevaert AG in den 1960er und 1970er Jahren," Jahrbuch für Wirtschaftsgeschichte/Economic History Yearbook 47, no. 2 (2006), 95-114. Go to original source...
    20. Fuji Photo Film Co. 25 Years in Business [創業25年の歩み] (Tokyo: Fuji Photo Film Co., 1960).
    21. Fujifilm Labor Union. History of the Fujifilm Labor Union [富士フイルム労仂組合の歴史 : 前史・1945年-1957年・追補] (Tokyo: Rōdō Keizaisha [労働経済社], 1960).
    22. Furuhata, Yuriko. Climatic Media: Transpacific Experiments in Atmospheric Control (Durham: Duke University Press, 2022). Go to original source...
    23. Furuhata, Yuriko. "Of Dragons and Geoengineering: Rethinking Elemental Media," Media+Environment 1, no. 1 (2019), accessed September 30, 2025, https://doi.org/10.1525/001c.10797. Go to original source...
    24. Hagener, Malte. "Where Is Cinema (Today)?: The Cinema in the Age of Media Immanence," Cinema & Cie 8, no. 11 (2008), 15-22.
    25. Haid, Jonathan. "The Raw Materials of Celluloid Film: Wartime Economy, Educational Animation, and Film's Plasticity," Research in Film and History, no. 5 (2023), accessed September 30, 2025, https://film-history.org/issues/text/raw-materials-celluloid-film.
    26. Hallam, Julia, and Les Roberts, eds. Locating the Moving Image: New Approaches to Film and Place (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2014). Go to original source...
    27. Hill, W. Z. "The Life of a Film: Medianatures, Camphor, and the Ideology of Technological Modernity," JCMS: Journal of Cinema and Media Studies 61, no. 4 (2022), 85-105. Go to original source...
    28. Hirai, Hirokazu. "A Study of Historical Japanese Colonial Finances [日本植民地財政史研究]" (PhD Dissertation, Hokkaido University, 1996).
    29. Ingravalle, Grazia. "Allegories of the Past: Nitrate Film's Aura in Postindustrial Rochester, NY," Screen 60, no. 3 (2019), 371-387. Go to original source...
    30. Jaikumar, Priya, and Lee Grieveson. "Introduction to Media and Extraction: On the Extractive Film," Media+Environment 6, no. 1 (2024), accessed September 30, 2025, https://doi.org/10.1525/001c.123925. Go to original source...
    31. Jancovic, Marek. "'Please Reseed:' Camphor, Turpentine, and the Agrogeographies of Celluloid Cinema," in Cinematic Ecosystems: Screen Encounters with More-than-Humans in the Era of Environmental Crisis, eds. Mary Hegedus and Jessica Mulvogue (Wilmington: Vernon Press, 2026).
    32. Japan Monopoly Corporation [日本専売公社]. History of the Camphor Monopoly [樟脳専売史] (Tokyo: Japan Monopoly Corporation, 1956).
    33. Karlsch, Rainer. "Zwischen Partnerschaft Und Konkurrenz: Das Spannungsfeld in Den Beziehungen Zwischen Den VEB Filmfabrik Wolfen Und Der Agfa AG Leverkusen," Zeitschrift Für Unternehmensgeschichte / Journal of Business History 36, no. 4 (1991), 245-281. Go to original source...
    34. Klenotic, Jeffrey. "Mapping Flat, Deep, and Slow: On the 'Spirit of Place' in New Cinema History," TMG Journal for Media History 23, no. 1-2 (2020), 1-34. Go to original source...
    35. Knowles, Kim. Experimental Film and Photochemical Practices (Cham: Palgrave Macmillan,2020). Go to original source...
    36. Koyama Hisashi. History of the Japanese Plastic Industry [日本プラスチック工業史] (Tokyo: Kōgyō Chōsakai [工業調査会], 1967).
    37. Löhnert, Peter, and Heinz Mustroph. Von der Trockenplatte zum Schwarz/Weiss Kinefilm: Aus der Geschichte der Filmfabrik Wolfen 61, Betriebsarchiv d. VEB Filmfabrik Wolfen, 1987.
    38. Lovejoy, Alice. "Celluloid Geopolitics: Film Stock and the War Economy, 1939-47," Screen 60, no. 2 (2019), 224-241. Go to original source...
    39. Lovejoy, Alice. Tales of Militant Chemistry: The Film Factory in a Century of War (Oakland: University of California Press, 2025). Go to original source...
    40. Maxwell, Richard, and Toby Miller. "Film and the Environment: Risk Offscreen," in Film and Risk, ed. Mette Hjort (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2012).
    41. Mittelstenscheid, Karl Otto. "Kampfer: Ein wichtiges Kapitel der Schering-Geschichte," 1996, SchAB3-788, Schering Archiv, Bayer AG, Berlin.
    42. Moore, Paul S. "Space, Place, and Case: Surveying the Grounds of Cinema History," Early Popular Visual Culture 13, no. 4 (2015), 336-343. Go to original source...
    43. Nelson, Patricia A. "Competition and the Politics of War: The Global Photography Industry, c. 1910-60," Journal of War & Culture Studies 9, no. 2 (2016), 115-132. Go to original source...
    44. Noordegraaf, Julia, Thunnis van Oort, Kathleen Lotze, Daniel Biltereyst, Philippe Meers, and Ivan Kisjes. "Discovering Cinema Typologies in Urban Cinema Cultures: Comparing Programming Strategies in Antwerp and Amsterdam, 1952-1972," in The Palgrave Handbook of Comparative New Cinema Histories, eds. Daniela Treveri Gennari, Van de Vijver Lies, and Pierluigi Ercole (Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2024). Go to original source...
    45. Okada, Hidenori. "Nitrate Film Production in Japan: A Historical Background of the Early Days," in The Oxford Handbook of Japanese Cinema, ed. Daisuke Miyao, trans. Ayako Saito and Daisuke Miyao (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014).
    46. Pafort-Overduin, Clara, Kathleen Lotze, Åsa Jernudd, and Thunnis van Oort. "Moving Films: Visualising Film Flow in Three European Cities in 1952," TMG Journal for Media History 23, no. 1-2 (2020), 1-49. Go to original source...
    47. Parikka, Jussi. A Geology of Media (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2015). Go to original source...
    48. Past, Elena. "The Ferrania Acquisition, the Cinematic Archive and the Anthropocene: Celluloid Materialities," La Valle Dell'Eden, no. 37 (2021), 147-158.
    49. Riebensahm, Ken. "Der steigende Kampferbedarf infolge der Erfindung des Celluloids und die Unterwerfung der indigenen Bevölkerung Taiwans während der japanischen Kolonialherrschaft" (PhD Dissertation, University of Hamburg, 2011).
    50. Roy, Elodie A. Shellac in Visual and Sonic Culture: Unsettled Matter (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2023). Go to original source...
    51. Roy, Toulouse-Antonin. "'The Camphor Question Is in Reality the Savage Question:' The Japanese Empire, Indigenous Peoples, and the Making of Capitalist Taiwan, 1895-1915" (PhD Dissertation, UCLA, 2020). Go to original source...
    52. Sarkar, Bhaskar. "Tracking 'Global Media' in the Outposts of Globalization," in World Cinemas,Transnational Perspectives, eds. Nataša Ďurovičová and Kathleen E. Newman (London: Routledge, 2010).
    53. Shome, Raka. "When Postcolonial Studies Interrupts Media Studies†," Communication, Culture and Critique 12, no. 3 (2019), 305-322. Go to original source...
    54. Shukin, Nicole. Animal Capital: Rendering Life in Biopolitical Times (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2009).
    55. Stackelberg, Emmet Winkle von. "Seeing Through Silver: A Chemical History of Moving Images 1880-1950" (PhD Dissertation, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, 2023).
    56. Starosielski, Nicole. "The Elements of Media Studies," Media+Environment 1, no. 1 (2019), accessed September 30, 2025.
    57. Struck, Bernhard, Kate Ferris, and Jacques Revel. "Introduction: Space and Scale in Transnational History," The International History Review 33, no. 4 (2011), 573-584. Go to original source...
    58. Tavares, Antonio C. "Crystals from the Savage Forest: Imperialism and Capitalism in the Taiwan Camphor Industry, 1800-1945" (PhD Dissertation, Princeton University, 2004).
    59. Tei, Daigaku. "Research on the History of Taiwan-Japan Camphor Policy [臺日樟腦政策史の研究]" (PhD Dissertation, Osaka Metropolitan University, 1995).
    60. Tsuji, Chisako. "Cotton Improvement Projects in Japan and Korea," in Intra-Asian Trade and Industrialization, eds. A.J.H. Latham and Heita Kawakatsu (London: Routledge, 2006).
    61. Vaughan, Hunter. Hollywood's Dirtiest Secret: The Hidden Environmental Costs of the Movies (New York: Columbia University Press, 2019). Go to original source...
    62. Zakaria, Faizah. The Camphor Tree and the Elephant: Religion and Ecological Change in Maritime Southeast Asia (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2023). Go to original source...

    This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original publication is properly cited. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.


    Return to the content