Section introductions: 750 words maximum.

First Program- European Pioneers-Short animated films, Quirino Cristiani, 1919-1924-Cigars Factory Fernandez and Sust, commercial short film, Federico Valle, 1929.-Entre los hielos de las Islas Orcadas, Antrtica, Federico Valle y Jos Manuel Moneta, 1927.Second Program- Creole Pioneers-La mosca y sus peligros, Martnez, Cairo, 1921-La vuelta al buln, Jos Agustn Ferreyra, 1926

Argentine Silent Cinema

In Buenos Aires the first news about the Cinemathographe Lumiere arrived soon after the first show in Paris, when local newspaper La Prensa published an article about it in April 3rd 1896. On July 4th, the local newspaper La Tribuna gave it the name of Vivomatografo. The same year, pioneer Enrique de Mayrena imported the first camera for screening movies, with material shot by British film pioneer Willam Paul. Later on, the Cinematographe Lumiere, brought by Francisco Pastor, and Edisons Vitascope, presented by Federico Figner, made its way to the country too.Enrique Lepage, Eugenio Py and Max Glcksamann were the precursors of a national film production. In 1900, Gregorio Ortuo opened the first movie theatre El Nacional. A number of new theatres opened after that. In Octobre, Py filmed the arrival of Brazilian elected President, in El viaje a Buenos Aires del Dr. Campos Salles. It is the oldest argentine film that steel exists, and it was probably the first local newsreel. From 1907 to 1910, Glcksmann produced several sonorized short films with the help of wax cylinders. In 1908, he built, El ateneo, the first luxurious movie palace, con Corrientes Avenue.Italian citizen Mario Gallo was the director of La revolucin de Mayo (1909, 10 min) considered to be our first fiction film. Nobleza Gaucha (1915) was the first film portraying the contrast between the city and the countryside. With Humberto Cairo, Eduardo Martinez de la Pera and Ernesto Gnche as directores, it became the first local blockbuster. Several production companies opened in the late teens and early twenties, though financing and technical equipment were hard to get.In 1916, Italian citizen Federico Valle begun production of Film Revista Valle, the most important newsreel of the silent period, and movies as the success Milonguita (1921), travelogues as Por tierras Argentinas (1929) or scientific films as Entre los hielos de las islas Orcadas (1927). He also produced the animated films of Quirino Cristiani. By 1920, the country had seven million inhabitants and a thousand movie theatres. The distribution of foreign films was significantly encouraged by the success of Hollywood, while local production continue increasing the numbers of films. As happens in the rest of the world most of those films remain lost, but recently some of them were found in Pea Rodriguez Collection at Museo del Cine (the same collection were Metropolis was found in 2008), and others through different film collectors that decided to contribute with our cause; give access to a wide audience to this rare and old films.

At Pordenone 2015 we are screening a small part of that production. A beautiful commercial film from an old Cigars Factory, some short animated films by the pioneer Quirino Cristiani, the only ones that survived from that period, from the man who directed the first animated feature film ever made in 1917 El apostol. A scientific film, La mosca y sus peligros, that looks like a horror film really, a short comedy, La vuelta al buln by Jos Agustn Ferreyra the most important argentine director from the silent period, known as the Griffith of the pampas, and an extraordinary adventure in Antrtica, shot in 1927 by argentine scientist Jos Manuel Moneta who was inspired in Flahertys Nanook of the North.This films where discovered and preserved during the last years thanks to Paula Flix-Didier (Director Museo del Cine), Andrs Levinson (Museo del Cine) and film collector Fernando Martn Pea.

First Program- European Pioneers

Short animated films, Quirino Cristiani, 1919-1924Newsreels represented a significant amount of Argentine Film production during the silent period (1896-1932). Two of these newsreels are remarkable due to the quality and quantity of their production: Actualidades Argentinas (Argentine Current Affairs), released in 1915, and Film Revista Valle (Valle Magazine Film), released in1920 and the first one to be shot and screened weekly. Newsreels reviewed Argentine social and political life during the first decades of the twentieth century. Unfortunately, only a few of these films survive preserved by Museo del Cine and the National Archives. However during the last years twelve different editions of Film Revista Valle where found at Museo del fin del Mundo in Ushuaia. The extraordinary discovery was even more extraordinary because the last note of every newsreel was an animated cartoon draw by the pioneer Quirino Cristiani, whose feature films from the silent period remain completely lost, and up to this discovery we didnt know about his participation in Film Revista Valle. We are screening this animations in 35mm for the first time. (Andrs Levinson).Director: Federico ValleYear: 1925Production: Cinematografa ValleGauge: 35mm Projection speed: 24fpsB&WLanguaje: Spanish

Cigars Factory Fernandez and Sust, commercial short film, Federico Valle, 1929.This short film is another recent discovery made by Fernando Martn Pea. Its a beautiful commercial film manufactured by Cinematografa Valle. Probably its the only one of his kind that still survives in Argentina. The tinted base on the nitrate copy remains in perfect condition. The preservation was made in a color negative film so as to preserve the original color. (Andrs Levinson).

Director: Federico ValleYear: 1929Production: Cinematografa ValleGauge: 35mm Projection speed: 24fpsTintedLanguaje: Spanish

Entre los hielos de las Islas Orcadas, Antrtica, Federico Valle y Jos Manuel Moneta, 1927I was focused in obtaining cinematographic shootings of the most relevant episodes and manifestations of the Orcadian life. This photographic activity increased notably my occupation time there. I didnt miss any opportunity to bring on film the most prominent actions of our life there and thats how day after day, I was filling metal canisters with filmed tape for the first time in such place, said meteorologist and filmmaker Jos Manuel Moneta in his book Four years at the Orkney.The film Entre los hielos de las Islas Orcadas (In between the South Orkney Islands Ices) by Jos Manuel Moneta is the very first production shot in this Antarctic region. This 1928 Argentine movie was lost for many decades, but in a recent research made by the Museo del Cine Pablo Ducrs Hicken a hidden copy appeared and it was preserved in a new 35mm negative. The film has a very singular story behind. Its director wasnt a filmmaker, in fact he was a meteorologist who made several Antarctic expeditions. Inspired by Robert J. Flahertys documentary Nanook, of the North (1922), he decided to show his deep southern experiences in a film, even without having any previous experience in this field. Moneta asked the film company Cinematogrfica Valle to borrow enough camera stuff to make a film in the Islas Orcadas (South Orkneys Islands). The company accepted and the film was ready around 1926, but that year a big fire took place at the Valle Studios burning this first version. So Moneta had to film the whole movie again in his next Antarctic expedition in 1927. Finally the film had its premiere in Buenos Aires in 1927. The film was considered lost for many years until a hidden copy suddenly was found three years ago by film historian Andrs Levinson.Director: Federico ValleYear: 1927Production: Cinematografa ValleGauge: 35mm Projection speed: 24fpsB&WLanguaje: Spanish

Second Program- Creole Pioneers-La mosca y sus peligros, Martnez, Cairo, 1921 (The dangers of the fly)

The dangers of the fly is an educational film made by Ernesto Gnche and Eduardo Martnez de la Pera, also responsible for Gaucho Nobility (1915), the biggest blockbuster of Argentinean silent cinema. De la Pera was a talented photographer, always willing to try new gadgets and techniques. This films experiments with microphotography in the style of Jean Comandons films for Path and it is part of a series which included a film about mosquitoes and paludism and another one about cancer, which are considered lost. Flies were a popular subject of silent films and there are more than a dozen titles featuring them in the teens and early twenties. (Paula Flix-Didier).

Director: Eduardo Martnez and Humberto CairoYear: 1921Production: Martnez & CairoGauge: 35mmProjection Speed: 24fpsB&WLanguaje; Spanish-La vuelta al buln, Jos Agustn Ferreyra, 1926 (Back to the Buln)

In this films Jos Ferreyra presents monologues and tango scenes performed by comic actor Alvaro Escobar. Same as in all of his other films, Ferreyra suggests tango with the title, in this case with a touch of comedy. The typical suburban characters, the representatives of the good, in contrast to those characters representing the idle, opulent downtown life, are present too. Also, the repented outlaws who search redemption. The film is set in a downtown caf and a buln (slang for an apartment reserved for romantic encounters), both paradigmatic tango spaces. It presents few exterior scenes, which are inserts form other films of the same director. Its the story of Mucha Espuma (Frothy, slang for arrogant) a conceited, braggart and lazy petty thief, who boasts about subduing his wife, Pulguita (Little Flea). However, shes way different form the little subjugated women he describes at the caf and abandons him, seduced by Lacuha Colorada (Red Rat), with whom she runs downtown. But after a series of unexpected events, and the effect of regrets, she goes back to the buln in her neighborhood. (Fernando Martn Pea)Director: Jos FerreyraYear: 1926Production: Gauge: 35mm Projection speed: 24fpsB&WLanguaje: Spanish