The Early Days
Louis Lumière's invention was introduced to Uruguayan audiences for the first time on July 18, 1898, at the Salón Rouge, a popular local cabaret. Local businessman Félix Oliver purchased Uruguay's first film, camera and projector from the Lumiére brothers themselves; with them he made Bicycle Race in the Arroyo Seco Velodrome, only the second film produced in Latin America.
His first short film a success, Oliver established the country's first film studio and continued to make documentaries. One of Argentina's first cinematographers, French-born Henri Corbicier, took Uruguayan film in a new direction, however, when he produced The Peace of 1904, a documentary on Uruguay's recent political conflict and its resolution. Corbicier continued to produce newsreels and documentaries for the Uruguayan public for some time and influenced others to do the same.
Supplied most of their commercial film by Argentine production houses, Uruguayan audiences saw no domestic fiction film titles until, in 1919, local non-profit society Bonne Garde financed Pervanche, directed by León Ibáñez. Unsuccessful, the effort was the country's only one of its type until Juan Antonio Borges' Almas de la Costa. Released in 1923, it is considered the first full-length Uruguayan film. Its studio, Charrúa Films, produced one more full-length film (Adventures of a Parisian Girl in Montevideo) before closing in 1927.
Inspiring others, however, this modest start led Carlos Alonso to produce The Little Hero of Arroyo de Oro in 1929; the film, a realist tragedy set in the countryside, was in the vanguard for its frank and graphic depiction of domestic violence and was the first commercially successful Uruguayan film.
The year 1930, despite other difficulties, provided Uruguayan film makers an unexpected opportunity when their national football team won that year's World Cup. Justino Zavala Muñiz produced rousing documentaries on the event, as well as the coinciding hundredth anniversary of the Uruguayan Constitution. His success enabled him to establish the Uruguyan Cine-Club, from where he premiered the acclaimed Sky, Water and Sea Lions, among other documentaries and fiction films.
The great depression, however, soon dampened local film makers' plans and audiences would wait until 1936 to see the next locally produced film.
Read more about this topic: Cinema Of Uruguay, History
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