There is some reports that British Brighton School films using the Vivomatograph were premiered in Buenos Aires as early as July 6, 1896, but it has not been confirmed. On July 28, 1896, Francisco Pastor and Spanish journalist Eustaquio Pellicer made the first public film presentation in Buenos Aires at the Teatro Odeon using Lumiere equipment and film. Henri (Enrique) Lepage, who owned a shop called Casa Lepage, that imported photographic materials and supplies, and his 2 assistants, Max Glucksmann and Eugene Py, attended the presentation. They were so excited that they immediately tried to acquire cameras and equipment from Lumiere. They were rejected by Lumiere but were able to acquire a Gaumont/Demeny Chronophotographe, and a Cinematografo Pathe and initial supplies through Gaumont.

Eugene Py became the first filmmaker and cameraman in Argentina with his short film La Bandera Argentina (The Argentine Flag). Glucksmann began selling and marketing the films and Lepage gave the presentations in his shop. Py continued making all types of factuals and in 1898 did the camera work for Dr. Alejandro Posadas in the first filming of surgeries.

Glucksmann set up a production and distribution network to both show films produced in Argentina and importing films to be shown. In 1900, Glucksmann moved into exhibition and opened the first theaters specially intended for movie projections and the first filmed news reports appeared. By 1908, Glucksmann bought out Lepage and started opening theaters across Argentina, and in Uruguay and Chile. Glucksmann had 13 brothers and brought most of them into the business. The most notable were: Jacobo, his older brother, that lived in the USA where he acquired films to be shown in Argentina; and Bernardo, his youngest brother, who managed a movie theatre chain in Uruguay. Glucksmann became the most dominant individual in Argentina cinema during the silent era.

Other notables in this era are:

Federico Valle - an Italian filmmaker who is credited as being the first to make aerial films with Wilbur Wright, at Centocelle, near Rome, in 1909. Valle came to Argentina to produce films for the Lumiere Bros. and the Urban Trading Co. Valle began producing factuals but due to the massive political problems in Argentina, quickly expanded to also providing newsreels. One of the most notable accomplishments was to incorporate drawings into his newsreels. In 1916, he hired a young artist named Quirino Cristiani to do a political cartoon.

Quirino Cristiani - a young Italian artist who was born in Italy in 1896 and his family had moved to Argentina in 1900 looking for work. His skill at drawing caricatures was great enough that as a teenager, he was supplying political cartoons to local newspapers. In 1916, he was hired by Federico Valle to do a political cartoon. Cristiani studied the material on film techniques by Emile Cohl that Valle made available. Cristiani made his first political cartoon film which was two-and-a-half minutes of animation entitled La intervencion en la provincia de Buenos Aires and included in the newsreel "Actualidades Valle". The results was so overwhelmingly accepted that Valle raised the funds to produce a larger project. In 1917, Cristiani released el Apostol, a feature-length political satire on Hipolito Irigoyen, the country's new President. This was the first feature-length animated film ever made.

El Apostol was an hour and ten minutes long and was said to be composed of 58,000 drawings. All known copies of the film were lost in a fire in Federico Valle's vaults in 1926. In 1918, Cristiani produced another feature length political cartoon titled, Sin dejar rastros (the second feature length cartoon ever produced), but the political climate had changed and the film was seized by the police and disappeared into the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Argentina film industryl really advanced with sound films in 1933. The most popular being the film Tango. The program for the film is shown on the left. Virtually at the same time, Argentina Sono Film was born.

Soon, these and other companies produced 30 films per year which they exported to Latin American countries.

By 1938 there were already 29 filming galleries, but the equipment used had not made the same advancements..

The main filmmakers of the time were Moglia Barth, Francisco Mugica, Manuel Romero, Daniel Tinayre, Luis Saslavsky, de Savalia, Borcosque and Luis Cesar Amadori with writers such as Mario Soffici and Leopoldo Torres Ríos.

In the 40's, Carlos Hugo Christensen with dramas and erotic comedies and the epic cinema director Lucas Demare made their appearances.

There was increasing state intervention into the growing industry as well as the formation of the Associated Argentine Artists cooperative.

Argentina stayed neutral during WWII which had a backlash on the industry. The United States had pushed Argentina to join the Allies in the war, and when they declined, the US cut off many supplies from the United States including film stock. This crippled the Argentina film industry and allowed Mexican to become the dominate supplier of Latin American films.

Films created in Argentina during this time were of much lower grade original films, which soon led to forms of censorship, blacklists, discretionary distribution of original films and favorable treatment.

1955 was an important year in Argentine cinema. The Peron government, which had caused Argentina to be cut off from the scientific and artistic developments happening in the rest of the world, was replaced. This opened up a period of great optimism in Argentina. In this optimism, the National Film Institute was established.

Because of the NFI, in 1957, the Cinema Act was passed and the Instituto Nacional de Cinematografía (INC, National Cinematographic Institute) was created. Since then, this organization decides on credits, and helped neutalize a lot the government influence. In 1958, a civilian government was led by Frondizi that represented progressive democratic ideals.

The filmmakers that rose to prominence were: Leopoldo Torre Nilsson, Simon Feldman, Martinez Suarez, and Rene Mugica. At the same time, Fernando Birri ran his school of documentary cinema. Film production increased and by the end of the 1960s, Argentina was producing 30-35 feature films per year.

The late 1960s brought political unrest with constant threat of military takeovers which brought about a constant battle between government and the cultural community. As the government tried to curb cultural activities, the cultural community defied the government causing some theaters to be shut down on morality charges.

Records from 1968 show that there were 1,850 35mm theaters and 250 16mm theaters operating that year. Theaters in Argentina exhibited 423 films for the year. With only 32 being produced in Argentina, 124 were from the US; 57 British; 34 Italian; 32 French; 14 Spanish; 9 German; 7 Russian; and the remainder and from other countries. By 1970, Argentina was about to plunge into a civil war.

In 1973, the exiled president Juan Peron was re-elected president. Although he died the first year of office, his wife Isabelle Peron took his place. But in 1976, a military coup seized power, replacing Isabelle Peron and launching a brutal assault on the opposition. The country was plunged into economic, political, and cultural crises. Inflation was at 100% and the film industry became paralyzed and production halted. Records show that by 1979, the number of total theaters had dropped by almost 300 to 1,807. In 1982, only 18 films were produced.

In 1984, a new government seized control and did away with censorship. A filmmaker from the sixties, Manuel Antin, was placed in charge of the INC, and promoted the birth of a new generation, which came to be called Argentina Cinema in Freedom and Democracy. Film production increased to 34 feature films in 1985.

However, the 1989 Argentine economic crisis, with flourishing inflation, turned into producer-directors depending on state subsidies or foreign co-productions. Production plummeted and by 1991 only 15 feature films were produced.

Argentine filmmakers placed their hopes on the new Act, passed in 1995, forcing video and television to make financial contributions to Argentine movies. This is fueling young directors to produce a wider variety of films to try to reestablish the industry.

In the 2000s, the market is fairly stable with an average production again back up to 30-35 feature films per year.

Argentina First in Film

The first public film exhibition was by Francisco Pastos and Eustaquio Pellier at the Colon Theater in Buenos Aires on July 28, 1896 using a Lumiere projector and films. —————————— The first film produced in Argentina was La Bandera Argentina in 1897. —————————— The first feature film over 1 hour was Nobleza Gaucha in 1915. —————————— The first 'talkie' was La Munequitas Portenas in 1931 using the Vitaphone system. —————————— Other Firsts The first fiction movie with professional actors, La revolucion de mayo (May Revolution), in 1910; —————————— The first feature-length film, Amalia, in 1914; —————————— The first big success, Nobleza Gaucha (Gaucho Nobleness; with a cost of 25,000 pesos and box office collections for half a million in six months, aside from bootleg copies) in 1915; —————————— The first animation feature-length movie in the world, El apostol (The Apostle), in 1917; —————————— The first woman director in Latin America, in 1917.

Posters

The main posters sizes are: (original sizes are in metric so inches are approximate)

21x29 - small Argentina poster

29x43 - this is the standard size which is slightly larger than the US poster.

43x58 - horizontally - this is the called the Argentina 2 sheet.

41x74 - Argentina 3 sheet

It is common to find a tag such as: 'Industria Argentina' on the bottom of the poster. The size is the main indicator because it is different that all other major countries.

Censorship

Censorship in Argentina has been primarily dictated by political upheavals and was off and on depending upon the political party in power at the time.. With newsreels being the primary film production, censorship was heavily monitored.

The National Cinematograph Institute instituted a censorship based on moral grounds with 2 primary divisions: under 14 and 18 and over.

Stamps

The stamp shown on the right has been found on numerous posters from the 1950s and 1960s. If you notice on the outside circle mentions 'Ciubad de Buenos Aires'. I couldn't find any translation for 'ciubad' BUT 'ciudad' is translated 'city' so this should relate to the city of Buenos Aires. Inside the middle 'Control' and 'Art No Venue'. We believe that this is a either a taxation or censorship stamp from the city of Buenos Aires. Also notice that it is stamped on top of another stamp which is below.

This stamp is also found on numerous posters during the same 1950s and 1960s. You can see it below the above city of Buenos Aires stamp. I have not been able to find anyone that knows what this is yet..... BUT ... if you look closely at the wording on the top of the stamp, it says 'Grafico' and then down the right side says 'Argentine'. I believe that this is a logo for a printers union.