Venezuelan cinema celebrates its 127th anniversary

On January 28, 1897, Venezuelan cinema was born in Maracaibo, Zulia state. On that same day, at the Baralt Theater, the first two films with a Creole label were screened through a Vistacopio: A famous specialist removing teeth at the Gran Hotel Europa and Girls bathing in the Maracaibo lagoon, made by Manuel Trujillo Durán.

The Cayenne Lady or Passion and Death of Margarita Gutierrez is the first full-length fiction film made by Enrique Zimmerman in 1916. Then in 1924, La Trepadora was filmed, an adaptation of the novel by Rómulo Gallegos.

During the dictatorship of Juan Vicente Gómez, the National Laboratories of the Ministry of Public Works were installed in the city of Maracay and cinematographic activity reached optimal levels.

In 1931, Antonio Delgado shot the first sound feature film in the country: The Breakup. During the 1930s, the musical genre was well accepted with the film Joropo by Horacio Cabrera Sifontes. The documentary Araya by Margot Benacerraf won the Critics Award at the Cannes Film Festival in 1959.

During the 70s, 80s and 90s, the most popular films in the country: When I Want to Cry, I Don't Cry by Mauricio Walerstein (1973); The Fish That Smokes by Román Chalbaud (1977); Macu, the Policeman's Wife by Solveig Hoogesteijn (1985); Jericó (1992) by Luis Alberto Lamata and Rio Negro (1990) by Atahualpa Lichy, both awarded abroad.

With the arrival of the Bolivarian Revolution, Venezuelan cinema becomes a historical record of prominent figures throughout the independence quest and the events of the struggle during the Fourth Republic.

Manuela Sáenz by Diego Rísquez (2000); El Caracazo (2005); Zamora Tierra y Hombres Libres by Román Chalbaud (2009); Miranda Regresa (2007); Taita Boves, Bolívar, the Man of Difficulties (2013) by Luis Alberto Lamata, among others of various genres that, with the creation of the Film Village in 2006, gave way to a major production in the national industry today.

Mazo News Team