NitrateVille.com

Since we're often lamenting the non-availability of third-world cinema, i though i'd mention a set that just showed up on my desk. It's called Coleccion Cine Silente Colombiano published by the Fundacion Patrimonio Filmico Colombiano. It's a set of 10 DVD-Rs with music and a booklet (in Spanish of course, as are all the intertitles). They seem to be NTSC. The titles included are:

Garras de oro (1926, dir. P.P. Jambrina)

Manizales city (1925; dir. Felix R. Restrepo) a documentary

Bajo el cielo antioqueno (1925, dir: Arturo Acevedo Vallarino)

Alma provinciana (1926, dir. Feliz Joaquin Rodriguez)

La tragedia del silencio (1924, dir. Arturo Acevedo Vallarino)

Madre (1924, dir. Samuel Velasquez)

Aura o las violetas (1924, Pedro Moreno Garzon and Vincenzo Di Domenico)

Como los muertos (1925, dir. Pedro Moreno Garzon and Vincenzo Di Domenico)

El amor, el deber y el crimen (1926, dir. Pedro Moreno Garzon and Vincenzo Di Domenico

and
Archivo historico cinematografico de los Acevado (seems to be a compilation of various film shot by Arturo, Alvary and Gonzalo Acevedo, plus a short documentary)

On the ones i've sampled so far, the source elements look pretty battered and the actors seem to be non-professionals (the extras definitely so). I've seen Bajo el cielo antioqueno before, and it's kind of interesting to see old Medallin and the surrounding countryside and coffee plantations (though the film is wayyyy too long).

greta

Do you know where it's possible to buy the item? Where did you get it?

I'm afraid i don't know where we got it--it has 0 as the price so perhaps it was a gift. Our Latin American collector has a lot of contacts down there, so he probably got someone to give it to him. I just looked at the Fundacion website and found a description:

http://www.patrimoniofilmico.org.co/noticias/215.htm

Another website: http://www.cinemacolombia.info/2009/06/ ... biano.html

says "esta colección vital para la memoria audiovisual de nuestro país, será distribuida por las principales bibliotecas, instituciones educativas y culturales de todo el país."

Hmm, perhaps copies were distributed gratis and it isn't actually for sale? I don't see it on the video page of the Fundacion, though that doesn't appear to be a sales page. I tried searching the title but didn't come up with any video websites distributing it. Darn! That's not very useful, is it!

Your best bet would probably be to contact the Fundacion.

greta

Thank you, Greta, I will try so.

I talked to our selector, and he thinks he got it from a vendor that picked it up at a Bogota book fair, so it sounds like it was pretty informal. Other people are asking about it on the Latin American librarians listserv, so the more folks the Fundacion hears from the better.

Good luck! If i get any further leads i'll let you know.

greta